Aussie Peterbilts and owners

Ok Detective I remember in the early 90s looking at a white cabover at a truck sales yard in Cooper St Campbellfield when I was in the " bugger this I'll buy me own truck and drive/work THAT stage " before I got talked out of it...
It was just east on the southern side about 200 metres from Sydney Rd..
I put that on the " shoulda done " it list nowadays..
From memory the cab was longer than normal... >

Peterbilt U Want
Peterbilt U Got

freshly pirated orff the net fir u're N joyment

































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Sum U scene .......... Sum U aint



cya

Hi Detective , glad I could be of some help.
Another recollection of Peterbilts involves a dark blue? 6x4 sleeper cab model that was carrying a load of potatoes down the notorious steep Bulli Pass around the late sixties. After loosing its brakes it ended up on its side and crashing through several houses. Unfortunately several people were killed. My friend witnessed the accident and had to sit through the coronor's inquiry. The cause of the brake failure was that someone had replaced a damaged air line with a piece of garden hose and after several applications the hose burst. The truck was written off.
In the mid seventies I was talking to the owner of a very nice looking Pete and he told me that had brought the Bulli Pass wreck and rebuilt it and it still had the twin stick gearbox in it and on a trip to America he had sourced a replacement cab. It was painted white and red and had Happy Days written on the sunvisor. At that time it was hooked up to a tipper and working for Heggie's carting coal out of Coalcliff mine. I think he came from the Camden, Burragorang area.
A W model KW car carrier is currently working out of Port Kembla and has Happy Days painted on the bog deflector. It might be the same guy.

Hi xspanrman .. after 50 odd years, some old Aussie Petes had a lot of luck...others had no luck at all...this one amazingly had a lot of luck!...

...R A Robinson of Paddington purchased this sleeper cabover 4x2 new in 1965 (ch/no 18544). He unfortunately died at Bulli along with his young son on school holidays, and also an ol' mate in the cab along for the trip ...it was a complete mess with the cab parting from the chassis, although amazingly the chassis and mechanicals looked barely scathed by the whole ordeal, which was at that stage configured as a 6x2...

...the wreck (less cab) was purchased and proudly rebuilt by Jim Fenech with a replacement (RHD?) Peterbilt cab complete with modified KW style mudguard skirts and made into a 6x4... then passing through to Charlie Fenech before eventually being traded at Kenworth Lansvale....

...a couple more owners, another cab replacement after yet another prang ...this time into the back of a schoolbus....(subsequently fitted with the cab from ch/no 18129....ex Alan Pierpoint)..... but all up she now still survives with a crook 335 and parked up by a great bloke out at Mudgee for about the last 20 years...

Hi Swishy .. great photo essay...hows about one at a time ol' mate?

...in order, and a brief history of each .. orange semi tipper...ex Ron Thompson Tpt (ch/no 20242) sold to John Marr Tpt of Glen Innes and unfortunately smashed and reduced to parts with Lynch's Hexham..

...Chemtrans tanker .. ch/no 16748 ACF Shirleys Ltd (Shirleys Fertilisers) and retained throughout its entire working life, after takeover by Australian Fertilisers Limited, to their transport arm Chemtrans...she's had a couple of subsequent owners at a very late stage of her life sees her ripe for restoration..

...ch/no 15980 is the white day cab tray...originally a 4X2 prime mover with Peter Hayes of Bega, next unnamed owner doing containers around Sydney still 4X2, Leon Newsome converted it to 6x4 with 335 fitted, then Dick (Daisy) Bates Queanbeyan ACT, Len Maddern ACT, Deegan's of Goulburn (converted into a tray), and now with Jim Dean

...Alltrans peaches and cream conventional (believed ch/no 22065) has a very obscure history after Alltrans, but owned a long time by the Lynch's at Hexham (they have had quite a few)

...with all the rust stains showing on the next one, you would be forgiven if you thought it was a steel conventional, whereas it's an aluminium cab and chassied ex mighty big banger originally ordered for Mainline Tpt in 1964 (ch/no 17790) with airbag rear suspension, Alcoa tubeless alloys, Jake brakes, aircon, twin heaters (one for the 36'' bunk) heated mirrors, etc. etc. etc. all on a 210'' wheelbase when new. It was never operated by Mainline but went through to Jim Elson (Elson Bros Adelaide) sub contracting to Ansett's AFE till unfortunately reposssesed and put to work in the Cannington fleet in Silverwater NSW with the transfer dump body arrangement (ex ch/no 17896), then operated for a time by Kulnura Quarries before finally going back to Pacific Coast Trucking (later PCT Roadlines) shortened right up into a float truck and spending a lot of its life with them till Kingstons, Woodlawn coal mine at Goulburn, Bob Barker Goulburn and now m'self...

...next is ex Alltrans ch/no 22060 latterly owned by Anzol Paints in Sydney (Dick Blackwell), Pete McKenzie of Rooty Hill NSW (tipper fitted), then to Barry Chadwick of Lithgow...still very original with its 250 and 4x4 and reverted back to prime mover by him ...

...pretty sure the later model black cabover is owned by John Bell and is one of the Freestone imports from about 15 years ago...

...next is the ex Frank Burke truck that had been to hell and back after a big train smash saw her come off second best...this is the truck that eventually made Frank a part owner of PCT Roadlines when he asked if he could rent a bit of yard space to rebuild his beloved Pete. They couldn't believe what they saw in front of their eyes with new rails, repaired and rebuilt cab, and a million other things carried out to see her back on the road again . Operated for a long time in with the firm till eventually passing through a few more owners before finding a happy home with Andrew Liapis of Melbourne for nearly 15 years and is now for sale (ch/no 19428)...

...Harvest Haul owns the beautiful silver/grey Pete (ch/no 17789) and was an identical twin to 17790...although also not being operated by Mainline Tpt, she went into service with Aussie Fertilisers from new... a couple of prangs later saw her purchased and in the PCT workshops being rebuilt by senior mechanic Frank Catlin to be put back shortened up and on float work with the rest of the fleet for many years (CatBilt!). Ubiquitous Peterbilt owner Geoff McDonald had her for a while afterwards fitted with a 903/VT903 followed by Van Damme Tpt QLD who sold it on to the current owner of around 20 years and is also currently up for sale...

...to be continued...i'll give it a rest for a while (typers cramp)...BUGGER YA SWISHY

Here's some photos I took of a Peterbilt owned by Bulldog Transport which I think is Geoff Dobe's trading name. I took these shots in Narrabri approx. 7-8 years ago.









There was another cabover Pete in Narrabri with a concrete agitator on it's back, owned by Christakos Tpt. that was sold at auction about 10-12 years back, no idea where it went, but someone on this forum will know its fate. Bruce

g'day Bruce .. that is Geoff Dobe's Pete and there is a story in that one too...

...in the early/mid 1970's Ron Bolands Pete (ch/no 19185) was side by side with John Hodgkinsons Pete (ch/no 17794) at Kenworth Lansvale after both being involved in separate prangs, One survived and one didn't..sort of !....the Boland cab was too far gone and the Hodgkinson chassis must've been the same...because they are now together as one truck...and for around 40 years has served Geoff well...

...the North West Commodities (Christakos) cabover agitator (ch no 19301) was originally sold new to The Commonwealth Department of Works in QLD on low loader float work before eventually being rescued by the Lynch's Hexham from an operator in the Northern Territory in a pretty rough state around the early 1980's. a big refurbish and a few more owners in a variety of work had her disappear off the radar until once again turning up at Narrabri/WeeWaa...it's an interesting one i'd like to have a look at one day, having had a 220 Cummins with main and auxillary 'boxes in a longer than normal cabover sleeper chassis length back in the day...

...Ken Young at Bribaree NSW bought her at auction and has owned her for a few years now and is once again up for sale....

Carn Phil .... Waitin for the next installment from that other bit ya did .... Been sitting on the edge of me chair since ....

PHIL, just a bit to clear up the Elson Peterbilts.

There was a split with Elson Bros, Possum (Jim) Elson split up with E.H. (Harry) Elson and the two other brothers and went alone in Sydney, but still had the Elson Bros. name on the door. The conventional that Jim got was originally a creamy colour and used to cart salt from Price in SA to Sydney and foundry coke from Sydney to Adelaide. It was repainted Ansett colours when he landed a contract with Ansett around the mid 60's. I know it finished up in the Cannington PCT stable (#10 ??), but that was after Possum (Jim) Elson passed away.

The cab-over that E.H. (Harry) Elson bought was originally painted up for Cannington Earthmovers, did a truck show in Sydney, then was delivered to Elsons in Adelaide. It was originally painted red and white, repainted in Ansett colours after repairs following a jack-knife somewhere between Copley and Leigh Creek in SA. After the repaint it was used mainly Adelaide to Sydney until went base over apex on the Sturt Highway in NSW. After those repairs it was used as an around town jigger until it was sold to McDonalds Transport from Willunga SA. From there I believe it went to Copper City Transport but finished up a write off.

Had a look see through all the photos dear old mum has, but nothing there on the Peterbilts.

You posted some photos of the cab over Pete in the Cannington PCT thread some time back.

A coupla years ago, we got caught up in the traffic after this PETERBILT decided to fuel up,

only to discover that the bowser wasnt operatin.
..............Billy..............