Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 430 i Deals On Wheels Australia

1 989 was the year Freightliner became available on the Australian market with the launch of the FLC112, manufactured on Daimler-Benz’s production line at Mulgrave, Victoria. The muscular FLC112 was the perfect truck for Australia’s long-haul operators, living up to its reputation of ‘Running Tough’. Whether it was traveling the tarmac of the Hume Highway or battling the tough conditions of Australia’s outback, the FLC112 was up to the challenge. In 2014, as a celebration of 25 years in the Australian market, Freightliner gave the renowned Argosy a limited-edition makeover, turning it into something no one had previously experienced. It had already given the Coronado the treatment, so the recently updated Argosy was a natural companion. To achieve this, the company commissioned an independent coach builder and delivered a much-improved…

It’s the first time I’ve done a changeover at Sylvia’s for 39 years. Two Grey Ghost Kenworths were among about 80 trucks taking part in the 2018 Sylvia’s Gap Truck Run on Sunday, June 10. This year, the Australian Road Transport Heritage Centre (ARTHC) chose ‘Express Freight of Yesteryear’ as the theme of its annual fundraising weekend at Gundagai, New South Wales, and encouraged former express freight drivers to attend. Among those who answered the call were Viv Ireland, 80, Colin Southwell, 74, and Ted Scarfe, 78, from the Port Macquarie region on the NSW Central Coast. They were guest speakers at the ARTHC’s Saturday night dinner, which attracted almost 200 people. Viv, Colin and Ted all took part in the Sylvia’s Gap Road Run on Sunday morning. The event…

Last October, Amy Dunbar achieved her ambition of walking again after a workplace injury. Her next goal was to drive a Grey Ghost on Sylvia’s Gap Road. “I got my HC permit a couple of weeks ago,” says Amy, who drove from Sydney to Gundagai in the silver 1973 Kenworth K125 Grey Ghost which is owned by her brother Steve Dunbar. She was proud to complete the 55km Sylvia’s Gap Truck Run in Steve’s other Grey Ghost – the blue 1974 model. “It was great fun experiencing where the old truck drivers used to go, and the old road. And the countryside was beautiful.” Amy works for Penrith City Council and injured her left leg in May 2017 while helping workmates excavate concrete. “The whole mid-foot joint was shattered. All…

“So, I started out in 1989 with a single-drive Volvo, a 40-foot stock crate, and now we’ve got 22 trailers, four road-train dollies, six Kenworth prime movers, the old S-line and some of my old trucks I’ve restored.” It’s a rather humble and understated summary from a man who’s spent nearly six decades entrenched in the diesel-fuelled arena of transportation. It also downplays the life that Lyndsay ‘Red’ Johnstone has forged out – not just for him but for his wife, his son and his family, as well as his employees. Or as Red emphasised several times, “our greatest assets”. I was driving an old Leyland Octopus 8-wheeler … imported from England. Welcome to Red Rock Transport, Inglewood, Queensland. I’m presuming there are very few followers of early English botanists…

Charlie Borg doesn’t feel the need in advertising his one-man business. Operating under the slogan of ‘if you can draw it, I can build it’, he relies on word of mouth to bring in clients in need of truck body and trailer customisation and repairs. At any rate, his loyal base of regular customers keeps him occupied to the point where his other major interest – buying and restoring classic trucks – is forced to take a back seat, for the time being anyway. Evidence of Charlie’s truck collecting hobby is only a few paces inside the gates of his property in Sydney’s western outskirts. It’s like walking into a private road transport museum; some vehicles are scattered around the grounds while the cream of his classics are parked inside…

Truck sign-writer Gordon ‘Crackers’ McCracken is accustomed to turning heads when he takes his spectacular 1974 Kenworth S2 to truck events. He attracted an extra dose of attention when the S2 pulled Russell Ricardo’s restored chiller van to Gundagai for the Sylvia’s Gap Truck Run. Russell bought the chiller van from Alice Springs last year. He had it sandblasted and painted, and then took it to Gordon, whose truck sign-writing business is located in Wodonga, Victoria. Russell asked Gordon to sign-write the trailer in the fashion of the old Coldstorage Transport vans, complete with the once-familiar skiing penguin. Russell towed a Coldstorage van in the early 1970s. The company was founded by Tony Nevins in 1960 and is remembered for its large fleet of Kenworths and the skiing penguin. Gordon,…

It’s finally here and, have no doubt, it’s a truck with the potential to eventually carve a respectable presence in a field full of fierce competitors. Sure, ProStar’s passage to prominence won’t be easy, but it’s certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility. That said, there has never been a more protracted, convoluted entry to the Australian market than International ProStar. It was, for instance, back in February 2015 when it was first announced that ProStar would make its local debut at the Brisbane Truck Show in May that year and, with it, of course, the re-entry of the International brand to the Australian market. Six months earlier in the US, a senior Navistar executive, speaking to a small group of Australian truck media at the company’s grandiose corporate headquarters…

Darren Hingston travelled from Launceston, Tasmania, to launch his new book about TNT at the ARTHC dinner on Saturday, June 9. He wrote ‘TNT: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime – Sure We Can’ with René Buron of Canada. The title is a combination of slogans used by TNT. Darren says René’s contribution was analytical, “looking at the business side of things”. And Darren wrote about the company’s history. A passionate collector of trucking memorabilia, Darren has been fascinated with TNT’s history since his boss, Doug Paton, asked him to research the origins of one of the trucks in his fleet – a Kenworth SAR formerly owned by Kwikasair, a division of TNT. “He bought the truck directly off TNT,” Darren says. “He still owns it, and he’s only the second owner.” The…

There is a certain symmetry to this story about a legendary tough Australian working truck that was a first for its owners and a ground-breaker for the company’s tasks. For 20 years Lowes Petroleum Service’s 1990 Mack Valueliner helped build the foundations of a thriving business. Today, the Valueliner still wears the original Lowes colours, rebuilt as a gift for Don McRae – one of the company owners who was also one of the Mack’s original drivers. The characteristics of the truck in question – toughness, loyalty, longevity and durability – reflect the core attributes that have made Lowes Petroleum such a success. The subsequent rebuild of the Mack, specifically the attention to detail, parallels what has been one of Lowes’ defining traits in an extremely specialised industry – fuelling…

The way John Treloar sees it, there’s no structural or mechanical reason why International ProStar shouldn’t succeed in Australia. None at all! It is, as he succinctly puts it, “Simply a strong, practical workhorse. The same things that made S-line such a good truck are all there in this truck, too.” I don’t see why International and Iveco can’t go on to bigger and better things. In fact, without putting too fine a point on it, Cummins-powered S-lines are the reason John Treloar not only ranks among the top tier of International ‘tragics’, but also the reason why the prospect of a ProStar with a 15-litre Cummins engine lit the fires of interest like a flamethrower on fuel. The story goes like this: John is managing director of Treloar Transport…