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District 5 wheel-bearing idea increases mileage, saves $44k

Sometimes in addressing one problem, a different one gets solved as well. It’s a great bonus. Recently, one of those unique situations occurred in District 5.

Paul Yearsley (pictured below) and the recently retired Tony Warth (pictured right) collaborated to upgrade the seals on the wheel bearings of department snowplows. The wheel bearings needed to be changed constantly due to oil leaks.

“Also, once the brakes got oil on them, we had to change them out, even though the brakes where good,” explained Yearsley.
They completed the change on one snowplow truck in December 2016 and compared it to a similar truck from Dec. 1-March 1. The trucks were both from the Blackfoot mtce. shed, identical in style and age, and amassed similar mileage during the time period.

They came up with a new seal, which not only solved the issue of them needing to be replaced often, but also resulted in a 0.49 increase in miles per gallon (mpg) compared to other trucks. During the time period, the truck with the bearing change got 4.8 mpg, and the truck without it got 4.3 mpg.

Assuming gas prices of $1.90 per gallon, the fuel savings for one rig is $0.93. While the change costs about $26 more than the old parts, it takes just over 1,000 miles of driving to reach the payback of the upgraded parts. However, if fuel costs go up, the mileage payback time period goes down.

At $1,90/gal and 20,000 miles per year, that is a savings of $920 a year per truck. D5 has approximately 48 snowplow trucks so this could be a savings of $44,160 a year in District 5 alone.

As a department, we have 409 snowplow trucks across the state, and each puts an average of 14,500 miles per year on the odometer — that’s 5,930,500 miles. As gas prices increase and usage also goes up, the savings could add up pretty quickly!

The seals are better, and the mpg has gone up as well. That is why Yearsley is so excited to try this change-out process on other trucks, in his own and other districts.

This is exactly the kind of “Times 7” example the ITD innovation program seeks.