Idling question

[Lee07]

How long to is too long for idling these ecodiesels? I sometimes pick up my child from school and usually wait outside for a bit of time. Right now the weather is in the 85-90ish. Still a bit hot and want to use my a/c but I wanna get some opinions of how long do people idle their trucks?

 

[NorthStar]

I’ve monitored the soot mass on my MX+ and a 15 minute idle increases the load by 1/2 a percent. For example, when sitting last night at a local restaurant waiting for take out, I idled for fifteen minutes. Soot mass when I parked was at 52.5%…after 15 minutes when I departed for the house it was at 53%. When I parked at the house it was at 53.1%. Today, I went on a round trip run to Wharton which is 35 miles south of here. It is exactly 72 miles round trip and with passive regen doing 75 mph was able to reduce the soot mass to 45.1. I’ve got about another 20 miles before I’ll see an active regen as it seems to be going active every 750 to 800 miles.

Your results may vary but I’ve find the MX+ to be a fantastic way to keep an eye on soot mass, active regens and turbo shutdown temp.

 

[Lee07]

Thanks for the info. That was a good example of what to expect.


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[NorthStar]

Thanks for the info. That was a good example of what to expect.


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The key is you need to get it out on the highway on the weekend for a long drive if you’re going to be idling all week long. Too many weeks of constant idling will put you in a bad place especially during the winter months when it can be difficult to get a diesel up to temp if just idling with no long highway trips.

 

[Lee07]

The key is you need to get it out on the highway on the weekend for a long drive if you’re going to be idling all week long. Too many weeks of constant idling will put you in a bad place especially during the winter months when it can be difficult to get a diesel up to temp if just idling with no long highway trips.

Yeah I drive about 500 miles round trip a weekend and during the week it’s short trips ranging from 10-20 miles. More or less on the weekdays. Just really depends.


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[Sascwatch]

This is good info, up in northern Ontario it’s common to see semi trucks idle all night long during the winter to keep the sleeper cab and engine warm. A semi will typically see more highway use than a passenger vehicle but I’m sure they have a factory installed gauge to monitor soot levels.

DPF cleaning is a commonly advertised service up north aswell.

 

[NorthStar]

This is good info, up in northern Ontario it’s common to see semi trucks idle all night long during the winter to keep the sleeper cab and engine warm. A semi will typically see more highway use than a passenger vehicle but I’m sure they have a factory installed gauge to monitor soot levels.

DPF cleaning is a commonly advertised service up north aswell.

The big rigs have totally different systems that can regen while they are sitting in the lot - at high idle. It’s still not optimal for them thus the reason many have an Espar or similar so they can shut the engine down and still have sleeper heat.

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