Leyland Crusaders in Australia

Paulc, Standard spec in Aust. and NZ was 6X4 (no single drives),8V71 (@ 318hp,
I think),RTO915 with either "Albion" diffs (designated F41) or Maudslay diffs (designated F42) both on "Leyland" 6 rod suspension.

LMC(NZ) built a number of 8X4 twin steers for the local market.

(LMC (UK) never offered an 8 wheeler with the exception of the one-off rear steer 8X4
Heavy Tractor that eventually found a home with Pickfords.)

LMA did build a couple of chassis with Cummins 903s/RTO915.
Educated guess would tell me that these were built up at Special Vehicle Div.,Melbourne
Same place as the 8X4 Contractors,Low Weight Hippos,etc.

Calomba Transport in SA had one of these 903 powered Crusaders but I don't know if it was new to them.

A TNT subbie ran one Adelaide-Darwin from new and a picture of that one appeared in the book "Scammells in Camera".
There is a vague chance that this is the same truck that was recabbed with a Hastings-Deering cab mid 70s and was still running the South Road in 1979.

Dickers,Kingston,SA had one or two Crusaders from new I'm told.
Dickers are still in operation I think.

Norris Bros,Boulia had a Crusader body truck pulling two trailers carting mostly cattle.
Ran it for some time,apparently.
Dave Williams (formerly of Leyland Aust. approx 30 years) told me he went up to Boulia when LMA traded the truck and drove it back to Melbourne as a cab and chassis.He told me 'Leyland converted it into an 8 wheeler ( I presummed a twin steer,as that was what we were talking about at the time) and it was turned into
"the flashest rubbish truck in Melbourne" '.
Crusaders having a fairly tall cab would probably rule out a front skip lifter,so maybe it was a hooklift or similar.
I'm pretty sure that would make it the only twin steer Crusader in Aus.

Here's a pic of one of Hennessy's milk tankers mentioned by HiBeam
(not my pic)
Note this has a sleeper extension that I would say was added in Aust.
There was a sleeper version of the Motor Panels cab but this isn't one of them.
As far as I know LMA didn't offer the genuine sleeper.

....nice info cemeNT

Crusader with Hastings-Deering cab grafted on.....

The front would be an AEC Mercury (Monarch mkvl in Aus) onto which HD grafted their cab, so the cab was most likely taken off a Monarch mk vl,

Dickers from kingston only took delivery of one crusader the other one they had was second hand.

cemeNTepede wrote: Crusader with Hastings-Deering cab grafted on.....

Cab looks more like that of an AEC Militant Mk. III as on the 6-wheelers supplied to the British Army.