Overlander's old Photos

Surprising how many air start Kenworths there back then
I have never seen one or if I have I just never noticed

Paul

Paul, from my experience, a lot of different makes of trucks operating in remote areas had air start. It was easier to find help in pumping up the air tank, than it was to get someone with enough battery power and long enough leads for a jump start.
Steve.

This is most likely true, I had never noticed before though


Paul

we have KW half truck & SAR R both airstart
twaz way back B 4 they all went silly with pewters etc
KW standard electric start .... air start will cost U xtra
Mack standard Air start ..... U want electric U pay extra
cya

Air start isnt the magic a lot of non users think......first is when its frosty......air would run out before the motor fired ,unless you had ether.......F model Macks were notorious for not having enough air ....GMs were bad for needing a lot of cranking to get fuel up ,and running out of air............Next drama was tanks ...very thin ,and was quite common for the tank to be worn away front lower edge behind the front wheel from gravel..........And they were a lot more expensive than four batteries.....Finally ,they usually had a tire valve ,so the tank could be inflated when it ran down......took ages...........Anyhoo ,the best air starter was the "Startmaster " pre engaged,......the IR was a Bendix gear type and chewed the ring gear.

There are some very large old vintage engines that are air start and have a separate engine to run a compressor to charge the tank to 200psi+ to do the job. It is an amazing thing to watch the whole process. Ruston from memory was just one of them. Blackstone is another. Saw a big Blackstone at the Clarendon Classic one year that arrives on a low loader and it filled it up nicely.

I think my only experience with air starters was about 25 or 30 years ago when a group of us went with an old mate from Mel-boring to Brisvegus for the first Old Truck Display in Qld. we were all to sleep on the floor in a contacts' house in I think, Tanna Merra. Anyway, old mate stalled the B Model in the quiet residential area at about 1.30 in the morning. It took three tries with the air starter to get the motor going. We took off just as lights were starting to appear in the windows of nearby houses.
Thank goodness they did not know who were were. I don't think we would have been popular.