§wishy ............ The KENWORTH ‘S’ Model Truck & me

hayseed wrote:

Hey Swishy, was just reading this Article & wondered If Your family Shifted His gear around Melbourne..

www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-23/whelan-th...-melbourne/100342416

I also read the same article; I was always fascinated by the company Whelan the Wrecker and how they tackled the demolition of large buildings.

With a name like Whelan I reckon a trace of the family history would originate in Ireland.

I was surprised when it went bankrupt in the 1990's for the sign 'Whelan The Wrecker Is Here' showed up on many major demolition jobs.

KellyTractors wrote:

I was surprised when it went bankrupt in the 1990's

Thanks to a certain, Armani Suit wearing Collector of French Clocks A hell of a Lot of Business's went Belly up in the '90s
I still have a Bank Loan Contract from 1991 Where I was Paying 21% Interest.. & that was Cheap I knew Blokes paying 24% During His the Recession We had to have....

600Dodge
M80
th@B the macanic and his overalls probley 60 plus years ago

Guys Whelans changed ownership a few times ovr the years
all to do with the sign 'WHELAN THE WRECKER WAS HERE'

Part J

Witha good crew of drivers kept on the go and in demand all the time
Bill relized as time went on the susburbs of Melbourne were growing at a fast rate
also the machines the customers had were also growing
Bill went and bought 3 Rogers Tank Transport tailers from Govt auctions


the configuration of these trailers were useless with our laws so he got the machanic to cut all of the suspensions out to make a big float
Bill contacted STECO to see what they can come up with
the first rushed dolly was neither u're arse nor your elbow but did the job


The mechanic at the time made it user friendly so it could be used

next came a 2x8 dolly and 4x8 float nik named freddy flinstone or the wompass LOL

the RSend of the float was useless as you could not load over it but side loading dozers and crawler cranes were OK





AC HD41 on way to sugarloaf resevoir Xmas hills


Asked by many what you been carting & you say a C@D9 dozer to BoxHill or Northcote they say there aint no room for such a big dozer
they expecting some out of town place to do a big job. the C@D9 was used to rip up clay in clay holes to win the clay to make bricks etc


C@ D9 dozer arriving at the new VFL footy ground to turn the first sod @ Wellington Rd Mulgrave

to cart maxium weight the CRB required the trailer and dolly to be 14 feet wide
it was under permit all the time running a police escourt and pilot car from the time the rig left the depot..cart load and then return to depot

cya

Is the 1 x 8 the Steco dolly Swishman

Bigger floats have come a long way in since then


Paul

Next episode please, Swishy!

You've got us in with the family exploits, gotta keep going with it now!
Dave_64

Good Stuff, Swishy.. You're Blessed that someone in Your Family was a keen Photographer..

One of My Biggest regrets is not taking a heap More Photos than I did..!!

Thanx guys
heres the 1x8 steco dolly used the the tri axle freighter ... sunk upto the makers name as they say the dolly has been made user friendly to use with the truck winch .... just used yesterday
RSend 35t
Drive dolly group 31t
steer 6t
we also use the dolly for length
to get the load away from hitting cab



cya

One of the first jobs I was given when I left school and joined the workforce
All the brake camshafts on the X Army Rogers trailers had to be filed down so not to apply the brakes aggressively
While waiting for STECO to build the 4x8 & 2x8 rig Bill went to Fruehauf and bought a 3x8 float @ 10' wide




problem was the little 15" wheels were only available with air Hydrulic brakes and the high gooseneck





At last 15" wheels with air mechanical brakes
With the strict length laws of the day the only way we could get a reasonble deck length was to have a tri set at 40" axle centers we were penalised to 22.5t on RSend copared to 25t on 48" centeres

cya

Thanx for your interest guys

Part K
The chief engineer & dreaftsman Gus left STECO and went on his own..... we followed LOL
with the strict length laws we got Gus to build a FGNLL with 4.5m deck low gooseneck and RSend 3 axle
at that time there were no good reliable tri axle suspensions ... but there were some great walking beam tandem suspension
so we got Gus to make the front 2 axles on walking beam and with a removerable 3rd axle on air bag and hinge over for MT travle after hours .... all successful
he then made a close cuple 1x4 dolly to run between the float and truck and be able to still fold down the float .. we get 25t Rsend of trailer & 25t on drive dolly group
the length laws were relaxed a little so another 3 axle FGNLL was made and much the same dolly as last time
Bill kept Gus bizzy he then made a fixed neck a scraper neck where a scraper can straddle the neck to get the load forward
the RSend was 3x8 pinned on and adjustable in width to carry more weight .. RSend width was 10' 11' 12'13'









Bill also got Gus to redsign the 2x8 dolly fixed @ 14' wide to adjustable from 10' 11' 11'5" 12' & 13' the wider the wheels the more weight we could legally carry

I can see some ideas developing for the expando float even back then Swishman

So who did Gus work forafter Steco, just himself or did he work for another trailer company ?

Paul