You don’t see medium duty trucks like this every day, but expediting is a sector all to itself. They’re highway trucks for sure, and their operators need living space, but they’re usually built on Class 6 and 7 chassis.

Making the leap from a city P&D truck to a premium long-haul freight hauler demands more than a little design flexibility. The engineers who put Sterling’s Acterra together were certainly thinking long term.

Acterra can be spec’d with a GVWR anywhere from 18,000 lb to 64,000 lb for supreme flexibility while maintaining a high degree of component uniformity to ease maintenance costs. It’s a do-it-all truck that can be made to fit almost any application.

Acterra uses the same cab as its bigger A-Line brother, but what goes on beneath, behind, and in front of the cab is what separates the two. Engine options include offerings from Cat (C7-C15), Cummins (ISC), and Detroit Diesel (Series 60, MBE 900, and MBE 4000). You can get automatic transmissions from Allison, automated boxes from Eaton and Meritor, and manuals from Eaton and Mercedes. Single or tandem drive axles are available from Freightliner or Hendrickson in ratings up to 46,000 lb. Acterra covers the gamut.

This Acterra caught my eye while wandering around the Mid-America Trucking Show earlier this year. A collection of expedite trucks were hidden away in the recruiting section of the show, and I couldn’t help notice what has to be the mother of all expedite ships at a booth belonging to Freightliner of Knoxville, Tenn.

There were two trucks on display: their flagship model, the 8500 Command Cruiser — built on a Sterling L-8513 chassis, and the Acterra — named the 960 Express Cruiser. Since both trucks had to be ferried back to Knoxville from Louisville, I asked, and the Sterling people agreed to let me drive one. As it worked out, I ran about half way in each truck to get a sampling of the differences.

From the firewall back, there wasn’t much difference between the larger L-8513 and the Acterra. The cab floor on the L-8513 was about eight inches higher than the Acterra (51-in off the road vs. 43.5-in). The Acterra’s BBC-measurement was shorter (106-in vs. 113-in), allowing for the installation of a larger sleeper while keeping within the overall length restrictions in the U.S. Both could accommodate a 22-ft cargo box.

The slope-nosed Acterra boasts terrific visibility to the front, and I wouldn’t say visibility suffered anywhere else, even with the low-riding cab. Both models feature a 50-degree wheel-cut so maneuverability really wasn’t an issue — even with the long wheelbase.

The cab itself is roomy, too. At 81 inches wide, there was 16.5 inches between the armrests of both seats. There’s no doghouse to speak of, and with the Allison shifter buttons integrated into the dash, there’s nothing between you and that great big sleeper except time. The roof cutout leaves plenty of headroom for climbing into or out of the seats — in fact, you’d have to be a gymnast to bump your noggin in this truck.

Access to Information: The Allison shift controls are
built into the dash, along with suitable gauge array

John Mosier, the expedite expert at Freightliner of Knoxville, told me the Sterling cab structure warranty is not voided due to the cab cutout necessary to accommodate a stand-up sleeper. “We worked with Sterling engineers to get approval for the cutout we use for the Express Cruiser sleeper,” Mosier claims.

Freightliner of Knoxville is a leading supplier of expedite trucks in the U.S., and the specs they work with are, one presumes, tried and true.

The powertrain felt pretty capable, though we were light. We cruised along at 65 mph turning a comfortable (for this engine) 1,700 rpm. Peak torque on the MBE 900 is 1,400, so you want a couple of hundred revs between you and the shifter.

The long wheelbase made for a pretty smooth ride, and the Airliner suspension took care of the rest. I have to say, it was near the smoothest ride I’ve had in something bigger than a half-ton.

We left the Louisville Fairgrounds an hour or so after the show closed on Saturday evening, so most of the drive happened in the dark. Still, I had no trouble finding my way around the cab and the controls. The dash has been accused of having an automotive look and feel to it, but that’s okay with me. It’s certainly big enough to keep everything separated, but still close enough for operator comfort and convenience. There was room on the dash panel for more gauges and switches than we had, but you wouldn’t need much more.

The wheel was easy to adjust, and after getting it just right, I pressed the “D” button, released the parking brakes and was on my way, wheeling through the parked cars and trucks, abandoned trailers and storage crates at the back of the building. Good visibility from the cab, I assure you, and the tight turning radius made it a snap getting the 312-in. wheelbase expediter around the obstacles.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the thing got up to speed on the highway. Climbing the on-ramp and merging, the Allison was shifting happily away leaving me to concentrate on traffic — all the while accelerating. While I still have a hard time with a truck with no clutch, I could get used to the pick-up of the MBE 900/Allison HS 3000 combination pretty quickly.

We were lightly loaded — just the tradeshow booth and related materials — so this trip would hardly qualify as a work out for the MBE 900, but the Allison transmission proved pretty capable. Depending on the conditions, the operator can drop a gear, or hold it in a given gear with the push of a button.

Climbing the Jellico hill at the Kentucky/Tennessee state line illustrated how this bit of extra control really comes in handy. On several occasions pulling the hill, I found myself on the cusp of a gear change. Depending on how aggressive I was with the throttle pedal, it would shift, or not. Or, I could keep it in gear at higher rpm by pressing a button, telling it not to shift.

The MBE 900 engine has a 200-rpm over-rev capacity when mated to this transmission for added ­flexibility, and with the push of a button, the transmission can be programmed for performance or economy shift triggers.

I found the engine pretty quiet, and overall, the cab was pretty quiet too. I had no trouble maintaining a conversation with the truck’s real driver, Wilburn Cates, riding shotgun over in the passenger seat.

With all the spec’ing options available with the Acterra, you could buy a dozen of them and have them all set up differently. Cab amenities, powertrain, suspension, etc., this isn’t a truck you settle for, it’s one you can customize to suit the need — and expedite is just one of them.