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Crawlin..(well, meandering, really)..The Hume..

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10 years 6 months ago #141057 by prodrive
A Road Trip Story...
( I put this here because I thought it wasn't really event chat.? Please shift it if it's in the wrong spot..)
We booked in two trucks for the Crawlin the Hume 2014, I thought it was time to finally ENTER one of these great events, that these blokes put so much time and effort into organising, so we can have fun! The previous one's I've just sort of gone along, paid the money when I was there, but never actually entered in advance..

It was going to be the first real trip anywhere for the old '66 Kenworth, since we bought it.
It's had a lot of work, including a head,

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and one piston liner kit, (only ONE!!?? Chocs??)

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Plus tailshaft, king pins, turnable, the list goes on.. And I do apologise, I really should have done a "resto story" for it.
The truck and the great little McGrath bogie

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came from Don Stewart, Bright, now retired, but owned it since 1976, and bought the McGrath new, in 1972.

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The idea was to pick up Don, and take him in the truck, just for old time sake!
Anyway I was going to take the Mack, and a mate (Mark) was going to take the KW.
This all changed when I got to offer of a job taking the old leyland fuel tanker to Wollongong, pity to miss the Crawlin', but hey, i could catch up at Albury!

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So I headed off Thursday afternoon, planning to unload Friday in Wollongong, at the HARS museum.
Hayden rung up saying his trailer was a no go too, as the cows had eaten his wiring (yum..?) and as it turned out, I had a pantech in the yard,

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so Hayden hooked up my pan, and him and Mark planned to head off together Friday morning to do the Crawl proper.
Thursday night saw me at Gundagai, all good- or so I thought. I have NEVER seen mosquito's like that! Eventually I had all the windows up, lights on, and spent half an hour swatting mozzies and trying not the scratch the bites.. What a bastard of a nights sleep! I thought about getting some brekkie there too, but when I went inside to a souless, empty, muzak playing subway / mcdonalds/ "cafe" with dim sims in the bainmarie at 8am, I thought, well, stuff it, I'll get going.
Fueled at Marulan, and decided that I'd support the independant "Truckstop", I havent been there for years. Had a shower there too- what is it with truck stops? Are we truckies so worthless and stupid, that we never complain about grubby showers where you don't want to touch ANYTHING, bored, indifferent service, no atmosphere at ALL... Is this what we have come to expect / deserve? Geez, I just couldn't wait to get out of there, and I won't be back in a hurry. What a shame, so much for suporting the independant?
Wasn't sure which way to go, either Maquarie Pass, or the longer route via Picton Road. But stupity/bravery/ignorance got the better of me, so Maquarie Pass it was.
Really glad I went that way, but I don't think I'd go down there again.
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(Stopped at this point, before you abuse me)
Bloody tight, had to take two goes at one of the corners- the turning circle just isn't that good in the Mack! And you spend so much time on the worng side of the road all the way, swinging out wide, the potential for someone to end up under your bullbar is high. Apparantly a lot of motorbike riders end up like this...
Had a good look around the HARS museum whilst I was there, it is really worth a visit!

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From there, this fella from Interland wanted some scrap metal picked up, so up to pat Vassello's place in Siddley.
The bloke from Interland didn't tell me that it was going to bucket down rain all the way, did he... man, did it rain. Sydney is a mongrel joint to drive round at the best of times, doing it in the rain, in the Mack, (air wipers, don't you love em..) less than ideal for sure.
Anyway Pat's place is a credit to him, as you'd expect, it's immaculate, so are his trucks, and apparantly they work hard, too. Pat had the trailer ready to go on a forklift, and his mate John turned up to give me a hand. So it turned what could have been a tricky job into an easy job. (Good on you, Pat, thanks!)

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So off we trundled, had the whole next day to get to Albury before the Crawlin blokes turned up , how good is that! It was a long day though, so by Yass I was buggered, so into my little bunk was I... and doesn't that Mack look little!

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(The pic is marulan, actually, southbound, but you get the drift)
Woke up all bright and shiny ready for another day, the truckstop at Yass had surprisingly clean showers, good on you, guys, well done!
To be continued... Don't hold your breath, it aint that exciting!!! :o :o

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10 years 6 months ago #141058 by BK
Good read, and better pictures, thanks.

Trust me

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10 years 6 months ago #141059 by IHScout
Some of us have pretty dull lives so this is exciting as it gets. ;D ;D ;D

Come on Prodrive lets have the next instalment !!!

Dennis

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10 years 6 months ago #141060 by prodrive
Meandering.. and crawlin.. continued...!
Checked the oil and water in the Mack, all good-

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turned round to see Old mate in the Stock Crate asking if i had a bit of pipe...

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It appeared that he'd had a rear wheel catch on fire, he was just filling in for the weekend, and didn't know much about trucks at all...

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Anyway I had heaps of time, so we pitched in, pulled his drum off, threw the oily crappy shoes and busted springs away, blocked his air lines, and off he went.

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His boss was pretty happy, as he had the ute all loaded up with gear to come from Albury to get him going.
Ok, we are off again, next stop Holbrook, to the bakery..
WAIT! How bout them old bangers in Bookham, been going to stop there for ever!
Nobody home to talk to, but had a look through the fence. Now this WOULD be a great place for a wander. Can anyone tell me what this is?

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A few pics later, we got to the bakery in Holbrook

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(Not THIS bakery, but I could't get a photo of the other one! Cmon, it's a BAKERY in HOLBROOK, stop ya whinging!)
With no room to park in the main street, I decided to go around the block,- so of course, what do you see when you are in country towns? Old trucks, of course!
The bloke who owned these was mowing the lawn, so we had a chat and he allowed me to take pics of his old bangers- all in the process of being "slowly" done up, One is to get the complete GM 6v53 transplant from the Acco. Should be good!

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Next, Albury- Off the the race course, for a night of waffling on with old blokes about how far, how fast, how many, and so on! Hang on! What

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10 years 6 months ago #141061 by prodrive
Ok, this is the end, I promise-
We checked the fuel at Albury before we left, the Kenworth had used a 1/3 of a tank, but I know the Mack would be getting close to needing some. I decided to put the Dropdeck trailer on the Kenworth, to load it up a bit, the rotten old GM was spewing a bit of oil around, and everyone tells me that they need to get hot, and to "work".. The Mcgrath is pretty light, so I thought the dropdeck would hold the old KW down a bit more. I drove her for the first leg to lunch at Glenrowan, but had to put up with MORE old tall stories from burnt out truckies, bloody lucky Brownie didn't stop, or we wouldn't have got away till night time!
Cruised on to BP Wallan for a last cuppa,

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Chocs & Roz had a Soy Decaf latte, bought me one too! Complete with one of those little bikkies on top.. What a pair, eh? (might have been Roz, I think, she's the nicer one of thos two) and whilst we were there put a couple of hundred litres in the Mack, to make sure we made it home.

Swapped trucks with Mark again, I took the Mack back again - thought to myself

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10 years 6 months ago #141062 by geoffb
Great story Richard sorry but no one informed me about the morning tea stop over
As for that V8 went at a look at that strange looking rocker covers for a Mack :) :)

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10 years 6 months ago #141063 by prodrive
Sorry Brownie, I did text you, then I tried calling you on the CB jobbie, but she was receivin, and no transmittin!!!! The people in Glenrowan reckoned they'd been robbed enough anyway, so any more truckies might have made me call the wallopers again!
Cheers mate.

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10 years 6 months ago #141064 by asw120
Gold.
This sort of thing is a few years away for me, yet.
Enjoy reading about it for now.

ASW.


“I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them”

― Adlai E. Stevenson II

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10 years 6 months ago #141065 by Sarge
Richard, thanks for the excitment, next best thing to a road trip of ya own is someone else's good road trip.. :)


Ta. :)

/me

Sarge B)
ACCO Owner, Atkinson dreamer.

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10 years 6 months ago #141066 by Cunning Stunt
Hey Richard, great story. It was pretty cool seeing you coming the other way on the Friday when we were heading down, couldn't miss you with the big yellow fuel tank on the back :)

Was hoping to catch up in Albury but didn't see you, only a bloke that looked like you driving that old Seattle :-[ :-[ :-[, sorry mate, wasn't being rude......just a bit slow.

Some play hard to get

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