Let's Talk Trucks

My first truck was a daycab!

1956 military surplus B Model Mack. 11.0 L D16, Mack 10 speed Duplex. I pulled log trailers to and from the landing for the road truck drivers to run them to the Westvaco Mill in Covington, VA.

First OTR Truck: Trainer's 2011 IH Pro Star with the Max Force Motor (worst large diesel engine concept ever.

First Company Truck: 2013 FL Cascadia.

Current Truck: 2019 KW T680.

Nicest Truck: 2019 International. It rode nice and was very quiet.

Favorite Truck: My 2007 FL Coranado Twin Turbo 620 HP, 13 speed.

Complaint: Electrical Gremlins on most trucks, causing erroneous fault codes or warnings. This is a tie with DPF/DEF system problems on all makes and models. A government solution to a fake problem dreamt up through Fake Science.

First: 2020 KW T680. current: 22 KW T680 next gen. I love it even more than the first one. Both have the Cummins X15, paccar 12 speed automated. Hate the shift points, but that's company programming. Trained and drove in a 2019 Cascadia. Had a volvo 790 and an International for about a month each. Hated them both.

Favorite is my current, the 22 T680. Just works for me.

First heavy truck I drove was a 63 international 1600 with a gasoline 345 and eaton 10 speed. Manual everything. Also drove a 69 Ford cabover 26' flatbed with a 5x2 speed rear end, Also manual everything.

First was a 2015? Volvo auto sleeper

Current is a 23 Cascadia Auto daycab

I prefer Freightliners to the Kenworths and Volvos I have driven so far.

PSD truck was a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia.

TNT truck was a 2021 Pete (not sure all the names involved lol)

My truck 2019 Freightliner Cascadia.

I HATE the fact that the steering wheel is not centered with the driver's seat. Electrical gremlins making the safety system think I'm going to smack into a Highway Sign 20 feet in the air.

The Pete? I liked the ride, didn't like most of the storage options, but liked that the upper open cabinet worked well for my CPAP. I HATE that I never got the hang of backing it up. 🤣🙄

First Truck(s) were both, 2019 Cascadias, 3rd and last was a brand new 2022 Cascadia. Liked the 2019's more, because they both had air 5th wheel disconnects lol The new 2022 I had to pull it myself, and it had air bags deflation, the 19's didn't have hahaha But they ALL 3 had 5th wheel air gauges which was cool Plus I liked the cab cabinet set-up in the '22

Started training in a 2019 FL Cascadia. Completed training (90% of it) in a 2020 Volvo VNL 860.

First truck once solo was a 2019 Volvo VNL 860. Second truck was a 2020 Volvo VNL 860. Current truck (second assigned truck is in the shop due to diesel leaking into parts of the engine to mix with the oil) 2018 Volvo VNL 860.

I will always request a Volvo truck. For me, it's because of available storage space. I haven't spent time in KWs, Petes, nor Internationals, so I would consider one of those assigned for the sake of being able to compare.

My dream truck to drive, if a company let me choose any truck brand and model, would be a Western Star 57X.

Good thread.

First truck: 2015(?) Freightliner Cascadia auto. Good trucks, just plagued with emissions issues back then. Some of the easiest and most natural trucks to drive IMO.

Favorite truck and current truck: 2019 Western Star 4900, 13 speed manual with 500-horse DD15 Detroit. I love the classic look and feel, the leather seats and interior, the pulling power, the reliability, the sound, the 13 speed, and how wide the sleeper is. Also this truck has made me a fan of the newer DD15 engines. The 2015 Freightliner I had also had a DD15 but they used to have a lot more emissions issues. My current truck has had zero issues despite idling and running the PTO at relatively low RPMs very often.

Irritating thing about favorite truck: it’s a rough ride. You’d think it wouldn’t be with a slightly longer wheelbase but it just doesn’t compare to the T680s I used to drive at my last company.

Dream truck: i lust after Pete 379s (and 389s) and KW W9s. Sorry they’re just so beautiful and I’ve heard they drive as good as they look.

Honorable mention: 2020 Kenworth T680 with Cummins X15. Not gonna lie if I could’ve had a manual and if the truck would’ve gone just a little faster it might’ve been my favorite truck. They just drive SO WELL, and besides all the electrical gremlins and the relative unreliability of the newer Cummins, they were great trucks. Pulled hard, smooth ride, excellent interior and very comfortable, and good looking trucks.

Second honorable mention (yes I’m a rule breaker 😆): 2019 Peterbilt 567 with automatic 18 speed trans and Cummins X15. I have to mention this truck because it was an absolute beast. Pulled strong, comfortable, heated up quickly, aired up super fast, looked and sounded badass. And being paired with an 18 speed transmission it could always select the perfect gear. The interior setup was extremely similar to a T680 (same gauge cluster and everything but just arranged slightly differently) so it was an easy transition from the Kenworth I had been driving previously. My biggest gripe was, for some reason the tranny shifted PAINFULLY slowly—even fully empty you couldn’t pull into traffic quickly.

Least favorite truck: 2019(?) International Prostar manual 10 speed with Cummins. YUCK 🤢. I disliked almost everything about this truck. Ugly, shaky, rattly, felt incredibly cheap, super weird power band (even with a Cummins ISX they just wouldn’t GO when you hit the pedal), and just unreliable overall.

I just got my first truck a 22 Freightliner Cascadia and am on my own.. sorta long story but this is my first and current truck my favorite is probably the 579 or next gen T680 hoping to get into one after getting experience