In the quiet southern Ohio town of Chillicothe, there’s a lively stretch of road lined with lots full of bright and shiny new Class 8 Kenworth trucks—mostly T680 tractors, with some T880s and W990s scattered about. They come from the half-million square-foot Kenworth truck assembly plant sprawling across the rural landscape. The trucks, which will soon include the T680 Next Generation, are mostly complete when they roll off the line, but rarely are two fleets or truckers exactly alike, so sometimes additional equipment and technology are added just a few hundred yards north at upfitter Fontaine Modification.
“The niche we fill is anything that the customer needs and the OEM does not provide,” explained Don Philyaw, Fontaine’s VP of business development, during a site visit in late February.
This typically means smaller HVAC and power components which would typically slow down production for the OEM.
“We do a lot of different upfitting here, things as simple as installing cameras, auxiliary power units, to collision avoidance systems," Jeff Kolner, director-Paccar operations for Fontaine, said. "We also do a lot of wet kits, blowers, pumps for different kinds of applications—some refuse, oil and gas."
Standing beside a Kenworth T800 day cab, Kolner noted the facility had just installed a power takeoff unit and a camera system, and applied additional corrosion protection, along with other light modifications.
The alterations also can range from graphics stuck to the cab to lift axles and roll-off and hook-lift bodies.
“We are expanding into more highly engineered solutions in the coming months,” Kolner said. “For example, we offer a dual steering solution for the K370 cabover truck primarily for a street sweeper/street striper application.”
Sometimes, fleets will also send trucks from outside Ohio to get worked on there, due to Fontaine's expertise.
Truck culture
“The thing I like about this is the diverse workforce we have, as far as abilities and capabilities,” Kolner said.
Several of the ProBuilt technicians stayed on and joined Fontaine Modification when the facility changed hands in 2019, which was “really fortunate” because they are “highly trained,” Philyaw added.
“These people understand how to do different aspects on the truck, whether it's installing a lift axle on the rear, or installing electronics onboard the cab of the truck,” Philyaw said. “So they get a good range of experiences while they're here and as we go we make sure we retain them by having a competitive salary and, of course, treating people right.”
He also noted that the Kenworth plant, which opened in 1974, has spawned generations of natural truck enthusiasts--a real benefit when it comes to recruiting and retaining new technicians.
“We're fortunate because a lot of the employees that are in the area have generations of family that have worked for the Kenworth operation,” Philyaw said. “That means that you've got a good culture of people who understand trucks, who like to work on trucks. And that provides almost a better drawing pool for us when we look for talent than we would see in some of the bigger cities.”.
Overall, the 10 technicians at the 30,000 sq.-ft. facility work on about 700 trucks a year. This represents just a small fraction of Fontaine Modification’s overall footprint. In total, the division of Marmon Holdings (which itself is owned by Berkshire Hathaway) processes 36,000 trucks annually at 11 locations.
They are all strategically positioned at leading OEMs from Detroit for Ford to Dublin, Va., for Volvo. Ohio has two additional sites: one for Ford in Avon Lake and another for Navistar in Springfield.
“Certainly the number of locations we have and where they're strategically located at each OEM is a big help as far as keeping down logistical costs as well as minimizing the time at the upfitting stage,” Kolner said. “It's also you more cost effective in the freight channel.”
Engineering focus
Engineering is another big part of the business, and Fontaine has quietly been on the leading edge of the zero-emission trucking movement.
“We're not a battery-electric provider ourselves, but we have helped provide the avenue to market for several providers," Philyaw said. "We've installed battery electric systems on board vehicles as small as a Ford Transit, and we've installed them on bigger trucks, up to mid-size trucks.”Most recently Fontaine has worked on Class 8 solutions with companies such as Hyzon Motors.
Fontaine also helped Hyliion with early engineering and parts retrofitting on its Hypertruck ERX, which uses onboard CNG/RNG generators to charge the battery and expects to reach range parity with diesel trucks at about 1,000 miles per fuel up.
In this respect, upfitters such as Fontaine have a vital role in accelerating the development of real, practical alternative vehicles that will comply with stricter environmental standards, while not totally disrupting the way fleets operate, move goods, and perform work.
“As we move toward an electrified future, if that’s what coming down the road, we're playing the part in this equation of solving how the new technology gets into the marketplace, and how it can serve the public,” Philyaw said. “While the path forward may not be totally clear, different paths are being explored, and we’re helping those companies do that.
"And then, for a period of time, I’m sure we'll be installing the final solutions until the OEMs pull them within each factory.”
But there will always be new problems for Fontaine Modification to engineers to solve and trucks for their technicians to build.