Short Drives and Long Idles

DIG

Tremoraholic
Founding Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
599
Reaction Points
1,513
Location
Colorado
Current Ride
2021 F350 Tremor
The manual talks about avoiding short drives and long idles. So I’m interested as to what everyone thinks is considered a short drive and a long idle.
 
This is all hand waving but I’d say that, since the default remote start feature shuts off after 15 minutes I’d go with 15 minutes for a long idle and a short drive is likely any drive where the engine doesn’t come up to normal operating temperature (my gauges usually show 190-195 at the trans and coolant temperature sensors). You would want to mix in a longer drive periodically though so your system has a chance to regen.
 
I had the SEIC function hooked to an upfitter switch in my last truck to help mitigate the “long idle” scenario. I need to do it on this truck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DIG
This is all hand waving but I’d say that, since the default remote start feature shuts off after 15 minutes I’d go with 15 minutes for a long idle and a short drive is likely any drive where the engine doesn’t come up to normal operating temperature (my gauges usually show 190-195 at the trans and coolant temperature sensors). You would want to mix in a longer drive periodically though so your system has a chance to regen.
I do always try to let my truck get up to temp. I wish the truck would tell you when it needs a regen though.
 
How about being able to tell it to do one like you could for a few years? I guess Ford decided that was above our pay grade?
 
High idle switch. I always leave it on so remote starts even in warm weather it goes into high idle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DIG
High idle switch. I always leave it on so remote starts even in warm weather it goes into high idle.
where's this? not aware of any high idle switch.
 
where's this? not aware of any high idle switch.
It needs to be hooked up/installed first, then to an upfitter switch. I believe @Treefiddy just leaves his upfitter switch wired to his high idle setup on all the time, so whenever it is idling....it idles high. Unless I'm mistaken.
 
One of my common drives from a cold start to shutdown is about 10 miles. The truck barely gets warm when it is cold out( 20's-30's). It has been pretty cold ever since I've had this truck so I'm interested to see how much faster the truck will get warmed up in warmer weather.
 
At my work we have a fleet of PStrokes from 250’s to 550’s. All they do is idle, when it’s 110° in Phoenix those truck won’t get shutoff sometimes for days with the three shifts. These same trucks will also get short trips of just a couple minutes. I talk to the fleet mechanics all the time, they don’t have issues with these trucks. Our company only buys Ford, because they’ve had great success with them.

That said with my personal truck, if I’m just running to the store or getting fuel I don’t turn my truck off. I’m a firm believer that it’s harder on the truck to turn them on and off than it is idling.

If it’s going to be restarted within 15min of me stopping, I don’t shut the truck down.

That’s just my opinion, I also don’t shutdown the engine for a couple minutes after I stop, I let it idle down especially after working it or a long highway drive.
 
At my work we have a fleet of PStrokes from 250’s to 550’s. All they do is idle, when it’s 110° in Phoenix those truck won’t get shutoff sometimes for days with the three shifts. These same trucks will also get short trips of just a couple minutes. I talk to the fleet mechanics all the time, they don’t have issues with these trucks. Our company only buys Ford, because they’ve had great success with them.

That said with my personal truck, if I’m just running to the store or getting fuel I don’t turn my truck off. I’m a firm believer that it’s harder on the truck to turn them on and off than it is idling.

If it’s going to be restarted within 15min of me stopping, I don’t shut the truck down.

That’s just my opinion, I also don’t shutdown the engine for a couple minutes after I stop, I let it idle down especially after working it or a long highway drive.
Good info. Thx
 
At my work we have a fleet of PStrokes from 250’s to 550’s. All they do is idle, when it’s 110° in Phoenix those truck won’t get shutoff sometimes for days with the three shifts. These same trucks will also get short trips of just a couple minutes. I talk to the fleet mechanics all the time, they don’t have issues with these trucks. Our company only buys Ford, because they’ve had great success with them.

That said with my personal truck, if I’m just running to the store or getting fuel I don’t turn my truck off. I’m a firm believer that it’s harder on the truck to turn them on and off than it is idling.

If it’s going to be restarted within 15min of me stopping, I don’t shut the truck down.

That’s just my opinion, I also don’t shutdown the engine for a couple minutes after I stop, I let it idle down especially after working it or a long highway drive.
I have a similar opinion! Does your work fleet have high idles?
 
I have a similar opinion! Does your work fleet have high idles?
The 350’s and 550’s have PTO to operate the buckets and jib cranes so when they’re using the attachments they’ll high idle.

However when the guys are just sitting in the cabs the PTO is off and they idle normal. It’s really common for our fleet trucks to regen during idle. These trucks rarely see the highway and operate on city surface streets in very urban environments (Downtown Phoenix,Tempe). Our mechanics typically teach the operators how to identify a regen and show them not to shut them down.

The service pickups 250’s with heavy tool boxes dont have high idle. Those guys live in their trucks, it’s their office. In the summer they don’t shut off and keep the A/C blasting. These trucks see some highway time but not much as they’re typically racing from problem to problem.

These fleet trucks are why I went diesel, the fleet mechanics drive PowerStrokes so that really told me something. The biggest problem our fleet has is the supervisors F-150’s the EcoBoost hasn’t been a good work truck for us. Those trucks are getting phased out to replace with 6.2 gas engines.

All that being said, I don’t treat my personal truck that way. Like I said I don’t shut it down for much, I try and keep it running unless it’s going to idle for over 20 minutes.

My daily commute is 27 miles one way to my office. I typically go to my cabin up north on the weekends so my truck spends almost all of its life on the highway.

I usually get dirty looks with the diesel running while pumping fuel, but I’m not going to shutdown my truck for a few minutes at the pump I know that’s hard on them.

I’ve had the truck 4 months or better and am just about to roll 10,000 miles, I have only experienced one idle enabled regen it was cold out and I was skiing in Utah and all indoor stuff was closed so the wife and I sat in the truck having a beverage for 30-45 minutes and I started smelling the regen. Other than that one time I have no idea how many times it’s regened?

Edit: I should add the oldest PowerStroke in our fleet is a 2017 and newest being 2020. Our guys fight for the 2020 with the 10speed. They love the power over the 17-19’s.
 
So, a bit of technical stuff here, but follow.

A DPF cleans itself by oxidation of the trapped particulate matter, which is 98% carbon and carbon organics. To do this, it needs around 600C temperatures, ideally 750C.

An engine does not have sufficient exhaust temperatures underquite a few conditions, so to help the DPF regeneration process, they add heat to the exhaust downstream of the turbo. There have been lots of different methods for this, but the most common and the one used on the 6.7 is to use a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst to react raw fuel and increase the temperature. Now, THIS system needs 250 to 400C to run, which is very difficult to achieve at normal idle conditions, even with a throttle plate. So, for regeneration to occur, idle speed increases, or it doesn't happen.

Short trips are bad as it interrupts the regeneration process, possibly never allowing it to begin as temperature thresholds are never met for a long enough duration.

TLDR, idle doesn't allow a regeneration to occur, and short trips won't let it finish.

No regeneration, your DPF loads up, and it has to be cleaned off the truck or else it can have a runaway reaction. These are all modeled and known thresholds, so when the PCM sees too high of delta P, it forces you to service.
 
Also, under heavy load or highway driving, you may get what is called passive regeneration and you never move into active mode.
 
I remote start every day it’s below 40 and have it set to the default 15minutes. My office is 6 miles away from my house. And during the winter months the temp gauge usually doesn’t even start to move when I’m backing in my parking spot.

my job sites are 50-100 miles away from my office and I usually get to them a couple times a week. These trips usually trigger a regen but I still usually only notice a regen every 400-500 miles; regardless of my short trips, long trips, excessive idling, etc.

I’m sure it’s better practice to avoid short trips and long idling but I don’t stress about it and haven’t had any issues as of yet, but I do get frequent long trips in as well that gets things heated up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DIG
Back
Top