It's a Team's Life

Dinner with Miguel

 

We knew at the time we met Miguel our next truck, a Freightliner Cascadia would be Blue Tec equipped.   Miguel was not swamped with drivers asking questions, so Bob and I were able to get a great education.   Through our conversation with Miguel we found out he was an engineer from Belgium and has lived all over the world.   He has a great accent but is very easy to understand.   Miguel speaks five languages fluently and has lived some really awesome places.   He has a great undertanding of the United States and the opportunities we have.    It seemed as if the more we talked with Miguel the more we wanted to talk to him to gain a smidgen of his knowledge.   Miguel is one of the few we have met at truck shows working booths who actually seems to want to know truck drivers and spend time with us.

Through our continuing friendship with Miguel we have increased our knowledge by leaps and bounds.   When we first met Miguel his position at Detroit Diesel was as an Component Optimization Specialist. In lay terms that means putting the right parts together to make a truck the best it can be for the job the truck is being spec’d for.   Miguel is more educated than we will ever be and has tons more experience than we have, but he is able to easily convey what he is speaking about.

We had dinner with Miguel the other night and the conversation was one we will not forget soon.   Bob has been working steadily on getting our spec’s right for our next truck.   He asked Miguel how to figure gear ratio’s for a given speed, certain tire and a ten speed auto shift Eaton Fuller transmission.   None of us brought paper so napkins became the next best thing.   Miguel called a friend to verify the calculations to figure the optimal gear ratio for our operation.   Bob and Miguel ran through several scenarios to get the engine RPM’s in the trucks sweet spot at 60mph in 9th gear which is direct drive for this transmission.   This will help us with our fuel mileage.   In tenth gear the truck will run much faster than we will ever drive it.

We all spent a lot of time discussing how our fuel is used after we fill our tanks.   For more info on that really deep subject look at this blog: 

Where does all your fuel go?

We also discussed how the sweet spot is determined; torque versus grams of fuel per kilowatt hour. This diagram looks like a bee hive.

Miguel is a great friend to have; he is very intelligent, well versed on many subjects, ornery, and just fun to be around.

Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters 5 years been out here on the road ten years
[email protected]

 

Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;
Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;
Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;
Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.