It's a Team's Life
Taking our motor home
We spent several years researching before we decided the Cascadia and the DD 13 were the right combination for us. Our research started in 2008 by looking at trucks and deciding on what we wanted out of a truck and motor. We had been hearing about the Cascadia as well as the new Detroit Diesel motors and we were interested.
In 2009 during the truck show at Louisville we had the pleasure and great luck of meeting Miguel Soetaert who was working in a booth talking about diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). Miguel was a wealth of knowledge and through him we met other people involved with creating the Detroit Diesel motors. We were able to tour the Detroit Diesel plant in 2009 and met Pam Esshaki who gave us a very informative tour of the plant. Through her we gained an in-depth knowledge of the DD motors and the research behind the DD motors as well as DEF. We had ideas of what motor we thought we wanted but after talking with Miguel and Pam we figured out we did not need the DD 15 as the DD 13 would work best in our application. We knew when we left the plant what truck we were going to buy and what motor we wanted, now it was a matter of time till the short hood of the Cascadia would become available with the DD13.
It took a couple of years before we purchased our 2012 Cascadia with a 370hp DD13 motor. We have 60,000 miles on the truck and we still smile when the DD13 starts and the motor hums away. The research and due diligence we did have paid off for us in many ways, through our fuel mileage and the comfort of the ride.
While at the plant we had several people pouring over our trucks engine reports and admiring the sleeper. The ECM is a fact sheet on how the motor has perfeormed and they were all thrilled to see the lifetime average fuel mileage for the engine at 11.68 and still climbing. They also were very interested in the DD13’s history of only doing a regen every 10,000 miles and getting almost 600 MPG on the diesel exhaust fluid. Needless to say our DEF costs are very very low.
We had fun taking our truck to the factory and talking with the people who are instrumental in getting this engine out to the public. They were excited to hear our thoughts and comments on how well we like this truck as well as this motor. We had a great day and plan on another time stopping by the plant once again for a tour and giving them updates on our motors performance.
Bob wrote an article about our tour in 2009 of the Detroit Diesel factory:
Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical 

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters 6 years been out here on the road 11 years
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.