Vacuum Brakes

Yes Hi Beam, remember vac brakes and small mirrors on the early semi's. Third load of sheep into property north of the Glenelg Hwy at Muntham, very steep gravel track like 1st high in old AA180. Rain so sheep heavier and track slippery. Lost traction near the top, trailer and handbrake not holding - looking into those mirrors and all down behind. Blocks from 44 fuel tank on driver's side behind trailer wheels. Scrape out loose stuff in front of drive and lucky to get over the top, unloaded and picked blocks up on way back. Very relieved as inexperienced 19 yo then with no one to help. We didn't use brakes much on country stock work, not much traffic and less lights when going through Geelong and Melbourne. Recall the prime mover brakes quite savage with lazy trailer ones as you say. Cheers, Paul.

Hard for us "young blokes" to imagine... , I'm glad I at least had decent brakes on my old jigger! Keep the stories coming...
Funny though, I do remember the "caution air brakes" signs on the back of trucks! Wonder what in the hell the caution was all about lol...
Hey tell us about Geelong back in those days, Paul?
I clearly remember the old stock trucks going through- old shitboxes they were, a bloke from Colac or Alvie had a heap of really rough old inters and single deck crates that used to run through, screaming GM jobbies most of them were. I just can't remember the name!
But Somebody will remember.....

Topic Variance:

The ones you are thinking about Rich was Eldridges..I think from Alvie.

We had Bruce Marks, Hoveys, Geoff Burge, Frewens to name a few that passed through..


chocs

Many small and large operators in southwest in 1960's. Time when wartime trucks were replaced with "better" rigs. Old boss Alf Anders reckoned the AA180's were the better of the small trucks, a lot on the road. Malone's at Grassmere near Warrnambool had a large fleet mainly pulling bogie trailers carting spuds and onions as far as Sydney. Set up as a prime mover with a 44 gallon drum each side to meet the 5 or 6 mpg thirst, petrol being 3/2 or 33c a gallon. Agreed rates were 5/6 a mile for 2 deck sheep single axle, 6/6 for 2 1/2 deck bogie and 7/6 for 3 deck bogie bogie unit. Widespread trailers were popular for the extra 4 tons and held up better with stock through the corners. Drivers were paid 10/- an hour on shorthaul work and 11d or a bit more per loaded mile over 30 miles. Bruce Marks of Hamilton and Peach's of Macarthur were larger carriers. Mark's later bought Kenworths and Peach's had a few Atkinsons. Barton's of Warrnambool had bogie Leylands, Harrington's a mixture of older trucks. Cathcart's at Mortlake had one of the later 190's admired by all. Don Lyness of Derinallum operated a nice new ABD184 with 160 Cummins and 36 ft. bogie trailer.
There were F600's, Dodge 760 and 1016 and early cab over Bedford tray with dog trailer, lit up like a Christmas tree - see it miles off, must have had a big generator fitted. Alf and I were invited to look over a Deutz cabover at Caramut sheep sale one day, luxurious unit but Alf said, "don't make any money sleeping in trucks Paul". How things have changed. One carrier bought 5 new butter boxes with 185 V8 diesels - nearly broke him as always without at least one being away for repair. Gave them all back in favour of petrol V8s.
Mostly used Hamilton Highway through Fyansford and up the Deviation to West Geelong, Shannon Ave. to the Prince's Highway North. Jackson's meatworks at Corio, Borthwick's and Gilbertson's at Altona, Smorgon's at Derrimut and Dandenong Saleyards were usual destinations. Careful driving with little brake use was the best way. Stock arrived
in good condition, not easy to get them back on their feet inside the crate once down. For that reason we didn't go up
the shorter route by the Geelong cement works as it was steep with a sharp corner at the top. Lots to learn for a young fella with an interest in trucks. Just sorry that no photo's taken to share. Thanks for your interest, all the best - Paul

...thanks for the great stories Paul .. in following the trail of the Peterbilts that operated in Australia, i was able to have a chat with Bruce Marks and Tommy Barton....both operated cabover Petes back in the day...with Bartons Livestock selling out to Bruce Marks, who then sold out to Ron Finemore....

Thanks guys for the interesting comments. First Peterbuilt I saw was at Wyalong Shell 1966, cabover with nice bogie
Frehauf trailer. Well loaded with GMH parts for Adelaide, operator of European origin from Sydney I think - queried us on weighbridges as we were northbound from southwest Vic. Interesting bloke to listen to - had a lot to say about the
"b - guzzamint".
Remember seeing "caution air brakes" signs on U.S. military trucks "adopted" by our army and the CMF late 1950's, also on early B Model Macks etc. Can only think this was to warn other motorists this vehicle could stop very smartly in
comparison to other vehicles on the road. Otherwise warning of the noise during operation and possibility of dust being
blown out from the air system. Might also have been to advise recovery crews of the braking system requirements.
Just surmising as result of thinking about comments offered. Keep up the good work, cheers from Paul.

Don't remember any legal obligation to display the "Caution Air Brakes" sign, probably just someone's safety thought for the day.
I do remember the first disc braked cars, Jags etc and they had a similar warning sticker on the back bumper.

...i reckon those ''caution air brakes'' signs would today be far more acceptable than the ''caution woman driver'' signs that were sometimes seen on the rear of a car back in the day!!

Jist think n back to the olden days

Me nose eye shouldn't do th@

But the early air brakes were a bit uncontrollable
either on or off
as the trailer controld brakes were only via a trolley valve on the steerin column under steerzman wheel

move 4ward to earl eye 60's wen Kenworth were imported to OZ
they came equipt wiff hand piece trolly valve n proportionate brake n
meaning U dun need to apply the hand piece to control trailer
az the proportion valve
so wen u applied the truck brake pedal
60% of controlled air brakes were applied to D truck n 40% was applied to trailer

may B a bit out wiff x act % put U get the picture

cya

Exactly right.
The Westinghouse on our first air Commer was nothing more than a big tap, on or off.
Hideous thing but you got used to applying and then quickly releasing before things locked up.
They took ages to come on and also to go off as with single line brake hose, all that air firstly had to get down to the trailer's brake booster, and then return to dump at the hand piece. Any oil in the system soon covered the driver's leg.
Next valve we got was a PBR thing, worked much better, 2 or 3 notches when empty and a lot more when loaded. It was far more complicated than a simple on/off device but the air still had to return all the way to the hand piece to dump. (No quick dump valves invented yet)
Then 2-line braking systems were mandated, usually with a PBR CA20 break-away valve down the back. Much better control when applying and releasing.
One could also go for the optional foot/hand control hand piece, quite a large device. It permitted the driver to alter the percentage of truck V's trailer braking effort with trailer braking controlled via the truck's foot brake.
One could still apply the trailer brake lever independently, for wet weather etc.
Our first ERGO Leylands required major butchery to the binnacle in order to mount the hand piece, lots of tears.