Sleeper-bunk restraints may not hold occupants in a crash on 310 new Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks

PACCAR Inc. has recalled 310 trucks from its 2027 model year because the belt webbing on the sleeper-bunk restraint was not secured properly during manufacturing. The campaign, numbered 26V674000, reached the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Oct. 14, 2026 and covers Peterbilt and Kenworth models built for long-haul work. The agency record says the restraint may not adequately restrain occupants in a crash.

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Seven models and one assembly error

The recall names seven specific models, all from the 2027 model year. On the Peterbilt side they are the 567, the 579 and the 589. On the Kenworth side they are the T680, the T880, the W900 and the W990. Both brands are PACCAR products, and the filing is made by the parent company, which assigned the campaign its own internal recall number, 26PACH.

The defect is described in the agency’s recall data as “Bunk Restraint Webbing Not Secured Properly,” and the summary text says the belt restraint webbing for the sleeper bunk “was not secured properly during manufacturing.” That is an assembly problem, not a design flaw: the part is meant to work, but on the affected trucks the webbing may not have been fixed in place the way it should be. The consequence line says the restraint “may fail to adequately restrain vehicle occupants during a crash,” which raises the risk of injury.

The figures come from the federal recall dataset published by the Department of Transportation, which lists the campaign with 310 potentially affected vehicles. The record does not say how many of those trucks have reached customers, nor does it report any crash or injury connected to the defect. For a recall this size, the exposure is limited to a single model year and a few hundred cabs, a small slice of the heavy-truck market but a significant one for the fleets and owner-operators who specify sleeper cabs with a bunk and spend nights aboard them.

What the dealers will do, and when letters arrive

The remedy is a dealer inspection. According to the record, “Dealers will inspect and replace the bunk restraints, as necessary, free of charge.” The phrase “as necessary” matters: the filing treats the inspection as the first step, and a replacement follows only where the webbing is found to be improperly secured. Owner notification letters are expected on Dec. 13, 2026.

Those letters follow a set format. Under the notice rules in 49 CFR Part 577, a manufacturer must describe the defect, evaluate the safety risk, and state that the fix is provided without charge. The same rules say the notice must go out within 60 days of the manufacturer filing its defect report, which is the clock behind the December mailing date.

Fleet managers and owner-operators do not need to wait for the mail. The agency’s VIN-based recall lookup lets a truck owner enter the 17-character identification number and see whether a repair remains open, with the caveat that very recent campaigns may not yet list every affected vehicle.

The federal filing and a sister recall

The manufacturer’s report to the safety agency is a regulated document. Under 49 CFR 573.6, a manufacturer has five working days after determining that a defect is safety-related to file, and the report must state the total number of vehicles potentially containing the defect and a description of the defect, including its safety risk. The 310-truck count and the one-line defect statement in the PACCAR record are those two required elements. Because the report must also cover the safety risk, the crash-restraint language in the consequence line is the manufacturer’s own assessment of what a failure could mean for someone in the bunk, not a regulator’s finding after an investigation.

PACCAR had another large truck recall in the same model year only weeks earlier. Campaign 26V544, filed with a Part 573 report dated Sept. 2, 2026, covers 811 trucks across the same Peterbilt and Kenworth families, but for a different problem: some seat-vent harnesses were built without heat-shrink on resistor and diode ends, which can cause a short circuit. The report for 26V544 says production ran from about mid-March to mid-July 2026 and advises owners not to drive the trucks and to park them outside. Its model list breaks out the Kenworth T680 at 248 trucks, the T880 at 193, the Peterbilt 589 at 137, the 579 at 100, the Kenworth W990 at 82 and the Peterbilt 567 at 51, so a truck owner whose cab appears on both lists could be dealing with two separate dealer visits.

The two campaigns share a model year and a manufacturer, but nothing else about the defect. The bunk-restraint recall carries no stop-driving instruction in the record reviewed here, and its fix is an inspection rather than a wholesale parts swap.

For the 310 trucks involved, the sequence is short and dated: the defect was reported on Oct. 14, dealers will inspect and replace as needed, and owners should receive letters on Dec. 13, 2026. What the record leaves open is how many of the restraints turn out to need replacing.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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