Frauline Friday

I am happy to provide description stories of the photos if you paste it near the trucks.

In about 1976 Dad’s first Mercedes Benz was a damaged late model single drive 1418 he bought at an auction. It was originally owned by Mitchell Brothers Bathurst NSW, it was fire damaged and black from the back of the cab back. He rebuilt it and it was his trusty prime mover floating a single axle side load float with no suspension. This single axle float was made by either Repco or Brabham????. Some of your members may have more info on old low loaders Aussie made. The Caterpillar 941B drott on the back was one of 3 he owned. He worked the 941B’s up to 10,000 hours when they were a little tired and bought a brand new 941B. He sold the old 941B to sub contractors, usually young blokes on a no interest payment plan to him and they subcontracted the drotts to his business.

After about 30,000 hours sitting in 3 941Bs he went up a sized Caterpillar drott to a 955L. The 955L needed a bigger float so a local engineering company built him a new bogie side and rear load low loader with 8.25 x 20 inch tyres and hendrickson walking beam suspension. The blue 1418 really new it was loaded pulling the 955L so Dad fitted a 13 speed road ranger from a mates 3070 tipper. He was hoping the road ranger might make a bit of difference to the pulling power of the blue 1418 but all he did was change a lot more gears LOL. He looked for another prime mover to pull the bogie float and 955L and in the Land newspaper a farmer from Burren Junction in NSW was selling a 10 year old 1924 with only 20,000 k’s on it. The 1924 was in immaculate condition with 12 speed ZF splitter box, full air brakes and hub reduction diff and sway bars on long leaf spring suspension and 240 hp, the only draw back with the 1924 was the factory baby shit yellow colour but we warmed to the colour eventually. The 1924 was a ripper of a truck but didn’t have much more power than the blue 1418. Dad needed more horsepower and Sieders Truck Repairs were the local M.A.N dealers/repairers and they built him a cab over single drive M.A.N with a 380hp turbo 6 engine and 16 speed ZF box. The Seiders guys raced M.A.N trucks at the time and built Dad what he wanted, a single axle prime mover with grunt. The M.A.N prime mover with the 955L and bogie float actually accelerated up hills, something the Benz’s didn’t. About this time in 1998 ish when I was about 19 years of age, I wanted to work for Dad driving trucks. I couldn’t get an articulated licence, but could get a heavy rigid licence. Dad converted the 1924 into a bogie rigid tipper with a 56,000lb 6 rod rear end from a M.A.N and Borcat aluminium tipper body that I drove for 10 years.

The 1924 made a great rigid tipper hauling quarried materials and excavated material around Sydney. The pictures show the 1924 getting loaded by a variety of machines. The 1924 tipper tared at 8.5 tonnes with a legal load of 12.5 tonnes. Most loads out of quarries were 13 tonnes and around excavation sites the aluminium body would hold 15 tonnes of whatever the 955L would dump into the back. There is a picture of the 1924 tipper next to a V8 210 Cat powered Louie. A few subcontrators had 210 hp Louies and pulling identical weight loads the 240 hp 1924 had no more power than them. The 1924 rode and drove much better than the loosely builts. Dad’s business partner bought a new Mack Value Liner which we think was a cancelled order from Heggies with the blue and red stripes from the factory. The Mack had 350 hp and a 12 speed box and hauled ass as a rigid tipper and eventually they aquired a dog trailer for it. When the Mack entered our fleet I felt like it was king of the road compared to the shit box trucks we were driving around in at the time. The Benz’s not often broke down but I remember one time when the 1924 stopped with dirty fuel issues about 5 kilometres from home. The Mack hooked on to the front of the 1924 with a chain and he towed me back home to the shed. Both trucks were loaded at the time and the last two kilometres home were up a steep hill, the 1924 had never been home loaded so fast LOL. The 1924 Benz was sold by us at 21 years of age with the original front brake linings.

Before the 1924 was converted into a tipper there is a photo of it with a Mitsubishi excavator on the back. Hydraulic excavators will never out perform a drott Dad used to say, until a he worked the 955L beside a subcontractors hydraulic excavator one day loading tippers from a stockpile. The hydraulic excavator loaded more material and used less fuel doing the same task as the drott. The Mitsubishi excavator was soon added to the excavation fleet, followed by other Caterpillar excavators. Other machinery in the excation fleet from the 1970’s through to the early 2000’s were drotts like Cat 931B’s, Cat 935C’s, Cat 939D’s, Cat 951B’s, Case 455D’s Case 855D’s, International 100B’s although the inters were unreliable and always being worked on, Volvo BM loaders that had the big wheels at the front, variety of backhoes, bobcats, GM powered Terex wheel loaders, Allis Chalmers wheel loaders, Cat 12 and Fiat Allis 7 graders. Never a Komatsu though for some reason.

Dad was always a true gentleman and loved his family and European trucks, particularly bonneted Benz’s and his Caterpiller drotts. He made a good dollar working his guts out in them, retiring at 72 years of age. R. I. P Clarry Robinson. Hope you all enjoy the storey behind his pictures. Regards Carl Robinson

Those Gascoyne blokes are a likely bunch eh? Looks like there'd be a laugh or two be had there. The way things should be!
I have a funny feeling that my dad owned one of these Gascoyne trucks later in the 1970's, when he had a whole fleet of car carriers running Melboure to Brisbane. (Carcarriers Brisbane). My brother and I went for a trip with two his drivers, me with Lyn in the cabover LPS 1418, my brother with Darryl in the sleeper cab red and white (Ex gascoyne??) LS 1418, which was, and is a rare truck. Not bad for two drivers to take a couple of snotty kids for a trip to Brisbane, gee i would have been in grade three, the brother in grade four. I didn't take a pic of the red and white LS so we will never know. But seems it's Frauline Friday I can put the truck up that I was in, even though it's been up many times before, too bad!






Wonder what the story is of Carls Pics, which came first do you reckon, the bogie drive tipper? Or the conversion to single drive prime mover? Obviously a well cared for unit though.
Have a great weekend!
Cheers
Rich

And just cos...

Some treasured memories there Rich

Now to go completely off topic, well sort of

Mum often tells the story were as a kid (guessing maybe 5 years old or less) her parents would put her on a bus, gunna say Ansett ? for Deniliquin from Melbourne.

My Grandfather new the drivers some how from been a truck driver and away she went on her own to her extended family at Deni
And before that my Grandfather new the pilots (guessing from been im the Airforce in WW2) and she was put on a DC3 for Deni

It really is amazing just how safe we were once compared to today

I recall riding along in Hovey's from Geelong Ford Louisville 8000 I think they were with big petrol V8's

My brother would ride off with Ray Jennings from Carlisle river in his V8 Dline Inter

Both my brother and I reckon we had a pretty special life as kids

Paul

prodrive wrote:

Wonder what the story is of Carls Pics, which came first do you reckon, the bogie drive tipper? Or the conversion to single drive prime mover? Obviously a well cared for unit though.
Have a great weekend!
Cheers
Rich

I have included some text provided by Carl with the last set of pictures.

Terry

Well done Carl thanks for sharing.

Prod rive, that Benz of Lovell's is still just sittin' Adam Lovell used to be on here said it was his cousin but knows nothing about the truck. Looks ready to go.

Some MACKS from the Clarendon will be comming here soon.

:blink: :blink: :blink:

There were a few nice Benz's at the 2022 Clarendon Truck Show.