At last week’s Atlanta Truck Show there were two major announcements from transmission makers that will shake up things in the self shifter market over the next couple of years. Both Allison and the new Eaton Cummins joint venture announced new gearboxes.
The Eaton Cummins automated transmission technologies joint venture, formed between the two companies just five months ago introduced its first product here at the show: a 12-speed AMT dubbed the Endurant.
General manager of the joint venture, Scott Davis said that the Endurant is a purpose-built, clean sheet design, linehaul AMT that incorporates more than 400 hours of direct customer input.
“That customer input was deliberate; we wanted to get it into the process before we even began designing the product,” he explained.
“We wanted to translate the needs of the fleet manager, truck driver, and technician into its architecture; we literally did not have a design ready when we sought this customer input.”
Davis said the development of the Endurant was already well underway before the joint venture with Cummins but that by adding in Cummins engine knowledge, the integration within a complete powertrain went much smoother.
Paccar will be the first maker to introduce the Endurant to its models with the new AMT to be launched in the Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt Model 579 once it is in full production later this month.
