Here I am writing this just over two years since we picked up our new 2022 Freightliner Cascadia that we named “Celeste” at the Cleveland, NC manufacturing plant. The specs for Celeste can be found here.
So far, we have put on 261,185 miles during Celeste’s two years of service. The lifetime fuel mileage is 10.22 mpg currently. There has been a trend lately of slightly lower fuel mileage than I have been accustomed to from my Cascadia. During my Christmas holiday break at home, I put Celeste in the shop to try and diagnose the lower fuel mileage trend. We checked the charge air cooler for leaks and found nothing wrong there. So, the next step was to run an overhead on the engine. The technician reported to me that the intake valves were slightly loose.
In this case, it had been 162,000 miles since the last overhead valve adjustment had been performed on Celeste. Everything else has just been normal maintenance during the two years of operation.
I have been very pleased with how the Detroit DD-15 455HP / 1850 FPT DT-12 AMT Transmission combination has performed in a variety of services. We built this truck to be flexible and adaptable to a variety of operations. This is where the Hendrickson OPTIMAAX suspension comes into play. Whenever the freight is light, I can lift an axle on the truck and on the trailer as well. By being able to lift axles that are not needed, I have been able to save money on fuel, tolls, and tire wear. In fact, at one point, I was able to operate for 7 weeks on 3 axles. Part of this story can be found in a past article titled "The Garden State Express”. The details of the article we shared are for a four-week period which was the original plan for that test. The 30-day fuel mileage average came in at 11.72 mpg.
Next came a test that I called “The Motor City Express” where the loads were heavier, and the mountains of W. Virginia came into play. This test run took me from Laredo, TX to Charlotte, NC to Quincy, MI, 105 empty miles to Redford, MI, and then back to Laredo. This test yielded a 10.05 mpg average for the duration of the four weeks.
Today is my first day back to work from the end of the year break and I am hoping to continue the journey towards maximum efficiency and profitability with Celeste as we start the new year.