Kenworth K-100 Grey Ghosts

So why were they painted all silver? It wasn't really company colours..... Would I be right in thinking it was for a futuristic, "as fast as a speeding bullet" type of public image?

Bloody good question DD .... KAA had all purple and orange lettering and Comet were white with Red lettering for their P&D fleets .... So GRS wasn't really even close to company colours.
I can only assume that as KAA were the first to use them and a had one driver one truck set up using the fastest trucks on the road, that they just wanted them to blend in instead of stand out.
One story i was told by one of the original drivers (drove the first few ghosts at KAA when new) was that it was almost a competition to see who could get the most speeding tickets in one run ... As the drivers handed them in at the end of shift for the company to pay.

Maybe Jimbo might have uncovered some more about it ....

Hi all,
New to forum, and have just received delivery of my first truck (in time for Christmas).
It is a Kenworth K 125 Vin 400208 which, from my reading of all the great info on this forum, looks like it might be an ex Comet? grey ghost.
Will try and get some photos sorted soon.
Regards Dave

Yep, she was a rigid Ghost Dave. Looked at her a couple of years ago, glad she's finally found a home.

And she was one of a group of 5 that had an extra distinctive feature!

werkhorse should chime in shortly with her original fleet number.

Still at work ..... But when I get home I reckon I have a few photos of 400208 aka KT039 for Kwikasair from back in the day.

Does it still have the Orange tank on the back ?

Hi Jimbo
Extra distinctive feature sounds interesting...

Hi workhorse
Would love to see photos, the truck is now cab chassis with last owner removing tank and has sand blasted and repainted rails etc.
Looking closely yesterday I can see German? Racing silver under several other colours of paint on parts of the cab.
Regards Dave

Sorry I didn't get the photos up last night Dave ..... Worked later than I had planned

The special feature that Jim is talking about is the extra push out vent in front of the driver..... I believe that it a as a trial for use up in Qld as TNT never specced Air con.

Ken903 on here has a sister truck to yours .... 400210 which I am led to believe is either KT040 or 041.

I'll try for the photos again tonight

And another from this batch of 5 has turned up in Childers recently

Well .... here are the photos of KT039 back in its day .. KT039 on the right and PT251 (Comet) on the left ... which incidently is a V903 powered ghost





Thanks to Jim Duffield for collecting them from ex employees

Dave .... where exactly did you purchase your truck from ..... if you don't mind me asking ...... seems like the one for sale in Childers may infact be the one you own

Workhorse,
Thanks for the great pictures!
Yes indeed this truck came from Childers last week and was advertised on gumtree, so would likely be the truck you're thinking of..
There seems to be many original components still with the truck eg has torsion bar suspension that looks to be in good order and has the 8v71 which sounds sweet and smooth from the few runs it has done (not that I am any expert)
It has 9 speed road ranger with OD and, I think? jakes - as there is an exhaust brake switch, (but they do not work.)

The bloke who delivered the truck gave me a great run down on it (me never having driven / owned anything like it), as his first truck had a gm 892, RR...so he mentioned driving the 'bird scarer' hard, and you'll get nicknames like 'brown arms' and so on...
So the plan is to return as much to original as practical and fix things broken or not working properly, but keep it in its working clothes, but being a novice and probably naive this might be interesting to see how this unfolds?

Dave