Aussie Truckin' Pics..

[Hayseed 524]

[Hayseed 524]

Someone was asking About heavy Spec Fords the Other day..

 

 

[Vladislav 2,992]

Excellent pics of those Fords! Many thanks for sharing.

[Hayseed 524]

This Old girl is Still working  every Week & still does the occasional Interstate Trip. He only Fitted the Sleeper in the last Yr.Prior to That he'd roll his Swag (bedroll) out under the Trailer..

 

[Hayseed 524]

 

[Hayseed 524]

[Bullheaded 1,015]

Awesome trucks and pics Hayseed. How popular were Fords over there?

 

What was the popular motor back in the mechanically governed days for the non-Mack trucks?

[Hayseed 524]

20 hours ago, Bullheaded said:

Awesome trucks and pics Hayseed. How popular were Fords over there?

 

What was the popular motor back in the mechanically governed days for the non-Mack trucks?

The Ford l series were a very Popular well regarded Truck, In fact in the mid 90's they were the Biggest selling heavy Truck down here .You still see the odd one still working fora Living..

 

Big cams  & Cat 3406B's were pretty popular back in the day... 

[Hayseed 524]

When you're a bit heavy & don't want anyone to know..........

 

 

 

[alex g 710]

8 hours ago, Hayseed said:

When you're a bit heavy & don't want anyone to know..........

 

 

 

Now that's funny and clever all at same time 🤠

[micq58 20]

[micq58 20]

[Hayseed 524]

[Swishy 1,388]

gr8 pic seed

hope he's got a tail wind

LOL

cya

[Hayseed 524]

 

 

 

[Hayseed 524]

Old meets New.

 

[Hayseed 524]

[keg1 491]

On 9/16/2020 at 9:35 AM, Hayseed said:

Old meets New.

 

I’ll take the old

[Hayseed 524]

https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6926611/pulling-the-wool-for-six-decades/62816007/?fbclid=IwAR19e2GY_ndD91OZOCDqjQHJPALHBMlnfM5nV5A4qTLQCKxceXLGqpMI6r0

[Brocky 1,217]

Thanks Seed!!!!  Keep'em coming!! I always enjoy Aussie pictures, especially since I saw a few of those trucks in person in 2015..

[harrybarbon 218]

He is 1 part of our real Australian heritage, the real people that built our wonderful country. I appreciate what he has worked at with passion for 60 years and continuing. All loading and unloading by hand under the outback hot sun and dust and no air conditioned road houses. There are no protective safety hand rails up on that load. On the B model with 4 bales stacked up, that is at least 16 feet up top. Originally, the bales were hessian bags (slippery) that had to be tarped if there was a chance of rain and then they went to the plastic bags, they are very slippery to load and walk over. They were old school trained truck drivers (like my dad), a 4 high load of wool bales requires skill to not tip over, especially on our gravel/dirt roads where these sheep stations are located and even our poor sealed country roads, plus coping with cross winds we have blowing across our country.

His story reminds me of my youth. After I finished school, I worked 4 months unloading heavy compressed wool bales (with steel bands to secure the compression) from railway wagons onto tray trucks, we stacked the bales 4 high and we tied 1 rope around the rear bales to pull them into the front stacks, then the driver drove to the wharf for loading into the ships. By Fri night I was cooked, no night playing, but I felt I had done something useful. We rolled the bales at an angle close to the first row and then using the hooks piggy back the bale up and over the bale under it, that's how we got 4 high stacks. The trick was mastering the steel hooks (which I still have in our shed, by chance I moved them last week) and no 1 rule to make sure they hooked into the bale, otherwise the needle points would bounce off the bale and right into a leg (balls especially), forearm or stomach. After 3 painful weeks of big blisters, the inside of my hands were like old leather shoe soles - oh, no gloves and no creams or such fancy fix ups, just nature taking care of itself. Luckily the hooks never got into me, many near misses.

Today, the bales are loaded into containers by forklift and rightly so, especially to protect from back injury. Back then, no work safety existed.

Nev's hands would be a palm reader's dream 🤣

The company I worked for, Lambrick Transport, was 1 of the oldest Melbourne carriers, it started with bullocks and wagons (destroyed by 3rd generation) had a gent who worked for them 50 years to his retirement, nearly all his work was daily round trips loading sheep skins up 8-9 foot high on his tray truck at the merchant and driving  4 miles to the wharf, unloading and back. No ropes and no tarps, just stacked by hand as he was taught at 15 years. This gent had a history, from his early driving days, he ate his homemade lunch and drank his thermos of tea by 9.30 am and at our 12 noon lunch break, every day all the team went the pub (hotel) and he drank 10 pots of beer, no food so he could get his 10 pots in, then back to work, I saw him do that for 4 months. Only once in 4 months I saw another driver buy him a meat pie which he ate, and that lunch time he could not drink his last to 2 pots. Story was that during his 50 years, he never lost 1 sheep skin from his load, no accidents and no break downs due to his driving. He was humble, never had a sick day off work and was happy just doing his job every day and going home to his family. He had 8 children, all got a good education and 1 life long marriage.  At 65 he retired, there was no union pension or superannuation then, only the government pension and a little money from his long service leave. Within 1 week of his retirement, the new driver lost a load of sheep skins.

This gent carting wool bales reminded me of that gent I met at Lambrick's many years ago, he wore his bib and braces overalls every day at work and never hurt himself doing his job.

[harrybarbon 218]

And Nev is climbing up and down his 3 loaded trailers every day at 77 years of age, including tying 3 long horizontal ropes around stacks 1 to 3 and load binders, once it was all tied down by ropes.

It will be looooooooong time before a driverless/AI truck drives out to the sheep stations, loads the trailers and drives to the wool traders or loads the livestock and drive to the yards, stopping to check no cattle have fallen down and then getting them upright. 

[harrybarbon 218]

Another wool bale load - 3 high

[Hayseed 524]

[harrybarbon 218]

Oh I forgot to mention, the German shepherd on top of the wool bales is not a fake photo, and he jumped up from the truck cabin. When I was young, often I saw dogs riding on top of semi loads. I recall at least 2 of my dad's drivers had their dogs ride up top, one had a similar Shepherd, if the dog did not know you, you would not dare try go near the truck. Dad's drivers never let the dogs in their cab, they never fell off the loaded semi, even when tarpped, only if there was a gap in the load or a bit of trailer floor free then the dog rode in there.