477 louey

pm sent whale.

Ozfury

Eddie Gribbles truck was the 1st one SOLD IN Townsville. Closley followed by a tipper in the same spec and 2 LN 7000 that went into overnight work. I was there!

Oldfulla

G'day Oldfulla, you may be right there, but I remember Eddie claiming his was the first in Australia? hmmm maybe Qld? hmmm maybe the old grey cells just aint what they used ter be? Was the tipper you speak of Holcroft's?and one of the overnight ones belong to Max "Bonfire" ? Ah the 70's...gotta love them!

Oz, I started my apprenticeship at Denmac in 1980, so I'm only going on what I heard when I was working there as I was probobly only about 11 years old when the first one was sold. But every time that Classified truck came into the workshop, which wasn't often I pretty much heard the same story, that was the first one sold in Australia, it was sold by Denmac and old mate picked it up straight after the Brisbane Truck show.
As I say, I'm only going on what I was told, and then have remembered from 30 odd years ago, so there is a bit of room for error there. LOL.

Ozfury

YES - Holcroft was the 2nd (a tippper) and the 2 LN7000 were ??? Bain & Alan Gregory. Bain is the father (I think he is dead now) of the son who operates Freight West.

If 'Bonfire' is who I think you are refering to - might have been - then I think his truck was bought 2nd hand. Again - asuming we are talking about the same bloke - his truck burnt just north of Guthulungra, and his Merc Benz car met a similar fate on Herveys Range (I think it was), and there was a backhoe of his that got very hot too.

RE the First Truck sold - that definatly came from one of the bigger southern dealers - like Denmac in Bris. McKillop Ford in Townsville wasnt in the same class or customer base size.

Also from memory - not all the Ford Louie range was avail on day one. The LN700 & 7000 were first to be released - with the desiel options coming soon after. IE: the first truks sold were all petrols.

Either way - I know the salesman who sold those first Fords in Townsville - I'll give him a call and see what he remembers. I'll send you a PM with the answers.

Oldfulla

thanks gorb cheers whale

worked at Ford Geelong as a young fella, we had 4 single drive 477s and later 4 bogie 477s. Used to drop a few valves from memory, but we hammered them.

Heres one Louey to look at LN 8000 3208 Cat ,1979 Model LN8076A ,Chassis NoV924633P. GCM 28000 .Not a 477 but I like the look of them so I thought I would post a picture of one so you could admire it to.


Colin

Understand this is an older topic, but I have a picture of a LNT900 Louis I used to drive for Healesville Mixed Concrete in the 80's that had a 477 V8 on straight LPG and 13 speed road ranger.

Not the most powerful but it sounded great



You had to let it idle for a minute before shutting down the engine otherwise gas accumulated in the exhaust then ingited sounding like a shot gun going off

you had to let it idle for a minute before shutting down the engine otherwise gas accumulated in the exhaust then ingited sounding like a shot gun going off

i did the shot gun on many forklifts ,its even better when you leave them parked in a 40ft container it really gets alot of attention and alot of words from management to