Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

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Here we go............
..............................Next installment of the Putty delivery...............
The run from Windsor to Colo bridge was pretty normal ...except that we dont
seem to be getting along too quick.Maybe nearly 46 1/2 tonnes might have something to do with it i suspect. The 692 could do with another couple of
things going up and down in the reciprocating department..........
especially coming down the hill to Colo bridge...where the greatest thing
ever invented to the trucking industry comes into play.....The Jacobs Engine Brake........
An 892 pulls up a lot better....but nowhere as good as a Cummins..........
Then its over the bridge and up the drag to Colo Heights.....that wasnt too quick
either.
Anyway the Putty village is in sights , armed with my mud map i find the unloading site,
first ..have a look at the bricks i have to pick up.............I thank the Lord...and the bloke
that did the delivery ....that they were put down neatly....making my pickup a lot easier
( i hope ).....
So i unloads the trailer at one side of the house ....and the truck at the other side.
The pick up bit ..........loads the truck first then the trailer last.
The sun is getting pretty hot by this time and i had to re stack two packs to pick
them up,, (thats roughly 1100 bricks)..There was no water on site.........so ..........i am
thankful that i have my 5 litre container with me. ( i never go any where with out it
even in our old Troopy).... You just never know when you might need it..........
That reminds me of a little side water story...............Strictly as a hobby, i used to do a bit of
Opal seeking...then make jewelry to set it in, all good fun..........
We used to go to the Black Gate opal fields up from Eulo in queensland......
One time we went there and couldnt find the bloke we stayed with........
drives around ,sees another bloke and says.....wheres Mike....mate he died recently.....
how come ????.........Well, he went out one day and never came back, car broke down,
it was summer time, didnt have any water with him and died of dehydration.
So there you go, an experienced bushman and that happens.
So ALWAYS have water with you at all times.
OK We are loaded and wrapped up ...time to do battle with the Putty road again.
Coming down from Colo Heights to the river ..giving the jakes a bit of a workout,
onto the bridge, and whats this in front, oh no........a trailer load of hay that
you couldnt jump over.........turned out to be an old 1418 Benz.
I am thinking if the Benz goes pear shape , i might have a problem.
The Eatons in 844 are prone to through shaft trouble in a bad situation....
so i picks up deep reduction as soon as possible to get the air shift out of
the way and hope the old Benz doesnt snuff it on the way up out of Colo river..
All turns out OK ....finally rounds the Benz up..then its all systems go to get to Windsor Bridge,...
Then out to Pitt town to unload.................
............................Billy..........................

Here is a little video i found on Youtube

A WRX going for a little drive on the Putty Road....

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Jeez Billy it looks a lot different in daylight don't it !!!

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Don, There is a few things that fall into that category
Coming up is the last episode of the Putty delivery.......
From Wilberforce its "Southbound Windsor Bridge" then out through McGraths Hill,
and Pitt Town , onto Cattai road where i shall be looking for Lot 2.........
The problem with these old areas is that the land is broken up into sections,all
with their own Lot Nos, so Cattai road could have three or four (or more) sections.
Lot 2 on the gate does not guarantee that it is the right spot for your delivery.
If it is the wrong site someone will have a job to re deliver them ,(you know who )
To day i am lucky....there is a builders name with the Lot No on the gate.
Also at the end of the gravel drive way, about a 1/4 k in, is a re sited house perched
up on dunnage , waiting for some brickwork.
Mostly you can spend a lot of time trying to find these sites and when you get back to
the yard some one will say, didnt you get the mud map.??????????
OK in we go, pulling up at one rear corner of the house, The trailer load will go around
each side, then the truck on the diagonal corner, that will spread them around a fair
bit for the brickies.
Second pack on the truck falls to bits.........if i just kick them off, it looks pretty messy
so i elect to re stack them......Seeing as its January, its damm hot, i spot a water tap
close by and decide its time for a drink, turning the tap on, the water looks and tastes OK.
Has a good belly full ,(probably more than i should have had) and back to the job at hand.
Fifteen minutes later i am starting to feel a little crook in the guts, and it gets worse.
I only had a salad sanga and a bit of fruit for lunch , that shouldnt be the problem.
Things arent looking real good now, the truck isnt moveable ,i struggle into the cab
calls base on the 2 way, no response, puts out a call to any other TNT truck, no dice.
That is the way 2 ways operate , when you REALLY need then, you cannot get through.
I am thinking i could be in trouble here, but from what.........
The only thing that comes to mind is the water i drank.
Back to the tap, turns it on and all this blue / green gunk comes out.......
straight away i know the problem, i have a belly full of soldering flux or acid
depending on what was used in the soldering process.
Well there is only one way out of this, turns the tap on for a lot longer than i did before,
waits to make sure it clears, another big drink, followed by fingers down the throat,
Throws up all this green / blue gunk. Continues this until all i am bringing up is clear
liquid, That is about all i can do.........
After about 10 minutes i am starting to to feel a bit better, (thank christ for that).
Ill just lay down on the ground for a while ,thinking the truck isnt going to unload itself,
so takes my time finishing up, choofs off, stops at the first shop and downs a bottle
of milk.
Back at the yard every one had gone , so instead of chasing a forkie to see about
loading for to morrow,....i just parked old 844 and said home sweet home....
here we come. Next morning i was as bright as a button...........
..........BUT......i must say .....at one stage things didnt look real bright..........
..........................Billy..........................
Here is a little bike run on the Putty Road

Th@'z Gr8 Billy Pee

Me nevr quiet sure wot them double lines ment

Lookz like ...................... not much @ all

LOL

cya

...you ride that bike pretty well for an old codger Billy....

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...Tec,
.............Versatility is what we are lookin at......
....................Billy.......................

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.....A little 838 story................
One day i came into the yard.........and the chief grabs me...saying how would you like to move out of
819 as there is another 8 wheeler coming off the over night runs.....Turned out to be 838..........
The pan had been removed.....a Goth 4 spring rear suspension had been fitted..( replacing the T bars )
The box had been knocked back from overdrive to direct.......and the brick bodies with a center mount crane
from one of the old Leyland 8 wheelers was being now fitted.....( this setup was the same as 819).
So 838 was basically the same as 819 except it had a 692T donk ,,,spider wheels......7 in head lights and
Shepherd power assist steering. (as i recall).
Amazingly enough....the tare weight of the KWs were about the same as the old Leylands.....so we could still
carry the full load that the bodies were built for and do it a whole heap better.
But the power steering was the only thing that i did not like. The cab interior was in pretty good shape and
after a clean up with Armorall and the back window curtains fitted from 819 ..we were ready to go........
After a couple of loads i had a decent list for the workshop (oh no ,not this bloke again....) as i just felt
that if some thing was fitted to the truck , i wanted it working........this did cause some unrest between me
and the work shop chiefs.....but i found if you complained enough you did eventually get it all done...
Mostly they fixed things because i tried to look after the truck as best as i could.
BUT............one thing i was stuck with, was the power steering.... it used to scare me and i grew to hate it....
The steering was super.....SUPER...light with absolutely no feel to it whatsoever.......
Fully loaded you could steer with with your little finger with no effort at all and it felt as if i didnt have
a clue which way the wheels were pointing.............
The workshop could just not believe that i thought the steering was too light and mostly said, when
it stops working and you cannot turn the wheel ,come back and see us..............
In 819 the steering wheel would say, Billy you can up the anti on this bend......or.......say ,....you better
back off a bit here.....but with 838 there was just no messages coming through. Having a bit of a derby
on the open road was now a bit of a worry to me.....whereby it used to be a bit of fun...........
Other than that, 838 was pretty good...........but i did get out of it as soon as something else fronted
on the scene.....
.....................TBC........................
Here is a few more pics that turned up on the scene..............................




This is 834








This is 836

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Here is a couple of 838 stories
One day , one of the subbies broke down in the brick yard, & had to have it towed for repairs.
I was loaded for a job roughly in his home direction, so i got the job of dropping him off
after doing the delivery in one of the main streets of Eastwood...Approaching the building site
we can see all these flashing red & blue lights a few doors past the site.........as its a reasonably
narrow road there is never a great deal of room at the best of times. Today was going to be worse.
I says to my passenger ,how about you stopping the traffic, while i do a bit of manoeuvreing ........
He says you have got to be kidding........I dont want to get run over......you just know what will happen
if i walk onto the road with my hand up.....nobody will take a scrap of notice.........yep, i know what you mean...
Ok we will give it a go............the plan was to go past the driveway then back into the site..........
First break & away we go... past the gate .........swings onto the wrong side of the road.......into reverse,
hard right hand down, then back as far as we can go.........now forward ......then back again......
Of corse you know what happened ........as i went forward the line of traffic followed......now i cannot
go back...............cannot go forward ............now the traffic is banked up in both directions with us at an
angle across the road...............if you were a chess player you would say.....CHECKMATE............
Then the horns start blowing as we try to get some of the cars to back up , but all they want to do is
go forward...............In the mean time all these flashing lights are going on a couple doors up the road
and now it looks like some major operation with all traffic at a standstill..............
Next thing a big sergeant fronts on the scene ..yelling what in the f********hell is going on here......
We start to explain....he says, yeah yeah, get the bloody thing out of here ,we have enough trouble as it is,
Mate, we say , this traffic just jammed us in, now we carnt move...........
He looks at us and shakes his head , says dont go anywhere and ill send a couple of blokes back to sort
this out.........he then says its lucky im in a good mood or i would throw you both in the wagon ...........
Any way the traffic is slowly dispersed, we get in and unload , i drop the subby home, then its back
to the yard for another load......
Just as well we dont let these little things worry us.................


Another day...............
I took a load out Bondi way..........the building site was on the corner of a cross intersection and this was the
last load wanted. Gets there and the builder says you cant get into the driveway because it been concreted.........
So this is where they have to go .(the footpath was on the no no list)...........
Mate. i says, the only way i can do that means the cab is going to be sticking out into the intersection,
We both might get shot..........with no alternative i will give it a go..........gets in position........starts unloading
with traffic all over the place...........next thing there is a million kids swarming around. Bloody hell ,...the school
up the road has just come out.............now i have a heap of trouble...............Then a paddy wagon pulls up with lights
flashing...........i am thinking ..now i am for it...........so i walks towards the cops expecting a big blast.........the boss man
says, we will have a word to you & keep the traffic etc at bay while you unload, but we are more interested in the bloke
that put you in that position...........so the builder got a real dressing down............i got a hand to unload.......thanked
the cops for their assistance, and choofed off back to the yard........The coppers did say , try not to do that again.......
Yeah , couldnt believe the out come........So there you go .....you just never know............

...............................................Billy.........................................

Here is 837





Here is 845




Here is 844

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..Here is a little story
may be a little off topic but hopefully interesting.................
In the 70s at KW Lansvale we had a DIFFerent situation, involving three different trucks equipped with
44,ooo lb dual range Eaton diffs. After the dust had settled, we realised all three had suffered from the exact same
problem. All were about six months or so, from new.
The first was a cab over KW belonging to RS Williams, as well as a bit of local work , its main role was running
(as i recall ) to the Darwin direction dragging a few trailers.
It was developing a habit of snapping bolts holding the top main rods to the chassis cross member on
the KW six rod suspension.
We fitted the best bolts known to man and still it was an on going problem.
Then one day we got a call to say it had a diff problem out from Mt Isa some where.
It was arranged for a bloke at the Mount to go and have a look and give us some sort of clue as to what was happening.
Turned out there was metal in the oil of both diffs.......Now this mechanic was a switched on bloke, so he got the truck
back to town and stripped it apart.......I dont recall the exact amount of damage, but , it was decided to let him
go ahead and do the repair..............No body could understand just why all the damage had occurred.
As well as the diff repair , another bolt had snapped on the front of the rear top rod.
When the truck got back home, we had a good look at every thing we could think of, but all looked OK.

Then we had a call from the owner (Bill Mercieca if i remember correctly). of one of the other concerned trucks,
His near new SAR was at Lithgow and the diff lock would not disengage,So one of our blokes went up to sort it out,
but had a hell of a job unocking it, but eventually won out and away they went.

Then i remembered a call recently from another duel range KW owner telling me he had a bit of a struggle
getting the diff lock to to disengage a couple of times.....

One day Bill Mercieca brought the SAR in to have the situation checked,..........so..........i thought, before we have a
look at it,,, i might go for a bit of a drive and have a bit of a fiddle with things...........
So... a bit of a gallop around the back streets of Lansvale was the order of the day............
then like a bolt out of the blue,it suddenly struck me that the problem with these three
trucks could all be of the same nature...........and that was it exactly............
Now i wonder if any one else has had the same type of problem, and either fixed it, or over
looked the situation..........................
............OK ..what was the findings...................................Billy............................