2014 T680

You have NO IDEA how happy I was to see the new spot for the 7th injector the first time I saw it. I was quite literally jumping for joy. The back pressure valve is going to be a little more of a #####, but I'd happily take that trade. We remove a hell of a lot more dosers than BPV's.

 

Servicing the dosing injectors isn't much of a problem for me... I actually do those quicker than I do the older style Cummins injectors (where they're on the back side of the pipe). But changing that pipe out is a different matter.
But my current gripe with Kenworth isn't dosing injectors... it's their bumper brackets for the T700 and how they're placed.

 

Thankfully the T700 is about to be killed off. KW has six leftover bodies for it and they want to sell those trucks and shut down the T7 line for good. My Regional salesman just sold two at a huge discount, which means four cheap new KW's are up for the taking.

And I actually never had a problem with the older Cummins dosers. Everyone on the shop raises a stink about them but I never have any problems with them being on the back. Just unbolt it and take off the lines. I don't even take off the heat shield.

 

The Cummins dosers haven't been a problem for me, either... I just somehow manage to service the PACCAR ones faster than the older Cummins dosers.
Fortunately, we seem to be going to the T680, and the T700s are a bit few and far between here, anyhow.... the T660 had been their mainstay, but they tried out a few T700s, Volvos, Intertrashionals... they also just added about 100 Freightliners.
The one thing I do like about the T700 (and it wouldn't pain me to do without it) is the familiarity of the interior layout, since I run a '99 T2000 on the side. Although it doesn't really matter, since I don't drive this company's trucks anywhere, save for the occasional run to/from a dealership.

 

Do you take off any hardware around the BPV by chance for the Paccars? Another tech at my shop does and he claims it saves time and a lot of hassle.

I just had to work on a T700 today, and though about what you said about the bumper. I hit the #### thing twice with my knee tonight. It wasn't pleasant.

TBH I never really like the T2000's interior, which automatically means I don't like the T700's. I actually disliked everything about the T2000 (no offense). That being said, the T680/T880 interiors are my favorite in any truck produced today. If you could get that in a W900L in my mind it would be the best truck ever made. But alas, the W9 will be saying farewell soon. The best I think we'd ever see as a replacement would probably be an axle-forward version of the T880. That would be a bad ##### in heavy-haul guise.

 

I've only done one, and that was around the time I first started working for this company.
It's pretty obvious that I'm not the first one to complain about the T700 bumper brackets... looking at the T680, you notice that each side is held in with two bolts, rather than four, and that none of the bolts are directly underneath the radiator, at that.
No offense taken re: the T2000. Like I said before, it's familiar to me, since that's what all of my driving is done in anymore. I don't give a crap to work on the T700 anymore for it... I guess there's a slight additional level of comfort I find in bringing one in given the familiarity. The only thing missing from these T700s is the SmartWheel (a sound enough concept, although I have a couple issues with the layout of it) in the '99 I drive.
The T905 and T800 were always my favorite KW products.. the former isn't available in the US, and the latter is, IMO, among the most dynamic of platforms made by any manufacturer... line haul, heavy haul, brush trucks, vocational truck... the 800 does it all, high parts commonality with other KW products, no stupid fairings that anyone who isn't pencil thin can't get under without putting the truck on jack stands (I worked on heavy equipment and vocational trucks prior to this job, so I bought a Mac "Z" creeper which sits a bit high, meaning when I'm greasing ANY of our KWs other than the T800s, that small crossmember at the bottom of the frame rails is just low enough to keep me from getting under it without me having to get out from under there then go back in past the wheel-to-wheel fairing).
I intend to go back to being an equipment mechanic... it's just that my last job, I was more or less pigeonholed on hydraulic systems, and I'm trying to be more of a generalist than a specialist.. plus I need the truck experience. Someone owns a couple graders, front end loaders, dozers, whatever, well, what supports those, you know? As a driver, I was mostly in the construction industry, and that's where I want to end up as a tech.

 

I actually went to school for Construction equipment, and I still really want to work on them. When I got the offer from my company, I just couldn't refuse. I moved out to a different city to work here, and they gave me moving assistance. Not many companies do that these days, and to me it was an excellent sign of the level of care they take of the employees. The company is the REAL reason why I'm working on trucks. I still don't know if I like working on trucks, at least as much as I would enjoy working on equipment, but there are some upsides that would keep me working on them for good if I decide to stay with them. One is that trucks are always running, no matter what the economy is like. The same cannot be said for construction equipment. Two, the company I work for has never laid off an employee, ever. Which means as long as I keep my #### straight, I'll always have a job with them. Three, right now I'm being fast-tracked into schooling for engine certifications. This is a huge up-side for me. I want as many certifications as possible, and the quicker I can obtain them the more valuable I become. It's the one thing that employers look for on top of a degree (at least where I'm from).

Like I said, I would love to work on construction equipment. It's just that trucks have one big advantage to them that I can't ignore: better job security. And to think, I almost didn't want to get a second degree for it.

 

I just took a general DPM course.
The thing about construction equipment for a major outfit is, once that equipment is taken out of service for the season, then Winter maintenance begins, so the mechanics are still working when the asphalt crews, dirt crews, etc. are on wage-attached unemployment. After a paver's been run for a year, rest assured, there is a whole ######## of work which needs to be done to it, and we're not talking about things you can get done over the course of a couple hours nightly in the field after the paving crew goes home.
So, unless you were working for a real small-time outfit, I wouldn't worry about the seasonality of it too much.
If I were still single, I'd probably be either in Williston or the gold mine in Victor right now. But, we've been together four years now, I take it pretty seriously, and there's no way she'd go for it, so I'm in the trucking industry. I like where I work at, I like the people I work with, so I don't really have any complaints about it, although dealing with freight haulers with a company who hires drivers with experience ranging from zero on up does present its share of annoyances, but it also makes me appreciative of being able to just get it done when I find something wrong, rather than having to call a truck owner for every little thing.

 

How about a 2014 Kenworth T680 Adaptive Cruise Control fault? Sat in Kenworth SLC for 8 hours to be told the "Wingman" was not communicating. Ok now what? The truck's top speed is 62 .. Makes for very long trips. Sigh!!!