Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

Hi,

I have moved the discussion about 'driver signals' to its own thread here, www.hcvc.com.au/forum/truck_Chat/17841-d...courtesy-on-the-road

Terry

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.Sorry about that Terry...………….
Seeing as I am here I may as well tell a little story...…………..
Once upon a time there was an 8 wheeler Comet KW that dearly wanted to become a brick truck, along came Mr Alltrans
and said we have just the place for you. It is called ZACUBA, so welcome aboard. We will throw a bloke by the name of Billy
into your cab and let him loose. That is how Comet 1PP839 became 1BX 844 and the rest is history. ………………..
Found another pic of 844 the other day , so here it is...................
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At least i think it is a new one....................

One morning we came into the yard to pick up our second load, in the driveway was one of the subbies, with his trailer
unhooked and the 3070 with a mechanic operating on the 903. Both were loaded .
So parks 844 and goes in to pick up our next ticket, the allocator says , Billy, park your trailer and put this load on
the truck, then on the way out pick up Norms trailer, (the broken down subby) and deliver both to that address
at the central coast. So sees Norm and hooks onto his trailer, and amazingly all the lights etc are working
(thats a relief) but Norm says there is a problem with the trailer brakes that i think is in the trailer itself,
in that the wheels are locking up when unloaded even on a reasonably light pedal pressure
OK, we will give it a go.
Gets up the central coast ok , finds the site and unloads without a problem.
On the way out of the site a car from the next house slots in behind me and away we go, its a slight up hill drag to
the next set of lights , of corse they are red arent they, with a couple of cars at the lights ,i just idles up to them
without touching the anchors, just about stopped , and feels a thud go through the truck. What in the hell was that,
puts the maxis on, jumps out , nothing around the front ,walks back and here is that little car jammed under the
back of Norms trailer. Bloody hell, if you are in someones elses gear , you can bet your life thats when you will have
some strife. Saying to the young lady how did you manage that, she says i didnt see you stop, there were no brake
lights on your trailer. Thats because i didnt use the brakes to stop , So we go through the rigmorole of operating the brakes
and the lights are all ok. Then she says , my husband is going to kill me, the car is just out of the smash repairs after
me running up the back of someone else,. Any way, the cops come, decide it was her fault, a bit of paperwork and
we are away. Thinking about what Norm said about the trailer brakes , i decided to take it easy till i was out of sight
of the cop before i tried them. Sure enough ,they locked up with light pedal pressure , so i thought i will just pull out
the service line, tie it up so it didnt look out of place and carry on.
All was going good till coming down Pennant Hills Road , the radar and breathaliser was spotted up ahead, all good,
they were full up, so choofs past steadily, then had a look in the l/h mirror, looks ahead.. ohhh noooo, the traffic
had stopped in a hurry, hits the anchors , the drive locks up , with no trailer brakes, we stop at the car in front
with out hitting it (a miracle ) but the air is full of blue smoke. bloody hell, this will go over big time with all those cops
at the side of the road.
Lights change, away we go thinking we might expect a visit from the lawman soon, sure enough, gets pulled over
with all the flashing lights etc ..........Licence and logbook driver...........goes back to his car, comes back and
says do you always pull up like that driver ?? well i mostly try not to …... you were looking at us werent you driver.
Not much i could say, was there,............ any way he hands me back my brief and says get going,,, this is your lucky day,
Keep your eyes in front in future. Whew!!!!!!!!! i felt sure they would have said something about the trailer
brakes not coming on. Gets back to the yard, drops off Norms trailer, showed him where the car hit the back
of his trailer. Actually he had a good bar across the back so , a few scratches was all that was evident.
Tells the chief all he needs to know , picks up my trailer, loads , and choofs off , hopefully on
another pleasant journey.........................
..............................Billy.............................

That remind me of Bruce Dickson..........he used to drive the F12 and 3 axle pig............one day a woman rings the shed screaming a brick truck had put a black swirly mark all down the side of her car......I asks did she get the rego number......no,she couldnt see for the trailer........but she got the name off the side...............When Bruce got back in the afternoon,I asked if he d noticed .......he said yeah ,...I dropped my cigarette into all the papers and rubbish on the floor ,and I was worried the truck would catch fire......so he was looking for it.........anyway the insurance co tried us on for a bit,but gave up........Bruce only had one eye,but never told the Transport .

A bit over 30 years ago I used to go to Zacuba to check their forklift tyres. They were the only brick pit we went to that used those air inflators on the fork tines to lift and load the brick stack.

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.GDay cobba…….
. Yeah. They tried those inflators in the tynes to pick up the bottom row , while the tynes themselves took
the weight of the rest of the pack. However , they went back to the hydraulic fingers because they gave less
in the way of troubles. The main problem with the inflators was wear when the tynes were on the ground
and the forkie put the pressure on , then started to lift, the inflaters had to slide up the side of the bottom
row of bricks before the weight was taken to lift the pack. The steel hydraulic operated fingers could handle
that situation with no problems , (other than the occasional hydraulic leak ) .
.......................Billy.............................

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.Here is a great bit of news ………( to me anyway )…………..
An 8 wheeler KW tipper has just appeared on one of the Facebook sites...……..
So after nearly 20 years 844 has surfaced again ...…………




One day i shall have a look and maybe take a few more pics .....................
............................Billy................................

Hi BillyP being 30years old & looking good I think she deserves to go on historic plates. Memories of days at Comet them 8 wheelers were real hotrods :woohoo: :whistle:

Swanny wrote: Hi BillyP being 30years old & looking good I think she deserves to go on historic plates. Memories of days at Comet them 8 wheelers were real hotrods :woohoo: :whistle:

That would be OK...…...But there is a personalised set of plates on the way that should look pretty good. ………..
……………………..Billy...……………………….

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…..And here they are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




……………………..Billy...…………………….

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.Another bit of good news for me ……….While out and about today I was reunited with an old friend that I had
not seen for many years and also met its current owner for the first time. The owner (Geoff Memate ) was behind us
in traffic and spotted the old Zacuba sticker on the back of our troopy. With our BP number plates he put it all together
and waved us over. I had seen the KW in the rear mirror and said to my wife , bloody hell, theres old 844 behind us.
So i had a look over the old girl and a chat to Geoff. It now sports a 400 Cummins and an airbag r send .Carting hot mix
locally it should last a lifetime. What seemed strange was, when it took off , no GM noise ……………….
here is a pic...………………….


……………………..Billy...…………………..