Frequent Short Trip Stragegy

[dbj216]

Santa brought us a new 6.7. It is our first diesel tow vehicle for our camper. This forum has been useful in learning about the quirks of diesel operation.

I will drive our new truck to work which is 5 miles down the road. We live in cold Minnesota. I plan on remote starting and idling for 5 minutes or so, and then driving it to work. And doing the same thing coming home. And then back again to pick up a gallon of milk. It is 5 below here this morning.

What is the best way to operate this truck on frequent short trips?

Thanks

[JuniorDiesel]

Recommend getting it on the highway every once and awhile. Especially when it is trying to clean the DPF. Congrats on the truck!


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[fosterelli]

Yeah you'll need some longer trips for the cleaning cycle...your MPG suffers during the cycle, so keeping your truck in this cycle will cost you. A few minutes above 30 MPH will get it cleaned. If you have the block heater, I'd use that as well...keeps your oil from permanent thickening during extreme colds. Congrats on the new rig!

[Painted Horse]

Sounds like you are doing the right stuff. Give it a minute or two to warm up and just drive it. Try to give it an extended drive every once in a while to to complete the Active Regen.

Your truck will do an active regen when ever the soot % hits 2.70% ( seems to be the most common trigger point) It will continue to regen down to around 1.10 -1.15% This takes about 10-15 minutes depending on how you are driving. If you shut off during the process, The truck will run just restart the regen when you again hit the trigger point of 2.70%. It does not neccessarily restart the next time you restart the engine.

Your truck will do a Passive Regen anytime your exhaust EGT's exceed 572°F. For example, Driving down the freeway last night at 75mph my EGTs were at 490°. So to get hot enough to passive regen usually involves some work. (Turbo Boost) Usually towing or climbing a grade. Passive regen is not dependant on a trigger point. It will happen at any soot level just as long as the heat is there. It may take place for 1 minute or take place for 20 minutes while you grind up a steep grade.

For the most part don't worry about the Regens. They will take place when the computer thinks the DPF needs them.

Just drive and enjoy.

[gsxr1300]

You could buy an edge insight cts then you will know when you need to take it for a longer ride to Clean the PDF

[Jason1Pa]

If possable get a little beater car for that short of a distance. I got another little car that my wife and I can do all of our little running around with short trips and save the truck for the weekends when we travel a good bit.

[dbj216]

Thank you guys for the good comments.

I do have a little car I drive Spring, Summer and Fall for errands. But it is no good in snow and ice. The SD will have to battle the winter months. My drive to town does involve about 7 minutes at 55 on the county road. And I do have the block heater in the new truck and will use it on cold days.

I am not familiar with the exhaust emmissiion controls on the diesel. My place of employment makes a lot of DEF plastic tanks, but I have never used one. And soot filter regeneration I have only read about. I hope the new truck computers will guide me in keeping all these systems up to snuf even if I take frequent short trips.

I like the idea of knowing exhaust gas temps and soot % in the filter. Knowing what's going on with the truck would be reassuring. The Painted Horse knows what's going on judging from his posts. Thanks.

David

[Painted Horse]

David,
I think most folks worry way too much about this regen process.

We are now in Regen 2.0. It works much better than the first Diesel Particulate Filters that we saw on the 2008-2010 engines. In fact most drives of a 6.7L will not even know when it goes into a regen. There is no real noise, power loss to tatletale on the regen.

The computers will take care off it. If you get the "DRIVE TO CLEAN" message Often, then you might look at how you are driving and see if you could change your routine to get better regens.

I'm a builder, I make 20 stops a day. Run over to the first project, stop by the bank, stop by the plumbing supply, back to the job site. over to the second job site. next by the lumber yard. Stop for lunch, back to the jobsite. Ran by the house and hook up a trailer and haul a skid loader to a job, After work hook up the horse trailer and head for the nearest trail head.

Over the past 12 years, I' ve put about 400,000 miles on my pick ups driving with all kinds of short trips.

[BIG Laing]

Originally Posted by dbj216

I like the idea of knowing exhaust gas temps and soot % in the filter. Knowing what's going on with the truck would be reassuring. The Painted Horse knows what's going on judging from his posts. Thanks. David

Painted Horse is the most Helpful/Knowledgable person I know of on our trucks.

[dbj216]

Thank you Painted Horse and the rest of you guys for your experiences and advice. My neighbor is a painting contractor and has about 85K miles on his 2011 F350 diesel, and he has had very good luck with it. I don't think he paints horses though. His work is similar to yours in that he is running in his truck all day long. His truck is his business headquarters. And the truck makes a positive impressioin on potential customers. He can even make SYNC productive for him. I still have a dial phone.

I look forward to learning to operate this complex machine called Super Duty diesel. Hopefully it won't mind running frequent short trips for me. Later we hope to see the great USA in it pulling our camper during our retirement years.

David