Big Rig Chronicles: The Freightliner

Since I've sorely neglected the trusty Freightliner in my blog, I thought I'd make it up by publishing the Freightliner history as my next post! I got most of this info from Wikipedia, I went through a lot of information and pulled out the most essential timeline of the Freightliner.

Hopefully you find it useful & interesting, if anybody has any more info & photos to share regarding the Freightliner history, feel free to send me a line or two! :) I'm always looking to improve my knowledge of those 18wheelers!

Freightliner - Coronado model

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1930s - Very few trucks at this time had the power that was required to get up the mountain roads in Western part of the US, which prompted Consolidated Freightways to produce their very own line of trucks.

1942 - First Freightliners were produced in Salt Lake City, Utah, but production was interrupted by WWII. After the war, production was moved to Portland, Oregon where the first Freighliner was sold to a fork lift manufacturer (Hyster). Records show that this truck covered 4 million (yes that is MILLION) miles before surrendering to old age and has proudly earned its place at the Smithsonian museum, where it can be seen today.

Freightliner - First model sold to Hyster

Due to distribution issues, Consolidated Freighways joined forces with White Motor Company, who had dealer networks all over the US and Canada, a union that lasted for over 25 years.

1950 Freightliner

1949 - first truck sold to an individual
1950s - one of the first trucks with an engine powerful enough to pull two trailers

1974 – CF and White Motor Company parted ways, leaving Freightliner Corp. to stand on its own both as manufacturer and distributor of its trucks.

High cabover engine was also introduced around this time. Due to the overall length regulations at the time, which measured from the nose of the truck to the rear bumper of the trailer, these high cabover engines accounted for over 50% of the US truck market.

Freightliner High cab-over Engine (70s)

1981 – CF sold its manufacturing business and the entire Freightliner brand to Daimler-Benz. Chino & Indianapolis plants were shut down.

1982 - Surface Highway Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 – Weight & Length standards changed. Overall length was no longer measured from nose to taillight, rather it was the length of the trailer alone that could not exceed 53’ (although some states had stricter regulations).


1983 Freightliner


1992 – Freightliner became the leading heavy truck in the US
1996 – Acquired American LaFrance, a 130 year old fire engine manufacturer.



1974 American LaFrance


1997 – acquired Aeromax from Ford Motor Company & renamed it to Sterling.

Sterling truck

Sterling truck



1998 – Acquired Thomas Built Buses, which was the producer of all school buses bodies & forward control chassis.

In my search for a Thomasbuilt bus, I came across this cool photo! They are testing to see how strong a Minotaur bus is, Thomas places this 18,000 pound bus on top of the Minotaur EL. Cables pulled the bus on top of the Minotaur, which had a cradle on top to hold the bus in place. The cables were then released, alloweing all 18,000 pounds to rest on top of the bus. Pretty cool huh?



2000 – acquired Western Star trucks and all its assembly plants (the successor to White Motor Company)
Also acquired Detroit Diesel Corp, although it was acquired by another branch of Daimler Chrysler, the operation eventually migrated into Freightliner.
Several fire engine manufacturers were also acquired and rolled into American LaFrance.

2001 – plants were sold & consolidated in order to save money as DaimlerChrysler was up to their eyeballs in used trucks that they couldn’t move.

2002 – Consolidated Freightways shut its doors for good.

2005 – American LaFrance was sold to a private equity fund. DaimlerChrysler’s attempt to roll American LaFrance production into the Western Star plant had failed, as the fire engines were too specialized for a high-number mainstream manufacturing plant like Western Star.

2007 – DaimlerChrysler sold Chrysler and renamed for Daimler AG
Freighliner laid off 800 workers and relocated its manufacturing from Portland, Oregon to a new plant in Mexico. The Portland plant remains open today and serves as production plant for military vehicles.

2008 – Freighliner LLC became Daimler Trucks North America

Freightliner - Coronado
Freightliner - Columbia

Freightliner - Classic

Freightliner - Century

Freightliner - Cascadia model

(All these nice photos were borrowed from http://www.freightliner.com - if you want more 18wheel eyecandy, there's plenty more there to browse through!)

Sharing the road with Big Rigs - BLIND SPOTS!

I have posted this one before... but I think this will be one of very few posts that I'll keep reposting and reposting until I stop seeing people driving like idiots around big rigs ... which, let's face it, will probably be never so bottomline, I'll probably be reposting these safety posts until I die.

Take a moment please, and familiarize yourself with the danger of passing or driving too close to big rigs! There are blind spots everywhere, and YOU need to be aware of them even if you are not a truck driver. It could save your life!

75% of all car-big rig accidents are caused by the driver of the car, not the truck driver .

I commute a lot. I drive about 35 miles each way to and from work, 5 days a week, and boy do I see some stupid driving, especially when it comes to small cars vs. semis. (And mind you, ALL cars are small compared to big rigs….)

In this post, I want to write about blind spots.

Blind Spots.

All cars have them. There is nothing as scary as readying yourself to change lanes, you think that the lane next to you is wide open and then all of a sudden you spot a sucker that has been lurking in your blind spot for the past few minutes. It’s enough to give a person a heart attack.
On a regular car, the blind spots are few & they are small. We also have the luxury of being able to turn our heads and look over our shoulder before we merge, to make sure nobody is riding in our blind spot. A truck driver can’t do that. If he turns his head and looks over his shoulder, he’ll see the back of his cab!

A big rig has a lot of blind spots, and some of these blind spots do in fact span across several freeway lanes. Let’s go through them.

1. Front of the Truck: This blind spot ranges out about 20 feet ahead of the semi. The driver won’t see you there. Merging in this close to a big rig can be fatal. Make sure you leave about 4 car lengths between your car and the big rig.

2. Rear of the Truck: About 30 feet directly behind the trailer and you should keep a distance of 25 car lengths. The problem is that when you drive behind a big rig, you can’t see what is going on ahead of you in traffic. You can only trust that the brake lights on the rig in front of you are working properly and that the truck driver is able to hit his brakes in time should something cause a sudden stop. If you are driving too close to the rear end of a big rig and a sudden stop happens, it too could be fatal.I suppose that if you are driving behind a big rig, which sometimes happens, especially on busy freeways, you should drive at a speed that will allow you to stop in time should a sudden stop occur.

3. Left Side of the Truck: a 3-lane span, starting at the end of the truck cab and running down the entire length of the truck. Passing on the left side of a big rig is the correct thing to do, however don’t linger. Make your passing a quick one so that you will be visible again to the driver as fast as possible.

4. Right Side of the Truck: Some trucks have a sticker on the back that says:

<<>>

This sticker isn’t for comedy or posted as a joke. Passing a big rig on the right hand side could very well be the last thing you do in life. I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s a fact. The blind spot on the right hand side of a big rig also fans out for about 3 lanes and runs the length of the truck, but this blind spot is a lot less forgiving than the one on the left.The truck driver may very well see you when you enter the blind spot, but if you linger there and he no longer sees you, he could forget that you are there. If by any chance he has to make a sudden swerve to avoid a collision or an object in the lane, there is no chance he remember that you are still next to him if he can’t see you.

I bring up the word “fatal” a lot because if you end up in an accident vs a big rig, the chances of you walking away could be minimal.

I read somewhere that 78% of small cars vs big rig accidents end in fatality.

78%!

And these small cars are the ones I constantly see darting in and out of traffic, passing on the right, passing on the left, cutting off big rigs left and right (and everyone else for that matter). Seriously. You may think you’re the best driver in the world but be cautious when passing big trucks. Unpredictable incidents in the roadway happen a lot, and you want to be visible to a truck driver at all times so that if he does have to make a sudden move, he knows you’re there!

So…blind spots. We all hate them. I’m sure truck drivers despise them. But they’re there. Just be aware of them. And don’t pass trucks on the right!

Big Rig of the Week: King Off the Road

Today's post was inspired by some funny photos I received in my email today. The photos were actually a series of funny "Ooops" moments type of photos, but as the truck enthusiast that I am, I went straight for the big trucks.

I couldn't stand only posting the photos without researching this truck some more. After all, this blog is for educating as much as for entertaining. I knew this was a mining truck, due to the blog post I wrote a while back about the Liebherr (The world's largest truck), so I swung by Google and found out some more info on the particular truck below.

I've posted a couple of regular photos of the truck here, but the funny photos as well as an awesome video clip of a Cat 785D doing a donut. That's impressive!

Caterpillar 785D Mining Truck

Maximum load: 150 ton

Overall body length: 37 ft 9 inches

Overall height: 38 ft 9 inches

Width (Canopy): 22 ft 1 in

For more stats & info on this machine, please visit http://www.cat.com/cmms/images/C482772.pdf

It's a PDF file that'll tell you everything you need to know about this big guy!

So....... maximum load for this truck is 150 ton ... it's hard to even imagine what the weight of this boulder could be.

Suppose this driver cut off the wrong truck?

Below is an awesome video of a driver doing a donut in a Caterpillar 785D
Now that takes some skill!

Big Rig Chronicles: The Western Star

While researching the history of the Western Star, it was clear that this truck was designed first and foremost with the driver in mind. Although I’m sure that they mean it was designed for the driver of the actual truck, the Western Star is quite the eye candy for the ones of us who share the road with the Western Star. Unfortunately I don’t see nearly enough Western Stars on the road, at least not in my part of the country, but boy do they ever stand out when they do roll down the highway. Huge & majestic, usually equipped with a massive sleeper cab, this is the type of truck that’ll run you off the road, not because the truck can’t stay between the lines but because it’s so eye catching, a poor truck-smitten commuter may forget what they are doing and veer off the road.

The Western Star is quite young compared to the other trucks I’ve written about so far. It was born in 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio, although the production of the truck mainly took place in Canada. It was founded on the belief that the most valuable asset in trucking is the truck driver, which is probably why the sleeper cabs on these trucks stand out so much. While developing and manufacturing trucks for all sorts of fields, such as mining, logging and military usage, they never lost sight of who the truck ought to accommodate the most: The trucker.

During the 1980s, the Western Star trucks continued to grow and demand their share of the market as the Western Star gained reputation as a durable and reliable truck. They started advancing the cabs by increasing head room and improving the visibility for the driver.

Although young, Western Stars have been busy playing catch-up, which is evident by the timeline I’m about to list in this article. Rather than trying to incorporate these dates into a story, I found it easier and more organized to line them up, something which usually isn’t my style because I like to write articles, but there’s always an exception somewhere and this is it.

Anyway, here is a list of the major developments of the Western Star:

1986: Supertilt hood was introduced, one of the earliest versions of the sloped hood for trucks
1987: Cornerstone chassis was introduced, this platform reduced cost as well as weight and complexity.
1990: 6900XD entered production
1992: Significant contracts were won with the Canadian military, PT Freeport mining in Indonesia and for highway maintenance trucks in British Columbia. (Military Western Star displayed below)
1996: Western Star introduced and launched the Constellation cab & sleeper, a large-sized and comfortable cab of welded steel.
1998: the Star Light Sleeper was introduced, featuring a major weight-reduction solution for Western Star and the industry as a whole by their design and also by cradling a polypropylene honeycomb core between two aluminum sheets.
2002: Western Star moved to Portland Oregon and they also introduced the LowMax package, which came with a lot of options for customized stainless steel accessories. (LowMax pictured below...) 2003: The 82 and the 68 Stratosphere sleeper cabs were introduced. The 82 inch was a walk-through sleeper with roof-mounted air horns and marker lights…the only one of its kind. The 68-inch cab was longer and designed for Canadian customers where they require a shorter wheelbase than in the US.
Also in 2003, the 6900XD became available with Twin-Steer. (I’ve never seen this and had to look it up…. Doesn’t it look wicked!)
2006: The Stratosphere sleeper line becomes the broadest line of walk-through sleepers in the industry. The largest cab in the industry if a Stratosphere 82 inch Ultra-High.

Below is a Western Star sporting a Stratosphere sleeper cab.

So the driver’s comfort seems to always have been a major factor whenever Western Star introduced new lines and technologies for their trucks, which makes it a natural development that their sleeper cabs are some of the best in the industry. (Although I wouldn’t be one to judge this as my experience with sleeper cabs is limited… :) ) The driver’s comfort seems to be an underlying theme to most of the changes that have taken place since the Western Star’s beginning in 1967.

Although most of the manufacturing of the Western Star took place in Canada, it has now all been moved over to American plants and the Western Star is an all-American truck.

Although the Kenworth is my favorite truck, there's no denying that when a Western Star comes rolling down the freeway, it certainly outshines the rest of the trucks. It's comfy, it's powerful and it's looks are stellar.... what is not to like? :)

(Really...since I don't see too many Western Stars on the road, it leads me to believe that the price may be high.... I guess I ought to do a blog post about big rigs and pricing to get a better overview.... frankly, I have no idea how much a truck costs.... :))

I want to point out that every single one of these photos were borrowed from www.westernstar.com .... obviously they have the best photos of their own trucks, but also, during my brief time as a big rig photographer in training, I have yet to get a photo op with a Western Star.... )

Big Rig Chronicles: The Peterbilt

One truck that most people will know the name of, even if they’re not at all interested in cars or trucks, is the Peterbilt. It’s a truck I can actually mention to people, and they’ll nod and actually know what I’m talking about, because everybody knows the Peterbilt.

As with the Kenworth, the logging industry played a big part in the development of the Peterbilt and indirectly, so did World War I.
World War I spawned a need for more efficient deliveries of food and supplies, and the government was forcing more and more motorized trucks into service. Previous to this, there had been a lack of good roads to drive on, which had held back the trucking industry. As the need for better transportation grew due to the war, so did the need for better highways and the government willingly provided them.
This development sped up society and increased efficiency on many levels. T.A Peterman’s lumber business was growing fast and floating freshly cut logs down the river from the forest to the mill, or hauling them off to the mill by horse, no longer seemed efficient enough, so he started developing technologies and building trucks that could accommodate his needs.
(Peterbilt 350 - one the first trucks built after WWII)

Peterman started by rebuilding army surplus trucks, constantly upgrading and making them into better models by improving the technology. Soon he developed a need for a place where he could build custom logging truck chassis, and in 1938 he acquired the assets of a virtually dead truck manufacturer (Fageol Motors, Oakland, CA) and started producing custom trucks. Peterman’s trucks were built exclusively for his lumber company and they were specifically designed and customized to meet all his needs within the industry. His trucks became available for sale to the public in 1939. Peterman was mostly concerned with the quality of his trucks and produced only 100 trucks a year. He started sending his engineers into the field so they could make modifications to their trucks based on issues that truckers were facing in their day-to-day operation.

During World War II, Peterbilt was contracted by the government to produce heavy-duty trucks. The experience and skills that Peterman and his engineers acquired during this time was invaluable, and were later applied to his commercial trucks after the war.

In 1945, Peterman passed away and his widow sold the trucking company, without the land, to seven Peterbilt managers, who were able to expand the business and soon Peterbilt became a large-scale producer of big rigs.

(1955 Peterbilt)

In 1958, Peterman’s widow decided to sell the land and develop a shopping center. The owners of Peterbilt were reaching retirement age by this time and had no desire acquire more debt by buying another manufacturing plant for the business. They ended up selling Peterbilt to PACCAR (Pacific Car & Foundry Co.), who in the past had been better known for manufacturing railroad cars. In 1945, PACCAR had bought Kenworth Trucks and they were becoming a renowned manufacturer in the heavy truck industry, so Peterman’s Peterbilts would be in good hands with them.

T.A Peterman’s passion for his trucks and his dedication to the quality of his product spawned a loyal following of truck lovers and truck manufacturers from the very beginning. Through the years, the trucking world’s loyalty has not faded nor strayed, and that is why the Peterbilt is still one of the most known and reputable trucks of today.

Sharing the Road with Big Rigs - Blind Spots

(The following post was accidentally deleted and has been reposted, so to some of you it may seem like you've read this before.... :-))

I want to dedicate a lot of this blog space to traffic safety when it comes to cars & big rigs.

75% of all car-big rig accidents are caused by the driver of the car, not the truck driver and that’s a stat I believe.

I commute a lot. I drive about 35 miles each way to and from work, 5 days a week, and boy do I see some stupid driving, especially when it comes to small cars vs. semis. (And mind you, ALL cars are small compared to big rigs….)

In this post, I want to write about blind spots.

Blind Spots.

All cars have them. There is nothing as scary as readying yourself to change lanes, you think that the lane next to you is wide open and then all of a sudden you spot a sucker that has been lurking in your blind spot for the past few minutes. It’s enough to give a person a heart attack.

On a regular car, the blind spots are few & they are small. We also have the luxury of being able to turn our heads and look over our shoulder before we merge, to make sure nobody is riding in our blind spot. A truck driver can’t do that. If he turns his head and looks over his shoulder, he’ll see the back of his cab!

A big rig has a lot of blind spots, and some of these blind spots do in fact span across several freeway lanes. Let’s go through them.

1. Front of the Truck: This blind spot ranges out about 20 feet ahead of the semi. The driver won’t see you there. Merging in this close to a big rig can be fatal. Make sure you leave about 4 car lengths between your car and the big rig.

2. Rear of the Truck: About 30 feet directly behind the trailer and you should keep a distance of 25 car lengths. The problem is that when you drive behind a big rig, you can’t see what is going on ahead of you in traffic. You can only trust that the brake lights on the rig in front of you are working properly and that the truck driver is able to hit his brakes in time should something cause a sudden stop. If you are driving too close to the rear end of a big rig and a sudden stop happens, it too could be fatal.I suppose that if you are driving behind a big rig, which sometimes happens, especially on busy freeways, you should drive at a speed that will allow you to stop in time should a sudden stop occur.

3. Left Side of the Truck: a 3-lane span, starting at the end of the truck cab and running down the entire length of the truck. Passing on the left side of a big rig is the correct thing to do, however don’t linger. Make your passing a quick one so that you will be visible again to the driver as fast as possible.

4. Right Side of the Truck: Some trucks have a sticker on the back that says:

<< LEFT - Pass ********* RIGHT – Suicide >>

This sticker isn’t for comedy or posted as a joke. Passing a big rig on the right had side could very well be the last thing you do in life. I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s a fact. The blind spot on the right hand side of a big rig also fans out for about 3 lanes and runs the length of the truck, but this blind spot is a lot less forgiving than the one on the left.The truck driver may very well see you when you enter the blind spot, but if you linger there and he no longer sees you, he could forget that you are there. If by any chance he has to make a sudden swerve to avoid a collision or an object in the lane, there is no chance he remember that you are still next to him if he can’t see you.

I bring up the word “fatal” a lot because if you end up in an accident vs a big rig, the chances of you walking away could be minimal. I read somewhere that 78% of small cars vs big rig accidents end in fatality. 78%! And these small cars are the ones I constantly see darting in and out of traffic, passing on the right, passing on the left, cutting off big rigs left and right (and everyone else for that matter). Seriously. You may think you’re the best driver in the world but be cautious when passing big trucks. Unpredictable incidents in the roadway happen a lot, and you want to be visible to a truck driver at all times so that if he does have to make a sudden move, he knows you’re there!

So…blind spots. We all hate them. I’m sure truck drivers despise them. But they’re there. Just be aware of them. And don’t pass on the right!

Sharing the Road with Big Rigs - Braking Distance

One of the dumbest maneuvers I see in traffic is that of small cars cutting off big rigs. This move is plain out idiotic, not to mention dangerous.

A fully loaded big rig can weigh up to 80,000 lbs. Your car weighs in at about 3000lbs, maybe more, depending on the vehicle. We don’t have to be geniuses to see that the difference in weight here is huge and will severely impact the way a big rig reacts on the road as opposed to a regular car.

One difference that everyone should be aware of, is the braking distance. A loaded big rig requires 20-40% extra stopping distance than that of a car, a the percentage that increases with bad weather conditions such as rain and snow. And an empty big rig actually takes even longer to stop than a loaded one.
Some information I’ve come across regarding braking distance states that at 60mph, it takes a big rig 450 feet to stop.
I don’t believe that this estimate includes all the factors that are involved in stopping a car in moving traffic, which in addition to actual brake time also includes perception time and reaction time. When combining these factors with the weight and the length of the vehicle, the total time it takes a big rig to stop at 60 mph comes out to 626 feet, which is the length of over more than 2 football fields.


This is how the math is done:
A big rig at 60mph will cover 88 feet of freeway per second.
Perception Time: The amount of time it takes from the moment a driver sees a hazard in the road to the time the brain recognizes the hazard is about 1 second, which we now know is 88 feet.
Reaction Time: Then we need to allow some time for the brain to signal the foot to step on the brake pedal, and this takes another second…or another 88 feet.
Braking Distance: Now we have a total calculation of 176 feet before the brakes are even engaged, and once you add the 450 feet it will take the rig to stop, you end up with … 626 feet.


This is the minimum distance. This number increases drastically on wet asphalt, and even more so if there is ice and snow on the road. The condition of the driver should also be taken into consideration. A driver may be tired, sick or distracted in some way, which means his or her reaction and perception time will increase.

The braking distance for a truck hauling an empty trailer is even longer! This is due to the fact that when a trailer is heavily loaded, it provides the tires with extra traction, which shortens the retardation time for the vehicle. The braking system on a big rig, as well as tires, springs and shock absorbers, are designed so they work better when a truck is loaded. Once a truck has been emptied, the loss of the extra weight means losing traction and it’s more likely to bounce and lock up the wheels, moving the vehicle into a skid.

And really…. This isn’t like being hit on the bumper by a Prius for a Honda Civic, which is something you would in fact feel and that may cause a whiplash or a broken arm. This is being hit on the bumper by a 80000 lbs big rig, in which the possibility of this interaction being fatal is really high. I think I quoted this number before, but I’ll say it again: 78% of accidents involving a small car vs a big rig ends up being a fatality!

Most truck drivers are safe, reliable and experienced on the road, but unpredictable incidents on the road are many and can throw even the most experienced driver off balance. Leave room for the big rigs.

So play nice out there and stop playing with fate!

The World's Largest Truck - Liebherr T 282B

Ok, so I wanted to try to vary my big rig content so that first of all, *I* don’t get bored writing this blog and secondly, people don’t get bored of reading this blog.
(Oh wait, the readers should probably be my first concern, huh?)

Anyway, I’m constantly trying to come up with various topics, preferably topics that somehow include big rigs somehow.

Today it was my curiosity that finally lead me on a Google-powered chase as I started looking up what the “World’s Largest Truck” is.


The world’s largest truck is a mining truck named “Liebherr T 282B”. This is a German truck that saw daylight in 2004. Although developed by Liebherr, the truck is built by hand in Newport News, Virginia, where they have a 10 acre factory that can accommodate 4 trucks at a time.

Accommodating 4 of these babies at once is no small feat, as you will understand once you read the stat of the Liebherr T282Bs :

Body Length: 50 ft 3 inches
Body Height: 25 ft 9 inches
Wheelbase: 21 ft 7 inches

Empty Weight: 224 ton (including a 11.5 ton engine!)
Max Capacity: 400 ton
Max operating capacity: 653 ton

Comparison: A regular sedan weighs about 3000 lbs - so 1 of these trucks equals the weight of about 150 Nissan Altimas...

Horse Power: 3,650
Max. Speed: 40mph
Fuel Capacity: 1,250 gallons

PRICE: $ 3.5 million …

(CD and air conditioner is optional…you would think for that price, it would be included? Then on the flipside, if you spend that much for a truck, paying for CD player and AC may not seem like a big deal….)

The truck is actually a hybrid. Its 11.5 ton, 90 liter diesel engine powers two electric engines that are located in the rear axle of the truck, and as stated above, it can get up to a 40mph speed.


Isn't this the coolest truck ever? :)


(See how teeny a person is next to this monster? Rumor has it a
driver of one of these trucks once crushed a regular sized service
truck and didn't even notice it.....)

Note: The information for this blog was gathered from various trucking websites, but most of it is from wikipedia, along with the photos. The photos are from the Virginia plant where these trucks are being built.

Big Rig Chronicles: The Kenworth

The Kenworth. Oh I love them. Rolling down the American interstate, they are so majestic and dominate the road completely.
The big classic Kenworth grill reminds me of the Greek columns on the Parthenon. Tall and upright, giving the truck a very impressive look and quite intimidating too, should they happen to roll up on you in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I have no idea if those Greek columns were an inspiration for the design of the truck. I do know, however, that the inspiration for the Kenworth itself was born in 1915, when the Gerlinger Motor Company blessed the world with its very first 6-cylinder truck. Although the Kenworth that is rolling down the highway today is a far more impressive sight than the Gersix they unveiled in 1915, that old truck made a powerful statement at the time it was put on the road and it became the mother of all Kenworths that were to be produced in the future.

(Gensix - photo borrowed from http://www.kenworth.com)

When Ed Worthington decided to rent out his mother’s building to Gerlinger in 1916, I doubt he knew what an impact this decision were to have on the trucking world. As a business man, he became fascinated with the company and started studying the way it was running. The Gersix became a frequent sight on the road, especially up North where they used it for logging.
Luckily for Ed, despite the Gersix’ popularity, the company itself wasn’t doing so well and was put up for sale in 1917. Ed and his partner, Captain Frederick Kent, acquired the company together and renamed it to Gersix Motor Company.
In 1923, company growth and an increasing need for more capital made Ed and his new partner, Harry Kent (son of Frederick), reincorporate their business and they named it Kenworth. (Kent + Worthington…. Brilliant, huh? :-))

What was so unique about Kenworth back then was the fact that they went out and sold their trucks before they were built. As opposed to selling standardized trucks, like their rival truck companies, they went out and asked the customer what they wanted, then went back to the factory and customized the truck based on the buyer’s wishes. This way of doing business apparently seemed to be somewhat of a magic formula for Kenworth, because their business was growing rapidly. They even outgrew their own workspace and eventually had to move to a bigger factory in Seattle, which was big enough to accommodate future growth.

Kenworth’s ability to build custom trucks for customers helped them through the rough years that were spawned by the depression era. Forced to find new ways of survival as business declined, they started producing fire trucks in 1932. Since the rest of the truck market seemed set on standardized trucks, Kenworth had the upper hand when it came to these fire trucks because each fire chief had his own ideas regarding what he wanted on his fire truck, and Kenworth was able to accommodate the specific wishes from the fire stations.

In 1933, Kenworth developed the very first diesel driven truck in this country. Looking at all the big rigs rolling down the highways today, we can clearly see what an impact this move has had on the trucking industry as a whole and it was no doubt a great success for Kenworth back then. That same year, Kenworth also produced and sold its first sleeper cab.

In 1935, the Motor Carrier Act was passed. I may post the act itself in a blog of its own at a later time, but for now I won’t go into detail. (This post is about Kenworth after all, not about the government….)
A very brief summary of the act is that it allowed the ICC to regulate interstate trucking. The ICC could now decide which companies could become motor carriers, how much these companies could charge and what type of services they would provide.
This act enforced a lot stricter regulations on trucks regarding size and weight. Overall, the restrictions provided new challenges for the trucking industry and its manufacturers.

(A 1951 Kenworth - photo borrowed from http://www.truckmuseum.org/)

In all its history so far, Kenworth had never backed down from a challenge, and this time was no different. They turned the challenge into another golden accomplishment by introducing the manufacturing of aluminum truck parts, such as hubs and cabs, on their Kenworth trucks.

In 1957, Kenworth was one of the first companies to come out with the cab-over engine (COE).

Since its beginning, a variety of Kenworth models have been manufactured, and I’m not going to write about the truck models in this post, partially because I think that the Kenworth models deserve a post of their very own (maybe even 1 post per model). Also, I don’t want to make these posts too long and I want to make them focused around a particular topic, which in this post is the history of the Kenworth.

I chose to delve into this topic since Kenworth is one of my favorite trucks. I wanted to start my education with the very beginning and it was indeed an interesting lesson. Looking back at my post, it’s interesting to observe the overall development of the Kenworth over time. It just adds another dimension to the truck itself when I know more about its background and where it came from. The truck we see today is a result of collaboration of generations, through time and the cool part is, it's only going to keep getting better.

(Kenworth W900 - photo borrowed from http://www.kenworth.com)

(Note: A lot of the info for this blog was obtained from http://www.kenworth.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenworth ... Thanks for being out there!)