Kenworth
Kenworth is a manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty Class 8 trucks based in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. It is a subsidiary of PACCAR.
Kenworth has manufacturing plants in Renton, Washington, Chillicothe, Ohio, and Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec.
Founded in 1923 by Seattle businessmen Edgar Worthington and Harry Kent (son of Frederick Kent, a partner in the predecessor company, Gersix Motor Company), taking the first three letters of "Kent" and the first five of "Worthington", the company was born, capitalized with $60,000. The following year the company sold 80 trucks. In 1933 Kenworth became the first truck maker in the United States to switch from gasoline to diesel engines. They were one of the first to come out with a cab-over-engine, or COE, model in 1957.
Some popular North American Kenworth models include the T600, W900, and T2000.
Australasian models are assembled at Kenworth's Bayswater facility in Victoria, Australia. Popular models include the T604, T904, T350, T401/404, K104 (C.O.E.) and C510.
Kenworth rigs in movies and television
- A Kenworth W-900A tractor was used as the truck Jerry Reed's character "Snowman" drove during the film Smokey and the Bandit
- A Kenworth K-100 V.I.T. (Very Important Truck) Aerodyne cabover, or COE, tractor was used in the popular television (TV) series BJ and the Bear
- A Kenworth W-900 V.I.T. was used in the TV series Movin' On and was owned and driven by Sonny Pruitt (Claude Atkins)
- A Kenworth T-2000 was used in The National Network's TV series 18 Wheels of Justice
- Three specially modified Kenworth W-900Bs were used in the James Bond movie License To Kill
See also
- Peterbilt (Kenworth's sister company in PACCAR)
- Class 8 Trucks
- Semi-Trailer
- PACCAR
- Dump Truck
External links
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