At the Great American Trucking Show earlier this fall, Kenworth Truck Co. displayed for the first time a Paccar heavy-duty engine in an on-highway T800
At the Great American Trucking Show earlier this fall, Kenworth Truck Co. displayed for the first time a Paccar heavy-duty engine in an on-highway T800 model. The truck is part of a fleet of vehicles with Paccar engines undergoing extensive testing. The 12.9-liter and a 9.2-liter companion heavy-duty model will be offered in ratings suited to concrete mixer and dump trucks.
Kenworth is testing the heavy-duty engines in a wide variety of applications, terrains and climate conditions. The program includes test cell work, trials on the Paccar Technical Center track in Mount Vernon, Wash., and road tests, said Mike Dozier, Kenworth chief engineer. These tests are serving to validate designs and manufacturing processes and will ensure that these heavy-duty engines will be ready for eventual introduction into Kenworth Class 8 trucks.
Paccar is leveraging the 50-plus years of engine manufacturing experience of European division, DAF, toward supplying engines for Kenworth Class 8 trucks in North America. The manufacturer held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new engine plant in Columbus, Miss., in July. The $400 million facility will include a 420,000-sq.-ft. engine plant and technology center on a 400-acre site. Construction is due to be completed in 2009.
Some of the new engines will be installed at the Kenworth plant in Chillicothe, Ohio, which recently completed a 105,000-sq.-ft. expansion, boosting overall capacity by 20 percent. Û www.kenworth.com