I am curious. (Companies running cabovers)

I've driven every modern truck except Mack and none of them got less than 7mpg hauling general freight or flatbed one was a Columbia with c13 acert other was an isx15 current is a Volvo with d13 and I average 7.7 MPG and drive it like I stole it. I'm not sure where you are getting your figures.

 

@Gearjammer79 I see Freightliner is gonna becoming out with a new cab over seen it in one of my catalogs at home looks pretty nice too but old school will always be the best those were the days

 

I usually do not get hung up on mileage aside than the fact that old iron got whatever you got out of them an the modern 150K tractors not much more than that 40 years later. I did learn it was very important to have adequate fuel tanks after one year with a truck equipped with a single 140 gallon that sometimes needed fueling twice a day and probably again sometime in the night. I changed companies to get rid of it when it was apparent that despite a sea of newer tractors with two fuel tanks, the company showed no interest in reassigning me. Since the fueling had to match the logging, it was a liability.

2001 century 500+ detroit that had the rockwell auto turned in about 6.5 average. It achieved records in some areas of the USA particularly favorable to fuel mileage between 10 to 20 mpg once in a while. It was a team truck that never was shut off except where necessary. We usually planned on fueling at 1600 miles which is about every 24 to 30 hours.

There was a mid 90's FLD I had which was a good truck, it also had a big detroit but a manual trans and that one was capable of 5.8 or so loaded if you were very careful with the hammer to get as far as possible on 320 gallons of fuel. 1650 or so was about as far as I would take it before fueling again. It was governed at 72 and always had the horses on hand to take on whatever we encountered. 5.4 or so was more like what it likes in terms of working hard drinking fuel. It also was not shut off very often and on the comic books the mileage each month at times approached two oil changes.

Some other trucks the fuel mileage did not enter into our thinking. It would be using a stick stuck into the tank to confirm what the gauge was saying and guesstimate if you had enough to make a delivery somewhere. Sometimes you ran out on the way home. But the as long the delivery was completed who cared.

 

It was an interesting experience driving a cab over. Even though it was interesting to drive I really didn't like it.

I thought it was dangerous with only a few inches between myself and whatever could hit me. The one that I drove you had to climb over everything to get into the sleeper. The shifter worked properly but it had a weird different feel to it with all the linkages to run to the transmission. It wasn't nearly as comfortable or roomy as a conventional.

And I absolutely hated climbing in and out of it.

 

Yes i prefer cabovers and started in them 1990 and sold my 1995 Peterbilt 362 cabover in 2015, miss it when i still see some on the road atleast 2-3xs a week