Reporter reflects on Kenworth’s ‘W9’

Kenworth’s conventional-cab trucks originated in 1939, before I was born, and my first introduction to a W900 happened almost four decades later, in the summer of 1978.

I was observing the hauling of railroad freight cars in northern California. The cars were marooned at the end of a branch line cut off by a collapsed tunnel. The railroad had decided to abandon the unused line, so it hired a heavy-haul carrier to retrieve the cars and get them back on active rails and earning revenue. That got me into a W900A, a model dating to 1965. It was pulling a lowboy trailer with a boxcar aboard.

The KW was driven by a lanky guy – Steve, I think was his name – whose ruggedly handsome looks were good enough for a movie screen. But he was happy as a trucker and loved his ride. “This is a great truck,” he said of the W9, even while the knees of his long legs almost butted against the dashboard because the non-sleeper cab was both narrow and short. There was room between the seats for the gearshift but not a lot more, and he was working the lever and its range- and-splitter switches through the Fuller Roadranger’s 13 ratios. Under the hood was a Cummins NTC-400, which was big power at that time.

“Don’t you feel a little crowded in here?” I asked as he kept his knees just clear of the steel dash on either side of the steering column. “Naw, it’s fine,” he said. The smallish cab was about par for conventional-type heavy trucks of the day, which were designed when people were smaller. Years later, an optional rear extension added several inches of very useful leg and belly room to a basic cab, but in 1978, the cramped quarters – even in a “premium” truck – were no cause for Steve to complain.

Neither did I a year later, when I borrowed a 1979 W900 Aerodyne sleeper-cab tractor and 45-foot reefer trailer from the Los Angeles Kenworth dealer for one of my first road test articles. The tractor was metallic silver with red, orange and black stripes. It and the shiny aluminum-sided refrigerated van sparkled in sunlight and, aided by multiple amber and red lights, became a glowing single-vehicle parade in the urban evening of Orange County’s “Beach” cities – Huntington, Newport and Laguna, which I passed through on California Route 1. Very few semis used this stretch of road, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway. So this was an unusual sight, even though few revelers seemed to notice on this Saturday night.

Under this W9’s long hood was a two-stroke Detroit 8V-92, which emitted a busy howl through twin chromed stacks. In those days, you could get a KW, Pete, Freightliner and even a Ford or GMC with Caterpillar, Cummins or Detroit power. And, of course, Mack had its own line of diesels, long before proprietary engines became the norm from truck builders, as they are now.

Shortly afterward, in 1982, Kenworth upgraded the W900 to “B” status with a longer hood and slightly larger and stronger cab – basically the same aluminum structure still used today. In 1990 came the optional W900L, with 10 more inches of hood length to accommodate larger engines and bigger cooling systems. In the mid-‘90s, I drove a W9L with Cat’s first 500-horsepower 3406E. Both the engine and the daycab tractor were brand new, and I sincerely thanked the suburban Chicago fleet’s owner for allowing me behind the wheel.

I initially rode shotgun and watched Bob, the regular driver, as he moved a couple of large excavators. The first haul was local, and I was impressed that he knew how to start up the machine and drive it aboard the lowboy, then offload it into a field where it would dig basements for new houses. (He explained that he used to run excavators and other equipment for a living.) He carried skeleton keys to this and other machines in a small cardboard box under his seat. There was no storage niche for the box elsewhere in the cab, but he didn’t seem to care.

The second excavator, a Deere with a blown turbocharger, went to a repair shop farther south and east in Chicagoland. We used village streets and state highways because the load, with the excavator’s tracks protruding about 18 inches over each side of the lowboy, was too wide to fit through booths on the nearby Illinois Tollway (as this was way before “open-road tolling” with I-Passes and standard-width lanes). I drove most of this route, and the rig was a handful. At times, Bob instructed me to use two lanes, and motorists courteously allowed us the extra room. Once, I “got lost” in the 18-speed as I navigated down a hill, through a wide intersection and back upgrade. I had to stop and restart, red face and all.

Over the years, I was privileged to drive other W900s, upgraded with various amenities and advanced electronics, usually from KW factories in Chillicothe, Ohio, and Renton, Wash. And I came to appreciate them for their imposing presence, great ride quality and overall comfort, which improved as driver expectations and competitive pressures grew over the years. In 2018, I attended the unveiling of the then-new W990, which marked the beginning of the end for the narrow-cab W9.

In my article about the new model, with its larger and more comfortable cab, I described it as the successor to the venerable W900. But soon after that story appeared online, I got a phone call from Kenworth’s anxious PR manager. He reminded me of what was said in the presentation about the W990 – that it was not going to replace the beloved older truck, because Kenworth intended to keep producing the W900 as long as customers wanted it. The Chillicothe plant built W9s for another year, and Renton is still turning them out. But it will stop sometime in 2026, the company finally announced. So, if you still want the more traditional W9, you’d better get your order in. LL