Kenworth, not the truck it used to be

Pay more. Get less. Welcome to America.

 

You mean the company that bought and now installs a GM engine in their trucks More or less....?Like many others they couldn't build their own and make it reliable, so they bought someone else's. Just like John Deere, started in 1837 but never had or built a tractor to compete with other tractor manufacturers, so they just bought the rights to Waterloo Boy a proven company, just to get in the game.

 

Its funny that people hold a plastic KW truck to the same quality standards as the older models.

Having been through a plant it is not hard to see why things are put together like crap, 75 trucks being built in an 8 hour shift doesnt leave a lot of room for quality these days.

 

Get some old iron studio with a big engine, nice sleeper etc. Have it nice. Not garish and over gaudy but nice.

Allow one of your top drivers who is on time,everu time for a month to enjoy one week in thta tractor carefully keeping her where it's not too dfficult. Im pretty sure there is enough old ones on hand to teach your winner how to run it. NO pressure.

If for whatever reason he does not or cannot run it (That is important, some of us will be irreverably ruined by losing important bones in the spine etc) and hand over a week' s pay with the option to work it throug so that no one will slack around.

 

Losing confidence to just a brand? Try other models. Try other engine instead of going just on expensive paccar. T660 was other option, but they ceased production of that truck. I bet the electronics aint that fancy than what on t680 or 579.

 

I have a friend still running a 1979 A model every week, still has the 3406B. Was in Arizona the other day, and headed for Texas before heading in to WV. I look at these newer trucks and wonder if the bodies will still be functioning properly in 30-40 years. Good thing about plastic.... it doesn't rust, but sure breaks easy.

 

I heard the new Freightliners have/need 5 computers to run the truck down the road. Kinda crazy but when you think back 20 years I was told you would never see an autoshift truck transmission. Now the computers can do that.

 

That's a problem with the SmartNav manufacturer - not Kenworth. You're misplacing the blame.

Why would Kenworth pay for the failure of another companies component? Kenworth (should) warrant it for 12 months / 100,000 miles per the basic vehicle warranty. If you've purchased extended warranty - they'll warrant it for longer.

The supplier warranties them for 36 month / 350,000 miles.

So you have 36 month / 350,000 miles for the nav systems for fail. During the first year - the warranty is paid for by Kenworth and the supplier. During the next two years, it's paid for by just the supplier. If your nav systems are failing during that time period and you're paying out of pocket to replace them - something is wrong here.

I would also say that your statement that KW is "refusing to repair / replace the Navs 99% of the time" is a gross exaggeration. First off - they can't repair them if there is a failure. It has to be replaced. Supplier policy. Second - the vast majority of failures that happen with those systems results in either an update for it, or a full replacement.

When it comes to updating it - usually it's because there's an update that the driver never performed and it solves the issue they're having. If that doesn't work, or it freezes during updating, the unit gets replaced.


tl;dr - the nav systems are on the supplier side. They're warranted for 36 months / 350,000 miles. Don't pay for them if you're in that time frame. Most of them time they'll be replaced. Kenworth has no control over that.

 

I hate to see the trucks get more and more complicated. Simple worked well for a very long long time. Maybe too well?

I like to have vented windows in case the AC fails and especially so if it fails while the power windows have failed in the up position. I remember most of the older cars often had vents that you could slide open and get air and at certain times of the year it felt like air conditioning. No one puts those in anymore. I guess its a Carbon Monoxide hazard.


I love the bolt in dash panels you could have out in 30 seconds to fix something and put it back good as new hundreds of times and they last and last and look the same over and over. The dash in my Suburban has got probably 1 spring clip left that works and holds the dash panel in. The rest have all busted out. And I thought about making a Custom dash with bolt in panels like our 379 Peterbuilt.

I never had noticed until the other day and was kind of disappointed but our KW dump has a dash panel that I have no idea how I'd get it out. Its beautiful to look at but I guarantee you it won't be easy to work on. And when it gets pulled something will likely break and it won't ever be the same.

Even so..........all the new technology does make me want a good scanner.