S13 POWERTRAIN DELIVERS FUEL SAVINGS

When two companies — each with their own rich history and longstanding commitment to corporate and environmental stewardship — partner, the results are impactful.

Prairie Farms, an 87-year-old dairy co-op with 51 manufacturing plants and 101 branches across 26 states, follows the principle to “do right” for their animals, farms, families, employees, customers and communities. Their sustainable corporate stewardship goal involves choosing fuel-saving routes when delivering fresh dairy products from farm to table. Part of meeting that goal means spec’ing the right equipment.

Rush Truck Centers has done business with Prairie Farms for the past 13 years. When International’s S13 Integrated Powertrain Mobile Training Tour came to Springfield, Illinois, Chris Wilson, regional sales manager for Rush, recognized a fuel-savings opportunity for the Prairie Farms fleet.

As part of the mobile training tour, International LTs equipped with the S13 Integrated Powertrain haul an educational trailer set up as an interactive classroom that stops at International dealerships across the U.S. and Canada. Various components of the S13 Engine, T14 Transmission, and Dual Stage Aftertreatment System are highlighted so customers and dealer sales professionals could learn more about the intentional and simplified design of the powertrain. International subject matter experts and sales professionals are on-hand to provide interactive training exercises and highlight the simplified design for dealers, fleets and technicians.

After attending the Springfield tour and learning all he could about the S13 Engine, T14 Transmission, and aftertreatment system, Scott Nickell, corporate fleet manager, Prairie Farms Dairies, was impressed.

“The simplicity of the engine, instead of all this complicated ‘bolt this on here and add that there,’ really solved the need,” Nickell said. “The S13 is compliant for emissions standards, but it doesn’t have the significant increases in costs and it wasn’t this behemoth of a machine that even the best mechanic wouldn’t be able to work on.”

The simplified design of the S13 Integrated Powertrain delivers so well on fuel efficiency because of the dual aftertreatment and precision of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) dosing to eliminate NOx further. Because this aftertreatment is so good at reducing tailpipe NOx emissions, the engine can simply be an engine and not be tasked with a second job of emissions reduction. Therefore, the need for an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler is eliminated.

The elimination of the EGR cooler means operators no longer experience expensive hardware compromises that come with it. Removal of the EGR cooler also helps reduce carbon buildup that historically caused numerous maintenance issues.

After walking out of the educational trailer, Nickell ordered four International LTs with the S13 Integrated Powertrain.

“We are seeing the miles-per-gallon increases that we were hoping for — anywhere from the 12 to 14% range,” Nickell said. “Putting the S13 into our fleet of vehicles was an opportunity to improve our fleet in many different areas.”

The International S13 Integrated Powertrain 2025 Mobile Training Tour continues to show how all the components of the powertrain contribute to superior operating economy, stellar performance, simplicity and serviceability. The greatest results, however, come from the real savings that fleets like Prairie Farms see every day.