If you’re of driving age in the United States, you’ve almost definitely seen thousands of Kenworth W900s on the road in your life. Spend any time traveling our country’s interstate system and you’ll spy several eating up the miles with a tall set of exhaust stacks and a trailer in tow. Amazingly, the W900 has been around since 1963, though Kenworth announced this week that it’s canceling the iconic semi-truck next year. If there was ever a time to pour one out, this might be it.
As you could have guessed, Kenworth is sunsetting the W900 due to ever-changing emissions regulations and component constraints. The manufacturer is also discontinuing the T800W and C500 for the same reasons. You hate to see it, though it’s worth noting that electrification isn’t mentioned anywhere in the announcement.
The moment isn’t lost on Kenworth, as the brand’s assistant general manager for sales and marketing Kevin Haygood had this to say about the W900’s status in American culture:
“The W900 is truly historic in that it’s helped shape North American trucking culture and tradition as we know it today. Often seen at truck shows, featured in movies and on TV, and shown at other events, it’s an iconic truck that’s cherished for its classic styling by our customers and truck aficionados. While production of these trucks is coming to an end, we look forward to seeing them on our roads and at truck shows for many years to come.”
Perhaps the best-known W900 in all of history is the black and gold rig from Smokey and the Bandit. While most car people wanted Burt Reynolds’ Trans-Am, I’ve always been more interested in Jerry Reed’s Kenworth. I know I’m not alone in that as countless replicas have been made over the years for super truckers to enjoy.
Seeing as the W900 first hit American highways 62 years ago, it has evolved considerably from its original form. While they once ran smoky CAT and Detroit Diesel engines, new models are typically powered by the Cummins X15. Come to think of it, the W900 might be the only semi left standing that once came from the factory with a twin-stick manual transmission. Talk about longevity.
Kenworth made so many W900s over the past six decades that we’ll be seeing them around for a lot longer, as Haygood mentions. There’s no telling what the production totals are, though Kenworth celebrated its millionth truck built in 2014 and you can bet a big portion of that has been W900s. Others have come and gone but the W900 has stuck around for its versatility in all kinds of applications, from long-haul and heavy-haul to logging operations and more.
W900 order books will remain open in the coming months as Kenworth says a final call will be made in late 2025.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com