Short Commutes On A Diesel?

[Canyon Trekker]

How many trucks are in your fleet? We have over 300 light duty and medium duty and the number one failure is the DEF/DPF system fallowed by CP4's on the Fords and oil ingestion on the Dmax. Rams seem to have overheating problems and Trans issues. At any given time we have 10- 15 trucks at a dealership with emission problems. We lost brand new Rams and Dmax's last year under 20K. We have lost 4 Dmax last year and 2 so far this year from idling. Maybe even more by now, but It's hard to keep track. GM even sent us an addendum to the fleet truck owners Manuel about excessive idle time. 2022 and newer can not have excessive idle time and they will deny warranty claims showing high idle hours. Apparently all brands count the idle hours towards milage for warranty claims. Yes, these trucks are not used like an average person would use them, but not abused, city driven daily for the most part. But to say its folklore is ignorant on your part. Our semi trucks are plagued with the same problems, one single sensor can shut the truck down to limp mode. We actually have a mobile DPF guy that comes out and cleans the DPF's on our big rigs to save down time. Our heavy equipment that has DEF has the same problems. Most the newer DEF equipment won't even let you idle it for over 10 minutes or shut it down when cleaning the system and every year DEF consumption increases.

My 2 cents for the OP, is if you drive short trips with any vehicle, Diesel or Gas you need to really get everything hot once in a while. Hot rod up the big hill to get the turbo hot and waste gate cycling, help knock the buildup out of the intercooler or valve train. And for the new gen diesels, get the DPF cleared out. The 6.7 is a complete animal and most animals do not like to be in cages if you know what I mean. Diesel or Gas, buy clean fuel and keep it clean, change the oil more often than the manufactures tells you to. And in my personal experience do not buy DEF from the truck stop gas pumps even as much as the boxes suck. I picked the 7.3 as an experiment and so far so good. Do I miss the 6.7 power, not really for what I tow, but you all know the saying."to much horsepower is not enough". I miss the 12-13 MPG towing vs the 7-8, mainly because the short bed has a smaller tank than my F-150. I wish the 7.3 was turbocharged and had a 60 gallon tank and I would never go back to the diesel just because I hate the greasy handles at the gas stations.

Your points are well taken. Nobody said emissions standards were a good thing. We all know it will prematurely kill any truck or car if left unchecked. And we all seem to agree, any diesel (or gas) should be run hard once in a while to keep it healthy.

I don't know what your industry does, but it is obvious to me, and you've made it clear in your text above, you are "using" (not abusing) your trucks in extreme environments and conditions whereby the manufacturers (all of them it seems) say you shouldn't be using them in that manner, due to high idling or whatever else is going on. (Perhaps a different truck line, gas based, is appropriate for you but that would likely mean more expense.) (UPS and FED-X trucks last about 400,000 miles with constant stop and go) It may be a decision to use a truck inappropriate for the job at hand perhaps to "save money" but I'll reiterate, most failures are due to neglect or lack of maintenance.