australian peterbilt factory right hand drive

hi guys,new to the site.the names eric,my forte' is the series of factory built right hand drive peterbilts for australian export.ive seen many names dropped here that i know of.if anyone has any pics,storys or names they want to share,be my guest.petes,kw,autocar,ihc,diamond reo/t.any u.s truck from the 60's,70's.[ftp][/ftp]

G'Day Eric,

Welcome to the forum. Peterbilts are not trucks I know much about (nevermind RHD ones) but I'm willing to learn At the moment I'm suffering from the Leyland flu but I'm told if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. 1950-1980 Acars and Macks also spoken here (all three makes were very strong where I grew up - Israel - and we even had unique own models). Tatras are obviously another strong interest but that's only for the eccentrics, I s'pose

In any case, there's something for anyone here and I'm sure you'll survive...

Cheers,

T

Hi Eric welcome to the forum and most yankee trucks wish they had grown up being a pommey truck

British Macks King of the Road >Dave

Hi Eric,
A magazine article appeared here recently outlining the earlier Pete's and how they came to be in Oz. I have to get the mag from my dad's place - I don't know the actual title either. Anyway, the Pete's it covered (I think) were imported RHD back in the 1960's by Laurie O'Neill. Possibly 351's, 352 COE's etc.

Do also look at the recent thread here that covers "Importing a Peterbilt from USA". The info in that covers some of the people that members know who have one.

O'Neill had some sort of exclusive import rights for Pete trucks then, however the relationship with Paccar/Peterbilt was shortlived...Now, if only I could find that magazine. If I do, I'll continue this historical thread here. Unfortunately cannot scan and post here on this forum.

As a side topic, O'Neill may have done alright back in those days as he had his Ferrari pictured on the cover of the March 1964 issue of Sports Car World magazine. I have that mag, at least.

I'd recommend getting the Jim Johnson book "Big Rigs Down Under" which has some colour pics of Pete's on our roads in the 70's. Check out the thread about this book here too.

Hope this assists.

Rob

mr laurie oneil doesnt have a lot of time for paccar.they really did sort of shaft him big-time & cost him alot of money.ive got most of the magazine articles that have been published,books that have featured these trucks.i have an image gallery about 10,000 pics strong taken through the years,mostly by annoying current and past owners of these trucks.factory line sheets/warranty records.owners manuals-service manuals.i own 1 of 2 surviving factory twin exhaust 352 rhd's.as soon as someone can tell me how to upload images i will share them,also i own the 1000 th australian built kw(by chassis #)plus i am in the motions of purchasing the first australian built k100 aerodyne.

RHD
GuddayM8
A few years ago I had the privledge to B invited to the Peterbilt Palace BBQ here in Melbourne


img41.imageshack.us/img41/2969/philspeterbiltpalace.jpg



Cya

[ch9787]

been there,hes got quite a collection,hasnt he?phil g is taking holidays in february,im going to go over and see him.he and james have been going hard lately,ive been getting in the browns lately for spending too much too close to xmas.i have the remains of one of the twin exhaust c/over petes,a 1974 k125and a 68 k123(ex shell).we will have to hook up and have a beer.phil n has my number.eric

Hi Eric

I think the article that Rob is taliking about was in Diesel Magazine about 18 months ago. Truck historian Tony Petch was responsible for it and it ran over two issues. I can try and scan it for you or I can copy it and mail it to you. Let me know.

Cheers

Bruce

Hi Eric,
I noticed that the Pete in the top pic (with half a sunvisor) has a pair of seriously big HR diffs,of a type I think is called Timkin "Million Miler".Probably indicates that this truck has a fairly high GTW.Unusual fitment for a Pete.......
Any thoughts/confirmation?

Anyway here's a pic of Northern Transport's Pete you may not have seen before.
Notice the Foden's driver is on crutches

ahh,this is chassis 18363,a image of this thing has eluded me for a while.thanks for that.truck is well and truly gone now,the chassis is at the same place them other pictures were taken.im sure this was the only rhd pete to come with factory 6 rod.as for that truck that you ask,that truck is chassis 17790,ordered for mainline transport,this truck had twin everything,a/c,chrome & bunk(only 3 conventionals had them).in its current state it was working in an underground mine in golburn nsw,i beleive they cut the visor down so the driver could see where he was going coming up from underground.as for thr rear end,its a volvo unit.this was a float truck.