Quote:
Originally Posted by bushpilot
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).
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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.
