Cockpit of Gauges

[budbud7]

In my previous employment, i was an equipment operator at a power plant. In our control room we had hundreds of gauges. Recently I have seen some tractor trailer rigs with a dash full of gauges. perhaps 25 -30. Are there are any skoolie members who were truck drivers that know what all they are monitoring? I have not seen the inside of many buses but 8-10 gauges is about all that I can count. My point is more than an observation, I would like to add more gauges to my build in the future. So from the drive train prospective, what else to monitor?

[PhilipE]

The fully gaged trucks monitor axle temps/ trans temps. engine oil temps. Anything that runs above ambient on operating temps can be monitored.

Remember 90% of people never look at gages very often or ever. So the more gages installed the more to ignore. They might look good when looking in the window. The big question is. Are you a gage scanner or not.

[seuadr]

i have a powerstroke 6.0 (yes, that one) in my econoline based shuttle bus - i'm planning on monitoring (using a scangauge 3):

instant Fuel economy
fuel rail pressure (injector issues when it is too low)*
EGR Temp (related to EGR issues)*
coolant temp (identifies EGR cooler issues)*
oil cooler temp (causes EGR cooler issues)*
oil pressure*
Trans oil temp*
Chassis battery/charge voltage
ICP pressure - below 500PSI is an issue*
Engine RPM

couple others that i am on the fence about:
converter lockup/gear
turbo boost
VGT status (variable vane position - wanna make sure it is adjusting properly)

those with Stars i intend to set up alarming for as opposed to constant monitoring, but, the scanguage can show 2 pages of 9 gauges and supports visual and audio alarms - i haven't set it up yet, and i don't know specifically which ones will feel the most important on the primary screen.

[Booyah45828]

Open an isspro or hewitt industries catalog and see the options. They'll list what they all monitor, and the options really are limitless.

Which ones you should add/use depend on what you're currently equipped with. Certain dash gauges aren't accurate to begin with, so a couple might be duplicated by more accurate units. Every vehicle on the road should be equipped with an oil pressure, battery voltage, and coolant temp gauge that reads accurately. For road safety, you should have a speedometer(duh) and a tachometer. You'll also be required to have air pressure gauges, if you're air brake equipped, and some might find a fuel level gauge helpful too

In my opinion, every skoolie that has an AT545 Allison transmission should have a trans temp gauge installed, and the operator should know what temp not to exceed on it.

You can also install exhaust pyrometer(s), engine oil temp, intake air temp, intake air pressure, exhaust pressure, air filter vacuum, fuel pressure, fuel temp, etc.. But if you've got a stock tuned vehicle, those would likely be unnecessary.

Here is a youtube video by one guy on what he installs in his truck. There are several others on there that you can watch too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2c564JGgcI&t=493s

The moral of the story is that a gauge simply provides you data about the environment around you. It's only as useful as the person observing it, so if you have no clue about the data you're being given, there really isn't a point in having it. And that's why most fleets omit install a large number of gauges, as the driver's aren't smart enough to know what they're looking at, and omitting them saves the fleet money.

[Iceni John]

My Crown had a full complement of gauges from the factory, but I've added a few more. I've replaced most of the original crappy Teleflex gauges with full-sweep gauges from Speedhut, VDO, Stewart-Warner and others: I really HATE gauges whose needles sweep over only 90 degrees, and full-sweep gauges give you three times better resolution. I moved the all-important coolant temperature gauge to front and center (two-stroke Detroits will overheat in a hurry if you don't keep an eagle eye on their temperature and drive them accordingly). I've also adapted the coolant temperature gauge to also optionally read oil temperature, and the transmission temperature gauge to also read hydraulic/PS fluid temperature; I'll also similarly adapt the start battery voltage gauge to also read house battery voltage. To monitor possible brake drum overheating on long downgrades in hot weather I have a dual air brake application pressure gauge that will tell me if one or both systems are needing greater applied air pressure to maintain constant speed down a long grade, or if there is an air leak in one of the systems.

In the engine room at the back I also have nine more gauges:
Three coolant temperature (left bank, right bank, radiator return),
Hydraulic fluid pressure to the fan motor and back-pressure from the motor,
Oil and fuel pressures,
Fuel primary filter restriction (suction),
Ammeter,
and a Filter Minder air filter restriction indicator.

This is a total of eleven gauges in front of me when I'm driving (which can monitor fifteen parameters), plus the additional ten by the engine. I'm constantly scanning all eleven front gauges when driving, and I drive according to what they're telling me. For me, having reliable and accurate information is critical to driving and maintaining my bus effectively, and if anything should ever go tits-up while driving I have early warning of it and can trouble-shoot with more certainty if I know exactly what's happening.

John

[magnakansas]

-engine oil pressure
-engine oil temperature at the filter
-fuel pressure at the injection pump inlet
-engine coolant temperature at radiator inlet
-engine coolant temperature at the cylinder head
-engine coolant pressure - 5psi pressure switch connected to idiot light (
the idea is if I loose coolant pressure that means I have a coolant leak
somewhere and I need to pay close attention to engine temperature.)
-Other engines I have had two idiot lights for oil pressure... one light for oil
pressure at idle 12 psi and one for oil pressure at 2000 rpm - 30 psi -
volkswagen has two stage oil pressure lights. That is where I got the idea
from.
there are oil pressure gages with mechanical contacts for low oil pressure
alarms that are part of the gage. There are engine coolant temperature
gages with mechanical contacts for high temp alarms.
-ambient air temperature
-air temperature at turbo inlet
-air temperature at intake manifold - this will let you know how well the
charge cooler is doing its job
-turbo compressor pressure at the turbo charger
-intake manifold pressure at the intake manifold -- this is after the air goes -
through the charge cooler.
-turbo turbine pressure
-exhaust gas temperature at turbine inlet
-transmission oil temperature
-differential oil temperature

-fuel pressure for generator
-coolant temperature for generator
-coolant pressure for generator
-oil pressure for generator
-hobbs meter for generator
-voltage for AC for generator

-Tire pressure and tire temperature for each tire - This includes for any toad
or trailer.

-fuel pressure for diesel coolant heater
-coolant temperature outlet side of diesel coolant heater

-battery voltage for starter batteries
- battery voltage for generator -- if you have a separate starting battery for a
generator

now you can begin to see cockpit full of gages,

I prefer 270 degree sweep gages. VDO, stewart warner, are the top of the list, I can not recall the name of the gages with the built in warning contacts but these were much more common in the 60's and 70's

william