2007 Optima/Freightline Columbia/450 Mercedes

[Flite-Metal]

Hi Guys...

Need straight up on Optima 42'/Freightliner Columbia w/2 axle/Eaton 10 auto/450 Mercedes/10' 6" toy garage.

Acquiring to use as product demonstration vehicle for new manufacturer of large r/c scale model aircraft.

Aluminum Optima home touted to be highest quality/lowest maintenance with CAT Gen, twin air, elec kitchen, solar battery recharge, house and trk batteries seperate.

I see Freightliner as greatest benefit over the road service & annuals. What say you about drivability, typical mpg @ 65/70 mph.

Ed

 

[andyg-TC]

Looks like a very nice ride. I don't know to much about this chassis but you mentioned MPG. I can tell you that speed greatly effects mileage. Dad is a bus conversion guy. He was excited to get his Prevost with the 8V92 Detroit cranked up t0 450+ HP. He even called me on his first trip from IN to FL to tell me that he was passing cars while climbing Monteagle. He quickly discovered that flogging those horses cost him dearly in fuel. His coach would easily run 75mph all day. Dad found that backing off to about 60 made a big difference in fuel consumption and he got to where he was going almost as fast anyway.
P.S. I think that you have a good idea with the 10spd trans. Dad is putting one in his current Prevost project. It is a 45' coach and will be pushed by a 12.7 Detroit with a 10spd autoshift.

 

[Flite-Metal]

Optima - AKA - Haulmark 330 MB450 - 43'~45'

Many manufacturers produce the same floorplan with differential in length for sake of redistributing the coach
arrangement or shortening garage. Empty garage and what appears is a troublesome rubber floor mat. Rear roll
up presents an issue...I will ask for suggestions as I post what I have targeted as "perfect". Listening to your
replies/wisdom will narrow my sharpened focus on what is "not" problematic.

Looking back into this space from outside rear shows the tail/lift gate, a huge advantage considering most
of where I will be flying will not be covered aside from pilot erected pop-up canopies within tightly confined
pit areas. For the sake of a dead fall safety measure I plant to place an vertical aluminum cylinder beneath
the lift when it is 6+ feet high. This as a safety measure to prevent collapse.

For comfort sake of lofted view of an event I will place a pop-up on the top side of the lift gate, secured
by leg placed in a rectangular channel, with pin slide through to constrain it. An onboard short aluminum
ladder will provide access to lift and canopy area.

Because my use is focused on giant scale aircraft I have many stowage options. For the most part I will
"cycle" through an inventory of aircraft, not taking more than four or five at any one time. The range of
wingspan can be between 10 and 16 feet. Over the years I have observed more than this draws too many
touch-feel incidents...

 

[Flite-Metal]

What Was Planned Vs. What Is Being Planned

You can easily see advantage of Motor-Garage over my original plan of a Ford Expedition EL for my B-47E.
The Expedition depended greatly on suspended fuselage then placing removable wings and support items
along sides & behind front seats. Pop-up, etc would be carried on roof.

Garage interior for our use would offer typical storage of aircraft maintenance tools, drill press, grinder, &
minimum dedicated work space along a sidewall.

As you can see above, since most Motor-Garages are in support of an ATV or bikes there are several
found to be in full execution of OCD behavior...not half of which contained tools... much less anything
at all.

In the above photograph look at the forward overhead where what appears to be a railing turned onto
its side provides overhead stowage, and suspension for hanging... Hanging being the key word. If
hung, each item needs to be tethered to the left and right side to prevent excess motion. Fuselages
will be the item hung with nose or tail facing fore to after, or visa versa. This for larger fuselages with
removable wings placed in foam covered peg rack.

As for the B-47, it breaks down into a three piece fuselage fore to aft with wing attached from inboard
pylon to inboard pylon. Individual nacelle blades with power management systems slide out from each
pylon and stand into a vertical storage tray kept below in seperate storage away from vehicle interior.
LiPo batteries are kept in fire-proof storage exept when charging or installed for flight.

 

[bushpilot-TC]

Our 42' haulmark coach is a bit different (no garage), same motor, different trans....
We've got the Onan 10kw QD generator (and run it often while rolling down the road).


As AndyG says - your right foot can impact the mpg in a pricey manner.

I have the smart-shift 12spd (meritor) w/ the MBE 4000 (450hp, pre emissions / no EGR cooler).

I've seen as high as a little over 13 (blacksburg va to fort walton beach, via charlotte/atlanta/montgomery 131 & even had some generator run time when we slept in a rest area).

Ive seen as little is 8.9 (hot footing it in the mountains from Birmingham al to Winchester va).

CONSISTENTLY we score 9.9 (flat towing jeep wrangler) w/ generator running to keep the wife & old english sheep dog cool on our trips from houston tx - winchester va....and thats with the cruise set at 70

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

I am blown away with the mileage you guys are getting. I stay in the hills and mountains in mine 95% of the time and I get 6 to 7 mpg in mine. When I gross 60k#'s or more I get down in the low 5's. I have my toe in the firewall most of the time and I run 75mph+ when conditions allow. I have tried driving slower just to see if it would make any difference and it was negligible. I wonder if the pre EGR Mercedes motors are that much more fuel efficient or is the just the weight of my usual set up? Mine runs well for 450HP and I change the fuel filters every 5k miles.

 

[bushpilot-TC]

non-interstate driving kills our mpg...the coach definitely does best on the interstate where we can let it stretch it's legs, short trips or local camp trips have produced less MPG (7.5).

your ton-age has to have an effect when you consider I'm 1/2 of your weight @32k heavily loaded (no wrangler/toad)

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

I'm kind of confused about this? Did Flite-metal buy that Optima shown in the first post? The description of it seems a bit off. "Two axle" usually is referring to the drive axles. The picture surely shows a single screw. "Twin air?" Looks like only one up there as far as I can tell. But then later there are pictures of what appears to be the inside of a unfinished box truck. Did you not buy the Optima?

 

[MnTom-FRF]

I wonder if he is counting the steering axle as one and the drive axle as two? I only see one air on top also, and I think the picture of the empty box is just for illustration purposes?

 

[wmbillh]

I have heard good stuff about the Volvo D13 with Ishift.Anyone running such a setup?What MPG.We are considering single axle poss lock rear.Mpg difference vs tandem?Thanks

 

[bushpilot-TC]

our Mercedes MBE4000 is the equivalent of the detroit diesel dd 13 -
mercedes owns or at one time owned detroit diesel (not sure if they still own them)...basically theyre 12.8L intercooled turbo, in-line 6's.

we have a pre-emmissions (no egr cooler or urea injection) and while we don't have the iShift we do have the Meritor SmartShift 12 speed

the Meritor SmartShift is a 2 pedal automatic - it uses a conventional DRY CLUTCH (no torque converter) -
iirc at least some iShift's are 3 pedal - where you have to use the clutch to get going & stopping.

I love our smart shift - its very impressive just mash the throttle and it does all the rest -
it selects the starting gear (usually 3rd, but can be reprogramed to start higher or lower if you like....i keep saying I'm gonna have ours reprogramed to start in 5th).

the smart shift will SKIP shift based on several factors - throttle position, load etc....
usually the pattern is something like 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

downshifting is equally as impressive - it just works.

of course you can MANUALLY shift it w/ the paddle but that method does not allow for skipping any gears.

the best we've ever seen is slightly over 13 mpg in some mixed driving (interstate & secondary roads/light fog that prevented us from going over 60 mph) the worst we've ever seen (interstate wise) was 8.9 and that was due to my right foot and a lot of mountainous driving.

were very consistent in our 9.9 mpg achievement w/ the cruise control set at 72mph - i doubt you're gonna see anything better than that really and i have yet to meet a pusher owner that gets even that - and their motors are generally smaller w/ less horse (than our 450hp).

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

I always go max capacity first and try to over GVW what I will need. The MPG just works out to whatever it is. If MPG is really a hot button......i don't think any of the big RVs make any sense imho. They all suck if you get any real weight on or behind them and you want to run with traffic.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

our Mercedes MBE4000 is the equivalent of the detroit diesel dd 13 -
mercedes owns or at one time owned detroit diesel (not sure if they still own them)...basically theyre 12.8L intercooled turbo, in-line 6's.

we have a pre-emmissions (no egr cooler or urea injection) and while we don't have the iShift we do have the Meritor SmartShift 12 speed

the Meritor SmartShift is a 2 pedal automatic - it uses a conventional DRY CLUTCH (no torque converter) -
iirc at least some iShift's are 3 pedal - where you have to use the clutch to get going & stopping.

I love our smart shift - its very impressive just mash the throttle and it does all the rest -
it selects the starting gear (usually 3rd, but can be reprogramed to start higher or lower if you like....i keep saying I'm gonna have ours reprogramed to start in 5th).

the smart shift will SKIP shift based on several factors - throttle position, load etc....
usually the pattern is something like 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

downshifting is equally as impressive - it just works.

of course you can MANUALLY shift it w/ the paddle but that method does not allow for skipping any gears.

the best we've ever seen is slightly over 13 mpg in some mixed driving (interstate & secondary roads/light fog that prevented us from going over 60 mph) the worst we've ever seen (interstate wise) was 8.9 and that was due to my right foot and a lot of mountainous driving.

were very consistent in our 9.9 mpg achievement w/ the cruise control set at 72mph - i doubt you're gonna see anything better than that really and i have yet to meet a pusher owner that gets even that - and their motors are generally smaller w/ less horse (than our 450hp).

Don, how tall is your's? I'm 13'5" to my ac's. I am still blown away by your milage (which I think is freaking awesome!) If your true combined is 8.5mpg at an avg of 32k#'s and mine is 6 to 6.5mpg at a minimum of 50k#'s to 60k#'s. I guess it's not a big mystery.....more like common sense.

 

[bushpilot-TC]

Don, how tall is your's? I'm 13'5" to my ac's. I am still blown away by your milage (which I think is freaking awesome!) If your true combined is 8.5mpg at an avg of 32k#'s and mine is 6 to 6.5mpg at a minimum of 50k#'s to 60k#'s. I guess it's not a big mystery.....more like common sense.

im not quite as tall as you are - iirc I'm 13'1 to the top of the air conditioners...
had to check my "stickers" to be certain & i may measure it again - just to confirm.



your 13'5" would make me nervous as hell - supposedly the max height (for tractor trailers) is 13'6" and I've been under some interstate bridges (on the oklahoma turnpike) that were 13'6"

My mpg is good - certainly puts me in a tolerable range when you consider what pickup trucks pulling 5er's can get.
if I'm really pushing it - hitting 80 (and towing the race car/trailer) the mpg can suffer into the high 7's or 8.0 mpg....the "round town" stuff kills us...we have a local state park we light to go to & that trip doesnt allow me to really get the coach rolling / stretching its legs...which sometimes puts us in (what i consider) dismal range of 6.5 mpg

 

[wmbillh]

Thanks Good Info

our Mercedes MBE4000 is the equivalent of the detroit diesel dd 13 -
mercedes owns or at one time owned detroit diesel (not sure if they still own them)...basically theyre 12.8L intercooled turbo, in-line 6's.

we have a pre-emmissions (no egr cooler or urea injection) and while we don't have the iShift we do have the Meritor SmartShift 12 speed

the Meritor SmartShift is a 2 pedal automatic - it uses a conventional DRY CLUTCH (no torque converter) -
iirc at least some iShift's are 3 pedal - where you have to use the clutch to get going & stopping.

I love our smart shift - its very impressive just mash the throttle and it does all the rest -
it selects the starting gear (usually 3rd, but can be reprogramed to start higher or lower if you like....i keep saying I'm gonna have ours reprogramed to start in 5th).

the smart shift will SKIP shift based on several factors - throttle position, load etc....
usually the pattern is something like 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

downshifting is equally as impressive - it just works.

of course you can MANUALLY shift it w/ the paddle but that method does not allow for skipping any gears.

the best we've ever seen is slightly over 13 mpg in some mixed driving (interstate & secondary roads/light fog that prevented us from going over 60 mph) the worst we've ever seen (interstate wise) was 8.9 and that was due to my right foot and a lot of mountainous driving.

were very consistent in our 9.9 mpg achievement w/ the cruise control set at 72mph - i doubt you're gonna see anything better than that really and i have yet to meet a pusher owner that gets even that - and their motors are generally smaller w/ less horse (than our 450hp).

 

[wmbillh]

Thanks Good Info.I didn't know how the Mercedes were holding up.Sounds they would be hard to beat.One more question is rear ratio?Should you get the tag axle or not?Thanks wmbillh.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Most of the truck conversions I've seen with two rear axles have both of those as drive axles. I think Showhauler is just finishing up a build on one where they have a tag axle behind the drive axle. But that's the only one I've seen that way. If you build yours from scratch you would have the option to spec it any way you wanted. wmbillh, are you wondering if you should stay away from a twin screw (two drive axles)?

 

[bushpilot-TC]

Thanks Good Info.I didn't know how the Mercedes were holding up.Sounds they would be hard to beat.One more question is rear ratio?

confused ??

sorry did mean to hi-jack your thread - just offering more info regarding the engines/trans. from what i can tell our MBE4000 is a mercedes only by the changed (logo) valve cover & a plastic cover on the side of the engine.

i forget what rear end gearing I've got, but id like to go slightly higher - just because i like to run faster (72 - 75 mph) than most (pusher owners)....and i could improve on the mpg if i could get the RPM under 1500 at 72mph

Should you get the tag axle or not?Thanks wmbillh.

on coaches like ours there is no "tag" axle - (tags on are single tire'd per side & they can be lifted)....on our coaches BOTH axles are DRIVEN (full diff's and duel wheeled/tired on each side).

the nice thing about our 2nd axles are the fact that you can lock each diff independently AND you can lock both axles together (ala 4 wheel drive).

i would have preferred the 2nd (driven) axle - for the added safety (blow out/tires) and having another set of brakes would be really nice...and i love the idea of 4 wheel drive

I go to a fair amount of races & sometimes end up parking in grass....even if i got stock - a tow truck would still be cheaper than having to buy 4 more tires (at roughly 750 per tire or 3k per rear axle)

if i were towing a STACKER trailer or big boat (like john - THUNDERUSONE) then i would DEFINITELY want the 2nd axle..... iirc THUNDERUSONE coach is nearly 12k or 18k lbs heavier than ours.....not sure WHY that is...but at his weight i'd want the 2nd axle too !

 

[wmbillh]

I am looking to full time rv or stay out for extended time.Looked at some consignment motorhomes this week.Some had low miles but the exteriors looked bad.I have researched the people convertind hdt into single axle and pulling fith wheel.Now Im on toterhomes.Mpg are better than I expected.Thanks.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Okay, so you're thinking about pulling a camper trailer with an HDT then? That's a different deal.