This week’s look back to the world of trucking five years ago highlights an initiative started back in 2017, and one which seems to have come to full fruition this year, with the release of the K220 where Eaton and Cummins getting closer means that the new truck has a fully integrated driveline, just like its main competitors.
This video from the US shows us Eaton and Cummins getting closer as they offered a more integrated driveline to US truck buyers.
Of course the names have changed, the latest and most integrated driveline includes the Cummins X15 and the Eaton Endurant XD, the concept remains the same, but has matured significantly.
Story from October 5 2017
The gearbox is part of a comprehensive program where Eaton and Cummins are working very closely together to come up with a fully integrated package. The engine and transmission communicate seamlessly with each other and with whichever truck they are fitted into.
Both Eaton and Cummins have seen a series of developments in the US truck market making it more and more obvious the future for many truck buyers is to look at buying trucks with a proprietary driveline.
Volvo, Mack, Freightliner and Western Star are all available as a truck with a chassis, engine and gearbox all supplied by the same company. For Daimler Trucks the elements are branded as Detroit but are clearly from the same entity, Some elements on the Mack driveline are branded Mack, but come from the same source as the Volvo elements.
The odd ones out are International and the Paccar brands, Kenworth and Peterbilt. Paccar and International do have their own engines but no history with gearboxes. They also sell a lot of their trucks with someone else’s engine, Cummins. Transmissions come from either Eaton or Allison, but predominantly Eaton.
To protect their position in the US market, the two component suppliers, Eaton and Cummins have started to work more and more closely together top create a kind of ‘proprietary’ driveline for Paccar and International.
International have become more and more reliant on Cummins as their own engine program has been in some disarray following its failed 15 litre engine program which got into regulatory strife a few years back. At the time, Cummins stepped into the breach and supplied the engines to enable the Chicago-based truck maker to continue in the heavy duty truck business.
Paccar are in the engine business, but have not been willing to invest the kind of vast funds needed to develop a 15 litre engine to go in their heavy duty offering. Instead, the company has worked closely with both Eaton and Cummins to get a virtual proprietary driveline.
