Deals on Wheels #469

It started
with a
phone
image of
an old
red truck
Over the hill, in more
ways than one
Sleek-Line sleeper was added in 1990
along with disc wheels in place of the
original spokes.
All up, according to details from Daimler
Trucks Australia, the truck had notched
around 3.6 million kilometres before it was
given a modest makeover and briefly brought
out of retirement for a burst of time travel.
Wisely, perhaps, the veteran arrived from
Melbourne on the back of a drop-deck trailer
hauled by the new Cascadia in the hands
of another veteran of the linehaul league,
Daimler’s Leon Beard. Both trucks were then
coupled to identical trailers purposely loaded
to a gross weight around 34 tonnes, reflecting
the loadings of a long-gone era.
Under the long and skinny snout of the
FLC120 sat a 14-litre Cummins NTC400
engine stirring through a Fuller 10-speed
transmission (manual of course, though the
spec sheet claimed it was a 15-speed) feeding
the engine’s 400hp (298kW) and modest
1,150lb-ft (1,559Nm) of torque into a Rockwell
SSHD tandem running a 4.1:1 final drive ratio
and riding on Freightliner’s remarkably
enduring Airliner rear suspension.
It was, of course, a powertrain typical of
the time, though some sources question
whether it was actually the truck’s original
specification. Whatever, it’s a spec that served
its purpose well, both now and then.
On the other side of the evolutionary
expanse, Cascadia’s only apparent
connection to its forebear is little more than
the badge on the snout. Everything else is
nothing like it once was and comparing the
specs of the two trucks borders on comical.
Indeed, the top-shelf Cascadia 126, with its
stand-up cab, 48-inch (122cm) XT sleeper and
sporting a gross combination mass rating of
110 tonnes, is something very special.
Under the broad drooping snout of the
modern machine resides the 15.6-litre Detroit
Diesel DD16 engine with 600hp (447kW)
and 2,050lb-ft (2,779Nm) of torque pouring
through Daimler’s Detroit-labelled automated
12-speed overdrive transmission.
At the back, Meritor’s popular RT46-160
tandem ran a 3.58:1 diff ratio, riding on the
latest version of Freightliner’s Airliner rear
suspension.
Then, of course, there’s the emissions factor,
which has forged and fast-tracked more
technological development in truck and
engine design than perhaps any other issue
in history. Back in the early ‘80s, for example,
exhaust emissions were little more than a
far-fetched black art, literally, and while some
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