August 8th, 2012 
Aaron Turpen Let’s say you’ve bought a new Mack Pinnacle tractor and it’s now hitched to a flatbed trailer that’s loaded to the rubrails with lumber or bagged concrete or some other heavy commodity. You’ve told your driver that he should upshift at really low revs—1,400 rpm. Ha ha—of course he won’t drive it that way.
You anticipated that, so you’ve spec’d a new Super Econodyne powertrain. Its specially programmed mDrive automated gearbox upshifts early and often, usually at that low-low 14 hundred mark on the tachometer that the driver stares at in disbelief. At first he forces the engine to rev higher, but sees that if he leaves things alone, the rig accelerates pretty well, and it settles into a cruise speed of 62 mph with the engine spinning at a leisurely and quiet 1,160 rpm. He doesn’t like it at first but it grows on him, and you’re seeing some serious fuel savings.
Read more at Next Truck Online.
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