A brand new Kenworth T680 76-inch mid-roof sleeper arrived at its final stop this morning after a cross-country tour with precious holiday cargo: the 51st U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The truck, assembled at Kenworth’s Chillicothe, Ohio Plant, hauled the 74-foot Lutz spruce from Tacoma, WA, over 3,000 miles eastward back to Chillicothe, also the childhood home of NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons and recent host of the 2015 State of Manufacturing Tour, where plant employees and the surrounding community celebrated the truck’s successful journey hauling its arboreal freight.
Employees at the Kenworth assembly plant in Chillicothe, OH, gather around the Kenworth T680 76-inch mid-roof sleeper tour truck and U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree trailer. (Photo/Caption: Kenworth press release)
“Kenworth’s Chillicothe employees really enjoyed seeing the Kenworth T680 they built return with the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. It’s quite an honor for Kenworth and our employees to play an important role in the Christmas celebration of our nation’s capital,” said Judy McTigue, Kenworth-Chillicothe plant manager, in a press release.
Kenworth T680 arrives at U.S. Capitol with tree in tow. (Photo: David Bohrer/NAM)
The truck then made its way south to Andrews Air Force Base before ultimately arriving in the nation’s capital early this morning. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will light the tree during a special ceremony on December 2, held on the south lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building.
The truck that hauled the tree is state-of-the-art – featuring a fuel-efficient combination of the PACCAR MX-13 engine and the Eaton Fuller Advantage 10-speed automated manual transmission. The truck also features new diagnostic technology, developed by Kenworth, to help optimize truck uptime and productivity.
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