Grilles for Kenworth T680 Next Gen

Chrome grille frame with bug screen for the Kenworth T680 Next Gen

Kenworth put real design effort into the Next Gen front end, and the grille is where it shows. The chrome frame is taller and more sculpted than the one on the 2013 through 2021 body, the mesh pattern is finer, and the whole assembly sits flush with the reshaped hood in a way the old one never did. It's the part people photograph. It's also the part that catches the first thing to come flying off the highway.

The grille does a job beyond looking good. Behind it sit the radiator, the charge air cooler, and the A/C condenser, and the mesh screen is what keeps bugs, gravel, and road debris from packing into those fins. A grille with a torn screen or a bent frame lets that junk through, and a radiator plugged with bug carcasses runs hot on a July grade. So when the frame gets pushed in or the mesh gets ripped, it's a cooling problem waiting to happen, not just a cosmetic one.

Things that take out a grille on a working truck:

• Rock strikes at highway speed, especially behind a gravel hauler or on a fresh chip-seal road
• Deer and other animal strikes, which almost always land square on the nose
• Low-speed bumper contact in a lot that pushes the frame back and cracks the mounting tabs
• Chrome pitting and peeling after several winters of road salt and brine spray
• A bug screen that's been pressure-washed one time too many and finally lets go

We carry the Kenworth t680 next gen grille assembly as a complete unit, meaning the chrome outer frame and the mesh bug screen together, ready to go on as one piece. There's no hunting down a separate screen or trying to transfer old mesh into a new frame.

What you're getting and who it's for

The frame is chrome-plated to match the factory finish, and the mesh is mounted inside it so the whole thing arrives as a single box. It's built for the 2022 and newer body only. If you have the older T680, the hood opening is a different shape and this won't drop in, so check your model year before ordering. When in doubt, send us a photo of the front of the truck and we'll confirm.

A note on chrome, since we get asked. Plating quality is where cheap grilles fall apart, sometimes literally. Thin plating flakes at the edges after one winter and leaves rust streaks running down the bumper. The frame we carry is plated to hold up through the kind of salt and brine that the I-80 corridor throws at a truck from November to April. It'll still need a wash now and then, but it won't peel on you.

Here's what an order looks like from our end:

• Weekday orders are processed and handed to the carrier within 24 hours
• The box ships freight-safe, because a chrome grille that arrives dented is useless to everyone
• Tracking goes out the moment it leaves our dock
• A reflective vest and a pair of wiper blades ride along in the package
• Phone and email support before and after the sale, Monday through Friday, Pacific time

A Kenworth t680 next gen front grille is one of the more expensive body pieces on the truck, which is exactly why paying dealer prices for it stings. Our version carries the same profile and the same finish, and it costs a good deal less. That's the pitch, and we'd rather state it plainly than dress it up.

We'll add the disclaimer we always add, because it's true. We don't mount grilles. We don't know how your particular truck's hood latch interacts with the frame or what sequence a shop follows, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. What we know is fit, year, and finish, and we're fast.

Collision shops, this is a part worth having a relationship with us over. A front-end hit on a Next Gen cab almost always takes the grille along with the bumper and the hood, and if you're quoting the job, knowing you can get a Kenworth t680 new gen grille on the truck within days instead of waiting weeks on a dealer backorder changes the timeline you give the customer.

For owner-operators, the argument is simpler. This is the truck's face. A pitted, bent grille on an otherwise clean rig makes the whole thing look tired, and it's the first thing a shipper's yard guy sees when you pull in. Putting a fresh aftermarket Kenworth t680 next gen grille on the front is the cheapest way to make a three-year-old truck look like it just came off the lot.

And if the old grille came off in pieces and you're not sure what else went with it, ask. The hood, the bumper corners, and the headlights for the same body style are all in our catalog, and it's a lot easier to build one order than to chase parts across four websites.

Pick up the Kenworth t680 next gen grille above, check out through tacoma-truckparts.com , and we'll have it packed and on its way before the end of the next business day.