Trucking it up in Las Vegas

We are in the small niche of expediting and we spend a lot of time away from home in our truck, we very seldom worry about weight, and we are often in areas for an extended amount of time with no accommodations.  The 100" Bolt Custom Sleeper fits our special needs and works well with our Cascadia and DD13. 

Once we set the parking brake the engineers came over to look at our truck and sleeper just as they had all of the competitors trucks.  They are constantly looking for new and different ideas that will work in an OEM sleeper.  While many of our sleeper’s amenities will not work in the OEM sleeper some of the amenities can be toned down and used as sleeper enhancements. 

We always have fun showing our 40' expedite truck and we enjoy the look of amazement on people faces as they get inside.   Most of these people are used to smaller sleepers and they wanted to wait for one person to look and get out before they got in, they were a little confused when I would say "go ahead get on in there is room for more".   Sometimes I laugh as they get settled in at the table and they are reluctant to get out.

The questions are always varied and once they get over their awe of the sleeper the questions turn back to the truck and how we have our Cascadia set up.   They want to know about Expediting and how the Cascadia fits in with our business plan.   Once we start talking about our fuel mileage, the ride of the Cascadia, the DD13, and the automated Ultra Shift transmission the conversation could go on for hours.   We were also asked over and over what we thought of the new DT12 transmission and how soon we would have one.

Bob and I were finally able to drive the new Cascadia Evolution with the DT12 automated transmission pulling a 48' trailer with a gross weight of 78,000 pounds.   I have not pulled a trailer for a while and I found that it was like riding a bike no problem at all.  Once I was used to the trailer I went back to concentrating on the truck.  



I slid in behind the wheel of the 2014 Evolution and placed the transmission into gear.   We were on flat ground and as I accelerated the DT12 skipped over gears it did not need as we accelerated briskly. We are used to our Eaton/Fuller ultra shift and as it climbs through each and every gear we feel the shift, the DT12 shifted seamlessly as went effortlessly down the road.

The truck quickly came up to speed and then I was able to feel the jakes slow the truck back down so I could make a right hand turn.   The brakes are very powerful on the Evolution and it quickly dropped speed so I could safely make the turn. The next test was to go up a 5% grade and bring the truck to a complete stop halfway up the hill.   I let off of the brake and the accelerator and the truck went into "creep" mode and we slowly started climbing the hill without any input on the throttle.   There are 5 gears to "creep" mode and I was able to speed the truck up.   What a bonus this would be when stuck in a traffic jam and also when backing into a dock.   I had visions of myself backing down a steep dock smoothly and precisely.

As the truck was going through the course I thought of how much easier as a team we would sleep without rolling forward and backward in bed as the truck upshifts or downshifts.  As with all Cascadia's the truck is very quiet and smooth which is also a huge bonus in a team operation.

Freightliner had the competitions trucks at the event and while there were a few things I liked about these trucks, I did not feel as if they would fit our needs as well as the Cascadia Evolution would.   Two of the competitors had the latest automated manual transmission offerings.  It was interesting to be able to drive each of the trucks back to back and compare notes about what we liked and what we did not.   These drives were short and were designed to give everyone a small taste of what the competitors trucks were like; to see as well as to drive.  

We were happy to get back into our truck but we are having dreams of driving an Evolution with the new DT12 transmission....   If you get a chance stop by your local dealer be careful though there is a problem.... You may end up wanting the new Cascadia Evolution as soon as you sit in the drivers seat.