If You Could Have Your Pick Of A Truck At A Company What Would You Want And Why?

I am still going through training here at NADTA/CRST and when I drove OTR before, I was MADLY IN LOVE with KWs. However after driving one of the newer Freightliner Cascadia Evolutions with the Detroit DD15 and the Detroit D12 Automated transmission, I have fell in love with that truck. What are some of your opinions? What would be considered your ideal fleet?

My ideal fleet would be:

Kenworth T680 with the PACCAR MX-13 engine and Eaton Advantage 10-Speed Automated Transmission Freightliner Cascadia with the Detroit DD16 engine and the Detroit D12 Automated-Manual Transmission Peterbilt 579 with the PACCAR MX-13 engine and Eaton Advantage 10 speed Automated Transmission.

All three of those trucks would be White with Medium Gray interior in the sleepers. I would also have Tri-Pac APUs installed on ALL Trucks. I would have Air DISC Brakes on ALL Trucks, both on the Steer and Drive Axles. I would have refrigerators and the best power inverters installed in ALL Trucks. If only the parent company for Kenworth and Peterbilt (PACCAR) would put the Detroit powertrains in those trucks. If they did that ALL of these would be the PERFECT trucks. All CDL training trucks would be equipped with MANUAL 10 Speed Eaton Transmissions. I would have about 50 trucks with Manuals at each Terminal I had. That way you could test for your CDL and not get a restriction placed on your license. Also if you are on downtime or even hometime at a terminal, I would keep a couple of those manuals open for people who just want to keep their shifting down even though the MAIN fleet would be 100% AUTOMATICS. I would have some automatics on the training range also for those people who want to get a feel for the truck BEFORE learning the manual and how to double clutch.

The above quote was a reply from another topic and I still stand by those choices now. Why do I choose those configurations you ask? Because those (in my opinion) are by far the safest most powerful and efficient trucks on the road today.

The one truck I would NEVER DRIVE (unless its only as a last resort) would be an International. Intertrashionals as I call them are the biggest, ugliest pieces of junk on our roads. They are in the shop more than they are on the road. Any company that would invest their earnings in the International is truly wasting money in my opinion. Stick with KW 1st, Freightliner a VERY close 2nd, and Peterbilt a close 3rd when properly configured as listed above.

What are yalls feelings on this topic? What are yalls favorite company trucks? What would you want if your company said we want to get you a brand new truck and fix it up YOUR WAY (I know this isn't BURGER KING, I know we can't HAVE IT OUR WAY. I am just dreamin here)?

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

Double Clutch:

To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.

When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.

This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

I'm a fan of the old school trucks like a Peterbilt 379 with the ext hood, 550hp CAT and 18 speed Eaton. Realistically though I've driven a few Mack trucks, 2 Western Stars and currently upgrading to a class A license in a Volvo with a D13 and a 10 speed Eaton and so far the Volvo is my favorite. Quiet, smooth, fairly powerful. Having 60k HARD miles put on it by students where virtually every shift has a grind to some extent with nothing more than routine maintenance speaks to it's reliability. There's another Volvo at the school several years older with 800k miles, a Cummins and a 13 speed that shows reliability as well. Only problem with that particular truck is the air dryer spits off every few seconds. Not too bad if ya ask me.

Whatever one puts money in the bank. I do love looking at the culture around long nose petes, though. I swear, if you wanted to become filthy rich all you'd have to do is open a company that offers long nose petes and you could advertise a pay of $0.08/mile and you'd have a backlog of applications.

My rig at the moment is a '17 Cascadia Evo with an auto. I love it. But if tomorrow they switched me into a Volvo, the ones I hate the aesthetics of, I'd be fine and dandy so long as those checks keep coming in.

I guess if you put a gun to my head and made me choose, though, I'd want one of our new 2018 Cascadia's with the black grill. Perhaps in a color other than red.

New (2018) Cascadia with the Murphy Bed setup. Volvo 780 with the workstation setup. KW T680 with the passenger seat that spins around to face the worktable surface.

As far as someone who would be full-timing on the road - ergonomics and comfort would be up there in priority.

Rick

KW T680 with the passenger seat that spins around to face the worktable surface.

I forgot to include that in the option list for the T680.

If money was no object I guess I would get a Western Star 5700 XE with a 34" standard sleeper accompanied by a 97" ARI Legacy II RB sleeper. I would have a DD15 engine and D12 transmission. She would have to be Blue of course, LoL.

I do love looking at the culture around long nose petes, though. I swear, if you wanted to become filthy rich all you'd have to do is open a company that offers long nose petes and you could advertise a pay of $0.08/mile and you'd have a backlog of applications.

^^^^THIS^^^^ Except with a Kenworth W900.