Fuel Delivery Tanks.

Cunning Stunt,

I have since bought this AB160. I am not sure if I am any further ahead but at least it is an AB and if we paint it red it will probably look closer to the AB182.

It is an ex Mobil Agent truck and was originally International red, (the interior, fire wall and underside of the bonnet is still red and in good condition) so if we repaint the exterior red again it will look ok.

Geoff.

I now have the three more tanks I was looking for and they were only 40km away at Narromine. This is as I first saw them. Just three as I wanted and for sale. You can be lucky.

Geoff.

Geoff - That is a very neat home-built trailer and combination, and the old Inter represents what Inters did best in the 1960's.

Yes, it's amazing how easy-going things were, back in the "old days". I got my licence off an old Sgt in the mid 1960's, by taking the Sgt for a drive around the block of a little country town .. and the Sgt took me past the only stop sign in town, to see if I recognised what stop signs meant! ..

Then it was back to the station (a circa 1910 wooden building), to get asked 3 curly questions .. and I got two of them wrong! LOL ..

I remember that the two I got wrong were .. "What is the minimum distance, to stop from a level crossing?" (it was 15 ft, but I never knew that!).
Then he asked me .. "At what minimum distance do you dip your headlights at night, for oncoming vehicles?" (it was 600 yds .. but I never knew that, either!! .. )

So, I got that wrong, too! I can't recall the 3rd curly question, but I got it right, and the old Sgt's face lightened up a bit, as he reached for all the paperwork. He wrote out a licence for me, and said .. "you've already been driving a fair bit, haven't you?" ......

I just said "yep" .. without letting on, that I'd been driving myself to work on every back road and side road, since I was a bit over 16! He probably knew that, anyway! You don't get away with much in small country towns!! ..

Re the illegal loading .. the brother and I bought a gold mine off a couple of old 'Slav prospectors in the early 1970's.
One of them, old Mick, lived out most of the rest of his long life, in his little homebuilt Goldfields shack on the lease next door, after we bought the mine.
After he died, we pulled down his shack and under the floorboards were some copies of the Kalgoorlie Miner from the 1930's (Mick had been there since 1922). We chuckled over the classified ads in the Miner, with one in particular taking our fancy.

The ad simply read .. "For sale - 1935 Chev, One Ton ute - will carry Two Ton" ..

Cheers - Ron.

My Dad got his licence when he was 16 in 1949, he got it early cause Grandad was sick and could'nt work. He said he went to Serpentine or it might have been Pinjarra (i can't remember) police station with his mum and and they asked him if he could drive so he drove the Bedford ute they had around the block and that was it. He later started doing the Hopelands school bus run with kids in the back of the ute when he was 17. Can you imagine that. When he went for his truck licence he only did paper work and that was it and then bus licence in the 80's was a few questions and a drive around the block.

Dad and his Bedford ute he said at 40000mile it was worn out.

Geoff - Yes, you sure did get lucky. Over here, these tanks are still worth good money, and this bloke in the ad below, thinks his is gold-plated.
I mean to say .. it DOES come with a rotary pump .. but $1100?? .. :

Fuel tank for sale .. www.cockymart.com.au/details.php?id=1209

Hardtopman - Yes, things were pretty easy in the old days. I know, or knew, quite a few old fellas who got their truck licences at 14 or 15, to cart wheat to the bin, because labour was short in the farming areas.

I remember one old bloke telling me he was delivering wheat at 14 in the farm truck, and the local Sgt pulled him up in the main street.
The Sgt said to him .. "How old are you, son? - and have you got a truck licence??" ..
The young bloke admitted he was only 14, and no, he didn't have a driving licence of any kind .. :

The old Sgt looked somewhat appalled, and said .. "We can't have that!! You'd better come around to the police station, and I'll write one out for ya .. "

Yes, it wasn't uncommon for the older cars to have buggered motors at 40,000 or 50,000 miles. The reason being, that thick dust when driving, was a fact of life in those days, and filtration wasn't as good as it is today .. and the older vehicles did a lot of slow speed work in the gears, thus meaning that the engines did a lot of hours, as compared to modern vehicles that sit on 110kmh at low engine RPM.
Overdrive gearboxes were virtually unknown, and most final drives (rear axle ratios) gave about 4000RPM at 55mph, so the engines were screaming, as compared to today.

Goeffa

Dont know if these are any good to you.

cgi.ebay.com.au/AMPOL-BOWSER-DECAL-STICK...&hash=item27b1ec4f66

Trevor

Yes, it's amazing how easy-going things were, back in the "old days".

In 1954, when I turned 15, I decided to get my motorbike licence although I had never ridden one. I borrowed a 125cc Puch scooter and took it along to the local cop one VERY wet day.

He said "How long have you been riding?" and I said "About 3 weeks" which was a slight exaggeration.

He said "Well, I'm not going out in that bloody rain to watch you ride it, do you know the Road Code?" I said "Yes".

"OK" he said, "Here's your licence, just be careful" and that was it.

Lucky you didn't decide to become a pilot ! They might be a bit more strict now.

Gotta love these licence stories! I got mine in 1983, I was going to school in Geelong, a girlfriend of mine had a family farm in Moama NSW, and of course you could get your license at 17 in NSW, but not until 18 in Vic... So we thought "top idea, get a NSW license". So up for the day to Moama, got a learners permit from the local coppers, asked if I could get my "P"s same day, they said, nah, drive around for a few weeks first. So up to Deniliquin, the RTA there said "no, you have to book in". So going through Mathoura stopped in at the local cop shop. The fella there said "can you drive?" "Of course I can"... "There you go son".
Twas a heart stopping moment a month or so later getting pulled up for speeding whilst in my Geelong School uniform, handing over a NSW licence!

A year later when I turned 18, we were loading wrecked cars out Brunswick Heads to Vic, and so rang the cops at Mullumbimby to see if they were there and could I come for truck licence test. Drove the local wrecking yard's truck down to Mullumbimby, and asked if I could see the road rule book as I hadn't seen one for a year. The cop asked my mate "how did he go driving that big thing down here?" To which my mate replied "good" . Cop says " Don't worry about the test son, there you go" ! License done, back in the truck and off we go back to Melbourne in the Semi!
Funny how much more regulated things are now, but does anyone actually think things are better these days???
Cheers
Richard

Yes, things have certainly changed. In 1957, when I turned 18, I decided to go for a Heavy Truck licence. I had never driven a truck, but a friend of Dad's had a 3 ton Austin and said I could borrow that so I turned up back at the council office. I went around the block with the cop and he said "That's OK but I have to ask you some questions; what's the speed limit around here?" I said "30 mph of course". He said "That's right, but I wouldn't have thought so by the speed you were driving, just go a bit slower in future, here's your licence."

I asked him what I had to do to get my artic licence, as it was called then. He said "Just come back tomorrow with an artic and park in the carpark outside and ask for me". I phoned the local truck rental firm and asked if I could hire one for half a day and went to pick it up. They of course asked for my licence and I told them I didn't have one, that's what I wanted to hire their truck for. I said I had a heavy truck licence so they said OK, that'll do. I drove the artic (a Fordson Thames V8 petrol) to the council office, met my friendly cop who came out to the carpark with me and told me to back it into a vacant space, which I managed to do, and that was that. Those 2 licences have seen me right for the last 53 years.

Sure wouldn't happen today!