White Oak Mills Makes Gains In Fuel Economy With Bully Dog
ELIZABETHTOWN, PA… White Oak Mills is a growing feed manufacturer located in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and is a supplier of bulk and bagged feed for dairy, swine, poultry and miscellaneous species.
White Oak Mills was founded in 1930 and then purchased by brothers Mark and John Wagner in 1976. The company moved from Manheim, Pennsylvania to their current Elizabethtown manufacturing facility in 1984.
The White Oak Mills fleet has grown from a single truck to a fleet of 23 comprised of tractors, triaxles and straight trucks that delivers feeds to farms throughout PA and northern MD. The fleet operates in two shifts, running 24/7. The feed industry is Hours of Service (HOS) exempt and permitted to run heavy.
White Oak Mills operates all Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks with 5 new T880 daycabs driven by experienced drivers. The trucks were specially spec’d by Josh Long with the help of Kelly Hawthorne, Sales Professional at Kenworth of Pennsylvania’s Carlisle branch, Kevin Wimer of EMM Sales and Service and Paul Strauss of Sindall Truck Service. The New tractors are powered by Cummins ISX 15 liter engines with a fully automatic Eaton 13 and 18 speed transmissions and 3:90 rears. Each truck is equipped with a power take off, which runs the grain augers in the custom built Walinga grain trailers. While operating the auger, the tractor runs at a very brisk 1,400-1,500 RPMs for about 1.5 hours a day as they unload the grain. The average length of haul is only 60 miles, with each truck traveling about 120,000 miles annually and each driver logging approximately 60,000 miles each year.
This operating environment created a unique challenge for White Oak Mills – its average fuel economy was only 4.5 mpg. The company met with representatives from Kenworth, Cummins and Eaton to see what could be done to improve fuel economy. The only viable solution offered was to change rear end gear to gain fuel economy, but with a ratios loss of power that the company could not afford.
White Oak Mills Transportation Manager Josh Long was searching for a solution when he spoke to his friend Charlie at Wolf Pack Transport. Charlie recommended that Josh try Bully Dog as the entire Wolf Pack fleet is equipped with Bully Dog. Bully Dog representative Kevin Campbell allowed Josh to try a unit on 2 tractors, and the results were an immediate 7/10 mpg gain. The White Oak Mills fleet is currently running 10 Bully Dog units, going from a 4.5 mpg to 5.2 average, including off-loading at high idle. They will save an estimated $50,000 in fuel costs this year and Josh is happy at finding a solution to his fuel economy dilemma – so much so that White Oak Mills is considering installing Bully Dog units in the rest of the fleet.
Bully Dog installs in about 20 minutes, plugging into the truck’s data port. A HDMI cable runs from the data port, plugging into the driving coach mounted with a suction cup on the windshield. Simplistically, Bully dog improves fuel economy by increasing horsepower. The device stores the factory ECM settings in its memory and can be programmed to increase horsepower by 5%, 10% or 15% by optimizing each engine’s combustion timing. The product does not change emission parameters or void factory warranties and Bully Dog guarantees a 6-10% improvement in fuel economy over factory ECM settings on both old and new trucks. The Bully Dog monitor also serves as a driving coach, showing drivers their optimum RPM operating range for the best fuel economy. An added bonus is Bully dog’s soft diagnostics that analyzes check engine light fault codes, providing the driver the fault code and a description of the problem. It allows the driver or maintenance director the flexibility of delivering their load or looking for the nearest repair shop.
Before joining Bully Dog, Kevin Campbell was Maintenance Director at a Central Pennsylvania fleet and understands the challenges of keeping trucks on the road while also delivering good fuel economy. Kevin has become known as “The Fuel Mileage Doctor”, helping owner-operators and fleets achieve optimum fuel economy from their trucks. Call or email Kevin with your fuel economy questions at: [email protected] or call 877-994-4692. You may also long onto www.fuelmileagedr.com for more information.
Left to right: Josh Long, Kevin Campbell and Brent Frank.