Freightliner Cascadia with DD15 or DD13

You only NEED one with 350 hp, you may WANT one with 600 hp.
Although I’ve wondered if the DD13 at 505 hp might be nice, lighter weight.
The price of the engines varies by horsepower as it has an effect on The longevity of the engine for warranty purposes. So what ever you can afford.
Higher horsepower helps if you are on tight time constraints.
I have hauled 140,000 lbs with 450 hp through the mountains and that is something I wouldn’t want to do again. It took a long time to get up those hills, but on flat land it was fine, as long as the wind wasn’t blowing too hard.
It is all a compromise and a personal choice.

 

If it was me buying my first truck, I'd buy whatever I could pay most, if not all, cash, and still have 25k in the bank the day I run my first load. I'd buy something I could do most of the work on myself, such as a Series 60, N14, or a 3406E, with all the service records.

But to answer your question, I'd take the DD13 for what you're doing.

 

New to the forum here but figured I'd throw out my 2 cents. I tend to think more along the lines of just because you have the extra power doesn't always mean you have to use it. I'd go for the dd15 of the two just for the simple fact that just because the type of work you are doing now may not require the addition power, that doesn't mean that someday you won't wish you had it. Try to spec a truck to be as versatile as possible without shooting yourself in the foot. Sure either one will work out for you but thats just my opinion.... happy truckin'

 

I would go with the DD13 since now it can be had at 1850 torque. You don't even need that for those weights. The engine brake may not feel as powerful as the 15 litre engine, but you will get better fuel mileage and the smaller motor will be better for the DPF and regens. And cheaper 7 year driveline warranty.
We had ordered another Star with a DD13 505/1850 and I gross 140,000 pounds and have up to 12% hills.

 

I'm driving a company truck with DD13 it pulls good but like other said you can get the DD13 and the DD15 with same torque. The build life of the engine is not the same from what I read a while ago. The DD15 is designed or expected to go 1,000,000 miles and I think I read the DD13 was 750,000 miles.

My company truck is spec for light weight so the DD13 makes sense for them because they ttrade the trucks in at 400,000 miles. If I was pulling lots of mountain I would want the bigger block DD15 or DD16 if you really want power.

Running Midwest the DD13 goes good. I can out pull some trucks in West Virginia still

Our trucks have the Optimized Idle System and not APU. The computers start the engine for heat or a/c or battery charging or engine oil temperature. I guess the DD13 uses a little less fuel while idling. The truck computers also do automatic Parked Regen when using Optimized Idle.

 

Thanks for the info on the optimized idle Brandt. That's good to know if we ever get another sleeper truck as we don't have to stay in them often enough to justify an APU. I wondered how they would handle it with the regens.