T880 Mixer
The silver-gray T880 mixer chassis sure looked familiar as it sat near the entrance to Kenworth’s plant in Chillicothe, Ohio, on a cloudy May day. That was because “it’s a carbon copy of a Stoneway truck,” said Kurt Swihart, KW’s marketing director, one of the people on hand to greet me. He referenced a similar vehicle I had seen and ridden in out in Seattle last fall, during a sneak peek at the new Paccar MX-11 diesel. Sure enough, I said, although I’ve since looked at photos I had shot back then, and see that the medium-blue trim on the truck here doesn’t match the bright-red accents that Stoneway Concrete uses on its new fleet of T880s.
Still, the mechanical components are the same, including the McNeilus 11.5-yard barrel, the chassis’ 256-inch wheelbase, three steerable and liftable “pusher” axles, and the swing-down “booster” axle bringing up the rear. They work well with the T880’s set-back steer axle, which can shoulder up to 20,000 pounds. The booster tends to push weight forward, onto the steer and pusher axles, but also carries up to 13,000 pounds of its own and lengthens the truck’s legal “bridge” by about 15 feet.
Thus, in Federal Bridge states like Washington it can legally gross up to 80,000 pounds and carry up to 12 cubic yards, a yard more than older trucks that can gross 76,000. That means one of the new trucks can earn an average of $315 more revenue per day, and fewer short loads need to go out to finish a pouring job, according to Ralph Lo Priore, director of fleet assets and processes.
Specifications
The heart of the spec is the 10.8-liter MX-11 diesel, a lighter-weight alternative to the Cummins ISX12 and Paccar MX-13 diesels also offered, by about 400 pounds. Stoneway, a division of Gary Merlino Construction, is a launch customer for the MX-11. Lo Priore liked its promise of good reliability and longevity (its B10 life is projected at 1 million miles, meaning 90 percent of them should still be running at that point with no major repairs), and easy-to-service features. The 430-horsepower rating he chose provides a good power-to-weight ratio for the heavy loads, and a self-shifting transmission greatly reduces drivers’ workloads.
Learn more about Malone Specialty Inc’s “Replacement Metric Fittings”
Read more: T880 MIXER FOCUSES ON ENGINE, AXLES