‘20 Cascadia, 260k miles…what to expect in the next few years

ha!


anything wire or hose touching anything else that can move even a little bit will ultimately rub a hole in itself and ultimately bleed/short out, u lucky if it happens somewhere you can even see or get to

look under the cab from back to front and see any snakes even barely touching or resting on something else, there's gonna be a hole there if it doesn't get tied down or armored

anything electrical with teal green fur on it is contagious and will spread, cause voltage drop across it, excess heat, make more green stuff, ultimately interrupt the connection. green means moisture, clean off the green and gob on the dielectric grease to never have to think about it again. above the battery box, in the battery box, under the hood up against the cab, in the glove box, under the glove box, if it's gobbed with dielectric grease it can't ever get wet, if the green gets into the cables before you seal it up the green will just munch down into the cable

any thing you might want to take off later and don't want to break, take it off now and gob on antiseize, otherwise it will only come off later in a puddle or in pieces

 

The big stuff you'll find out about soon enough. The little stuff, the stuff that won't cost you much in money but will kill you in downtime is what to look for every day.
Nothing is more expensive than downtime. To miss out on a couple of days work for a five dollar hose fitting or a piece of wire will teach you real fast. Be looking at your truck and trailer constantly, fix the little stuff now, and plan on a few all night maintenance marathons to keep it going.

 

Wish I new this two years ago.!!

 

Freightliner dealer

 

this one I got lucky cause 1. you can see it, and 2. just lost hill start assist and ABS, +check trans light and red traction triangle.



any copper + any moisture that doesn't get sealed/covered/coated with dielectric grease will at some point just turn into dust and let go. anything intermittent that seems to have a mind of its own is an electrical connection on its last leg.

electrical deterioration and air leaks are #1 and #2 gremlins, air leaks you just spray soapy water on stuff and look for bubbles. isolating electrical problems that aren't blatantly obvious (intermittent, buried) you have to become a gd doctor to learn the whole system to be able to isolate what-is-doing-what under what-specific-conditions and when, otherwise you just throw $$$$$$ at it replacing stuff.

por ejemplo...the bunk light switch cluster in my Cascadia is powered by and ran through the hazard light cluster on the dash, hazard light cluster connected to god knows what inside the leaky-windshield server cabinet that is behind the dash board. (just look up behind the pedals). the AC vent in the bunk is right above the bunk light switch cluster. condensation from the AC corroded and shorted out one of the bunk light switches, which ran through the hazard light switch cluster on the dash and shorted out the engine brake and turned the dashboard into a non functional Christmas light show. the only reason I found that is because of this video



all electrical faults can be mitigated from the start with proper install of wire routing, wire armor, and connections completely sealed with dielectric grease. if it's coated in grease no moisture can get to it, wires and connections will last decades and not skip a beat, until one little molecule of water gets in and rust jacks the copper open with green stuff, it opens up a wound for more, even humidity, and then it's just a time bomb waiting for you on some freezing az bfe road on a friday


i this stuff

 

Only had time for a quick TY when I read your post. But having a few moments now, I wanted to thank you for taking the time.
I’m not inherently mechanically inclined, but I’m good at basic maintenance, I’m not a klutz, and I can learn. The info you provided will be added to my permanent file to be referred to as needed.
Again, abundant and generous thanks for taking the time!

 

Keep up with greasing, oil changes, fuel filter, air filter, crank case filter. Also watch your idle. Also look into fuel additives that will help with dpf from getting clogged

 

I’d get the transmission and rear end oil changed no matter what the manufacturers interval is ……

 

these are tripac fuel lines running along the skirt supports, slowly grinding away. i like to use heater hose and hose clamps for armor, the bottom pic is where a hydraulic line chewed a hole in itself against the exhaust hangar and had the PTO bleeding out everywhere. big rub spots aren't the worst tho, same thing happens with all the tiny 12v wires buried away behind the dash and under the hood, one little baby wire is all it takes to stop the whole thing dead in it's tracks if baby wire isn't protected and allowed to deteriorate, problem is u can't even see into most of it. if I ever get a new truck I'm gonna spend a month prepping the thing to be gd seaworthy, around 600k miles every day is just juggling gremlins and whack-a-mole