anyone seen old car carriers the 70's / 80's?

GDay guys, wondering of anyone has ever seen any of the old girls that we had back in the 80's?
I used to run up and down the Newell in an old 1970 slim cab Atkinson, with a 6lxb Gardner. (man, was it slow..and hot... and freezing when it was cold... And no bunk... And did I mention SLOW? ) It was red, and carried 8 cars, had a 4 car body with a 4 car dog trailer behind it. Believe it or not, I have zero photos of it... disgraceful eh. It was sold to a bloke called John Marshall, from Devenish, in Vic.
I'd love to find some oldf pics of it! Or any other car carriers from way back then, my father had a heap of 1418's but of course he was as hopeless at taking photos as me...

Hi pro,
I remember an early two tone green Mack F model, single drive, slimline with a 35' or 36' single axle flat top with pipe frame for carrying 6 cars. It ran the Newell in the late 70's. There was also an early red Mack R model, single drive, sleeper with a step deck type flat top and pipe frame, I only saw it on the Pacific in the early 80's
Jeff.

Jmackb, reckon the red mack might have belonged to Nigel McNay outa Geelong, used to cart cars & the odd caravan. cheers Tim

gday fellas, yes, that mack R model was my fathers, (thats Nigel)
The R model came from Murgon transport, he stretched it and put the sleeper on it. Funny, I remember being with Nigel and he had this bodgy old single axle strap trailer, he'd bought this bogie suspension somewhere, and we stopped in at krueger trailers when they used to be on Melbourne/Geelong rd, to see if they would make a dropdeck bogie. They sort of looked at him strangely... And no would do. . So a fellow called Neville Cunningham built the dropdeck.And Neville reckons he said it couldn't be done, it was just old rubbish, but Nigel ltalked him into making it. But that was Dad, he'd make something out of nothing, and it would work too. It did a lot of miles that trailer, behind the Mack. Pretty rare beast, a cut down widespread dropdeck strap trailer!
The idea of the Atkinson that I had, was that it would all pull apart. put the dog trailer up on the Atkinson, then put the whole lot up on the Mack, and bring it home from Brisbane back to Melbourne But I don't think it ever happened that way, I got my license in Mullimbimby the day I turned 18, (The local copper said " can he drive alright?" and that was my test) and then I was stuck in the Atkinson to learn the hard way... I still remember th first time down Cunningham's Gap, the old man made me drive the Mack (because it had an empty Finemores stock crate on it that he'd bought and was delivering to Gympie for the bloke) So Dad took the Atkinson down with the 8 new cars on it and I went down the gap in first gear all the way. (no exhaust or engine brake on the old 711 engine). Man, didn't I have a queue of trucks behind me when I finally got to the bottom about two hours later.....
I'll stick a few pics of the Mack in here if I can work out how to load em up, I actually have a couple of them!
Any other stories will be eagerly read...
Cheers
Richard

G,day Richard, I was talking to Nigel up at Fowles just yesterday. Years ago I bought a Millard caravan from him when he had the yard out in North Shore. The van was well bent at the front & had been sitting up in NSW for sometime, full of dust etc. Luckily it had an aluminium frame & we were able to repair & reclad it. Was a big job but we got there. Are you still into the action cars etc. Cheers Tim

Not THE Nigel McNay of MacWreck in Geelong??!! I bought my old Yale GP51 forklift off him in 1994! .. and I still have to catch up with the **$$#@#, for getting me to drive that ancient Commer Knocker from Geelong to Norseman, in December 1995!! .. yes, the one full of spiders and cobwebs, and with no lights, and no spare tyre!! .. and the one that the roof blew off, West of Ballarat, when the termites stopped holding hands!! That was the hardest $1300, I ever earnt!!! .. LOL

Gday Guys, yes, it was THE Nigel McNay, he's at Macwreck in Geelong, still there, still selling anything he can get his hands on. . Tim I'm actually selling trucks for myself now! We did the Action vehicle film car thing for almost ten years, my sister is still doing it. Onetrack, that sounds like a great story delivering the Commer...sheesh, geelong to Norseman, thats a fair hike!! ha ha, what a journey, sounds like the sort of thing I'm stupid enough to do.. betcha didn't get any photos did you???

prodrive - No, I didn't get any photos, unfortunately .. it would have been well worth documenting. I don't think I even took my camera along. I flew over to Geelong to pick up a D1300 SWB Inter that I bought privately, and dropped in on Nigel to see if he had anything to go back to the West.

Sure enough, there was the Commer Knocker to go to Norseman! Man, was she one tired rig! I put the D1300 on the back of the Commer .. Nigel found his best battery out of the scrapheap (yeah, the one that would only start the Commer when it was cold, not hot!) .. and off I went, in a cloud of blue smoke, that I was sure would bring out a rash of 000 calls to the fire brigade!!

I got 30 kms out of Geelong, and blew a front tyre! Luckily, the analogue phone was still within range, so I called Nigel and he delivered a replacement wheel and tyre in the boot of his Merc! It was lucky he brought a jack and wheelbrace, too! .. because the truck didn't come with either!! ..

Then, when I got out on the open road West of Ballarat, the duct tape and industrial termites holding the roof on, let go!! Luckily, onetrack is a resourceful bloke, and some wire from a nearby farmers fence, and holes punched in the corners of the roof, soon saw the Knocker returned to a sedan, rather than that more uncomfortable convertible!! ..

Then when it got near sundown, near Bordertown, I went to turn on the lights .. and there were none!! Not even parkers!! I had to remind myself constantly, that Nigel told me this truck had a pink slip .. and he'd drive it to Brisbane, anyday!! ..

Luckily, when I pulled up in the main street of Bordertown, a few minutes before dark .. I found the pub had meals and accommodation! That sure was lucky, because the Commer wouldn't start again, thanks to Nigels best battery!! ..

My greatest surprises came next morning, when the Knocker took 4 litres of water, 4 litres of oil .. and actually started again!! I decided to not risk my luck travelling through Adelaide, so I diverted to the North around Adelaide, over the ranges, and out on the Main North Rd at Crystal Brook.

Somewhere around Murray Bridge, an air hose sprang a leak, and some good blokes in a garage found it, and fixed it for me! Naturally, my tools were limited to what I could carry on the 'plane .. which amounted to a shifter, a pair of pliers and a screwdriver!! ..

The best part of the trip came west of Kimba, when I decided (unwisely) to pull off the highway into a clearing to camp for the night. A cold front blew up, and the temperature dropped to about 3

Onetrack, you have outdone yourself. Thats bloody fantastic. I thought I was the only one that did things like that. Ony to think "why the bloody hell am i doing this?" just after you've started...But hey, it's all part of the road trip isn't it...
I reckon you should start a new topic with this story, then we might get some more stories too!!! I'll try to write some down of mine too, I reckon there must be a HEAP of other fellas out there who can out do us...Cmon guys..

Ripper story Ron, that Commer sounds like a truck that should have died long ago.