Kenworth K-100 Grey Ghosts

bigcam - How old is that pic? .. 1970's? .. and how did the owner get a LHD truck licenced to haul road trains in the Territory, even in that era? Every other state allowed you 6 mths to get a conversion to RHD .. or you were off the road .. and they would only licence a LHD under severe restrictions, such as carrying a sign on the rear, advising LHD in big red letters. I've never seen a truck licenced to road train with LHD. The Territory must have had some pretty relaxed rules back then?

Ron, I can remember going to Alice Springs when I was a kid about the same era as that pick,around 35 years ago,and there was LHD F 100`s and yank tanks cruising around then,Apparently there is some seppo military base,and the Seppo's used to bring their cars with them.Kurt Johannsen's Diamond T is still LHD isn`t it.
Werkhorse,good spotting,to be honest with the radiator flap up on that pic I`d never noticed.

Yeah, I can recall that Exmouth was full of LHD Yank Tanks in the 60's and 70's, when the Harold Holt base was owned by the U.S. Navy.
The Yanks reckoned nothing we had was good enough, they brought in everything from the States, or built it here. The place was like a little America, 110V power, ice cream parlor, a movie "theater" that only showed U.S. movies ("was there any other country that made movies??" - LOL ) LHD everywhere, even the houses were built to U.S. builing specs with 3' doorways, compared to our standard 2' 8". I'm surprised they didn't even demand a slice of country that drove on the right ..
I pity anyone who bought Exmouth houses after the Yanks left, you couldn't buy any repair items that would fit .. :'(

When i spoke to Chris he told me that only 5 of those Pete's where brought over. His is a 67 model with a 8V71. He is pretty sure his is not the blue and white 1. His don't have any marking's or hole's on the roof where the roof mounted air cond is, and he is confident that his was based in Sydney as a Shell tanker.He is slowly doing it up so it might be seen on the road soon.

...if I'm allowed to barge in, it seems that both trucks have very English looking front wheels - has to be a later fitting? Was the whole batch fitted with Pommy wheels or maybe it's the same truck? Whatever the answer is, it's as rare as hens' teeth - I've never seen a pic of a single headlight Peterbilt COE before and from whatever little I know about the brand, these early COEs are thin on the ground even in the US...

Cheers,

T

It actually has bud wheels,I think the one's on the steer are probobly locally sourced.The one on the drive are rivetted Budd's.

what is the difference between budd and disc wheels?

Budd is the american brand. I think the european wheels are 335mm PCD and the budd`s are 285mm PCD.Which refers to the diameter that the studs are.The Budd is just the american pattern,also used by UD and some of the other Japs.

Me thinks it went to Martins Overland Freighters

Two for Martin's Overland - 102965 & 6

next was 104487 with 8V71

maybe!!

......the Outback Pete also has what appears to be a KW sunvisor.

Next question....from where did Martins Overland Freighters hail from ?