PACCAR RECALLS KENWORTH, PETERBILT TRUCKS

2/10/2014 2:00:00 PM | By Truck Fleet Management

Paccar Inc. said it is recalling more than 21,000 trucks for potential defects to door latches and seat belts, according to a notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.

The recalls involve various 2013 and 2014 Kenworth and Peterbilt models, Paccar wrote to NHTSA in a letter outlining the recalls. Paccar is the parent company of Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co.

Included in the door latch recall are 7,292 Peterbilt 567 and 579 models manufactured between Jan. 20, 2012, and Oct. 11, 2013. Also included are 6,746 Kenworth T680 from the same model years that were manufactured at around the same time.

The seat belt recall is for 5,276 units of a range of brand Kenworth model year 2014 — including T660s  and T680s — as well as 5,138 Peterbilts, also for the current model year and also for a range of brands. Those trucks were manufactured between early August and early November of last year.

Paccar told NHTSA that it will notify owners and dealers of the defects by the end of February and that it will replace the seat belt buckles and door-latch assemblies, if needed, free of charge.

The truck makers did not respond to a request for comment Feb. 10.

The seat belts — made by Westfield, Ind.-based Indiana Mills and Manufacturing Inc. — fail to conform to federal standards in which it may take more effort than is standard to separate the latch plate from the buckle, NHTSA said.

The door latches were made by component maker Inteva Products, based in Troy, Mich.

Daimler Trucks North America, Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks issued recall notices in January over the same seat belt issue involving IMMI’s L9 seatbelt model. Those recalls included more than 26,000 of Daimler’s Freightliner models and 5,000 Volvo models.