Muirhead Trucking, Inc

Muirhead Trucking saves money and fuel by utilizing Bully Dog Big Rig Downloaders

Mabank, TX - May, 2009 Started in 1970 with a couple of bob tail trailers and now located in a new facility in Mabank, Texas, Muirhead Trucking hauls refrigerated, time sensitive freight across the southern United States from California to Florida.  Known as the fleet that is “On time and looking good” any truck in the Muirhead fleet could pull off at any truck beauty contest and take home the winning prize.  Made up of 2004 and newer trucks, the fleet of 50 tractor trailers consists of Peterbilt 379s and Kenworth W900s that are Cat® exclusive with the majority being Cat® Acert C-15 engines.

The challenge: add real fuel economy without effecting engine longevity

The price of fuel has always been one of the largest expenses of any fleet.  Over the last couple of years, with the price of fuel spiking and now continuing to vary from week to week, fleets are always on the look out for tried and true solutions that really work.  When Greg Muirhead met some of the Bully Dog team at the Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas a few years ago he was impressed with the SAE testing that Bully Dog had already done on the Cummins engines in San Angelo, Texas.  He was also intrigued with the prospect of adding fuel economy to his fleet with a tuner or downloader.  Greg strongly believes in building enduring relationships with all of his vendors, so he signed up at the ground floor even though Bully Dog didn’t have a downloader developed yet for the Caterpillar engines. 

Implementing the Big Rig Downloaders

When Bully Dog was ready to begin beta testing on the Caterpillar® engine almost two years ago a couple of trucks from Muirhead Trucking were included in the beta testing.  With feedback from Greg and his team at Muirhead as well as other beta testers, Bully Dog’s engineers were able to fine tune the Cat® engine to obtain impressive mileage gains.  The process wasn’t as easy as everyone anticipated in the beginning, but both Muirhead and Bully Dog stuck to the process until the results that everyone was looking for were achieved.  Greg Muirhead is most appreciative and adds, “It has been a blessing.  We are tuning all of our trucks with the Power and Economy mode and are averaging a ½ mile per gallon increase across our fleet of Cat® engines.” 

Results and Feedback

The majority of Muirhead’s fleet has had the downloaders installed for about three months, but a few of their trucks have been tuned with Bully Dog tunes for almost two years.  Greg continues, "The feedback from our drivers is that they love to drive the trucks that have the tuners installed.  We have a much lower turn over rate than the industry average for employee retention and that is because we treat our drivers like they are family.  The tuners with the extra horsepower definitely help that aspect because they can achieve better fuel economy while they have that extra horsepower if they need it."

Greg concludes with this advice for anyone that is considering the Power Pups, "With everything that is out on the market, these products are the best that there are.  You can talk about APU units, wind fairings, etc.  There are literally hundreds of products that you can retrofit your truck to.  The Power Pup downloaders are by far the simplest and easiest products on the market that allow you to see significant cost savings immediately.  Bottom line."