Peterbilt

Peterbilt Motors Company
Division
Industry Truck Manufacturing
Founded 1939
Headquarters Denton, Texas
United States
Products See listing
Parent Paccar
Slogan Class Pays
Website www.peterbilt.com
Peterbilt assembly plant and headquarters in Denton, Texas.
Peterbilt 379 truck model.

Peterbilt Motors Company, founded in 1939 in Oakland, California, is an American manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty Class 5 through Class 8 trucks. It operates manufacturing facilities and has its headquarters in Denton, Texas. It also has a factory in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec.

Facilities

From 1939 until the mid-1980s, the company was based in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. The original plant was in Oakland, which closed and in 1960, to move to Newark, California, also in the East Bay. Its headquarters and a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant opened in Newark in October 1960. Truck production there ended at the close of 1986. Division headquarters and engineering remained in Newark until 1992, when a new administrative complex and a new engineering department at the Denton plant were completed. The new Madison/Nashville plant opened in 1969 in Madison, Tennessee, for the east-coast market. Originally it only manufactured the 352/282 cabover, then conventional production began in the 1970s, until it was closed in 2009. Production of class 8 trucks continues at the Denton, Texas plant.

History

In the early part of the 20th century, Tacoma, Washington plywood manufacturer and lumber entrepreneur T.A. Peterman was faced with a lumber logistics problem. He could not get logs from the forest to his lumber mill quickly or efficiently. He sought to improve upon the methods of the day: floating logs down river, or the use of steam tractors and horse teams. Peterman knew that if he could develop the then-nascent automobile technology and build trucks, he could solve his problem.

Peterman was rebuilding surplus army trucks, improving the technology with each successive vehicle. Then he put a battery on the starter (instead of the crank) and soon purchased the assets of Fageol Motors of Oakland, California in 1938 to supplement his need for a custom built logging truck chassis. Fageol had gone into receivership in 1932. By 1938, the Great Depression had driven the value of the assets to nearly zero. Peterman acquired the defunct truck manufacturer and although he produced two chain-drive logging trucks, they were unsuccessful. In 1939 he began selling his trucks to the public. T. A. Peterman died in 1944. His wife, Ida, sold the company (less the land) to seven individuals within the organization. They expanded it into a major producer of heavy-duty trucks. In 1958, Ida Peterman announced plans to sell the land to develop a shopping center. The shareholders, not wanting to invest in a new manufacturing facility, sold the company to Pacific Car & Foundry Co., then primarily a manufacturer of railroad freight cars, which was looking to expand its truck manufacturing presence. Pacific Car & Foundry Co, which had acquired the assets of Kenworth in 1944, was already a competitor in the heavy truck market. In June, 1958, they acquired Peterbilt Motors as a wholly owned subsidiary. One year later, Pacific Car started construction of a modern 176,000-square-foot (16,400 m2) manufacturing facility in Newark, Calif. In August, 1960 Peterbilt moved to the new facility and became a division of the parent firm. Pacific Car and Foundry Co. changed its name officially to PACCAR in 1971.

Peterbilt Models

Peterbilt 386 (2009)

Peterbilt model numbers traditionally started with a "2" for single drive rear axle tag axle models, and with a "3" for dual drive rear axle model from 1939 until 1981 with the 362. Peterbilt eliminated this distinction in the late 1970s.

2008 and beyond

Sleepers

In the 1960s and 1970s, 30" and 36" sleepers were available. If a buyer wanted a larger sleeper, Peterbilt worked with Mercury Sleepers for 40", 60", and custom sized sleepers. Mercury would paint the sleeper to match the factory paint or the sleeper came with polished quilted aluminum. In 1978 Peterbilt's engineers were tasked with making a bigger sleeper. They designed the 63" sleeper with rounded doors and a walk-through from the cab. The sleeper debuted on a 359-127" and can be seen in the 1978 brochure "Best in Class". This truck also featured the first set of rectangular headlamps. The first raised roof (high cube) sleeper was on a 359 in 1986 and with changes (no right hand forward door) carried through to the 379 family. In 1994 the Unibilt sleeper debuted with air-ride suspension for the cab and sleeper with a large cab to sleeper opening. The Unibilt sleeper suspension had a one piece shock/air bag mount system from 1994 to 2006, until Peterbilt redesigned the suspension system for the 2007 model year, making the shock and air bag system on separate brackets. The Unibilt cab/sleeper option allowed for the sleeper to be removed for a daycab conversion. The UltraSleeper was Peterbilt's largest and most luxurious. At 70" long, it featured a right-hand access door, table, closet and a small "wet closet" accessible from the driver's side to store boots, gloves, and other 'damp' items. The last UltraSleeper was built in 2005.

See also

References

External links

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