FL Cascadia

My $.02 concerning these "new" plastic trucks.

Our lil LTL/Expidite company has 4 Binder 9400's, and an FLD120. The highest mileage truck in the fleet is well past 1.5 million miles and with a good detailing you'd never guess it was over 500k other than the model year. The lowest mileage truck is barely over 500k and on its best day you wouldnt be surprised if I lied to you and said it had 2 million miles. The "junk" Freightshaker is a close second in mileage, condition, both mechanical and cosmetic, has probably lived the hardest life of all 5 and drives like a dream.... too bad some idiot has it governed at 61mph!

I get to regularly drive other companies trucks when they need a driver on short notice. One is a 99' Century, the rest are Binder 9400i's. The Century is past its first million miles and makes all but the newest 9400i's seem like junk due to its nearly pristine condition.

The reason some of the older trucks are in great shape despite high miles and advanced years is due to how they were maintained and driven. Plastic isnt a bad thing if you treat the interior of your truck with respect. Regardless of what nameplate is on a truck if you take care of it it will show and the truck will last. If you abuse it, its going to be a peice of crap in no time.

For the record, I'm strongly considering purchasing the Century since its driveline specs are spot on for what I want in an OTR truck and the big Cat under the hood is less than 150k since an inframe.

 

As I have yet to drive either the Cascadia, FLD, 9400I, etc and won't for another 2 years, I can't say didley squat on the driving thing. I can say that the Prostar Skyrise looks much better than the Cascadia. However, its all your preference on what you like and the such. For me the T660 and Prostar seem better but till I drive one, I won't know the truth.

Hunter

 

LSL first it was international being gods gift to truck drivers and now its Pete? Give me a break dude and go do your homework, seriously!

 

Yeah and if you don't martin said he was gonna put you over his knee and spank you...

 

Im not a steel hauler, ill leave that to you Les, you guys are the kinky ones

 

How about a cage match between Double L & Kinghunter?











Or would that be a pillow fight?

 

While I am not a trucker, I talk to the drivers about their equipment and one said he would drive the cacadia as company driver but not as an o/o.

Hunter

 

well was trying to get others opinions, from talking to drivers in our company know that the cassies are getting about 7.6 7.8 mpg pulling mostly 20g loads in eastern half of country, our prostars are not getting quite as good but still about 6.8 7.0 my fl century gets only about 6.4 6.6 with same loads. fl and cassies are cut back to 65 the stars are at 67

 

I have now had the Cascadia a little over a month. Still want my Classic back. Yes over this little bit of time it has started to rattle. The Detroit has used a gallon of oil (according to the user manual it is normal for the miles I have put on). It is terrible in any kind of wind. It gets blown all over the road and can't get the fuel mileage above 5.9 mpg. The seat like mentioned is not at all comfortable even though it has all kinds of adjustments. Also has too many electronic monitoring like wheel slip or low outside air temp warnings. Real annoying.Some of the problems that I find are poorly designed truck and head up the backside specifying.

What I like about it? It's new and it has an outside temp gauge. Yep that about sums it up.