Having been on this planet for 59 years this month, you get to see a lot of cycles that repeat themselves. One of the cycles that I have seen repeat itself many times in my lifetime, is the price of fuel and the word “crisis” being associated with it. To my memory, the earliest crisis would have been in the early 1970s when I was about 9 – 10 years old.
I remember long lines of cars at the service stations and only being able to get fuel every other day, according to whether your license plate ended in an even or odd number. I can still see people pushing their cars in these long lines because one of two reasons. In some cases, they were pushing their cars because they ran out of fuel in the line, and in other cases, it was simply to conserve every drop of fuel in their tank. I also recall people who waited in line for hours being very upset that their fuel ran out before they were able to fill their gas tank.
While we’re on the subject of service stations, it brings back a memory of how going to the gas station was an entirely different event than it is today. In my childhood days, they still had an attendant who pumped your fuel, cleaned your windshield, and in many cases, checked your engine's oil level and tire pressures. These stations also performed minor repairs to vehicles. The part I remember most, was that they were actually giving their customers a service. This is something that’s long lost in the self-serve world that we live in today.
During this time period, my parents had a really cool 1968 Ford Torino GT fastback with a big block engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. This car was hot!!! But it was also thirsty for fuel. The hotness was not just in performance, but in temperature as well, since the car didn’t have air conditioning and had a very large rear window with a fastback roofline. That made sitting in the backseat of the car, which was black, much akin to sitting in a greenhouse.
It was during this fuel crisis that my parents decided to trade this muscle car in for an economical Ford Pinto. I’m here to say that a family of five can fit in a 1971 Pinto. Fuel prices settled down a little bit after this. My parents then, for the first time, bought a second car. One would have thought that efficiency would have remained high on the list of priorities, in regards to the purchase of this second car. I guess you could say it did a little bit, but only a little bit. The car they chose was a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach-1 with a 302 small block, 2-barrel engine automatic transmission. Once again, we got to bake under the glass of the large fastback glass window without air conditioning. I guess they concerned themselves with fuel mileage a little bit, as they did not choose any of the high-performance engine options. Guess what happened next. Fuel prices shot up again and the Mustang was traded in for a tan Ford Pinto station wagon. No lesson was learned by me back in my youth, as my first car was a 1971 Pontiac Lemans Sport with a 400 high output V8 engine. Right after I got this car, and my license, fuel took one of those upward trends in rapid fashion.
I remember that after the muscle car era kind of ended (due to fuel prices, EPA regulations, and insurance costs) the public migrated to full-sized pickup trucks and vans. These choices were made because pickup trucks and vans were not yet subject to EPA regulations.
My point with all this is that people get a little bit serious when high fuel prices begin to affect their household budget. Yet, our memory seems to be short-lived in regards to our actions. Today, we’re seeing fuel prices spike upwards in a rapid fashion, once again. The question that comes to my mind is “How serious do we really take any of this?”.
During the first week of this latest fuel crisis, my wife and I walked from the truck stop to a nearby Walmart to get some groceries. On our walk, we passed by a boutique type of coffee establishment. We saw vehicles waiting in line to buy coffee that costs more per gallon than the fuel that they wasted sitting there waiting to get said coffee. I’m sure if you talked to any of these people waiting in line, idling their vehicles, they would’ve told you that it’s an outrage what fuel costs nowadays. This thought stuck with me as we entered the grocery store, and we saw people buying packages of bottled water. What does bottled water have to do with fuel? Water is 8 lbs a gallon, it was transported with a truck, and it’s packaged in plastic, which is made from oil. None of these people's actions seem as though they would be actions of people who are taking the price of fuel seriously.
I must admit that I have not taken fuel conservation seriously enough with my personal vehicles. However, in the case of the trucks that I earned my income with, fuel efficiency has always been at the top of my priority list. I pride myself on the fact that my first two trucks were never idled overnight, except for one time when I fell asleep sick with the flu. At that time, I did not have an auxiliary power unit, but I still could not find myself idling a large diesel engine simply to keep myself comfortable.
Today, I still take this very seriously in how I spec out a truck. That’s why our current Cascadia, Celeste, has been equipped with a Detroit DD15 engine, 455 HP/1850 FPT @ 900 RPM DT12 overdrive AMT transmission, Hendrickson Optimaax 6x2 liftable pusher suspension, Detroit 2.61 rear axle ratio, with active lube management followed by a fully aerodynamic trailer, riding on the latest Michelin wide base single fuel-efficient tires.
This current combination has yielded a lifetime fuel mileage of 9.6 MPG running speeds up to 75 MPH in a project that I have called 70+/10. Because of the high fuel prices, for the most part, I’ve limited the high speed to 70 MPH. I will only be using these higher speeds where it benefits the bottom line.
In closing, I want you to think about my initial thought of “There is a price”. Where does the price of fuel have to be before it is treated as a precious commodity?
