I’m at the end of week 3 of a month-long project we have dubbed “The Motor City Express”. The goal behind this project is to demonstrate the adaptability and efficiency of the components that were chosen to complete the specs of our 2022 Freightliner Cascadia, named Celeste. This run has a combination of high-speed limits, mountains, rolling hills, light to moderate, and medium to heavier cargo movements. The specs for Celeste are found here.
From Laredo, TX to Charlotte, NC, the freight has regularly weighed in at 19k to 22k lbs. From Charlotte, NC to Quincy, MI the loads are around 32k lbs. This second leg of my route takes me through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, and the rolling hills of southern Ohio. From Quincy, there’s a short 105-mile deadhead section to my next pickup location at Detroit Diesel in Redford, MI., where I pick up 42 to 43k lbs. of engines to be delivered to a cross dock in Laredo, TX.
The Motor City Express run is a little over 3,800 miles. The first two weeks of this project were plagued by delays in West Virginia due to construction and traffic incidents. This third week led to a strange set of results; on the lightest and highest speed limit section of the run, I was delayed by 3 traffic incidents to the point where I found a place on two different occasions to just try and let traffic settle down. I believe that the overzealousness that was being demonstrated by the vehicles on the highway crashing into each other was caused by the public starting their summer vacations early. These incidents caused me time, but not against my logbook because I stopped and took a break instead of participating in the stop-and-go traffic.
The interesting part of the first leg of my third week was that I was only able to record 9.49 mpg on this section. I’m accustomed to recording fuel mileage from Laredo to Charlotte well in excess of 11.00 mpg. Traffic, wind conditions, and a passive regen for the emissions system led to this lower fuel mileage outcome.
The next section from Charlotte, NC to Quincy, MI takes me up I-77, Fancy Gap, across the Continental Divide through West Virginia to Ravenswood where I pick up US33 to I-270, to US30, I-469, and then end up at Quincy from I-69. Surprisingly, with cruise speeds as high as 70mph where posted and safe to do so, the average fuel mileage for this part of the trip came in at 10 mpg flat, despite traversing the Appalachian Mountains. After delivering to Quincy, I took the short jaunt over to Redford, MI to pick up a load of Detroit engines.
The nice part of how this week had progressed so far, it gave me the luxury of not having to run 70 mph speed limits to make better time as I had built close to a 5-hour surplus on my hours of service. As I started my journey back to Laredo, cruising at the speed limit in Michigan which varied from 60-65 mph, my dashboard display began to indicate that I was exceeding 11.4 mpg. When I got down to some higher speed limits of 70, I decided that I had the time and I needed to see how high this number could be pushed with this heavier shipment in favorable traveling conditions. Traffic was light and the wind was in the right direction, so I guess you can say that the stars had aligned.
On the second day of the trip back home, I found myself in Sulfur Springs, TX on I-30. When I got up in the morning, I knew that there would be terrible traffic from Rockwall, Dallas, and all the way down to San Antonio. This section typically has traffic delays and with Friday being the opening to the Memorial Day weekend, I was not looking forward to it at all. As I had my breakfast, I looked at Google Maps and saw a lot of “red” indicating stop-and-go traffic. So, I decided to take the scenic route. I figured out a route on my GPS which took me to I-10 completely skipping all these cities. It was not faster; I did not make better time either, but I was way less aggravated. Of course, the fuel mileage took a hit running US and state highways instead of the interstate. However, I would have taken a hit anyway because of the traffic congestion on the major highway.
It was tough to watch what was indicated on my dash to be 11.9 mpg disappearing as I embarked on 350 and 400 miles of secondary roads with a heavy load. But I was pleasantly surprised after only using 20 miles of interstate highway and arriving in Pearsall, TX to record a 10.62 mpg fill-up. The odd part of this week was that where I thought I should have gotten exceptional fuel mileage, conditions dictated otherwise, and, on the portion where I was heavy, the figure came in the highest.
My figures are not from the dashboard readout. They are from calculating the miles against the gallons at the pump.
This next week will complete the fourth week of this month-long demonstration of the adaptability that Celeste is capable of. Stay tuned for the end results of the Motor City Express run.
It was sad to see the number drop as I started my Friday.
