Buying a KW to attract drivers

All very well but which engines attract drivers - Jimmys or Crummins?

Jimmy craks horn
n eye dont care

LOL

Cya

[ch9787]

Would some of todays jockies even know Jimbo??
They don't check oil and water any more..
(thats not in the drivers job description)
So they wouldn't get to see the name badge on the power plant!
If ya told half of em it was a boeing they'd believe ya, nod and keep walkin!
Its only the red badge and the KW that alerts them to the fact it might be a kenworth
chocs

All i'm gona say is , showy truck crap money , medium truck medium money ,old truck good money . Thats what i found in my time .

In the mid to late 80's after I had finished my apprenticship, I worked for TNT around Brisbane on and off for about 3 years. Kenworth was allways considered King when I was a young bloke, though when the Road Boss came out in the late 70's they were an impressive thing. The first division of TNT I worked for was distribution. Distribution was in a bit of a steady decline when I started there, and all the TNT trucks started life as Comet or Kwikasair trucks for a year or 2, then refridgeration, and finally distribution, just to give you an idea of how the TNT fleet was deployed. TNT used to try and have thier trucks working 24 hours a day, so if you drove a particular fleet number during the day, odds on, someone else drove it at night. Distribution at the time still had a steel delivery contract, a pet food contract, sugar, this cement slurry stuff for making fibro, and a few other things. The first truck I drove was an old slimline KW, 8V71, 10 or 15 speed, armstrong steering, real good for learning to back into docks with a foot or so each side. They had an Allison flat top trailer that had been hit by a train while shunting that broke all the cross braces in the trailer, the trailer used to do a banana when it was backed into the dock over at Enogerra. They also had slim lines with 8V92N's in them, all good fun in your 20's.Later on I drove a Road Boss with a 350 Cummins and 9 speed, thought I was king of the road, a lovely truck after being in a slim line, used to distibute the pet food during the day and another bloke used to hook it up to the dodgy old tanker they had to cart the cement slurry crap at night. They also had a W model there that was old Des's truck, only got to drive it if Des was on Holiday's, 8V92TA rocket, lovely to drive. Used to do 10-12 hours everyday and go home knackered, tautliners only came in just before I left, so I was pretty good and still am at tying things down quick, and tarping loads up. It is quite satisfying looking at a nicly tarped load, not that I've done that for a very long time. All good fun when you are young.

Anyway after all the reminicing BS sort of brings me to this piont, it's all perceptions isn't it? Blokes like driving KW's because they are percieved to be the best. I must admit I don't do much driving these days, I did 2 trips to Mackay and back last year, one in a DAF, the other in a 402 KW, you can't fault KW for building a well thought out truck, mind I've driven a couple of Western Stars that were nice as well. The old cab over KW's ride horribly, but I was real keen when I was a young bloke, not that keen now, but I'd talked myself into it a bit in those days I reckon.

thanks Cam..thats the way we used to learn..
I reckon we were kings drivin anything back then!
and yes...theres nothing like some proper knots and a good tight tarp job!
no matter whats pullin it
chocs

Hi Chocs

Re your comments on KWs versus Internationals. I've driven the truck on the left, an International 9400i with a Cummins ISX engine and 18-speed manual Roadranger, for the last 8 years and 900,000km. It's quite a basic truck, old-fashioned, doesn't ride all that well but I like it. Yesterday I had to drive the KW T404 on the right of the photo for the day. Same running gear as the Inter but what a different truck; I hated it. The KW cab is claustrophobic, you almost have to turn the inside light on to fill in your logbook in broad daylight! The dashboard covers the bottom half of the windscreen and the rear window is set so low down that only a contortionist could see out of it. Thank goodness I get the Inter back on Monday.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz350/vicandval/InterKW.jpg?t=1309572692

One of our other drivers got the Inter 7600i on the right of the photo below and had that for about 4 years before getting the Mack Trident which he drove for about 3 years and loved it. He spent the last 8 months in Timaru where he had to drive the Inter 9400i on the left of the photo. He didn't expect to like it after the much newer Trident but soon changed his mind and now doesn't want his Trident back. Last week he had to drive the T404 for a week and what he thought of that could only be printed on here with rows of asterisks and exclamation marks.

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz350/vicandval/MackInters.jpg?t=1309572692

So, not everyone would rather drive a KW; the 9400i Inters are the oldest trucks we have got still doing regular long distance work and most of our guys prefer them to either the Mack Tridents or the KW.

Sorry, Swishy!

Gday Vic..
thanks for the input...
i'll clear something up here and then start a new topic...
"It won't matter what you do to a kw.....it'll never be an international"
Written as nothing more than that..
Just chocs bein chocs..
like it wont matter what you do to that screwdriver..(within reason)
it'll never be a hammer...
and so on etc

In the new thread..i'll tell why i drive what i drive
chocs

"It won't matter what you do to a kw.....it'll never be an international"


Thank f@#k for that

Awww..... the inters are OK wot with all them extra features like half sized radatiors and factory rust and in the early ones ya didnt hav ta rack ya brain tryn to decide wot motor or gearbox ay