Australia then and now

The Blacklighters on Outback Opal Hunters keep popping up with old English motors, they had an AEC Mammoth Major unit on an earlier episode now they have what looks like a Leyland Clydesdale.The Young Guns also had an 8 wheeler Foden with a Mickey Mouse cab on. Where on earth do these motors appear from .Does someone have a secret stash hidden somewhere?

The Bruce Highway, part of the National Highway 1, is closed indefinitely along with the parallel main railway line, following a head-on collision between a car and b double.
The resultant explosion forced the evacuation of an entire town.

This is the third closure involving a truck in a week. Of course the incidents are being politicized, with the state opposition claiming a lack of spending has caused our busiest vehicular and freight corridor to become dangerous.
The truth is the road is better and safer than it’s ever been. The danger has been created by a fall in driving standards.

Seen this one before, Spardo?

No, and the bloke got one thing wrong, it certainly wasn’t the first truck Buntine never gave a name to. I don’t remember seeing any names when I was there and mine certainly didn’t have one.

I wonder why he went for single drive though, Noel himself drove the first R motor double drive, that I saw, apart from George’s 6 wheel body truck which I think is now in the Museum in the Alice. They were both used to pull us through the rivers, if needed.

Well I must say this is a nice looking outfit, Buzzer

NMP but the trailer is 18.2mtrs long and can carry 30 pallets at 1246kgs total 37.4 ton the GVW is 62 tons & runs on level 2 access permit.

It is very smart, I have to say, bet the driver is all decked out with sharp creases in his shorts, turned down white walk socks and an immaculate shirt and company logoed tie.

Then he gets to his first drop, a little shop in the outback with no fork truck…
and then has to handball 10 tonnes of carrots. :rofl: :joy:

Only joking, any idea of the real story @star_down_under ? :grinning:

It would have to be operating under PBS, with that axle configuration. The PBS allows those with the resources to make a case for operation outside of normal regulation. This generally gives larger concerns an advantage over small fleets and single truck owners, who need to maintain flexibility of operation. PBS approved vehicles work under permit on designated routes and under various other conditions. The pictured Kenworth would be permitted to gross ~50 tonne as opposed to 42.5 tonne on a bogie tri single steer general access semi-trailer.

That is one impressive configuration. And the whole equipage is very trim too. All in all very pleasing to the eye and yes, I wouldn’t mind having a go at driving it. Multi-drops round the corner shops of inner city London, Istanbul (especially Istanbul!), Cairo or Manchester would be something of an arse-ache though :wink:

Do you reckon the rear tandems are steerers? To @star_down_under too.
One helluva tail swing to watch for if so. :thinking:

No, it’s unusual to have them set up as a pair of bogies, rather than close coupled, though.

Well, would you believe it. I mentioned the Kenworth pictured above to my friends in the USA and back came this from there:
Still no mention of rear steers, as you say, but no mention of tyre scrub either. :thinking:

An interesting coincidence btw, the poster in the USA who provided the above link goes by the handle of buzzarddriver. Who was it that brought it to our attention here? Non other than @buzzer :thinking: :laughing:

It’s surprising they got 62 tonne on that many axles. It wasn’t long ago the best I could get on a nine axle B double, with the trickiest, seasonal, primary industry permit was 70 tonne. Even that raised some roadside, transport inspectors’ eyebrows.

Watching the latest Bangers & Cash episode last night they had an immaculate Holden (Maloo)? .A V8 5.7 litre pickup truck and it sold for £14000 to a bloke in London who must have some deep pockets to be able to run that on a daily basis. He bought it for his son in law who didn’t fancy it so he’s running it himself. It was very low slung

Yep, Maloo, basically a Monaro, ute. We exported the Monaro to you, rebadged as a Vauxhall something. The Top Gear crew had some fun driving one on a beach.
Apart from the body style, I think the only other differences to the Monaro would have been the rear suspension.

Found a trio of Oshkosh shared.
Oily



The cab doesn’t change does it? The sloping forward screen looks counter intuitive and I wonder how much difference that makes to fuel economy. Also whether or not it is an advantage in terms of reduced glare and improved rain clearance.

Anybody driven one? It is fairly well known that I wasn’t impressed when offered a job in one and thus I never have. :grinning:

BTW, is that a Foden next door? :thinking:

“is that a Foden next door?”
It is another Oshkosh.

Ha ha, and there’s me saying

:rofl: