Old Kwikasair SARs

Where on earth would a bloke find out anything at all about old Kwikasair SARs. My boss has ambitions of restoring his old 1985 one and sort of asked, but not asked, me the other day if I knew how to find anything out about them.

I'd dearly love to find a fleet list or something but any info would be a start.

I have found pics of the 1987 ones they bought with the sleepers and full fairing but his is a 1985 with the little scoop on the roof.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i118/werkhorse/100_0837.jpg~original

It had the usual Kwikasair spec - 8V92TTA 475hp 9 speed R/R DS40 Eaton diffs.

Radiator and oil 'doors' in the bonnet.

Full 24 volt electrics............yes full 24v not 12/24v......how many KWs had that ??? I've never seen one other than this one. and yes it IS 24 as it has 24v globes all through it with a voltage reducer for the trailer.

All we know is that T.N.T brought it down here in 1990(ish) and on the way from Burnie to Launceston it had an engine failure and was towed to a quarry in Ulverstone where my boss bought it and rebuilt the engine.
Altho T.N.T brought it to the state it clearly had purple and orange under the light dusting of white that had been applied to it. the purple still shows itself on the chassis now.

Would KW still have records if I gave then the chassis number ???

anyway anyone with even the slightest bit of info would be very helpful.

cheers lads

werk

Werk, how come it's got a Cummins sticker on the air filter?

Boss is not a huge fan of GM's since he had this one .....he had a few 6V92s in LNT's and they were good but the 8V92 in the SAR wasn't a good motor. He's always been a huge fan of Cummins so it was a natural choice when in 1998 (i think) he'd had enough of the GM spending more time in the work shop than out of it. It was done where I worked as a mechanic at the time and we also changed out a V8 Scania engine for a 350 Cummins. They were done side by side.

It had a liner kit in 2000 due to the fact the original swap was straight out of an LNT Louie, no looky inside, and was rebuilt about 3 months ago due to the D..........d driver not telling anyone it was missing ......I've heard sick V8 macks sound better that this did.....it had dropped a valve......you guessed it........one quote was for $25,000....... not a bad run for an old 400 Cummins compared to the 5-6 rebuilds the GM had in about the same amount of time.

Ok boys who has ever seen a W model or SAR with a switch set up like this one ??? (to the left of the steering wheel) every other SAR or W model I've seen has the switches in a row along the top of the centre panel with the lights in the end of the swithces.

G'day Werk , Just for interest's sake , and me being a bit of a Detroit diesel freak , mate, what kept grenading on the 8V92 that it needed about 5 rebuilds.
I think I would have lost my enthusiasm for GM's by then and been looking at a Cummins as a saviour too,
Yikes ! I can't believe I just wrote that !
regards Harleigh

I'm not really sure what went wrong as at that time I was still an apprentice and only got to clean parts not study them .......lol

WerkOrse
GuddayM8

RE: the SAR KW dash
never ever seen one like th@
Wunder ifn sumone has personalized it
very different wood grain dash to wot i've seen
the very 1st KW 'S' models had the push to reset circuit brakers but even our 72 model haz auto set circuit brakers

Haz the truck been in a major or been molested
can remember TNT SAR'z with the door in bonnet to check oil n nuther up top to check Water

Cya

[ch9787]

I've seen similar dash's in TNT W models, that would have been ex Quickasair or Ansett. After they'd been on interstate for a couple of years they used to put them into refridgeration, then after that, the bottom rung of the ladder, Distribution.
The Road Boss's they had had the doors in the bonnet as well.

Well I had a pleasent suprise today........I have put the word out that I'm looking for Kwikasair stuff and an ex employee caught up with me today and gave me these.

about 12 of these unmolested con. notes


An Air Freight con. note book in used condition.






And a Road Express con note book with only 2 pages used.






All said and done.........I'm bloody well stoked to have these now

Only problem now is........I have a new section to my collection......I have quite a few old con note books now
Kwikasair
Wards Express
QR
Chemtrans