Western Star 5700 or Volvo 860 for a couple? Comfort

@BigHossCummins, your experience sounds pretty similar to mine. What year is your truck?

Seats are subjective. I love my factory Volvo seats. Cascadias I drove before always seemed off. Coming from company trucks I haven't had any better ones to compare.

 

Wow!!! Hey man, thank you for the great detail response. It’s good to hear all that because it lets me know I made the right choice. I am going to have the exact same truck as yours except I am going to have the 3.08 rear end gears. Should I expect even better than your 7.8 mpg’s?

 

2019 VNL760 70inch highrise.

I guess I was being a little harsh, yes the Volvo seats are way better than the T680, Cascadia, Prostar, LT or other Company seats I had. I did have a 2019 LT, with these amazing dark grey cloth heavy duty seats, with a excellent suspension and ride control in my last company truck before going O/O. That being said, I was just disappointed in the seat and suspension system, compared to how well thought out the rest of the truck is.

 

No problem, i'm always happy to share my experience and talk about trucks.

I would say yes, you will rev lower at highway speed, and you prob won't be running these knobby XDN2 drive tires. My 5th wheel height is also a little high for van/reefers at 47 1/2" inches, but I have tall rubber that is above the frame, and also run PACNW/Mountains along with rural LTL; so I really need that extra clearance.

I know some reefer guys down the street from my home terminal, are running trucks similar to mine with LP22.5 fuel economy rubber (M710's I think), 3.25 gears and 46 3/4" 5th wheel height. They claim they're seeing 9 mpg going across the prairies at 65mph.

Again, if I drove mine a little better/slower, I would do better. But I'm having to much fun LOL, also its been really windy here lately, which seems to be the biggest factor. On a couple calm weeks I kept it under 65mph, I was seeing 8.5-9mpg across the prairies and 8.0-8.5 mpg driving all over BC doing lighter load LTL.

I also went up Smasher in BC, in performance mode, at 79 500lbs, doing 45km/hr. I was really happy with that.

 

I too run in the Pacific NW. I am bassed out of Oregon. Wind. I hear ya. Wind is the biggest killer of MPGs. How about that a Columbia George. If we hit it with a headwind, it can suck 50% of our profit right out of the pipes.

What drives do you recommend for running in the PacNW?

 

Do you go into BC Canada at all? or ever go up and over on US 97 between the Dalles and Mt Shasta in the winter? If so then I would recommend Michelin XDN2's like I have. If not, you could get away with Bridgstone M710's, Michelin X Multi Energy D's or even X Line Energy D's.

 

Don’t go into Canada ‘eh. But I do drive that US97 a lot and the I-5 corridor through the Siskiyou Mts. As well as UT, CO, WY. Don’t think I’ll be dropping $4k though for tires until these new M710 wear down. Should I go cables or chains?

 

Those M710's are pretty good, I didn't mind them outside of BC on company trucks. You should be fine with those, but look into the Multi Energy D's next time just for comparison. I used to like V Bar Single Chains, non-cam lock. Now I run those Auto Socks, even on the smasher in BC. Just keep the speed down, and they work great! have never used cables, seen them, didn't seem to work that great.

 

I know I'm reviving a bit older thread, but I'm surprised to hear that you've seen so many issues with the newer Detroit motors. The company I lease at has a TON of cascadias (I lease a Pete) and nearly all of the drivers I talk to that drive Shakers really like their DD15s. From what I hear, they're a solid motor that gets some killer fuel mileage.

 

They're ok, but they can't handle the cold up here in Canada. Also the SCR issues are non-stop, and most of the dealers can't fix them, so its a chronic problem. I was looking at a new Cascadia DD15/DT12, a Pete 579 Mx13/Paccar AMT combo and a 760 Volvo D13/iShift. Ended up with the Volvo, cause the Pete was 40K more and the Shakers were lined up at the shop 10 deep (among other reasons).