Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

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Found, ……..another old Zacuba / Alltrans brick truck...……... Ex Comet over nighter.
Overhauled and modified to go to work again...…………….



Here is an identical truck ( there were three of them........ You never know , that may well be it.)..............

Some info on the old girl..........1984 K145 S/N 406691.............
Comet fleet No PP840.......... GM 6v 92T donk ( 330 HP as I recall)........15 speed overdrive R/R box .. 38,000.Eaton diffs ( may have even been 40,000)
on T Bars. Load sharing steer axles ,( that were later fitted with blocks on the rockers , effectively cancelling the load
sharing ability )........Why you may ask ??? at a guess i say they have been a bit dohey on the corners, and or , they may now stand
up a bit better after a flat on the steer ........may be.........??????.

After coming off the Comet run , it , and the other two, then went to work carting bricks out of the Zacuba yard at Cecil Park
(west Sydney) for Alltrans Bulk Division.....part of TNT Transport.......
Here is a pic of 406692 (my truck) that was identical , except for the make of the crane........

When they came to Zacuba, the pan was removed, the box changed from over drive to direct......the T Bars removed and replaced
with the John Goth drive suspension..........rear mount crane and opening brick bodies fitted, ,,,fleet No changed to 1BX 843
.........then went to work pulling a tri axle pig trailer for about 14 years till TNT folded up.
A local bloke bought 406691 , delivered bricks for a couple of years then Tom Lawler bought it and stuck it in his shed..........
Tom had a similar 8 wheeler with the set back steer axles , 94 model i think, ... he gradually rebuilt the Zacuba truck to what he wanted...........



Here is the only pic i have of 843 ( on the left) with my truck 844 on the right....... some de bogging going on after a heavy storm............
........................TBC........................

.And...….how did I find out about the truck...……..
Unfortunately it was after a funeral...…..a lovely lady , who used to work for Alltrans Bulk Div, at the Zacuba Brickworks, passed away.
The wake was like an Alltrans reunion (her husband also was a driver at Zacuba ).. But sadly quite a few people had passed away also......
A couple of days later, one of the old drivers rang me , saying he had heard from one of the other old drivers , who had heard from another
old driver, that a suspect Zacuba truck had been resurrected some where in the Newcastle area...…….
So I just spent a fair bit of time on the blower till I tracked the thing down...….spoke to the owners, who were just great to talk to ,
Yeah, the rest is history...…..apparently the truck frequents the local truck shows where I might get a good look at it shortly...…….

Another couple of pics...……...







A little about the truck as you see it now...…..(hopefully correct)
An 8v92t is the donk....18 speed R/R ( I think)…. Peterbilt tri axle rear end (bogie drive with lazy) all on air bag set up...…….
Palefinger crane ,(a big one too ), every thing that needed fixing was done, inside of cab being restored to original upholstery etc etc
A really mickey mouse bit of gear it now is...………….

Thanks to Werk for some S/N info...……………..

...................................Billy...................................

Thanks Bill

Great posting and a lot of history. The adapters for the ten stud to wobbly wheels, do you have picture of the duals? There was an O/D UD tandem tipper running around Brisbane a few years ago with this set up. I never got to ask the driver about it but it had similar adaptors ( or I presume the same ) as what is in the picture on the steer. It also looked like the drive had spiders as well but still UD diffs. I have never seen a UD with spiders before so wondered if it was a one off. After seeing the adaptors you had on your truck I see it is an after market mod, but still wondered about the drive. A side note, a few early MAN's had spiders but also had reduction hubs so a cosy fit for the cleats around the hubs.

Thinking about it I think I have seen a UD with spiders but it was modified with ACCO axles replacing the UD but a total custom job. It was a twin steer.

Thanks again.

BillyP wrote: .
Carried over from some time ago......................
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.I have just spent a fair bit of time chasing the Photobucket pics that went missing...............
I don't know if it is only me , but , now when i try to get onto PB, it just freezes , so i am thinking
that is payback for not coughing up the 400 bucks they wanted for their services...............
Anyway , i hope i have put most of the pics back in the right place................
In doing so i have found a few extra pics of 1BX 819 (Ex 1KT 819) that were taken during the refurb
before it went to god............they have weathered a bit with time, but here they are.................

this pic shows one of the adaptors ( 0n the front wheel ) that bolted onto the 10 stud hubs that enabled spider rims to be used
in stead of the Budd disc wheels that were cracking and becoming rather scarce .............


Refurb pics......That cooler is the air con condenser

At this stage , all the adaptors are still on the hubs for the spider rims................
................................Billy...................................

.KW 10 x 6...…...
The adaptors were fitted to the drive wheels too....sorry no pics.
The fronts didn't look too good but you had to have a close look at the drive to notice them.
Looked much the same as the steer, only a lot more bulky. but hidden by the dish of the outer
rim..........
......................Billy...................

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.In bed tonight ,cant sleep, looking at the ceiling, in thinking mode, and what am i thinking about ........ Zacuba Bricks...... and
the old Kwikasair / Comet eight wheelers. One would think that after 20 odd years of retirement, i should have forgotten them.
Not so , for some reason, .......actually i feel as though if i was to drive out to Zacuba, my truck would be there, loaded and ready to go....
Yeah, could this be a nightmare, i wonder.....
Anyway, something came to mind that i had forgotten ,...... on another thread about the KW 8 wheelers, some one asked why they were fitted
with the RTO915, deep reduction box...... when deep reduction would never be used on the overnight runs, good point. As far as i know ,deep
reduction was blanked off from new, being activated when they came to the brickyard, (i can tell you we would have had a hard time getting into
some of the steep building sites , especially with the tri axle pig trailers and we were grossing in the 40 odd ton mark.)
So one suggestion was TNT knew they were going to the brickyard after the parcel runs . Sounds fair enough, but tonight i remembered something
that may knock that on the head.
I was at KW St Peters in the workshop when KW Lansvale opened up, so i went there. Early in the piece one of the chiefs of TNT equipment
(Just cannot recal his name), called in to have a look at a new prime mover.
Now i had been with Alltrans Bulk at the brickyard before i went to St Peters , For some reason i said to him , are the old KW 8 wheelers going
to be used at the brick yard and he said definately not ,because they were not suited for that type of work, especially , when drivers are in and out
of them all day long in the course of the deliveries...... After that TNT did buy a couple of 8 wheeler ACCOs for the brick yard , but, when i left Lansvale
and went back to Alltrans at the brickyard, all of a sudden the KW 8 wheelers started fronting up there........
.So, assuming he knew what he was talking about ,and maybe the decision was later reversed , that still leaves the question open of why the deep
reduction box was fitted to the Kwikasair / Comet trucks.. (was there a fire sale on them ????????)...…
What did John Laws say about …… some useless information ??????
That said, i am now going back to bed, and,... i am not getting up early to go out to the old Zacuba yard..................
.........................Billy............................

Billy Pee
gudday m8
not sure if n eye'm on the right track or not
Butt
in the early 70's Safeway bought sum single drive day cab KWs
and aftrer few years they renewed m with tandem drive V:
I asked a KW salesman @ the time " why the change to tandem drive"
he sed Twaz a better resale valu wen Safeway traded m
cya

I agree with Swishy that trade in value would've been a big factor in the decision making. It's the same reason big companies buy white trucks today and then get them plastic wrapped with company logos and colours, rather than getting them painted.

Hi BillyP When I worked at the Comet Prospect satellite depot them last batch of 8 wheelers where bought primarly for use for Brisbane freight out of the Prospect depot as being a small depot there was not enough freight to fill a semi, & was told the 15 OD were used as they had a better top end speed &better fuel economy maybe i'm wrong but they could certainly march along, plus they mainly used the putty Another thing the operations manager told me they were to be transferred to Zacubra bricks when the freight picked up at the Prospect depot

Swishy wrote: Billy Pee
gudday m8
not sure if n eye'm on the right track or nota

$wishy, that is pretty well what I would think is the nearest correct answer, considering the amount of trucks involved,
………………...Billy...………………...

.Swanny.. fair enough ..
Seeing as we were using the Kwikasair trucks successfully, I suppose it stood to reason that those 3 Comet 8 wheelers would follow suit ……….
…………………..Billy...………………..