Day five started with a morning walk around of the trucks, inspections and synchronized ignition of all the trucks. We drove on I-40 east to our mid day point of West Memphis, AR.
We stopped at the Flying J Travel Plaza for an early lunch. We then headed onto I-55 south to I-240, US 78, US 43, US 82, I-20 to I-459 and finally I-20 east where we finished our day in Leeds, AL.
This day consisted of rolling hills, a large number of traffic lights on the US routes. This gave me an opportunity to give the DT12 AMT transmission by Detroit a real workout. As promised, I wanted to give you more information on the E-Roll feature of the transmission. With all the rolling hills I’ve experienced in the last two days, the benefits of the ECoast are readily apparent. Here is how the ECoast works: Each time the truck recognizes that the engine is not needed to maintain forward movement, the transmission disengages and allows the engine to idle at 600 RPM’s until it is needed again. The transmission re-engages when the truck either needs the engine to power the truck or slow the truck with the engine brake.
I was somewhat skeptical of such a system for fear of a runaway truck down a hill. However, by the end of this fifth day on the road, my fears were put to rest and I’m confident with this new feature. The system works seamlessly in that you hardly ever notice the E-Roll is performing. At the end of this day, our group has traveled 426 miles with a total of 2,103 into the trip. My fuel mileage since leaving San Diego at this point is 9.31.
Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up our trip with Day 6
Henry