Safety First

Component optimization is what my job is all about, be it for the present or for the future. It means selecting the components of a truck in order to optimize any given feature of a truck. This could be comfort, safety, fuel efficiency, environmental friendliness, etc. The yellow, DD15 powered Cascadia features pretty much all safety components imaginable. It is not called the "safety truck" for nothing.


Beyond the common safety features such as seat belts, airbag, ABS (anti-lock braking system) and ATC (automatic traction control), I spent the last day getting familiar with all the modern safety components.


First of all let me repeat that the maximum cruise control set speed is 60 mph and the road speed is governed at 65 mph. This is an excellent set up for safety and also fuel efficiency. The Cascadia safety truck is also equipped with Lane Sensing, Smart Cruise, Collision Alert, Automated Manual Transmission, Air Disc Brakes, Blind Spot Alert and Enhanced Stability Control.

As for the last system, Enhanced Stability Control, I cannot comment on it as I decided not to try and bring the truck in a situation where I could find out what the system is capable of. As for all the other systems, I can only say they are absolutely great once you get used to them and figure out how to use them best.

Lane Sensing warns you with a buzzing noise from the left or right side in the Cascadia's cab that you are crossing a lane where you should not. When you are changing lanes with your signal on, it will not buzz at you. For example, on the flat, straight, boring but very fast roads of Nebraska I find this system very helpful. The frequency of the buzzes lets you indirectly know that you are getting a little too tired and should stop for a rest. There is also a switch on the dashboard that lets you disable the Lane Sensing system. This makes sense in cases of traffic in and around cities, and where roadwork is present.

When you are signaling to go to the right, and there happens to be a white line, obstacle or vehicle on your right side that you cannot see, the Blind Spot Alert system will beep at you to let you know of the potential danger you are running into.

Smart Cruise does not only control the road speed but also the distance to the vehicle in front. The distance can be set by the driver between 2.25 and 3.25 seconds in 0.25 second increments. I used the Smart Cruise in combination with the engine brake. Once you get too close to the vehicle in front of you, it will first let go of the throttle. If this is not sufficient to keep the safe, preset distance, it will engage the engine brake for you. If you are still getting to close, the Collision Alert will kick in and let you know by flashing lights and strong beeps that you are running into a potential collision. Brake to slow down the truck or steer to avoid the object in front, and the Collision Alert will return to silence immediately. Smart Cruise in combination with the engine brake, Collision Alert and Blind Spot Alert system are a very comfortable and safe way of cruising down the highways.

Besides making all the shifts for you, and making only perfect shifts for you, the Automated Manual Transmission enables the driver to keep his eyes on the road and his hands on the steering wheel every time, all the time. Here again a feature for relaxed and safe driving. The Air Disc Brake system on the Cascadia is absolutely great. Not only do they reduce the stopping distance substantially, they are also very easy to dose. Pure braking pleasure to the driver.

With all this modern technology, you might easily forget about the old fashioned and not so exciting safety items. Let us note that the Cascadia is yellow and when parked on a truck stop at night in the dark, it was very easy to spot His Yellow Highness, far more easily than my first truck on the trip, the black Cascadia.

There is no safe truck without safe tires so I pay a lot of attention to them. I give them a good look and use a tire pressure gauge every morning as part of the pretrip inspection. At stops during the day, I always do a quick walk around to feel unusual temperature differences between tires with my hand and also to whack them with a tire thumper.

On our last day during the pretrip inspection we noticed that the windshield wiper blade on the driver side did not work properly anymore. We removed it from the truck and hoped to buy a new one in the truck stop store only to find out they did not have that size. We ended up switching the driver and passenger side wiper as a final resolution to the problem. Good thing we did as it was raining for most of that day.

Miguel