Subbie wannabe

Like most guys starting out I bought a small secondhand truck for a prime mover, always favoured the Inter R180 with the black diamond petrol engine

I bought a 28 foot fixed turntable and off I went, down to Holdens at Woodville to load boxes of Holden body parts, picked up a loading form from the office and went around to the yard, a mate had told me, "fold a ten pound note in the work order and he will load you with light boxes" I did and he did!! Away I went to Sydney hoping I would get there ok and get paid.

Waiting to unload in Sydney, my two little girls on the truck, I had my wife's name on the front, the song was popular at the time

Deciding I needed something bigger I traded the 180 in on a low milage Inter KB8 with red diamond engine, former Eudunder Farmers Co truck, had the trailer lengthened to 36 feet and a Fruehoff bogie under it, careted mostly carbon black from Melbourne to the Hardie tyre co in Sydney for George transport, (let George do it) on the front of their trucks. Then decidedthat the truck, though strong, was killing me onfuel, 4 mpg on the flat, 2 mpg in the hills, had to carry extra drums of fuel, so traded it in on another later R189 with a Perkind 6/354 diesel, Perkins did not have a great name but this new engine was very popular and gave great milage, carted spuds out of Brisbane to the Sydney markets, felt sorry for the farmers as the price was very low but they had to dig them out of course. I reckon all farmers deserve a medal for all the hard work they do for little money depending on the season and the market, I read where a farmer in Qld was taking a break to Sydney, asked by a mate which route he was taking, he said,"I thought I'd take the missus as she stuck by me through the drought"

Went back to carting Holden bodies, easy loading, no tarps, all forklift

One night going into Sydney with the 180 it was raing so bad all roads were closed except one with limited weight, had Holden parts so thought I would be OK, halfway there I crossed this narrow bridge anthe other side looked like a wall!!, put it in bog cog and hoped, so steep, got 3 parts of the way up when the tailshaft snapped, could not hold it with the brakes as it started rocking backwards, I told my wife who was with me to jump out, I held it for a bit, realized I could never back it back to the narrow bridge in the dark so let it go, the Angel stepped in and it jacknifed with the trailer hal on it's side across the bridge and the prime mover hanging over the gorge held by the turntable, I climbed along and cut the engine off, traffic during the night was held up for miles, at daylight a heavy wrecker came out from Sydney, hooked on to the front and pulled it around and up the hill neat as you like! a miracle, after that I decided to cart out bush.

Tipical cattle yard, not used but still pumping water

About 300 miles South of Alice when I pulled into this bore I heard a knock that shouldn't be there, dropped the sump and lo, a rod bearing had gone bad. Sent in to a mate to send me a new set of rod bearings and some shim's as I might need them, just as well, so got goingnd delivered the load to Darwin, unfortunately it was for "Honest" John kennelly who refused to pay as I was late, never got a cent, like many who dealt with him I'm sure. Stayed with ted Stiles and did some work for him and another mate Jim Burnett had a scrap yard and gave me a full load back to Adelaide, decided to give the game away and sold the bogie trailer to of all people tom Kruse, who was building dams at the time, drove through to Canbera to my old mate George Skinner who managed Canbera washed sands, an O'Neil operation, sold the 180 there, worked for him driving a tipper.

Great stories and photos Ron, I enjoy them all.

Thanks again for sharing your stories Ron..

Only nails home how easy we have things today....
We barely carry a tool kit or a spare wheel these days, let alone have the knowledge of what to do with such things.
You are reminding us of an era where guts, determination and bloody hard work was an everyday occurrence....
Really appreciate the time you have taken to share your memories, both good and bad.

'Hat tipped' with the utmost respect.....

thank you
regards
chocs