FEATURE
SHARED
ASPIRATIONS
Kenworth and DAF join forces to present a 13-litre alternative for the Australian market
IF
you want to be a success in the truck business, there’s a lot to be said for being able to achieve a genuine commonality of product offering. Whether you call it vertical integration or just common sense, reducing the variables in componentry can achieve considerable cost savings, both for the manufacturer and the end user.
PACCAR Australia has taken a giant step forwards in bringing to the table the PACCAR MX13 engine and making it available in both the DAF and Kenworth product lines. Not everyone needs a 15-litre solution. For those Kenworth operators running with single trailers or lighter tare weights, the only recent alternative, since the demise of the CAT C13 Acert engine, has been to run with the Cummins 15-litre ISX rated at 465 hp. That position now changes overnight, as the MX 13-litre moves in as a viable alternative under the hoods of Kenworth products in addition to those of DAF. There’s a bit more to the event than just switching engines and expecting everything to fit without complaint. For starters, the MX-13 engine runs with 24-volt electronics, and this has resulted in Kenworth moving ahead of the entire North American truck manufacturing market by adopting 24volt electrics. Sure, the Europeans have been comfortably using 24-volt systems for decades. But that has not
been the case with the North Americans, who seemingly prefer to talk in terms of horsepower and pounds force feet rather than kilowatts and Newton metres, while remaining in the gloom with 12-volt electrics. The electrical shift to 24 volts is actually extremely interesting, as it comes at a time when many vehicles will soon transition from 12-volt systems into multi-volt systems. In the same way as the LED lighting systems can operate on a wide variation of power supply, a truck running a multi-volt system will not be tied to a single voltage output. This power supply upgrade benefits the latest electronic stability programmes that can prevent premature wheel lock-up, minimise the risk of rollover and remove the risk of flat-spotting tyres. These advanced braking systems also provide further gains by reducing overall braking distances through enhanced connectivity of trailers and prime movers. Whatever way you look at it, road transport just became a whole lot safer. Getting the MX engine to fit within the parallel chassis rails of a North American product, rather than the splayed rails of the Europeans, has also taken a bit of effort on the part of the product application team at Bayswater. Some components simply didn’t fit, but with a redesign of the sump fill access, a switch from a dual-canister fuel filter to that of a single canister, and a change in charge air cooling pipework, the MX 13 now slots in quite happily, albeit using different rear engine mounts. All the MX 13 engines coming to Australia for either brand will be sourced from the Netherlands in Europe. While the
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SHARED ASPIRATIONS
PowerTorque has been monitoring the progress of PACCAR Australia over The PACCAR MX13-litre engine the past 18 months as the has gained strong credibility in MX 13 engine introduction both Europe and North America programme gradually for its fuel efficiency and low gained momentum. The first rpm lugging capability. prototype in a Kenworth started running evaluation trials back in early 2011, and this programme has now grown to a total of eight vehicles operating through Australia and New Zealand. The MX 13 will be offered here in two outputs, the MX 340 with 460 hp and the MX 375 with 510 hp. Because of the power and torque characteristics of the engine being very different from those of other more traditional 13-litre engines, our fleets are going to have to understand the need for much taller rear axle ratios through the lower rpm peak outputs of the new engines.
Mississippi engine plant, recently established by PACCAR to produce the MX 13 and now the MX 11 is an absolute state of the art operation, the US market is already making Euro 6 compliant engines that will not be part of the Australian requirement until 2016-2017. It’s also worth noting that the North American manufactured MX 13s are also slightly different from those of Europe, featuring a different shaped block. What does remain the same though is the material of the block and cylinder head. All MX 13 engines are built using Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI). This material is extremely strong yet lighter than conventional iron blocks and is the way to go for probably all engine builders in the future. Also different on the US-built MX 13 engines currently being fitted to both Peterbilt and Kenworth in North America is the injection system. The EPA 013 engine emissions legislation in the US features an advanced fuel injection system that is not currently required in Australia for our conditions.
The optimum operating band for the MX 375 is from 10001410 rpm, and the Kenworth development team is already finding that axle ratios such as 3.4:1 are going to become a far more common sight on our roads in the quest to get maximum fuel economy. If you take the MX 340 as an example, at 1,000 rpm it is producing 241 kW, at 1,200 rpm this rises to 289 kW, and at 1,400 rpm it peaks at 337 kW (hence the model name of MX 340). The introduction of SCR technology and the use of DEF/ Urea (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) with the MX engine should not be any cause for concern, even for the most diehard traditionalist. It’s already part of nearly all European engine technologies and has already been introduced by Cummins in the ISXe5 engine range. In the Kenworth MX 13 application the initial tank capacity is set at 80 litres. To get a feel for the new engine and driveline configurations, PACCAR Australia put on a drive day at Queensland’s Mount Cotton test track where fleet operators and owner operators were able to trial loaded single trailer and B-double units.
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FEATURE PowerTorque joined in with the drive programme and had its share of time spent in a range of units that included a T403 with a manual 18-speed Roadranger hauling a single trailer; a T403 with an UltraShift and a 36-inch sleeper, again with a single trailer; a T409 UltraShift 36-inch B-double; and a T409 SAR 36-inch manual 18-speed Roadranger hauling a B-double combination. What made the exercise even more interesting was the opportunity to drive the DAF products such as the CF85 Space Cab and single trailer and a pair of XF105s with B-double trailer sets. Although the power and torque outputs are of course identical at 460 hp and 1,700 lb-ft (340 kW and 2300 Nm) of torque, or 510 hp and 1,850 lb-ft (375 kW and 2,500 Nm) of torque, the variation for a driver came through with being able to evaluate the 12-speed and 16-speed ZF-AS Tronic transmissions. Those that still prefer a manual gearbox have the option of an 18-speed Eaton linked to the Meritor MT23165 rear end. The most noticeable factor in driving all these variations was how good the current crop of automated manual transmissions has become. The ZF AMTs have always been smooth shifters, but the Eaton UltraShift Plus with two-pedal operation has moved dramatically forwards in ability and shift quality from the early standard versions that required the use of a clutch pedal on start-up and stop. Operators can chose from three shift protocols with the latest UltraShift Plus. These come available as a plug and play reprogramming of the transmission by a service technician to capitalise on an economy, performance or a standard setting. Eaton is currently selling its UltraShift Plus at a rate of 20 percent of all Roadranger transmission sales in Australia, but a company spokesperson gave the view that this ratio of takeup is expected to change substantially over the next decade. When driving each of the different AMT options around the Mount Cotton test track, the first impression confirmed how smooth the shift quality has become in both the ZF and UltraShift Plus transmissions. Hill Start Assist is now available and this performed faultlessly on even quite steep gradients. Noise levels are low and the decision on which AMT to choose is already made for the operator through the selection of the MX engine application in either the DAF or Kenworth product. It’s interesting that PACCAR retains the full American driveline option for Kenworth without offering the European alternative of the ZF-AS Tronic.
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The AMT choice is for As-Tronic in DAF products and Eaton Ultrafhift Plus on Kenworth models.
SHARED ASPIRATIONS Whether that remains the case after ZF rolls out the next generation AMT TRAXON transmission remains to be seen. TRAXON will become available on European brands from the end of the first quarter of 2014, and it differs significantly from the AS Tronic by incorporating GPS mapping to read approaching terrain and predict gear shifts more accurately. But right now there’s probably enough choice throughout the PACCAR line-up, with these latest engine and driveline options providing the best shift protocols and shift quality that have ever been on offer. A quarter of the Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks supplied in the United States since summer 2010 are equipped with the six-cylinder, 12.9-litre PACCAR MX engine with EPA10 specification. If early reports are any indication, the adoption of the MX 13 engine in Australia will be through its ability to lower fuel consumption, and, once fleets start to experience the cost savings, its future popularity should be assured.
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