why do diesel truck drivers and excavator operators always leave their engines running?

Question

today, a guy left his backhoe running for 5 straight hours without even useing it............

Answer 1

Diesels, especially big ones, are difficult to start. They use less fuel left running than they do starting them up. Diesel electric locomotives are usually left running for 6 months at a time. They are only turned off to re-tune them for summer running or winter running conditions.

Answer 2

Interesting, even that this is in the history questions... Here's my shot at an answer:
1) cheaper to run for a while (not 5 hours though) than switch off and on. Same true for petrol engines. I don't know if anyone has calculated 'exactly' what the cut-over point economy-wise is though.. I always figure about 3-5 minutes.

2) I presume the hydraulics take a certain period to 'power up' - but I don't know how long that is. This modifies the calculation in (1), and has a bearing on (3).

3) might be required to do something on a building site at short notice, so keeping it on 'standby' for longer that 3-5 minutes makes sense (and even up to 5 hours in 'extraordinary' circumstances).

You might add to this that one of the 'urgent' tasks he might be required to do is to jump back in the cab if a boss turns up on site to see how things are going.

You might also add to this that if the operator is doing 'two tasks' and one of them is 'outside' of the excavator he'll want the excavator on 'standby' if he needs to switch from one to the other quickly. If the other task takes an unpredictably longer time than expected then the machine will remain on 'standby' for potentially a long time.

4) provides a 'reassuring' sound of activity while the operator is taking and making calls on his mobile phone - so that folk get the impression he's hard at work.

5) might have walked off and forgotten it, either wearing ear plugs/muffs, or walked out of range of the noise, or have a touch of industrial deafness.

Interestingly, the relevance of this to history is that without thinking too hard you can come up with several (literally) explanations for an event without trying too hard. Any of them - or a combination of them - might be true. To 'leap' to a single conclusion in the face of such a range of choices is a trap in history as much as it is here. Cheers,

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Brilliant, well done Sanders. You see when we face a range of 'possibles' you look at the issue again from the perspective of the people who 'were there' rather than from our comfortable armchairs with our technical (and not-so-technical) knowledge. So what's the most important thing from the perspective of a excavator operator - comfort! So the rational for keeping the cabin warm or cold seems to be to be an absolute 'front runner' in the likely explanation stakes. I vote for Sanders...

Answer 3

Truck drivers pass away their rigs working because of the fact a million) they're asleep and it fairly is warm exterior so they're working the A/C 2) they're asleep and it fairly is chilly exterior so they're working the heater. 3) It was mentioned that a rig used up greater gasoline once you became it on and stale while in comparison with basically working it. relies upon how long, like restroom breaks, procuring their gasoline. a typical enormous rig makes use of a million gallon of gasoline an hour basically idling. maximum trucking companies are looking different the thank you to maintain the motive force comfortable whilst he's dozing. As for the backhoe operator, I cant answer.

Answer 4

The few answers i saw on construction vehicles sounds about correct to me but from the stand point of truck drivers the engine has to stay running in most cases to keep the truck warm or cold for the driver. most cases they don't have generators in there trucks to keep this running. due to the high gas prices a lot of companies are no longer paying for the extra fuel to keep there trucks running in the middle of the night or down time. diesels are harder to start up in cold weather. I went to school to get my CDL in 2004 and worked briefly for Swift trucking.

Answer 5

personal choice. there is no need for it. the argument that it burns less fuel to keep it on that starting is is rubbish when comparing 5 hours on vs 5 hours off. 5 hours would burn alot of fuel compared to having it start.

Answer 6

Because of the difficulty restarting them over and over.

Answer 7

They never know when they are going to need it and it has to be warmed up. I know it seems awful.