TNT In the 70's

Does anyone know if TNT ran any Transtars in the 70's ?.....

Basil

pretty sure that they did Baz dont know if they were subbies or co. trucks.

There used to be the early model bonneted Transtar that a subbie had working on local around Brisbane with a 250 Cummins in it.Last I saw it was in a wrecking yard in the early 90`s,it was actually for sale,they hadn`t pulled it apart,though that would only have taken one bloke to ring up chasing a major part.
I reckon you could confidently say that nearly every brand of truck in Australia has been painted Orange and Cream.I`ve often thought it would be nice to paint one up those colours.Bunkers may have had some Transtars,they difinatly used to run Inters in TNT colours.

Howdy,

The reason I ask is the Tranny I bought has beneath many coats of paint a very orange chassis and running gear.
The old girl would look retty good in TNT colours.

Basil

You might be onto something there, Baz. The only other orange trucks I can think of are Allied (removalists) but have no idea how long they've been here or been orange.

Only thought of them because she's a single-drive girl.

The bloke that owned the Transtar might have subbied to TNT? Don't recall seeing too many single drive Transtars .. but geez, I've seen an awful lot of trucks, and the memory cells aren't what they used to be ..

Furniture removalist is definitely the first thing that comes to mind.

I do recall four bonnetted Transtars that worked on the Great Boulder mine in Kalgoorlie during the late 1960's to early 1970's (DCF-402's?). These four rigs were the heaviest specced Transtars in W.A. in that era, trying to compete with Macks heaviest specs.
The Transtars were one of the Golden Miles mines, first major investments in hauling ore by road, in that era .. everything up to then, had been underground mining. They dragged ore in from out Golden Ridge way, from memory.

These Transtars were specced with 335 Cummins and Roadrangers, but used 44,000lb hypoid Eaton diffs, the heaviest Eaton of that time. They were dragging 4 trailers, grossing 100 tons (yes, Imperial tons in those days!) .. in the era when double road trains were still an "ooh-ahhh!" sight. These poor ole Transtars were thrown in the deep end, and they effectively drowned.

The Eaton diff gears looked like they were made out of mild steel, and they spat diffs out like early model Landrovers. I can still recall one of the GB mechanics, showing me a bench, the underside of which, was piled high with Eaton gearsets that were all scrap. The gear teeth were either stripped, or you could either shave with them .. :'(

The road from Golden Ridge to Boulder was just your, very ordinary, unsealed, corrugated, dusty, potholed road of the Goldfields of that era. The Transtars literally fell to pieces. Even the seats mounting brackets broke out of the floor! .. throwing the driver suddenly flat on his ar$e!! Not a welcome thing when you're steering 100 tonnes!

The chassis' were under-specced, even though they were IH's heaviest double rail chassis of the time. The chassis' used to twist so badly with the 335 Cummins torque, on takeoff, that the passenger side wheel would come 6" or 8" off the ground! This would distort the frame holding the radiator in position .. crack all the bracketing .. and the radiators would fall out of them! Not helped by massive road corrugations, as well, of course.

Those poor ole Transtars ended up on the scrapheap by about 1974, I think .. utterly and totally destroyed, by inadequate chassis and diff speccing for the job .. and a lack of understanding, of the ability of the roads of that era in the Goldfields, to kill trucks, in short order.

No-one that ever worked in the Great Boulder workshops in that era would ever remember those Transtars with any fondness .. and they were a typical example of how IHC overstated their ability in that era, and which regular over-riding of IH engineers recommendations, by senior sales people in IH, led to IH's demise.

The Macks could take it .. they were massively built for severe work, and the Mack double reduction, through-drive diffs, were unbreakable .. but the Eatons hypoids were only good for moderate HP highway applications .. and IH salespeople tried to make out they were a match for Mack diffs, when they couldn't hold a candle to them.

Very Interesting OneTrack !!!

Onetrack,
Thanks for the yarn on the Transtars at Kal. Didnt know about that.
There were a few places in WA that sorted out the trucks in the early days. Woodie Woodie with the manganese certainly wrecked a few.
Be interesting to know how they dealt with the hill know as everest on the Woodie road when it was dirt.
The logging boys down south wore a few out pretty quick to although they bent them more than wore out with some of those big karri logs they were moving.

Basil