International Truck and Engine’s Chatham, Ont. truck manufacturing plant will soon begin building a new conventional heavy-duty highway tractor for 2007. Details are sketchy – and photos unavailable — but it will be officially unveiled at the 2006 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. next March and the Truck World Show in Toronto the following month.

The truck will eventually replace the 9400i and the 9200i, although there are no plans to replace the 9900 series.

According to International, the new truck will focus on driver comfort, uptime, fuel economy, and out-of-motion costs. With the input of dealer and customer advisory boards, as well as eight field-test customers, the truck will boast “industry-leading” aerodynamics, cab environment, electronics, and ergonomics refinements. As well as sophisticated computer modelling in the course of developing the new truck, International says its designers went so far as to sleep in cabs and travelled to customer locations and truck stops to interview nearly 1500 drivers.

The truck will be available in multiple configurations – a daycab and sleepers of two lengths, 51 and 71 in. with multiple roof heights.

While the truck will be launched with Caterpillar and Cummins engine offerings, the company will eventually incorporate its 2007 EPA-ready big-bore engine, which is based on its German partner MAN Nutzfahrzeuge’s D20 diesel now sold in Europe.

Shipments to International dealers will begin in the first quarter of 2007.