I often talk about the engine, transmission and fuel efficiency of the Cascadia. Today, I want to cover an area that often gets overlooked
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The sleeping environment in the Cascadia Evolution provides a quiet well insulated place to attain proper rest. When parked beside a noisy idling truck, APU or refrigerated trailer, the sounds are below a level which doesn’t interfere with my sleep.
My 2013 Cascadia is equipped with the ParkSmart HVAC system. This is a battery powered air conditioning system combined with a diesel fired heater. While this system will not maintain the hotel loads of an APU, it does offer air conditioning and heat without the noise and maintenance of an additional engine. However, if you’re in a location which offers Shore Power hook up, you’ll have all the power you need while in your cab. The only time I’ve had the need to use Shore Power is during rest periods which last longer than 10 hours.
I’ll tell you about an incident which happened to me a couple winters ago while driving my previous 2010 Freightliner Cascadia. (The insulation package is still the same today.) I was in Warren, MI and parked for the night. I happened to be on the phone with my wife that evening and fell asleep shortly after our chat. The temperature outside that night was around 30 degrees. Having fallen asleep, I forgot to turn on the ParkSmart HVAC. When I awoke 6 hours later, there was only a slight chill in the cab much like if when the power goes out at your home. I went to the front of the cab to check on the actual temperature on the dash. It indicated 18 degrees as the outside temperature. I had no idea it was that cold outside. This is truly a testament to the outstanding insulation package which Freightliner has installed into the Cascadia.