Looking for a partnership with a chassis manufacturer to serve a niche market? Western Star is introducing several off-road chassis options for on- and off-road use as well as full-time off-road operations.
“This is an opportunity for you guys to take what you do on the truck side and leverage it into the off-road community, which is a whole new market globally and a whole new world,” Western Star’s John Tomlinson said at the CTEA Manufacturers Conference.
“We still have the 6900 for oilfield use as a truck for on- and off-highway,” Tomlinson said. “But for completely off-road applications, we are coming out with three packages to start—a 25-ton package, a 40-ton package and will soon come out with a 60-ton package.”
The XD Offroad chassis are suited for body installations or for towing heavy-duty trailers. Tomlinson said the packages will be standard. The off-road market does not like the wide variety of options that are available for on-road trucks.
Bodies, however, are another story. Western Star has a program with Carco Industries for an “open platform” concept in which bodies can be mounted and dismounted quickly. The hydraulic system stays on the truck, automatically adjusting when a different body is mounted.
“When you hook your body on that truck, the hydraulic system automatically senses what type of body it is, resizes all of the hydraulics and changes all of the switches at the same time. If the truck had had a dump body on it and the customer needs to use the chassis as a water truck, the system can tell that it has a tank on there.”
Tomlinson also discussed Western Star’s optional open-back cab that can be specified for building crew cabs or to provide easy access from the cab for sleeper or storage compartment applications.
Daimler Trucks North America, which includes both Freightliner and Western Star provides truck equipment distributors and other final-stage manufacturers with access to a variety of applications and resources that assist with truck spec and product support. They include:
• PartsPro allows easy identification of a vehicle’s originally installed parts. Specifications are available one day after the vehicle leaves the factory.
• EZWiring—an essential asset for service techs that offers easy access to wiring diagrams.
• ServiceLit technical information and documentation including driver’s, maintenance and workshop manuals.
• ServicePro advanced diagnostics that provide service advisors and technicians a user-friendly method to find possible solutions to difficult problems.
• ServiceLink to view and set configuration parameters, get easily understood fault code information, use the built-in diagnostic tools and tests designed specifically for today’s complex vehicles.
Systems are good for both Western Star and Freightliner products. ♦