Ouch, ouch! That's great nostalgia but my ears are ringing from watching that video. Too much truck noise! Yikes! In Québec at the highly scientific Accélération de Camions de St-Joseph-de-Beauce testing has proven unequivocally that one smokestack is superior to two smokestacks even when both smokestacks are real:
I would be interested to know exactly how crappy the new cabs are, specifically the Kenworth T680, T880, T990 cab (all three are apparently the same cab). The old cabs (like the Kenworth T800 and W900) are certainly noisy, leaky crap with depressing, coffin-like interior decor. Ye olde anachronistic T800 and W900 cabs are a patchwork quilt of mismatched Red Green fixes to an antiquated relic from the 1960's. New old-style Western Star cab spontaneously combusts near Kamloops, British Columbia with a load of ammonium nitrate. Driver nonchalantly contemplates using a fire extinguisher but would really like a new tractor. Re: Red Green reference above - when Kenworth W900's are delivered from the factory to the dealer the Kenworth factory installs duct tape to the bunk seal to prevent water ingress.
Are you referring to SCR/DEF wiring under the cab or lighting wiring or motor/transmission wiring or in-cab wiring, etc? I am wondering if Paccar is using wiring with less durable coatings or cheaper connectors or badly-engineered sensors in series or something. Supposedly Paccar is having wiring assemblies made in Mexico these days but I assume those assemblies would be in all Paccar trucks. I am having under-cab wiring issues with a new W900 but it is because the wire coatings and hangers are susceptible to rock damage on dirt roads.
All of the above, we have had trucks down for just about any short you can think of. Hell only half my blowers work, at half of it's full power because of a known wiring fault that kenworth refuses to fix, and it can cost close to 3500-5000 to do it. My advice? The Tx80 models? Burn them. Cheaper fix.
I've driven various models of the new Pete's and KW's. I can't comment on wiring issues, but they were fine, modern, driver-centric trucks - miles ahead of an old T800/w900 cab. Volvo cabs are still a little nicer imho. Ymmv. P.S. Fake smokestacks are silly.