Another Mid-America Trucking Show is in the books, yet it keeps on delivering in so many ways. Relationships solidified and just getting started there in Louisville, Kentucky, stand to endure long past the return of the expo center grounds to idle, the long fade-to-black of memorable moments.
Speaking of the last, we've at least got some video and photographic evidence to help solidify the memory of the third Trucker of the Year I've had the pleasure of presenting quite a special "trophy," as it were, to commemorate the big win -- a scale model of the owner's tractor built by the ever-capable Eston Hoffman.
In the video up top, featuring Overnight Drive host Steve Sommers' full talk with myself and Trucker of the Year John Penn, you can sit in on that moment, too.
Always a bit of joy in it, no doubt.
The real thing -- Penn's 2019 Freightliner Cascadia -- helps deliver quite a leg up on the competition in the current moment of skyrocketing diesel prices. Penn's wrung 10 mpg-plus out of the unit. As he detailed in the talk, a lot depends on speed, weight, and diligent driving habits.
Equipment, too, of course -- the truck's specs are ideal for high fuel economy. He's made the mods to add to it with wide singles for the drives, hub covers and other aero equipment. He's recently aero'd out his second van trailer -- always staging one at his principal outbound customer for load while he's out on multistop runs west and south.
Penn's attention to detail follows in the footsteps of his fellow Overdrive Truckers of the Year with routine oil analysis with an eye toward extending drains, saving plenty on oil. Remember Mississippi-headquartered Jay Hosty? Hosty took his Detroit-powered 2005 Western Star routinely up to 100,000 miles combined with oil analysis and filter changes every 20,000 miles.
As Hosty noted at the time he told me that story, he stopped there -- 100,000 miles -- not because the analysis report told him the standard old mineral-oil Mobil Delvac 15W40 needed changing. No, he said, "but I would just do it there," telling himself "'that's enough.' I felt like I achieved quite a bit to get 100,000 miles on the same oil."
[Related: They said he'd fail, but he proved them wrong: Jay Hosty is Overdrive's Trucker of the Year]
John Penn's doing one better today, now past the 100K-mile threshold for his own full drain interval, though with a bit of different strategy. Recommended miles-to-change intervals are much longer in his Detroit DD15-powered Cascadia -- a 75K recommended drain at his fuel mileage.
With analysis conducted every 25,000 miles, he noted that what deteriorated with respect to the oil's condition was principally the base number measure of alkaline additives meant to neturalize potentially harmful acid buildup in the lubricant. When he hit the most-recent 75K change interval, rather than drain entirely he discarded three gallons, changed filters, and added a fresh three to combat base-number deterioration.
As he told me early in the year, "I think what I'm going to do now is every 25,000 miles drain one gallon out," add fresh, "and see how far I can go."
Otherwise, "you're just dumping out good oil" in his view, he said in January, adding that "it's just a test."
So far, it's working.
A copy of his most recent Pittsburgh Power OPS oil analysis report just this week showed a "moderately low" base measure, recommending continued monitoring of oil condition, not draining. Penn this week is upward of 106K miles without a full drain.
"I didn't always sample," he said.
But doing that one extra thing stands to yield dividends moving ahead.
Run through Penn's history in business, in trucking writ large, in the video, and if you missed our other talks with the truly exceptional owner in Overdrive Radio, you can hear two of those below, too.
Big thanks to Sommers and the Overnight Drive team for hosting us there at the booth of Hot Shot's Secret, and to the Bostrom Seating team for their support of the Trucker of the Year award.
Big thanks to you, too, John, for lending the benefit of your experience to all of us.
