Six Commercial Vehicle Recalls Hit Freightliner, Peterbilt, Kenworth and Autocar Trucks Over Headlights, Brakes and Power Boxes

What Was Recalled?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted a batch of commercial vehicle safety recalls on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, reported the same week by the trade publications Trucks, Parts, Service and FleetOwner. The commercial and heavy-vehicle campaigns are:

• Daimler Truck North America — 23,276 vehicles. Certain 2026–2027 Freightliner EM2, Freightliner Custom Chassis S2RV, Freightliner Custom Chassis S2C and Freightliner Business Class M2 vehicles. A software error may cause the low beam headlights to illuminate improperly; insufficient low beam illumination can reduce driver visibility and increase the risk of a crash. The remedy is still under development, and owner letters are expected to be mailed Sept. 20. DTNA recall F1036; NHTSA campaign 26V475.
• Paccar (Peterbilt and Kenworth) — 5,919 vehicles. Certain 2027 Peterbilt and Kenworth models. The power distribution center box may be contaminated with oil, which the notice says could result in a loss of drive power, anti-lock brake function, exterior lighting, windshield wipers or the defogging system — a failure that puts the vehicle out of compliance with three federal motor vehicle safety standards at once (numbers 103, 104 and 108). Dealers will inspect the box serial numbers and replace boxes as necessary; interim letters are expected Sept. 25. Paccar recall 26PACD; NHTSA campaign 26V485.
• Autocar — 137 vehicles. Certain 2023–2027 ACTT terminal tractors, the yard trucks that shuttle trailers around ports, rail yards and distribution centers. The anti-lock braking system electronic control unit may be improperly secured and can separate; a separated unit may be damaged, causing the ABS to fail. Autocar will replace the fasteners; owner letters are expected Sept. 25. Autocar recall ACTT-2601; NHTSA campaign 26V501.
• The Heil Company — 7 vehicles. Certain 2025–2026 side loader garbage trucks with particular high voltage cabinets. Water may enter an improperly sealed high voltage cabinet and cause component failure or a short circuit, which the notice says may lead to an unexpected vehicle shutdown and raises the risk of fire. Heil will install a protective enclosure; owner letters were mailed July 28. Heil recall PN-26-354; NHTSA campaign 26V474.
• Jayco — 265 motorhomes. Certain Entegra and Cornerstone-family motorhomes built on particular Spartan chassis, where the exterior brake lights may stay illuminated when the driver is not braking — a condition that can fail to warn the driver behind.
• Newell Coach — 51 coaches. Certain 2025–2027 P50 coaches, where the steer axle air spring base may crack, which can cause a loss of air pressure and suspension support.

A separate campaign in the same batch covers light-duty Ford F-150 and F-250 SD pickups with an obstructed rearview camera image; that one is a consumer-vehicle issue and is not the subject of this post.

An important accuracy note: these notices describe risk, not reported casualties. The published recall summaries do not report any crash, injury or death tied to these campaigns, and nothing here should be read to suggest otherwise. Not every vehicle in a recall population actually has the defect — the campaign covers every unit that may have been built with the condition, and the dealer inspection is what determines whether work is needed. Owners and fleets can check a specific unit through the NHTSA recall database or the manufacturer.

Why This Lands Hard in Texas

Two of the recalled nameplates are built by a company with deep Texas roots: Peterbilt Motors Company is headquartered in Denton, Texas, where it also runs a truck assembly plant that, according to the company, has produced more than 750,000 trucks since 1980 and today employs thousands of people (Peterbilt). Trucks that roll off that line work the same Texas highways everyone else drives.

The defect descriptions matter more in a state this size. A software fault that dims low beams is a problem on any road; it is a different problem on a two-lane farm-to-market road in West Texas at midnight, where the headlights are the only light there is. A power distribution box that can simultaneously take out the exterior lights, the wipers and the anti-lock brakes is a problem in any weather; it is a different problem in a Gulf Coast downpour. And the Autocar terminal tractors in the recall are the yard trucks that move trailers at ports and intermodal yards — the kind of equipment working in Houston, Laredo, Corpus Christi and the big Dallas–Fort Worth distribution parks, usually within a few feet of people on foot.

These are also, almost entirely, vehicles somebody drives for a living. That single fact changes the legal picture, because a Texas worker hurt on the job is in a different position than a private motorist — and, as explained below, a different position than a worker in any other state.

Who Can Be Affected?

• Commercial drivers in Texas who operate a covered Freightliner, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Autocar or Heil unit, especially on night routes
• Owner-operators and small fleets, who absorb both the safety risk and the downtime while a remedy is developed
• Municipal and contract sanitation crews running side loader refuse trucks
• Yard workers, spotters and dock personnel around terminal tractors, where an anti-lock brake failure happens at close quarters and low speed but with a very heavy vehicle
• Motorists and families sharing the road with any of these vehicles — the person a defect endangers is often not the person who owns the truck
• Owners of the covered motorhomes and coaches, who may drive them only a few times a year and can easily miss a notice
• Anyone already injured in a wreck involving one of these vehicles where lighting, braking or a sudden loss of power appears to have been part of what happened

What Kind of Claim Might Apply?

Attorneys who handle Texas commercial vehicle and work injury cases generally describe several paths that can apply when a defect on a working truck is part of a crash:

• A products liability claim against the manufacturer. Chapter 82 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code governs products liability actions in Texas, covering manufacturing defects, design defects and failures to warn. Chapter 82 also draws a line between the manufacturer and a seller who merely sold the product, which is one reason lawyers look closely at who built, assembled, supplied and installed a component.
• A work injury claim — and Texas is unlike every other state here. Texas does not require most private employers to carry workers compensation insurance. Employers who do not are called nonsubscribers, and under Chapter 406 of the Texas Labor Code a nonsubscribing employer sued by an injured employee loses the common-law defenses of contributory negligence, assumption of the risk and the fellow-servant rule. Whether a particular employer subscribes, and what that means for a particular injury, is exactly the kind of question a lawyer checks first.
• A third-party claim alongside benefits. Attorneys describe a familiar pattern in Texas work injury cases: a driver covered by workers compensation may still have a separate claim against a party other than the employer — a manufacturer, a component supplier, a maintenance contractor, another motorist — and the interaction between the two, including an insurance carrier interest in any recovery, is technical enough that it is usually the first thing counsel untangles.
• A carrier or maintenance question. When a recall notice has already gone out, lawyers who handle commercial vehicle cases describe looking at what the motor carrier knew and when: the recall correspondence, work orders, inspection records, driver vehicle inspection reports and repair invoices. Those records exist on a retention schedule and do not last forever.
• Preserving the proof — and a wrinkle specific to software. In a defect case the vehicle is the evidence. Here, two of the remedies are a software update and a replaced control unit or power box. A software update can overwrite the very calibration alleged to be defective, and a replaced part can leave the yard before anyone photographs it. Attorneys handling these cases routinely ask a person who was actually hurt to preserve the vehicle, the removed components, the electronic control module data and the paperwork before a repair is performed — and to speak with counsel before the remedy is applied.

None of the above says that any particular person has a claim. It describes the questions Texas attorneys say people ask after a commercial vehicle recall, and the evidence they typically want preserved. A lawyer can review a specific situation and explain what, if anything, applies.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

For most Texas personal injury cases, the statute of limitations is generally two years, and Chapter 16 also contains a separate period of repose for products liability claims that runs from the date the product was sold. Deadlines in work injury matters can run on their own schedule. A lawyer can explain how those apply to a specific crash date, a specific vehicle and a specific employment situation.

The practical clock is shorter than the legal one, and on a commercial fleet it is shorter still. A damaged truck is repaired and put back in service because it has to earn; a control unit is swapped and the old one is discarded; telematics and engine data roll off on a retention cycle; a leased unit goes back to the lessor. Many people who were hurt choose to have a lawyer look at the situation early, while the vehicle, the removed parts and the records still exist. For everyone else — drivers, owner-operators, fleet managers — the free VIN lookup at NHTSA and the manufacturer notice are the immediate path these recalls describe, and the repairs are performed at no cost.

Sources

1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — Recall database and VIN search
2. NHTSA campaign 26V475 — Daimler Truck North America, Freightliner low beam headlights
3. NHTSA campaign 26V485 — Paccar, Peterbilt and Kenworth power distribution center
4. NHTSA campaign 26V501 — Autocar ACTT terminal tractor ABS control unit
5. NHTSA campaign 26V474 — The Heil Company side loader high voltage cabinet
6. Trucks, Parts, Service — NHTSA commercial vehicle recalls for the week of Aug. 3, 2026
7. FleetOwner — Recall Roundup: Autocar, Ford, Paccar models among vehicles in latest NHTSA recalls
8. Peterbilt — 750,000th truck produced at the Denton, Texas manufacturing facility
9. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 82 (Products Liability)
10. Texas Labor Code, Chapter 406 (Workers Compensation Coverage; nonsubscriber defenses)
11. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 16 (Limitations)