Freightliner makes cross-country natural gas haul

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[kaltura-widget wid=”8qdzcqo5ag” width=”320″ height=”292″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” align=”right” /]A Cascadia tractor with a 30,000 pound trailer full of waste paper will set out from Long Beach, Calif., bound for a recycling facility in Washington, DC. It’s a long way to haul a load of waste paper. But it’s just a side project.

The tractor in question is a CNG-powered Cascadia 113 with a Cummins ISX12G natural gas engine under the hood. The truck will run across the country, making stops at Freightliner dealerships en route to showcase the truck and give interested customers the chance to sit behind the wheel, go for a drive and see for themselves how viable a fuel compressed natural gas is for heavy-duty truck applications.

The tour is the brainchild of Gregory Treinen, product marketing manager for Freightliner, who says a major goal is to demonstrate just how far the CNG infrastructure has come in the U.S. over the past couple of years. “We’re making this trip using only public refueling facilities,” Treinen explains. “There is a lot of talk out there today about how the LNG infrastructure is lagging as natural gas comes on line as a trucking fuel. And people tend to overlook the fact that the CNG infrastructure has already made great strides to the point that we can easily take this Cascadia coast-to-coast with no fear of being unable to find fueling options.”

A new website, freightlinergreen.com, will allow people to track the drive in real time across the country, get updates and blog entries from the drivers as well as a trip cost calculator, which will track the cost of the trip comparing real-world CNG prices versus real-world diesel prices, as well as a full listing of all dealership stops on the route.

The Freightliner LA to DC CNG tour will culminate in the nation’s capital on March 24th.

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