Six years running the same route, the trucks feel different now

I do line haul between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, about 130 miles a night. Back in 2018 I could predict every rattle in my old freightliner, now I'm running a 2023 Cascadia and it's almost too quiet. The real change I noticed is the emissions stuff, you go from a truck that needs a regen every few hundred miles to one that manages it on its own, but you also chase more sensor faults. Last month I popped a code for a clogged doser and it cost me two nights of downtime that I never would have had with the older mechanical pumps. The shop I use in Bernalillo said they see way more DEF system issues than injector or base engine problems now. The drivers I talk to say the same thing, the trucks start better in the cold but they don't trust them as far down the road. What's everyone else seeing with the newer engines, are you getting more work or less? Has anyone else dealt with the urea buildup on the newer Detroit units?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerw7223d ago

My buddy runs the same route in a 2019 and swears the DPF filter is basically a subscription service at this point. He had a regen that kept getting interrupted by traffic lights in Bernalillo and the truck just gave up, limp mode at 45 mph for two hours. The old mechanical ones might have been louder, but at least they didn't have a computer that decides to quit on you mid-shift.

paige87021d ago

Bernalillo traffic lights are the worst for that... my neighbor's 2020 did the exact same thing by the cabazon exit. Limp mode at 45 is basically a death sentence on that stretch. You can't tell me a mechanical filter was this fragile.