The new idea to “stretch my legs” a bit came to me from looking into a local ethnic grocery chain and their use of CNG trucks to cover the span between Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV. Being that the sight of a CNG truck is not all too common going up and down the I15 corridor to Vegas, I was able to easily spot their trucks and see that they were running quite a bit of CNG trucks through here to haul their reefers to their 
outlying Nevada chain stores from their California warehouse. Being that their trucks have virtually the same fuel capacity as mine and the rates within this corridor are above average, I decided it would be a great route to follow as well. The past month has had me running the Los Angeles to Las Vegas route over 50% of the time for all of my hauling. Although there are refueling stations both along the route and on both ends, I was determined to make sure I could run it round-trip without refueling for time savings and less hassle. The day to push that theory to its limit came two days ago, when it seemed the worst-case scenario to test this theory came to be.
Landing the perfect load can often be a matter of opinion. For some it is a light load, as for some others it may be a load that gets them home. For me on this trip, it was being able to book a round-trip for this particular customer. It allowed me to reload at their warehouse in Vegas where I would be unloading, just to go right back down to their Los Angeles warehouse to deliver early the next morning. Heavy as both loads were, 42,500 pounds and 41,000 pounds respectively, it was perfect a scenario as I could get for that 
run and the rates weren’t bad either! As can often happen, small wrenches were thrown in the path of my perfect day in the form of head winds both coming and going (weird how that happened) and road construction gumming up the notorious Cajon Pass on the way home. Even with all of these fuel-sucking variables rolled into one trip, I was able to average just around 5.3mpg for the run. I will be honest in saying I was sweating it just a bit when nearing the final leg of my journey through the Cajon Pass traffic, since my low-fuel light appeared on my dash long before the traffic jam at the summit.
Pushing the limits has always been a fun, yet nerve-racking part of my taking on driving a CNG truck. Through having to push barriers like this, it helps me better understand the limitations and expectations of this technology in its real-world use, not just what a book or manual tells me it “should” do. Wanting to incorporate longer hauls is a personal goal of mine to help prove that the real applications for CNG lie further outside the traditional thought that it is a “local-only” fuel. Now knowing I can run a 550 mile round-trip, on a smaller capacity 
system than many are ordering today (only 140 DGE), gives me hope into proving that CNG can have more and more use in heavy-duty regional applications and even perhaps some good jogs across certain lanes in the over-the-road sector. Proving that I could fill up to 3600psi and return, even through adverse conditions with over 600psi in the tank, gives me piece-of-mind that I can make it to Vegas and back without refueling no matter what the haul is. Of course, I will always have my phone app with CNG stations around on-hand just in case!