The story of the Western Star X-Series began back in 2014/2015, when the winner of the Truck of the Year Australasia 2024, the Western Star X Series was a long time in the making. At that point in time the team at Penske Commercial vehicles first started looking at a model range to take the brand through the 2020s.

Those trucks are on the ground and here now, so PowerTorque has looked into the origin story of this ground breaking range of trucks for the Australasian market.

This is a story of bringing new levels of safety and efficiency to the brand, without compromising the qualities the brand had been built on over the last 40 years.

The engineering team worked to improve the cooling package performance on the new driveline in a few key ways. They optimised the radiator packaging and placement to handle the increased heat from lower emissions components.

Image: Penske Australia/Supplied

The radiator needed to remain being fitted relatively high for protection and also achieving the high cooling requirement needed.

The team in Australasia worked on extensive testing and simulations, alongside the Western Star team in Portland in the US, to ensure the cooling system could handle the demands of a 220 tonne GCM truck. When working on the cooling package for the 49X model it was decided they needed to lift the cab to achieve the necessary airflow and cooling.

During development, testing of the cooling package performance in extreme environments was vital, in conditions like the Australian outback to ensure durability

As is the case with all of the trucking applications ion our region, overall durability was paramount, with the team noting past issues with turbo failures and overheating that other brands had experienced.

Truck dimensions are also an important factor in suitable design with bumper to back-of-cab fit and space to improve airflow and heat dissipation for the engine and emissions components taken into consideration.

It wasn’t just about lighter and stronger, it also had to meet wheelbase and packaging requirements. Square fuel tanks were also a necessity, so this meant getting the crossovers in the frame in the right locations to support the tank package and ground clearance.

Image: Penske Australia/Supplied

Western Star has always had the bonnet mounted off the chassis rail ensuring stability in the bonnet and enhancing the durability in the bonnet. The bonnet on the X Series was to be made of resin to take the weight out of it, but also make it stronger.

“In North America the Western Star is specifically designed and targeted for the vocational segment,” says Kurt.

“The conditions of the average vocational market truck in the US is like, ‘welcome to Australia’, and that segment was absolutely achieving, they were mounting equipment off the front of the frame, working in the tri-drive sector and running multiple axle configurations.

“That whole frame rail design was what we needed here. It had come out of those heavy Canadian logging applications and those heavy mining applications over there. They’re really custom built over there, they don’t have 1000 truck fleet orders of that cookie cutter truck.

“X Series, predominantly in the US, in the vocational segment, built in Portland, Oregon, and that’s where ours are built.”