CarBrandLogos archive · Peterbilt · 1987

Peterbilt379

Twenty years of long-hood chrome, and the last of the old-shape Peterbilts.

Photo: 55BelAirGasser · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Peterbilt history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Peterbilt 379, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The 379 took over from the 359 in 1987 and was built at Denton, Texas, until 2007. It kept the recipe intact: a Class 8 conventional with a long hood, an aluminium cab, a 6x4 driveline and a diesel chosen from whichever of Cummins, Caterpillar, Detroit Diesel or Paccar the buyer preferred. What changed was the detail work, with a squarer hood, better sealing and an interior that acknowledged drivers were living in these trucks for weeks at a time.

1987 Peterbilt 379 · 55BelAirGasser · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

Its customer was the owner-operator, and Peterbilt understood that this buyer was purchasing an image as well as a tool. The 379 was ordered with extended hoods, long sleepers, stainless trim and paint schemes that cost real money, and it became the default choice for anyone who wanted their truck to look like a truck rather than an aerodynamic wedge. Fleets buying on fuel economy went elsewhere, which was fine; the margins were in the individual sale.

In production

Tightening emissions rules and aerodynamic pressure eventually ended it. The 389 replaced it for 2008, evolutionary rather than new, because the shape was too valuable to abandon. The 379's other claim on the public memory came in 2007, when a red-and-blue flamed example became Optimus Prime in the first live-action Transformers film, putting a twenty-year-old truck design in front of an audience that had never thought about Class 8 tractors at all. Clean examples now sell for more than they cost new.

At a glance