You questioning the red and white one, next to the R & B East?
Yes, certainly looks like a Foden to me. What do you think?
Possibly,
Early Kenworth K100. No.
Rare Pommie cabbed Western Star 7564. No.
Rareish Scammell. Maybe.
Foden. NFI.
Dear oh dear itās an OSHKOSH
Oily
The one and same. You did tell us, Oily.
The Scammell/AEC ā¦ or whatever else they decided to badge it had a sloping windscreen. Africa were users
I took this (rubbish) photo years ago, and I saw this old bird again in town last week albeit with a different rego. M-B 2238
Legendary, with a nine and thupence, 9 or 15 RR, carting 38 tonne +++ all over the country.
A well specced, basic prime mover, the Land Rover Defender of trucks, they set a lot of blokes up as an excellent mile and money maker.
The upmarket Eagle, they all came in the red and white, so everyone knew you werenāt driving just any old Acco.
Is this Merc still on revenue earning work do you know?
I couldnāt say - when I saw it last week it was parked up in a yard with a lot of other ag & mining equipment. I pass that yard often, so Iāll have a shufti to see if it moves.
With the prime movers, could you spec engine/ geartrain according to need or was it mostly off-the-shelf? I presume (Iām out of my depth here) Cummins/ RR/ Rockwell or something like it was common.
That mechanic was me! I still have the chassis imprinted on my forehead.
Limited options, defo not custom.
V or VT 903 (IIRC).
9 or 15 RR imagine 6 or 9 series, depending on which engine.
Rockwell 38,000lb choice of ratio 5.28, 4.88, 4.11, 3.9, 3.7:1.00
Going back a bit (the thick end of 40 years), I was one of a myriad of backpackers in Australia. At any hostel in any major city, the backpacker sceneās vehicle of choice was the Holden HQ wagon. To my European eyes at the time, they were crude (live rear axle, leaf springs, OHV inline 6) and American-looking, butā¦ it was a bus and an off-road vehicle and these things must have circumnavigated Australia almost as many times as the big rigs. I have a big soft spot for them these days, especially if they havenāt been molested.
No leaf springs on a Q mate, they were the first model with all coil suspension, albeit with a live rear axle.
Any Holden or Falcon from the mid 60s on were amazingly bulletproof, simple, basic and robust.
We had a Scottish backpacker where I was working in '84.
He and his brother bought a one owner, very tidy HR wagon in Melbourne. When it was almost time for him to go home, I bought the car from him. I lent him a Mazda Bongo van until he left.
On the Monday following my first weekend of ownership, I asked him if heād hidden and forgotten anything in thespare wheel compartment. He said he hadnāt, but heād ask his brother, who also said he hadnāt. I then told him Iād found an Old Holburn, tobacco tin with a sum of money in it. The sum was greater than Iād paid for the car. His reaction was priceless. There was no money but I didnāt tell him until the day he left. A cruel joke? But funny at the time.
You know better than me. All I know is that the Holden wagon (and the lesser-spotted Falcon wagon) were bought, driven everywhere, and sold again on a back street in Kings Cross only to go around the country again. $2K for a pricey one between four people for 4 months travel was a risky but worthwhile bargain. And they were the sort of thing you could get fixed or get parts for more or less anywhere.
Iām a bit sentimental about these old buses these days, Holden 202 and sludgematic and all: I would love one. Have you seen what an original unrestored 70s Holden wagon goes for these days? Yikes!
Yeah mate, I wish I still had all the old cars I churned through, as a young fellow.
Multiple Morris Minors, various Austins, Hillmans, a Humber, many Holden Specials and Premiers, Fairlanes and a couple of Fairmonts. Even the Toyota Crowns, Kwaka, Yammy and Honda bikes are are pulling dollars to the power of ten, over what I sold them for.
The only car I made a profit on was a Mazda Bongo van.
I bought it second hand, used it to deliver groceries from woolies, five days a week for two years, then got more for it than I paid.