Truck and Driver T610

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hackloc erald S G s o t o h wan P rian Co Story B

On its regular Stirling to Clandeboye run for Fonterra, the Dynes Transport Kenworth T610 has several decent hills to test its engine/gearbox combination


The T610’s spacious new cab says goodbye to the traditional snugness of Kenworth conventionals. Headlights (left) offer bright, well-patterned beams

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ONGTERM DRIVERS OF T-SERIES KENWORTHS COULD BE excused for feeling a bit agoraphobic (anxious about being in open spaces) when they hop aboard the latest T610 offerings out of Kenworth’s Melbourne factory. When you’ve spent years in the snug confines of the range’s traditional command centre, the extra width could come as a bit of a shock. Say “300mm” quickly and it doesn’t sound like much. Rate it as a percentage jump on its predecessor, though, and the 15% will leave you quite impressed. As detailed in editor Wayne Munro’s feature on the new range’s Australasian launch (New Zealand Truck & Driver, March), the all-new cab is the result of PACCAR’s Australian production arm coat-tailing on the $400million spend by the global company on the new Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt 579 in North America, their fundamentals being an immensely strong structure, primarily built from stamped aluminium, but with high strength steel in critical areas as well. The regional market has no way of supporting that level of investment, but embedding an Australian engineer in the project from the beginning ensured that local derivatives eventually could be spun off that took advantage of the super new architecture without carrying the cost of its development and automated assembly. Instead, around $20million was put to good effect in a unique regional interior, including a new injection-moulded dash and stronger firewall. Straight off the stick you’d not pick the trans-Pacific family DNA, for the overall looks of the Dynes Transport T610 that’s the subject of this month’s Goodyear Big Test are much closer to the T409 it’s replacing than the American T680. Whereas the Americans have gone for advanced aerodynamics and a car-like interior, the locals have stayed superficially with the tried and true...and very obviously so with the square-edged T610SAR.

But get up close with one of the newcomers and the changes are obvious. Not just the width, because as soon as you’ve finished exclaiming about that – and truth be told it was a change that was long overdue – the details are everywhere you look. They begin with the entry steps – three wide, deep and stable treads, ideally spaced and with the bottom one a comfortable stretch from the ground, that allow even then most geriatric of drivers or passengers to skip up with the agility of a mountain goat. A measure of how well crafted these steps are is seen in the fact that the truck offers only a single small grabhandle at the leading edge of each door opening. Nothing more is needed. Funnily enough, the doors don’t open all that wide, being limited by the side mirrors which are set lower and angled further back than on most trucks...but the width and stability of the steps means that this is not a negative. At the Australasian launch of the new model, PACCAR staff had delight in inciting journalists to swing off the open doors, and even the mirror housings, to demonstrate their strength. However, this is not something we’re going to put to the test the minute we meet up with driver Lindsay Wright and the T610 tanker combination on Dunedin’s Great King Street at 4.30 on a midweek morning. His shift started three hours ago, when he headed out of the Dynes Transport Dunedin yard south towards Balclutha and Fonterra’s nearby Stirling cheese factory. There, the unit has taken on around 29,000-litres of retentate, a high-protein byproduct of cheesemaking that’s destined for further processing into other products at Fonterra Clandeboye, 300 kilometres to the north near Temuka. This is Lindsay’s regular run as the day driver for what is normally a doubleshifted truck and trailer unit. Typically he’ll be back at Dunedin just after midday, with time to give the combination a quick wash before the night shift driver heads out to Stirling on another cycle. However, with the T610 yet to be fully bedded in,


the Kenworth T909 that has been doing the full run until now is continuing on the night shift. Today, Lindsay has had company for his first leg. NZ Truck & Driver publisher Trevor Woolston has been in the passenger’s seat since Dunedin, and has then driven the loaded combination from Stirling to the rendezvous with the balance of the magazine’s crew... who have appreciated the extra three hours of sleep. Lindsay is back at the wheel as we head out of Dunedin on State Highway 1 and face one of the benchmark challenges of the route, the climb up Pine Hill and onto the city’s northern motorway. The roundabout at the bottom limits the approach speed onto the first, steep pinch, but the 615hp Cummins X15 engine hauls the 50MAX combination up no sweat, despite it being loaded close to its permitted limit. Lindsay leaves the Eaton UltraShift Plus automated manual transmission in Drive, letting it make its own call on the ratios. We’re briefly in 9th, but back in 10th before the turnoff to Pine Hill Road and the right-hand curve onto the motorway. He’s impressed: “This is only the second week I’ve been with the truck, yet it’s handling the climb in pretty much the same ratios, and the same places for the gearchanges, as the T909 Kenworth I’ve just come out of on this run.” The T909, he explains, is also running to 50MAX and has the same power rating as the T610. Its engine is a Cummins ISXe5, of which the X15 is the latest development, and carrying the snappier new designation. However, the fundamentals of high pressure common rail fuel injection and combined EGR/SCR technologies to reach Euro 5 exhaust treatment standards are the same for both engines, so the fact the test truck’s brand-new X15 (just 2600km under its belt) is already matching the more freed-up ISXe5 bodes well for the future. There’s a major difference between the two drivetrains, however, and that’s the AMT in the T610 versus the manual Roadranger in the T909. And, despite the obvious benefits of the new Kenworth cab, the other tech advance with the T610 is arguably as important. This is what Cummins calls its ADEPT (Advanced Diesel Electric Powertrain Technology) suite of engine control functions, developed in conjunction with Eaton, whereby the engine and transmission control units are in constant communication, determining optimal engine torque outputs and shift points for best fuel efficiency. The torque function, SmartTorque in Cummins-speak, takes advantage of the ultra-precise fuel delivery offered by the common

rail injection to near-instantly change the engine’s output. The system continuously monitors the selected gear and overall engine load that results from the gross vehicle weight, aerodynamic drag and road grade, and chooses the torque map that will keep things in the ideal sweet spot. We see evidence of it in action on the climb up the motorway – and a little further on, ascending the Kilmog – in the shape of subtle differences in the shift points that seem primarily to be dictated by loading conditions. A minor but significant attribute of SmartTorque is how it smooths out the acceleration before an upshift – momentarily overriding the demand from the driver’s right foot – to ensure the change is as gentle as it can be. This is obvious on the test truck – the gear engagements are crisp and silky. The other major ADEPT feature, SmartCoast, operates when cruise control is engaged. On moderate downhill grades, the driveline disengages, allowing the vehicle to freewheel and the engine speed to return to idle. Braking or accelerating by the driver will override the system. Cummins claims that SmartTorque and SmartCoast combined can offer up to a 3% improvement in fuel economy. The company also says the DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) dosing rates for the X15 are some of the lowest among engines meeting comparable exhaust standards. An analysis of the Dynes Transport T610’s first full cycle, carried out by Cummins NZ automotive business manager Eric Carswell, showed that average fuel economy for the 630km trip was 2.03km/l and the DEF dose rate was 5.8% of fuel burn. The coast distance was 9% of the total. However, on the steeper parts of the two big climbs on our trip the system tries a little too hard to save fuel, hanging on to way below 1300rpm in 11th, with a consequent loss of momentum forcing a three-ratio shift back to 8th, then quickly back to 9th. There’s no panic from the electronics, the gearbox going about its work quickly and calmly, but an earlier response to the slope would have avoided the three-gear jump. After it performs this sequence on the Kilmog, Lindsay comments that in the T909 he’d have come back earlier to 10th, and would then be able to take the balance of the hill in that gear: “Usually in the T909 I’d drop a split from top just after the bridge at the bottom, keep the speed up, then two full changes and a split to bring me to 10th, still with good momentum.” But the thing with advanced electronics is their adjustability. Eric

The Kenworth will be doubleshifted for the new milk season, covering around 1200km a day


Main picture: Newcomer’s stainless steel tanks use double skins for insulation Top of page, left to right: NZ Truck & Driver’s Hayden Woolston demonstrates the strength of the mirror brackets; mirrors are set back to reduce blind spots; driver Lindsay Wright reckons his new mount is a cracker; instrument panel combines traditional layout with digital display

Carswell later reports that the Dynes truck had been equipped with a preproduction calibration in the engine, while the transmission settings were optimised for typical Australian conditions: “Since NZ Truck & Driver carried out its test, the production engine calibration has been released and the calibration and settings in the transmission refined, to further enhance the transmission shifting performance on steeper grades. These new calibrations will soon be installed in the truck’s control systems.” The test truck engine’s peak output has already been uprated, to 615hp (advertised as 600 by Cummins, following the practice of classifying its engines on their power at the 2000rpm maximum revs), but peak torque remains capped at 1850lb ft, which is the limit for the UltraShift FO-20E318B fitted originally. The 600’s torque can be raised to 2050lb ft when it’s matched with the FO-22E318B transmission. While the climbs up the motorway and the Kilmog have demonstrated the T610’s ability to handle 50-tonne all-up, the subsequent downhill runs put the retardation system equally to the test. The stretch from the top of the motorway at 360m to sea level at Waitati 8km away doesn’t look all that steep at first glance, and its bends are relatively sweeping, but its length makes it a relentless prospect for a heavy truck. Lindsay approaches the top conservatively, flicking the transmission into Manual, holding it in 11th for a while before cresting the top in 12th and then letting the truck cruise down in Drive, with the Cummins Intebrake in the second of it two settings holding the rig balanced. He explains why: “I don’t want it quickly shifting up a couple of gears before the

crest, and causing us to scramble to stop it getting away on the downslope. It doesn’t look too steep here, but you don’t want it getting away on you. It’s a long way down.” Closer to the bottom, at the beginning of the last steep drop, he slots it back to 11th, and again lets the engine brake hold it in that gear. Local knowledge helps, because the slope here is deceptive, far steeper than it looks at first glance. It can catch the unwary, he recalls: “A couple of years ago I had a truck from a North Island firm pass me here, going like the clappers, it was obviously his first time through here. I followed him for several kilometres, and all the while you could smell burning brake linings!” This stretch of the motorway has a notoriously rippled surface, but the Kenworth sails serenely over it. Our 50t all-up weight is playing a significant part, of course, but Lindsay reports that even unloaded the ride is good, better even than the T909 – itself typical of a Kenworth conventional in its good ride qualities – with little of the fore-aft kick between the steering axles you can sometimes experience with an 8x4. Lindsay’s quite a newcomer to Dynes Transport, having been with the company just five months. However, immediately prior to that he spent several years with another Dynes Group company, Dunedin Carrying, on similar contract tanker work for Fonterra during the milk season, converting to logs in the off-season. After Dunedin Carrying elected to concentrate fully on logs at the end of last year, he was approached by Dynes to specialise in tanker work. His driving career spans nearly 30 years, and follows a not untypical path, he explains: “I learned to drive on the family farm,


just outside of Mataura, carting hay and that sort of thing. When I left school I trained as a fitter/turner in Invercargill, then in the late ‘80s shifted to Dunedin. At the time jobs were not so easy to get in my trade, so I ended up driving on town deliveries for a couple of food distribution companies. With one, Javelin Distributors, I ran a six-wheeler Isuzu supplying chilled and frozen food to dairies and the like, as far north as Oamaru and down towards Gore. I then had five years with Tulloch Transport. One of the good things with them was the wide variety of work, which included quite a bit of longdistance driving.” He then spent some years away from driving as a rep with a farm machinery company in Gore, before getting back behind the wheel with Dunedin Carrying. He’s rapt to be in a new truck after such a short time with the fleet...though the T909 was no geriatric, being just two years old itself. At the time of our test, with just a couple of weeks to go till the end of the milk season, both the trucks are on the Stirling to Clandeboye retentate run. When the new season starts at the end of the year the T610 will then be doubleshifted, as was the T909 before it. As we head towards Palmerston there’s the chance to further investigate the smart new cab...and everything on offer backs up the first impression made by the entry steps. There seems no need to put the doors to the swing test, because they open and shut with the bank vault solidity of a luxury car, their operation enhanced by elegantly shaped chrome latches. Stitched leather door cappings and royal blue quilted lower panels

add to the ambience, as does the woodgrain finish to the fascia. Though the dash is all new, it doesn’t deviate much from the format established by previous Kenworth models. The main instrument panel carries a vertical row of three analogue gauges either side of the main speedo and tacho, with an LCD display above these two. This gives various temperatures, engine voltage, fuel use and trip details. More analogue gauges are set to the left of the main instrument panel, while a bigger LCD touch screen sitting in the middle of the fascia displays navigation and audio information, plus eight more analogue gauges, though this time virtual ones. As Lindsay comments, they’re easier to check at a glance than digital numbers. All the gauges mean you’re never lacking for information on the status of pretty much every component and subassembly in the truck. On startup the central screen betrays its North American origins (and possibly the test truck’s quasi pre-production status) with the Peterbilt logo, while Lindsay reports the navigation system currently offers only North American maps. Set lower on the fascia and easily accessible with the left hand is a row of rocker switches for diff locks, driving lights, engine brake on/off, while simple airconditioning and audio controls are further over. One of the switches triggers a light test function, turning on every exterior bulb so they can be checked on a walkaround. Smart. The little plinth for the gear lever has cubbies each side for cellphones, pens and the like, while a console box set centrally between the seats offers bottle holders and storage for cleaning gear, first-aid kits, beanies and gloves. This isn’t a standard item,


Clockwise from above: The Cummins X15 in the test truck has been rerated to 615hp, and handles its 50MAX loads well; the wider cab means a wider bonnet, and better access for maintenance; cooling system has been optimised for Aussie conditions; X15 is Cummins’ new name for the ISXe5

being a locally-sourced addition. Without it, comments Lindsay, cab storage would be barely adequate, for the balance is a couple of small gloveboxes and document slots above the windscreen, and a document bin on the back wall: “It’s a bit of a failing with conventionals, I’ve found. Of course, with sleeper cabs you couldn’t have a console...but then they have underbunk storage. And for day cab models like this, why not make a centre console box standard?” Another of the very few other gripes he has with the truck, he says, is the door open warning, triggered if the park brake is off: “All it needs to be is a beeper or buzzer inside the cab, but instead you get the air horns, full on, everyone within 100 metres hears about it. Often when you pull up to a silo to load up, you’re lining up the hose and open the door a bit to have a look. Next minute you’re waking everybody up! That’s just ridiculous.” The overall impression of the new cab is of solidity and quality. Even the fact that the dash mounting screws have their heads visible (if tucked discreetly into recesses in the surface) speaks of the care taken by the designers to ensure the truck keeps on keeping on without rattles. Hidden plastic clips are a certainty for being damaged when people aren’t fully familiar with their location. The screws allow for easy dismantling and reassembly while maintaining integrity. As we head from Palmerston towards Moeraki the eastern horizon is beginning to lighten. The stretch of coastline north of Shag Point is, as ever, dramatic – and a sight Lindsay says he never tires of: “Often when I hit here the sun’s just coming up. I’ve never seen two mornings alike.” The bends in this section of the highway show off the model’s steering to advantage, Lindsay commenting that it offers excellent feel and feedback: “You can be too isolated, I think one of the reasons people buy Kenworths is that they give a good sense through the seat of the pants of what’s happening at road level, and this one is certainly great in that respect.”

He singles out the five-axle Patchell trailer as a worthy partner in the handling package: “It tracks brilliantly. It just sits there, you’d never know it was hooked on.” Patchell has also built the tanks, a 14,000l unit for the truck and 21,000l for the trailer. They’re built in stainless steel, double skinned for insulation, meaning they don’t need the vinyl thermal covers used by several other Dynes Transport tanker units to maintain the temperature of the contents. On the rolling country to the south of Oamaru the Cummins SmartCoast system comes into its own. It’s quite an eerie sensation, hearing the revs drop to idle speed and the engine’s normal rumble suddenly fade. The system works really well, triggering the instant the truck crests any little rise in the highway and begins the subsequent drop. Attempting to react as quickly and accurately if you were trying to freewheel manually would be an impossible and wearying task, not to say foolishly risky, but electronics happily venture where humans dare not. Lindsay admits the SmartCoast caught him by surprise when he experienced it during his first trip with the T610: “Eric Carswell from Cummins NZ was with me, and he was waiting for it to kick in. “When I was growing up and learning how to drive one of the biggest no-nos was to put your foot on the clutch and let it freewheel. Now you’ve got the technology doing that itself – it’s funny how things change.” On a related subject, he finds the current overspeed setting for the new truck’s cruise control to be a little too generous: “On downhills with the cruise control on the T909 goes only to 93km/h before it backs off or triggers the engine brake. This one goes up to 96, so I’ve asked for it to be set a bit more conservatively. That would make me more comfortable.” It’s getting near full light as we approach Oamaru. The town can sometimes cost him a few minutes on the schedule, says Lindsay, but holdups are more common in Timaru, which on weekdays is


Above: You want gauges, you got them. Standard main instrument panel is backed up by three extra gauges further around the fascia, while the central display screen offers eight more virtual analogue gauges Right, from top to bottom: Rocker switches are easily accessible, climate control system works well; Eaton UltraShift Plus AMT works seamlessly with the engine control unit for optimal performance and economy; steering wheel offers handy remote controls for audio and cruise control

The doors open and shut with the bank vault solidity of a luxury car, their operation enhanced by elegantly shaped chrome latches always ramping up to the morning rush as he traverses it. As it is, he adds, the run isn’t a tight one timewise, but he likes to keep an eye on how he’s going, and uses a couple of waypoints as quick checks: “I’m generally into Palmerston two hours out from Stirling, and Glenavy on the other side of Oamaru is usually right on three hours. I also use the GPS to calculate expected arrival time, and generally ring the transport office at Clandeboye from around St Andrews, about 45 minutes out.” In Timaru, the traffic isn’t too bad, but the traffic signals near the botanic gardens, where the inner-city bypass branches left, challenge the composure of truck and driver, switching to orange at the worst possible instant. Lindsay, however, brings the heavy combination to a smooth stop on the downhill slope, the disc-braked T610 and the faithful trailer playing great support roles. This truck is the first KW in NZ with new Meritor EX225 discs front and rear. There isn’t much sensation of the cargo shifting in the tanks, despite them being barely 80% full at our 50t weight. Lindsay comments that though the tanks have multiple interior compartments – in our case, two in the truck unit and three for the trailer – weight transfer on hills can sometimes be problematic for the B-trains that make up part of the Dynes Transport tanker fleet: “If it’s wet coming up Pine Hill out of Dunedin in a B-train it’s a good idea to have the axle locks engaged, because you can lose traction when the weight comes off the drivers as the liquid shifts.”

With its tanks filled to capacity, the new Kenworth combination would be around 58t, and it’s likely it could be running at that under an overweight permit some time in the future. Half an hour later, at Clandeboye, after the truck has gone through a hoop wash to remove road and farm grime and has bypassed the queue of farm pickup units waiting to discharge their raw milk, Lindsay is pumping the retentate into its dedicated silo. With only the two deliveries of the product a day there’s never any waiting. A final water flush that cleans the retentate from the tanks would normally be followed by a couple more hot flushes at the main wash facility, but he’s just been told that today he has a back load of the ‘mother liquid’ that’s the final byproduct of milk processing, and it won’t be affected by a little retentate mixed in. It’s destined for Edendale in Southland, where it will eventually become a stock feed supplement. Because it’s not as temperature-sensitive as a lot of the other products, it will handle the overnight at Dynes’ Dunedin depot before Lindsay takes it on in the morning. Usually, he says, he gives the truck a thorough exterior wash at Clandeboye, but prefers to do the tanks at Dunedin, for the mineral content of the bore water at Clandeboye tends to mark the stainless. In a short while the tanks are full once more, and we’re headed south. As we climb out of Timaru towards Pareora, the UltraShift in 14th and the road speed 60km/h, Lindsay comments that this is


Top left: Entry steps to the new cab are as good as you’ll find on any truck – wellspaced, deep and wide Above: Air-operated safety rails aid greatly when tanks are being flushed out Left: Left and right hand fuel tanks of 450l each make for a generous capacity, but necessary with the distances covered doubleshifted Below: Five-axle Patchell trailer tracks beautifully, contributes to excellent overall handling

exactly what the fully run-in T909 does loaded on the same hill: “I reckon as it frees up, this one will get a lot better, for both performance and economy.” And, though the more spacious and luxurious cab is the initial attention-getter, this benefit conferred by the smart engine/transmission combination is naturally what fleet owners will consider the more important virtue of the new model...

though the fact the new Aussie cab lasted three normal cycles on the shaker rig at PACCAR’s US development centre without turning a hair also speaks volumes for longterm reliability. And beyond driver comfort and operator cost-savings lies the more intangible but no less significant aspect of brand image. Aussie Kenworth conventionals have never lacked for plainshooting toughness, but with the T610 the company has not only thrown out a scary challenge to competing American-brand models, it is coming eyeball-to-eyeball with Euro brands as well. T&D


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T’S A 1AM START IN DUNEDIN FOR THIS month’s Goodyear Trevor Test as I meet up with Lindsay Wright and his new ride, the Dynes Transport Kenworth T610. This truck is one of the first of Kenworth’s new conventional models to hit New Zealand roads. In cab and chassis form it was on show on the Southpac stand at the THE Expo in March, and has now been set up with Patchell tanks and a five-axle Patchell trailer. The tanks are empty, and we’re off to Fonterra’s Stirling cheese production facility near Balclutha for a load of retentate byproduct that’s destined for further processing at Clandeboye near Temuka. On the way down Lindsay fills me in on his limited experience of the truck so far and says he’s pretty happy with how it’s shaping up, but adds that it maybe could do with a bit more torque. Once we’re fully loaded at Stirling, I take the wheel for the run back to Dunedin. The first challenge comes almost as

soon as we leave the dairy factory, in the shape of a compulsory stop at the bottom of the climb out of town. It’s a good first up test for the combination of the 615hp Cummins X15 and the Eaton UltraShift Plus AMT. These two are bundled together with the new Cummins ADEPT electronics which allow the engine and transmission to better communicate. As we take off, the transmission picks up a couple of quick gears, but as the climb steepens it holds onto the next gear and lets the revs climb up closer to the 1800rpm mark before taking another gear. It’s obviously allowing for the steep gradient and it takes the next gear easily and continues to climb up the box as we make our way out of town. First impressions of the T610 Kenworth obviously centre on its all-new, wider cab – making the model feel very different to its bonneted predecessors. There’s a good amount of space between the seats, with a handy storage box with a liftup lid and, in

front of that, two open top boxes that will take a full size water bottle, plus cleaning gear and other oddments. The driver’s seat is a topend ISRI that is easy to adjust and gives great support. There is plenty of forward and aft adjustment and plenty of room for the driver to stretch out his legs with only two pedals in the footwell. As we head up to the top of the hill out of Stirling and on to SH1 I’m impressed with the headlights. On full they throw a bright, wide beam, while the pattern on dip still shows a good spread of the road. The side mirrors are very nicely positioned on strong, extremely stable mounts, which means no mirror shake at all. They are also set low and thereby avoid blind spots as you can easily look over the top of them. As we head out onto SH1 we are running along the top of a ridge line which the road follows with a series of rolling climbs and dips. At our 90km/h cruise-controlled speed


this allows another feature of the engine/ gearbox combination to come into play. This coast mode disconnects the gear drive and drops the engine revs to idle until such time as there’s need for throttle for an uphill or to maintain speed. As we drop off the ridgeline we get to see the engine brake in action and it controls our descent nicely, the engine downshifts a couple of gears as I reduce speed ahead of the drop and then I leave it up to the engine/gearbox combination which does the rest easily, with no brake applications needed. We hit our first major climb as we head up out of Mosgiel towards Dunedin and the transmission starts to drop gears. However, as we get into the harder part of the climb it tries to hold a gear too high, which leads to a drop in revs and then a quick drop down several gears to catch up, followed by a steady picking up of single gears back up to the optimum climbing ratio. It repeats this on the second major climb into Dunedin. Cummins

NZ has told us the ADEPT system can be reprogrammed to counter this. There is a bit of engine noise coming up through the cab and it’s a deep rumble that seems as if it could come from the exhaust system, which has a Y junction leading to low-level outlets on both sides of the truck. I wonder if the rumble comes from the Y in the pipes creating some vibration. Though the test truck produces a peak 615hp, its torque is not as comparable. Even so, its ADEPT and UltraShift Plus technology allow it to fight well above its weight in performance. All round, it’s a very nice truck to drive, and Lindsay is certainly looking forward to getting to know it better. He does raise the question of a bit more torque but says he will wait and see how it performs once the engine beds in. It is already doing what his previous T909 was doing on many of the hills he encounters. T&D

• SPECIFICATIONS • KENWORTH T610 8x4 Engine: Cummins X15 Euro 5 600 Capacity: 15.0 litres Maximum power: 460kW (615hp) @ 1800rpm Maximum torque: 2508Nm (1850lb ft) @ 1150-1700rpm Engine revs: 1460rpm @ 90km/h in 8th High Fuel capacity: 900 litres Transmission: 18-speed Eaton FO-20E318B UltraShift Plus AMT Ratios: Low Low – 14.40 Low High – 12.29 1st – 8.56 2nd – 7.30 3rd – 6.05 4th – 5.16 5th – 4.38 6th – 3.74 7th – 3.20 8th – 2.73 9th – 2.29 10th – 1.95 11th – 1.62 12th – 1.38 13th – 1.17 14th – 1.00 15th – 0.86 16th – 0.73 Front axles: Meritor MFS66-122, rated at 6600kg each Rear axles: Meritor RT46-160GP, combined rating of 20,900kg Auxiliary brake: Twostage Cummins Intebrake decompression engine retarder Front suspension: Taperleaf springs, shock absorbers Rear suspension: Kenworth Airglide 460, shock absorbers GVW: 28,000kg GCM: 97,000kg


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