INTER-esting days

Paul,I gave you the wrong line of trucks..
Of the triangle of the three Utes in the center back, The right rear Ute does not look like an IH????? The other two and the one crosswise in front of them I think are IH's???

The crosswise ute is an Australian AB or C line with a home made back ....Directly behind it is an AA ,I think,and behind that are two ALs or early split window n ARs

There used to be quite a few 1960s US made IH utes and panel vans left behind by the yank oil companies in 1972.......In a comedy capers move ,a lot of the oil co people jumped on the first plane back to Texas when Whitlam was elected in 1972 ......they thought it was a South American style revolution.

 

When I was a kid working for Western Geophysical in the back-blocks of WA all the light vehicles were either AB120 4x4 utes or Landrovers. Petty Geophysical our next door neighbours also had the same mix. Never saw any American light vehicles but there were companies working all over inland Australia. Photos - was I ever that skinny?

Our drill trucks were International 190 either 4x4 or 6x6 pretty well used out of Saudi Arabia.

In this photo you can see the front of a brand new MAN 4x4 thumper truck. Initially we had to drill every few hundred metres then put explosives in with strings of microphones running out from the hole. The thumper truck was a new idea for shallow strata. It had a short gantry on the back and under that was a solid 8 ton block of steel which they dropped at the right place and the microphones (jugs) picked up the sound reflection and sent it back to the recording truck. Sped things up tremendously on the flat. On the hills the old Inters were winched up by a D7 Cat and drilled their explosive hole while hanging on the rope.

I had the highly skilled job of laying out the strings of jugs and picking them up after the shot then bringing them forward in the AB120 to the next hole. Had an aluminium reel strapped to your front that was so hot in the sun it burnt you and by the time you had a full string of jugs on the reel it weighed 75kg - my own weight at the time! 40 degree heat ankle deep soft sand and the Yanks treated us like slaves.


 

 

 

 

Will be either a L or a AL, depending of if it came from Australia or the U.S.

International L series - Wikipedia share.google/BuSOoW3sS1OEsR00l

Paul

The US made utes and pickups of the 1960s were all small V8s ,and probably LH Drive .

The French mob CGG in the Simpson had 190 Internationals the same as we had at Western Geophysical in WA. We had both 4x4 and 6x6.

 

Here are the Frogs building what is now called The French Line - the track taken by 90% of Simpson holiday makers today. Looks like an International 160 4X4 followed by a couple of Blitz Semi trailers with dongas on the back. They must have struggled!

 

Their light vehicles were Land Rovers not American.

Paul, Thank you for the blow up of the triangle of Ute's. Now I can see the L model grille.. I assume that the split windshields were Dodge Pilot House cabs??

I reckon your probably correct
But also remember this photo is from New Zealand and they may of built their own cabs

Paul

IIRC Dodge and IH cabs built by TJ Richards in Adelaide. Cab shell common to both. Guards and other fittings varied. Early models had a split screen then one piece on later ones.

Long row of trucks in second photo, right end and 4th in from right are IH BCF models. Prior to Loadstars, tandem drive built here mainly for agi and tipper applications. Single drive in the US.
Choice of 6 cylinder or 345 V8 motors.