With the announcement that the PACCAR MX-11, 11-liter, 430-HP, 1,550 lb.-ft. engine will be available in Kenworth T880, T680, T800 with FEPTO and W900S trucks in 2016, Fleet Equipment sat down with Jason Skoog, Kenworth’s assistant general manager for sales and marketing, to find out how the MX-11 will fit into the market.

“Kenworth will begin selling the PACCAR MX-11 engine to its vocational and regional haul customers in the United States and Canada in January 2016,” Skoog stated. “The PACCAR MX-11 will be built at PACCAR’s engine plant in Columbus, Miss.”

The PACCAR MX-11 is a six-cylinder, 24-valve design and has double overhead camshafts along with high-pressure common rail fuel injection. Like the PACCAR MX-13, the engine block is constructed from compact graphite iron with vertical ribs to maximize strength while reducing noise levels.

Skoog(pictured right) explained that it is ideal for a wide range of applications, including regional haul, tanker, bulk haul, construction and refuse. It will also be available with an automated manual transmission or an automatic transmission.

PACCAR successfully launched the PACCAR MX-11 engine in Europe in 2013, installing over 10,000 PACCAR MX-11 engines in DAF trucks in the past two years. The PACCAR MX-11 engine has more than 2.5 million miles of field testing in North America and over 250 million miles accumulated in production engines in operation in Europe. In independent European tests with the PACCAR MX-11 in a DAF CF 440, PACCAR reported excellent fuel economy results, setting the stage for the North American release.

PACCAR had considerable success this year with the MX-13 engine, and the company is hoping to build upon that engine platform with the MX-11 launch adding to the MX-13’s growing market strength.

“Strong PACCAR MX-13 sales continued throughout the year resulting in a record percentage of Kenworth’s heavy-duty trucks specified with the PACCAR MX-13 in 2015,” Skoog said, indicating that the final year-end percentage of Kenworth trucks spec’d with the MX-13 will be around 40%. “In August, UPS received the milestone 50,000th PACCAR MX series engine installed in a Kenworth truck. PACCAR has produced more than 100,000 PACCAR MX engines at its Columbus, Miss., engine plant for the North American market since it was opened in 2010. In addition, the American Truck Dealers (ATD) named the Kenworth T880 with the PACCAR MX-13 engine as its 2015 Commercial Truck of the Year, while the T680 with the PACCAR MX-13 received a similar ATD award in 2013.“

Cabover update

Since the 2012 launch of the Kenworth K270 and K370 cabovers, the trucks have seen strong growth in van body applications. “Kenworth refreshed the exterior, interior, and chassis options in 2014, and the product really took off and sold 50% more than its predecessor,” Skoog said.

Kenworth has continued to add chassis options that have allowed the cabover offering to grow in the sweeper, striper, landscaping and other light vocational uses thanks to it’s shorter length, visibility and maneuverability.

“The serviceability is a big selling point of the vehicle with all its daily checks right under the front panel,” Skoog said. “You don’t have to tilt the cab to do all daily checks. That along with the aforementioned outstanding visibility and maneuverability make for strong day-to-day operational efficiencies.”