2017 Freightliner Problems

So my company just gave me a brand spanking new 2017 freightliner cascadia with only 8.4 miles on it. First problem is it's an automatic. I suppose I can get used to that but the second problem is that I now have 900 miles on it and the tranny won't come out of eco mode. Makes it very inconvenient. And there is an orange engine light on. Anyone know how to solve this issue so I don't have to relay off my load and sit at a terminal?

Did it come with a book? Which orange light, there are a lot of them. Don't worry about the eco mode. I've yet to find the performance mode after several months. It's not necessary.

I don't like how in eco mode it will skip gears or shift super early (like 1300) and the rpm's drop below 1000. Then it will lug real bad so I have to keep manually shifting to previous gear so I can build some power.

I'll have to look for the book. The little light is in the shape of an engine and has no words or lines or anything. Just a blank engine.

I don't like how in eco mode it will skip gears or shift super early (like 1300) and the rpm's drop below 1000. Then it will lug real bad so I have to keep manually shifting to previous gear so I can build some power.

I'll have to look for the book. The little light is in the shape of an engine and has no words or lines or anything. Just a blank engine.

It's just the way the Cascadia is. I got a 2016. And yeah you have to shift it yourself when going up hill or it will lug itself.

We were issued a 2017 Freightliner Cascadia in June, had 15 miles on it. it is an automatic, which at first we saw as a blessing since i had injured my 'clutch leg' and it was becoming difficult to shift after long distances of driving. BUT, we now have over 20k on this truck and despise everything about it! it has a very poor work ethic ... is very inconsistent in how it pulls loads up hills. sometimes it pulls a 40k load up the hill as if it was feathers, other times it lugs down to 25 mph on an upgrade pulling 9k. we are convinced that there is some kind of exhaust leak, perhaps when it regens. when we use the AC, we become very groggy. before we realized it was most likely the truck, the symptoms went undetected until we were disoriented, headachy and sick to our stomachs. now we just dont use the AC. oh, why not get it checked out at the shop, you ask ... well, the downtime that it would take to get it checked. we are instead going to o/o and getting a Kenny.

the orange engine light has come on twice without any kind of functionality issues. it simply goes out after awhile. the truck has a 'collision warning' which has slammed the brakes on without any obtructions anywhere close to the truck.

all-in-all ... i am paying tuition to an academy for teaching me how to drive a truck. let me do what i was taught and junk this thing!!

Most of those issues are set up by the company you work for. When the truck came from Freightliner, it was probably set up right. But like Ozark, the companies think they know better than the drivers that actually have to drive them. Ozark, turns off the performace mode and the manual control mode of the transmission. They think we're too stupid to know what gear is best for a given situation. So economy automatic is the only mode they give us.

So now, we drivers have to watch the speedometer and tach to know when to trick it out of econo mode so it will give the engine the rest of the power we know it has to get up the hill. Watching the instruments like a hawk instead of the road just to keep the truck at the requested cruise speed is surely helping the safety of the operation of the truck. "Why did you run over that road hazzard?" -- "Cause I was looking at the tack and didn't see it in time."

I got news for those geeks in the office that think they know truck driving. Climbing a hill under load is only done best at max speed. Going up a hill slower does NOT save fuel cause the truck will be going up hill longer and it still has to accelerate once at the top and level instead of being at top speed once at the top and ready for coast mode.

Going down hill is another pain altogether. Jake setting two is usually not strong enough and setting three would be just right except the auto transmission want to shift down a gear and then it starts to slow you down instead of just hold your speed. And all because we have no manual control of the tranny.

OK I had my rant.

Kenny, how long have you been driving? Have you run a business with hundreds of units doing the same thing (like all the tractors Ozark runs)?

The people who make the decisions on how Ozark will run its equipment most efficiently (getting the best return on their investment) probably have forgotten more than you know about diesel fleet operation.

In other words, they didn't ask you.

"Mac speed" I assume you mean is rpm/ engine speed. There is little fuel efficiency or power at the top end of the rpm range. The transmission programming gears itself to provide the best torque against the hill resistance.

I regularly carry 42-45,000 lb. loads of paper rolls, sometimes on steep Interstates. I rarely need Jake 3 to manage speed.

I drive a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia with auto transmission.

I'm sure they do have more experience than I do in general truck driving. I'd bet every one of those office managers was a driver back in their day. However, things have changed lately with the new trucks and I haven't seen any of them in any of the trucks since I've been there.

I'm just telling it from MY experience and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what works best.

I don't have one of those, unfortunately, but doesn't it have a display screen? I think there's a page that shows any fault codes so you can see why the engine light is on.

You activate performance mode by pressing all the way down on the accelerator, past the point where it catches. You're welcome, complainers.