As promised, here is the rest of the story from the previous blog titled “Answering the Question.” My current new 2018 Cascadia Aero X Detroit DD15 400 HP/1750FPT 2.16 rear axle ratio had finally attained a lifetime fuel mileage average of 10 mpg…10.008 to be exact. Each time I attain great fuel mileage on my regular route, there are many questions on how the truck will or will not do in regards to performance on hills and mountains. The other questions revolve around the weights of the shipments and just how the truck performs.
The previous blog mentioned the results from the first half of my week leaving out from Cleveland, NC enroute to Brighton, MI. Upon arriving at North Baltimore Ohio, the truck was refueled. This was the first fill on a complete round trip up to this point. The results were 9 mpg by dashboard readout and 8.89 as figured out on paper from the pump numbers. As mentioned before on average, my dash readout is within a tenth of a mile per gallon. On this particular occasion, the tanks were filled fuller than normal. The dashboard readout was reset and I continued the trip to Brighton, MI. Upon arriving, the dashboard readout was 10.5 mpg. I drove an empty leg which included some urban driving which registered 13.2 on the dash. I had left the truck to be displayed in an open house at Wolverine Freightliner Mt. Clemmons, MI. The truck was picked up in the afternoon and it was time to head to Redford, MI which was 38 miles away on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm. I picked up 44,000 lbs. and returned to the holiday weekend traffic along with heavy downpours. Needless to say, there were crashes and traffic backups as I traveled down I-275 and I-75. Upon reaching the intersection of US-23 and I-75 in Ohio, the rain continued in heavy downpours for most of the day. The dash readout was coming in at only 7.4 mpg for this section of the trip. While traveling down US 23, many of the fields looked like small lakes due to the heavy rainfall. This time, I took a slightly different route back to the Carolinas. I took US 23 to I-270 around Columbus, OH and down US 23 to US 35 to I-64 to I-77.
Upon taking a break just outside Point Pleasant, WV, it seemed like it would be interesting to see what a pure West Virginia mpg reading would come in at with a GVW of approx.78, 000 lbs. Upon leaving West Virginia, the readout for just this section read 6.8 mpg. Personally, I did not think this was a bad number from Point Pleasant to Bluefield WV. The truck will not be refueled until next week as it will be on the regular route to Laredo, TX. On the downside of this, I lost my 10 mpg lifetime average answering this question last week and painfully changed the numbers on the back of the trailer to reflect the current lifetime average of this unit. The actual lifetime as of this writing is 9.92 mpg.
For me, this was a good test on the performance of the new Cascadia in less than desirable conditions. In parting, I want to remind everyone that most our country is flat and in the sections that are not flat, half of that which remains is downhill.