COVER STORY
Cascadia quickly earns street cred as an aerodynamic leader on nation’s highways
Freightliner’s Cascadia is such a familiar truck on the road it’s hard to remember what a startling sight it was when introduced in the summer of 2007. The huge grille opening, the sculpted doors, the visorless windshield, the pedestal-mounted mirrors, the stubby side extenders — all of it was new. And all of it was the result of extensive wind tunnel tuning of a finely wrought design.
Ever since the introduction of Kenworth’s T600 more than 25 years ago, truck manufacturers have been refining the aerodynamics of the conventional tractor. After all, a wind-cheating design has become critically important in truck design, since at speeds more than 50 mph, the effort in pushing the wind aside is the major contributor to fuel use.
