Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

Hi Billy great read mate , on the 20th of Sept we have our truckshow at Clarendon ,a lot of the X St Peters & Lansvale boys catch up each year, it would be great if you could come along.
Cheers Chappo

Chappo,
Ill take you up on that.
Thanks...........Billy................

Well, after 12 weeks in top of NSW & Queensland we are back home

to the cold weather. Went to Gatton for easter & met up with a few people

we have known for a long time. One bloke (weel call him Ted),was a

line haul driver for Jetaway. He had a brother, (weel call him Bill) who

was a line haul driver for IPEC. Both used to do Sydney---Melbourne---Adelaide--

then up the back way to Brissy & back to Sydney. They had to do this in 6 days.

When IPEC ( & all) finished up the drivers were told( when they came back to the

yard ) , dont come back to morra , the gates will be closed. Its all over.

Now i had driven a few of the IPEC 141 KWs but not loaded & one thing i had noticed was,

if you were scooting along they liked to lift a rear leg in the corners & you would be

left with a heap of revs that wernt very productive , so foot off the go pedal & when

the taco bounced back up ,you could get going again. At the time i didnt think all that much

about it. But talkin to Ted reminded me of it. How ever, as soon as the truck talk started

the women folk all said , weve had enough of trucks over the years thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

So i didnt find out if the same thing happened when loaded.

After a couple of weeks with that crowd we moved on, later camping at Kumbia sth of

Kingaroy for 1 night, and you wouldnt wanta know it , one of the blokes there an ex IPEC

line haul driver who used to do the same run as Ted & Bill , only he was based in Brissy,

but had known both of them. A hah , heres my chance to find out about the 141s

Sorry sez John (weel call him that), i had a 8 wheeler MAN with a dog (i took it he was a subbie)

Cant help you, Anyway next morning we moved on (& didnt see any more IPEC drivers, i suspect

there getting a bit thin on the ground these days).
.......................Billy......................

Welcome back Billy ..... Found some photos that might interest ya ..... Zacuba Cameronian

Billy, do you know much about the IPEC change over depot at Glen Innes? Might figure it into the Climbing the New England event in November if there is interest.

Thanks Werk,
Yeah , its always good to get home.

Those old shots would be appreciated, for sure. Ive found a couple , but they

are pretty crappy, but , ill put em up when i sort em out.

I took a heap of shots of all old stuff in paddocks & some museums while away,

Theres that many itl take a hell of a time to bung em up (on a new thread of corse)


Mammoth.
Sorry, i carnt help you with the Glen bit
.......................Billy....................

g'day Billy .. it's fantastic to be able to connect with a few of the old crew

... nephew Jason is chipping away at his old 8 wheeler ghost, and is pretty fair dinkum about making sure things that belonged on 'em go back where they should....tanks, wheels, etc etc....cheers mate

GDay Tec, Hows things goin,?

Ive been wondering how Jasons buggey is coming along.

Did you find out any more info about it?
...................Billy...............

Thinking about lifting wheels!!!!!!!!

Years ago when INTERCENTRE had just bought their 125 KWs with the 903s,

one, that was about 3 months old, (as i recall) had the misfortune to have

a trailer fall off.

I think it was on the way up from melbourne to sydney.

Two of them were travelling together & on a bend the pan ripped the turntable

off the mover which then did a 180, going backwards down the road with the pan (nose down)

in hot persuit. Any way, every thing pulled up with not that much space between them. So.

After the repair job was over ,every body of corse said,........ How the hell do you shear

the turntable bolts off. (as i recall i think it was the bolts holdin the feet to the base plate)

Now they all proved to be high tensile etc. Every thing was the same as every other truck

that went out of the place. Very mysterious i hear some one say.

Some months later i was talking to a bloke who drove for Vic Magro (Anno Transport).

This bloke said they had passed him earlier & he was listening to them nattering on

the CB. The talk was about lifting the inside pan wheels off the deck around the corners.

He seemed to be of the opinion this may have had some bearing on the out come

of the turn table problem...........Yeah...........

Anyway no problems there after.
...................Billy....................

I have heard of old timers making a game of lifting trailer wheels off the ground, usually around Liverpool heading south.