Light and Heavy Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Fuel Consumption Evaluations Using Fuel Efficient Gear Oils (FEGO)

Abstract : The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research and Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) desires to improve the fuel efficiency of the U.S. Army Tactical Wheeled Vehicle (TWV) fleet. This report covers efforts to quantify potential fuel efficiency changes in Light Tactical-Wheeled Vehicles (LTV) and Heavy Tactical-Wheeled Vehicles (HTV) with the use of improved differential/axle lubricants. Candidate lubricants were synthetic based 75W-90 and 75W-140 products, and were compared to a baseline petroleum based 80W-90 gear oil. Fuel consumption improvements were noted for both candidate oils for the LTV, while the HTV showed general trends of improvement for the lower viscosity 75W-90 candidate, and detriment when using the heavier 75W-140 candidate. Stationary axle efficiency testing is recommended to further explore this relationship.