The ideal truck speed set up?

Between 65-68 is what you want to do on the majority of the drive for a good balance of time to get there and ok fuel mileage. If you want great fuel mileage you want to stick around 55-60. But personally I think governor should be set to 75mph to initiate quicker passes. Problem is majority of company drivers tend to want to drive as fast as the truck can go. So accounting for modern day bonehead drivers now a days I would have the governor probably set to 68 and maybe see if I could out some kind of passing mode that would set it to 72 for 60-90 seconds at a time that would limit to 3 uses every hour.

 

No such thing. There is no one size fits all here.

 

85 South Dakota is ideal for me

 

3 digits, baby,,hey, I knew guys 20 years ago that spec'd their trucks to do 100. Whatever you do, DON'T do the 65-68 mph thing. You'll plod along with all the other 65-68 crowd, and the 4 wheelers behind you getting madder and madder. For today, I'd say a truck should do at least 75. Years ago, tires were a big factor in going those speeds, not to mention, the trucks couldn't go that fast anyway, but today, I think modern tires can handle a load at 75 no problem. Fuel mileage doesn't seem to differ, at 55 or 75 much. And if you had a CAT motor, you wouldn't slow down on the hills,,

 

Spec the gears to allow you to do 85 on the governor so you have some top end passing speed over the megas and zombies, and freedom to run if need be. Normally settle in and Run in the “sweet spot” of the truck were the engine can just “breathe” on its own without being forced to run. In my experience its usually around 65 mph range. Your truck will tell you were it likes to be.

 

Back when the national 55 limit was the rule I thought that to be a bit slow.
Later at 75 I found that to be too fast as things that happened on the road, the required reaction time and speed really limited your options to maintain a safe stopping distance.
I eventually personally settled in at 65 as a reasonable compromise.
There is no ideal truck speed without adding under what circumstances.
Fuel economy, several years ago a European study found 45 mph to be the idea speed. Trucks averaged 13 mpg.
Time, obviously the faster the better.
Safety, something close to maintaining the over all traffic flow.
Profitability, depends what the freight pays vs how low you can keep your expenses.

 

With 3:70 cogs on 24.5 tall i top out about 85 mph. But find cruising at 65-68 mph empty or loaded gives me my best economy and performance with my dinosaur…..

 

Every company is different, every route is different. I just bid a year long contract that is 520 miles a day, loading/unloading each morning. There’s no incentive, HOS or more freight hauled, to go fast, in fact, great fuel mileage is factored into the bid. Another run I do, I try to maximize speed average/HOS to enable a second run the next day if available. Current trucks are set at 80mph, but has a tattle tale for more than 73 for over a minute. That’s enough to pass and get out of the way, but not getting to play Billie Bigrigger with my fuel and truck.

 

Our trucks are all different. Some are as low as 68, some 70, some 75. Mine was 75, but since I switched to tall tires I can actually get it up to 78 now (don’t tell anyone).

Problem is, some of our idiots think they should just put their foot to the floor and do 75 all day no matter what the speed limit is, and I don’t agree with that. I rarely go above 72 unless I am passing someone. It makes for a much easier and less stressful drive when you do 2 or 3 mph below your governed speed.