Street Smarts: Kenworth blends trucking past and future with new models

The Kenworth C580 wasn’t designed to haul potato chips down the Interstate – the truck is nimble and responsive at highway speeds. (Photo: Jack Roberts)

There are few places where trucking’s past, present and future come together as neatly as they do at the PACCAR Technical Center in Mount Vernon, Wash.

My host at the Technical Center was Kenworth, which of course, has long been one of the most iconic nameplates in American trucking. The day at the track looping around the rear of the Technical Center was a reminder that this OEM has a unique ability to blend trucking traditions with thoroughly modern technology.

Old-school muscle, modern manners

The first truck I drove was the new C580, Kenworth’s extreme-duty successor to the legendary C500. This truck was configured as a winch tractor. And, of course, its massive proportions, long hood and imposing stance are a throwback to an earlier era of trucking.

Under hood was a Cummins X15 producing 605 hp and 2,050 lb.-ft. of torque, paired with an Eaton Endurant XD Pro 18-speed automated transmission.

This is not a truck designed for hauling potato chips down the Interstate. It is an off-highway, severe-duty machine designed for oilfields, mines and extreme heavy-haul work. Yet, despite its size, the C580 was remarkably easy to drive. Power delivery was smooth, and handling both on and off road was surprisingly precise.

The cab was spacious, comfortable and featured a thoroughly modern dashboard and driver-vehicle interface. This is a truck that looks old school, but it certainly doesn’t drive that way.

Kenworth also had an export-spec C580 6x6 available. Powered by a 525-hp Cummins ISX15 Euro 5 engine and an Allison 4500 RDS Gen 6 six-speed automatic, it took the extreme-duty concept even further.

Kenworth’s T880E is an all-electric vocational truck featuring impressive acceleration and a remarkably quiet ride. (Photo: Kenworth)

Again, this isn’t a truck designed to cruise all day at 75 mph. It is intended to keep moving when the pavement – and possibly the road itself – disappears. The Allison transmission was perfectly matched to the engine, delivering immense power smoothly and predictably. Specialized trucks like this rarely appear at press events, making it a real treat to drive.

The two T880s available to drive brought us back toward more familiar vocational territory. The first truck was a Northwest dump configuration with a 510-hp PACCAR MX-13 and TX-18 Pro transmission. The second was a tractor powered by a 605-hp Cummins X15 coupled to an Eaton Endurant XD Pro 18-speed.

Both trucks felt equally at home on the Technical Center’s dirt section and sweeping paved track. They accelerated hard, handled exceptionally well at speed and offered quiet, comfortable interiors. Views over their sloping hoods were outstanding.

The digital dashboards were particularly impressive. Kenworth has obviously devoted considerable effort to the driver-machine interface, and we were told that more dashboard enhancements are coming in the near future. Still, the current dash is impressive with crisp graphics and vital information presented in a way that is easy to understand at a glance.

The future arrives quietly

Then came the future in the form of a battery-electric T880E dump truck. From 10 ft. away, the T800E looks virtually identical to its diesel-powered brothers. But this truck is powered by a 350-kW ZF CeTrax 2 HD electric drive, delivering the equivalent of roughly 470 hp. A 450-kW version producing approximately 605 hp is also available.

The difference between the diesel T880 and the electric version is astounding. The T880E was incredibly quiet, with immediate accelerator response and brisk acceleration. Power delivery was seamless, whether crawling over a dirt road or running at speed around the track.

Kenworth has integrated battery-electric technology into the T880 platform so successfully that the truck simply feels like a T880 – only quieter, smoother and considerably quicker.

A modern-day trucking icon

Kenworth saved the emotional high point of the drive for last. For the first time, journalists were allowed to get behind the wheel of the OEM’s W900 Legacy Edition No. 1,000, long-haul sleeper

Perhaps no truck captures the Kenworth ethos of blending old school style with modern trucking technology better than its iconic W900 Legacy Series. (Photo: Jack Roberts)

With its long hood, towering chrome grille, fender-mounted headlights, twin exhaust stacks and huge sleeper, the W900 remains the truck much of the world pictures when it thinks of an American Class 8 tractor.

This one had a 605-hp Cummins X15 and an 18-speed manual transmission. I hadn’t driven a manual truck in some time, and I’ll admit to crunching a gear or two downshifting as I came off the track.

Still, there is no experience quite like looking down that endless W900 hood. It creates an immediate connection with the generations of truckers who drove these machines from the 1960s onward.

Then you glance around the cab and return to the present. The interior is plush and luxurious. As in the T880 models, the modern dashboard features brilliant graphics, the controls are ergonomically arranged and outward visibility is excellent.

The C580 and W900 are modern, mission-focused trucks that celebrate trucking’s past. Kenworth’s T880 and T880E point toward their future. But driving these trucks back-to-back reveals that the past and present aren’t as far apart as it sometimes feels. That’s because Kenworth understands that moving trucking forward does not require abandoning everything drivers have always loved about trucks.