The perfect towing vehicle?

[dazza 38]

I did a fair bit of research a while back on selective catalytic reduction systems (SCR) where a diesel exhaust fluid is used ( commonly known as Ad blue).

 

What I have found is when used in small vehicles. It isnt too bad as the little tank normally holds enough to last between vehicle sevices.

 

Some very expensive maintenence issues have arisen on heavy vehicles though. Geoff 13 could add to this as he has spent his whole life around heavy vehicles.

 

 

 

[huppypuppy]

I did a fair bit of research a while back on selective catalytic reduction systems (SCR) where a diesel exhaust fluid is used ( commonly known as Ad blue).What I have found is when used in small vehicles. It isnt too bad as the little tank normally holds enough to last between vehicle sevices.

 

Some very expensive maintenence issues have arisen on heavy vehicles though. Geoff 13 could add to this as he has spent his whole life around heavy vehicles.

They say the Everest (and the first ever SCR 4WD in Australia, the Mazda CX-7 Diesel Sport) can do up to 15000km between AdBlue fills - that's 12 months! But you can always top it up between services by finding a service station which has truck access (and truck diesel pumps).... they always usually have AdBlue there on site at the pump. We have two sites (one BP, the other Caltex) which have that AdBlue availability

 

 

[Geoff13]

When we went to the Euro4 2008 and Euro5 2010 (and the American equivelent) emmission standards many heavy vehicle manufacturers tried many different methods to meet those standards. Most acheived Euro4 but could not improve on it. The biggest cost to most the those who met the standard was hugely reduced engine life. Ie 1.5 million klms between rebuilds down to as low as half a million. Many involved very complex and expensive systems with very short lives.

 

The Europeans very quickly hit on the adblue system. Whilst still expensive it acheived very good results even up to Euro6 standard with minimal to no reduction in life of engines. The exhaust systems are still prohibitivly expensive, up to $20,000 for a muffler, but we are getting a million plus klms out of them.

 

Adblue is an aqueos urea the is injected into the exhaust stream where it vapourises into ammonia and then utilising magic (well not really but it could be) and the milion dollar exhaust system it cleans the particles out of the exhaust.

 

It does use up some adblue , I go through about 100 litres per 3000 litres of deisel, so 1 adblue tank per 2 refuels. Almost allservice stations that sell diesel now also sell adblue. All of the big players in road transport are now going to adblue.

 

 

[huppypuppy]

When we went to the Euro4 2008 and Euro5 2010 (and the American equivelent) emmission standards many heavy vehicle manufacturers tried many different methods to meet those standards. Most acheived Euro4 but could not improve on it. The biggest cost to most the those who met the standard was hugely reduced engine life. Ie 1.5 million klms between rebuilds down to as low as half a million. Many involved very complex and expensive systems with very short lives.

The Europeans very quickly hit on the adblue system. Whilst still expensive it acheived very good results even up to Euro6 standard with minimal to no reduction in life of engines. The exhaust systems are still prohibitivly expensive, up to $20,000 for a muffler, but we are getting a million plus klms out of them.

 

Adblue is an aqueos urea the is injected into the exhaust stream where it vapourises into ammonia and then utilising magic (well not really but it could be) and the milion dollar exhaust system it cleans the particles out of the exhaust.

 

It does use up some adblue , I go through about 100 litres per 3000 litres of deisel, so 1 adblue tank per 2 refuels. Almost all service stations that sell diesel now also sell adblue. All of the big players in road transport are now going to adblue.

I like your thinking, Geoff - it's the insights of guys like you that allow me to learn about SCR.... Isuzu manages to meet Euro4 and Euro5 with a simple EGR/DPF setup. We have a 2009 FRR500 at work and it's a brilliant truck - yet the guys driving it aren't letting it get hot enough to even attempt to burn the soot out of the particulate filter! A mate of mine brought an ex-Pink Hygiene Services Isuzu NNR200 and had to replace the DPF - pretty lucky he could get out of that cheap - it cost him $3,200 to do.... I have heard of DPF replacement on a Captiva Diesel being upwards of $12,000

 

 

[dazza 38]

I like your thinking, Geoff - it's the insights of guys like you that allow me to learn about SCR.... Isuzu manages to meet Euro4 and Euro5 with a simple EGR/DPF setup. We have a 2009 FRR500 at work and it's a brilliant truck - yet the guys driving it aren't letting it get hot enough to even attempt to burn the soot out of the particulate filter! A mate of mine brought an ex-Pink Hygiene Services Isuzu NNR200 and had to replace the DPF - pretty lucky he could get out of that cheap - it cost him $3,200 to do.... I have heard of DPF replacement on a Captiva Diesel being upwards of $12,000

We had an Isuzu 1400 long, tilt tray and a couple of times she went into limp mode because guys turned the truck off when it was doing its DPF dump.

 

 

[huppypuppy]

We had an Isuzu 1400 long, tilt tray and a couple of times she went into limp mode because guys turned the truck off when it was doing its DPF dump.

Companies who rent trucks out - Avis, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty and the like - have warnings on the dash about the DPF - Hertz has done away with DPF equipped trucks and gone for the SCR only UD Condor range.....