ciw65

Different...... but damn clever. As the saying goes, " there's operators and there's OPERATORS"

Rob, those 125 series eaton boxes were pretty strong. I had an RTO 12515 in my White behind 400 cummins that put out around 1150 ft/lbs stock, but as mine was "tickled" up a little would have been closer to 420 and 1250 ft/lbs, which is max rating for that series box. I used to pull 35 tonne containers around with it and never had a wimper out of the box. The ol' detroit 2 strokes weren't big on torque so quite a lot of the 8V92TTA's at 475 only put out about 950 ft/lbs. We had a saying at one place I worked, "constant noise, variable power". If you're not gonna pull heavy loads and make the engine make full power, the 12513 should survive just fine. There used to be an old W model running from Melbourne to Sydney about 10 years ago that was imported from the States back in the late 70's. It was looonng wheelbase by our standards, 42 inch bunk, 4 tanks, and a 12V71T up the front. Sweet sound it made too. Very unique. I think it was only putting out around 600 hp tho. P.S. When you get here to Australia, I am pretty sure I can get you a trip in a road train, just be aware that alcohol is the alternative currency. Lol.

I can only hope Mack honor their warranties better than Volvo. Our FH16 had a new engine in March as per Volvo recall (see my previous post), and since then has been back to Volvo 3 times for different things. Last week the starter jammed on, so they came out and replaced it, and sent a bill. They also mentioned the water pump was leaking. When questioned about warranty they said no, truck is over a year old. When reminded that the engine was new in March, as in an out of the crate brand new engine, same reply, no warranty! The boss then questioned them about a second hand truck he had just signed for with a new 520 (yep brand new crate engine), and got told the same thing, no warranty as truck is second hand. He then took great delight in telling them to rip up the sales contract and stick their truck where the sun don't shine!!!

Yeah, bloody insurance is ridiculous, and the restrictions on activities in relation to public proximity is so restrictive, it's hardly worth it. We have a steam and traction rally near here (Booleroo Centre) every couple of years, and any time there is a display of working machinery, the barricades are so far from the display, you nearly need binoculars. Except for the ploughing display between 2 massive steam tractors. Could see those monsters from the space shuttle.

Rob, I know when my parents go overseas, they have an "international" drivers licence which they organize here before they leave. Not having driven overseas I don't know the details, but I guess your local motoring organization could help. As for a car, I guess as has been said buying one would be best to see you round for 6 weeks or so, probably the cheapest option. I can't guarantee a drive of a road train, but a ride is pretty much ok, although I should have mentioned a round trip is about 11 hours!!! Maybe if you ask nice, you might get a steer up the road a bit, away from the authorities so to speak. And don't worry about driving here, pedals are in the same position, just opposite side of the car, along with the steering wheel.

Hey Rob, if you get to Port Pirie in South Australia, I might be able to get you a trip in that Superliner that's in my avatar, or one of it's brothers. They do double road train acid tankers. Give us a yell if you get this way.

Well no surprises here, diesel is now AU$1.86 per litre. Which converted is around US$7.32 a US gallon. Wanna start a pool to see who hits 10 bucks a gallon first!!!

I don't care what anyone says, that is one DAMN GOOD operator. Used to work with an older fella once who was a gun excavator operator. His favourite trick on construction sites was to freak out the new blokes down the pipe trenches tamping in pipes by tapping them on the shoulder with the trenching bucket. Was a scream to see the reactions.

Welcome Knobby, and your good wife. Think the last B model I saw working was a few years ago now in western Qld somewhere. Still pulling double turd herders around a station. No where as good looking as that one though, time and neglect had got the better of her. Can understand about parking up the Superdog, fuel is ridiculous. Kinda glad I sold my old girl before I went broke when fuel was 97c a litre. Tough decision all the same. I take my hat off to any owner driver who can keep going in this climate. Oh, yeah, if Rob gets too much, send him my way, I got loads of work in the pit in the workshop to keep him occupied.

Welcome rowdy, and yep, it's got a 'dog on the hood, so you're good in here.

Hi Stephan and welcome. A couple of guys in Australia got bored one weekend and did the same thing, but at home with a Cummins big cam turbo, some scrap steel, welder and an LPG gas bottle for fuel supply. Somehow they avoided blowing themselves and everything within 500 yards into orbit. This thing screamed. There was a website around for it, think it was called fulbosjet.net or something like that. Good luck with your hobby, as an ex jet fighter engine tech, I love playing with this sort of thing. Have drawn a few rough plans for a small axial flow zero by-pass engine, but as you say, the turbine gets expensive for materials.

Reminds me of one of my first trips as a driver doing Adelaide to Darwin pulling 3 in a 1980? KW cabover with crowbar suspension (torque rod). With a very sick 400 Cat 3406B and 15 speed direct, 44,000 rockwells and no cab suspension to speak of, just the movement in the front mount bushes. Made it up the Pimba jump ups with 1 gear left before stopping to select deep reduction. From memory total trip time one way was something like 52 hours which included a total of 6 hours sleep on the way. And in some places I think dirt would have been better than the tarmac. I think I nearly did backflips at one point as I managed to hold 90 km/h (55 mph) for about 3 miles. Fastest stretch of the whole trip.

Do you guys over there have powauto gear?? They are probably one of the most common names in pto's here. Not too bad on price and huge range. Most of the gear here runs countershaft driven pto's. Except cement agitators which now mostly run off the balancer as they don't stop turning when the clutch is disengaged. Better for round town stuff. The gearing is dependent on your input gear to countershaft gear ratio as well as the countershaft pto drive gear to the pto gear.