Ridiculous Rebadges: A Euramerican Menagerie of Trucks

"Amoore100" (amoore100) 02/29/2016 at 22:47 • Filed to: Ridiculous Rebadges, Kenworth, DAF, Peterbilt, Leyland, Volvo, Renault

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Welcome to Ridiculous Rebadges, a series of articles in which I go through and examine the details and circumstances surrounding some of the more infamous and some of the more esoteric vehicular rebadges throughout automotive history.

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This week’s RR has another truck related article, not unlike last time’s Japanese-American relationship between Ford, Mazda, and International. As with that joint venture, this one concerns a cab which has emigrated overseas, in this case, from the Netherlands/France. This is the Kenworth K270/370 and Peterbilt 210/220. For two generations now, the DAF LF cabin has been used atop an American chassis for these two U.S. cabover delivery trucks. Much like the Mazda/Ford/International, they are assembled in Mexico. However, what is interesting is that the DAF LF is an evolution of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a truck which is only notable for a very odd front window. Anyways, this means that the cabin is painted and trimmed in Great Britain at the old Leyland plant, and built in France (or at least was at some point) by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Finally, as if not confusing enough, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . However, none of these is quite as relevant because they do not share the striking similarity that the American twins have to their Dutch cousin. Because of PACCAR’s purchase of Leyland and DAF in the late ‘90's, they have been able to use DAF technologies to improve their engines and meet more stringent emissions regulations, as well as occasionally steal cabs when they need a new medium delivery truck. So, if you, like me, are an avid player of Euro Truck Simulator 2 and have seen these Kenworths and Peterbilts around town and thought they looked familiar, you’re not wrong. This is international commerce at its finest.

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First Generation DAF LF Euro 5

First Generation Kenworth K270/370 - Peterbilt 210

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DAF LF Euro 6

Second Generation Kenworth 270/370 - Peterbilt 220

Sources:

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pip bip - choose Corrour > Amoore100 03/01/2016 at 02:08

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didn’t realise Peterbilt were selling trucks again.

i thought they folded?

Nibbles > pip bip - choose Corrour 03/01/2016 at 09:49

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Nope, they’re still going strong.

They did stop building the 379 in 2007 though, so I can see why some would think they gave up altogether ;)

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/01/2016 at 13:22

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Odd to see conventional trucks with an unfamiliar American name and with what look like torque converter gearboxes.

Amoore100 > Cé hé sin 03/01/2016 at 19:28

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DAF has stuck to CVTs in their trucks, right? Or am I mistaken in thinking that...

Amoore100 > pip bip - choose Corrour 03/01/2016 at 20:36

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As Nibbles says, they’re still pretty ubiquitous despite the discontinuation of the 379.

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Now there’s the 389 to take the spot as an iconic flagship...

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And the 579 is their new modern top-of-the-line sleeper.

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/02/2016 at 10:13

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DAF never made CVT trucks, just cars. The trucks use bog standard ZF manuals and automated manuals.

Meet an automated manual control switch.

Amoore100 > Cé hé sin 03/02/2016 at 19:54

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Oh, I was wondering since their legacy in CVT’s is so evident that it would seem odd not to have them in their trucks as well, although I would assume a standard gearbox would be easier to maintain and likely better for heavy hauling. Also, what denotes that as an automated manual switch? To me it just looks like an automatic with the standard PRND and low gears (I’ve always been curious after seeing the mysterious dials on ETS2...)

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/03/2016 at 06:22

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CVTs haven’t up til now had enough torque capacity to cope with a large engine and they’re also inefficient. Not used on trucks then, although you can now get CVT tractors.

You can operate an automated manual with any kind of control you like - Volvo use a conventional lever, DAF use that dash mounted switch with a manual override behind the wheel, other makers use a column mounted control. The one in the picture operates a ZF AS Tronic as used by DAF. The tortoise positions at each end are for low speed manoevering - I think the clutch engages earlier.

This is DAF’s previous setup:

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And here’s a Volvo one, very commonly used on long distance buses as well as trucks:

No P position because of the weight - if you held a 40 tonne truck in Park you’d never get it out of it again !

Conventionally automatic buses usually have pushbuttons like so:

Amoore100 > Cé hé sin 03/05/2016 at 13:58

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Got it! So how does this differ from the set up in the American Peterbilt and Kenworth? (I’m learning a lot here...)

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/05/2016 at 15:39

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I live in a part of the world without American trucks but I understand American buyers are surprisingly slow to adopt automated manual ‘boxes and they prefer to stick with 18 speed manuals, a picture of which I find that I can’t insert now because Kinja but they’re five speed boxes with a high and low range giving five low and four high gears (one of the gears is a very low one which isn’t used in high range). Each of these nine can be split into high and low giving 18.

Amoore100 > Cé hé sin 03/05/2016 at 18:08

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Got it, so it’s a bit out of the norm for these cabovers to have push button transmissions compared to the normal American traditional gear lever.

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/05/2016 at 18:40

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But not unknown.

Amoore100 > Cé hé sin 03/05/2016 at 20:29

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But that’s an Iveco, which is European last time I checked...

Cé hé sin > Amoore100 03/06/2016 at 05:19

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Yes, they’re Italian. That’s my point, so far as I know they’re the only European truck maker to use buttons.