Kenworth C509 Outback Trucker Review
Story and Photography by Howard Shanks
The Gulf region at the top of the Australian Continent is arguably one of the last truly rugged and remote trucking frontiers in the country, it is also an environment that tests the true grit of both men and machinery and where we sent Howard Shanks to check out some tough C5 Kenworths running the dirt roads.
Not far past the Burke and Wills roadhouse, the only modern oasis that sells the essentials such as fuel, food and beer for almost 200 kilometers in any direction, the road deteriorates rapidly heading north. It’s aptly named the Burke Development Road and according to locals has been under development for the best part of the last century.
After two and half hours in the searing heat on the bone jarring single lane bitumen strip, a glimpse of the historic “Gulflander” railway crossing in Normanton signaled the right hand turn to Hawkins Transport wasn’t far away.
Normanton started life as a port for the Gulf of Carpentaria’s cattle industry and grew in importance with the discovery of gold at nearby Croydon in 1885. Over the next decade it became a significant port and, at the time there were even suggestions that it would become a port to rival Darwin as the main centre on the north coast of Australia. The Normanton-Croydon railway line, now dubbed the “Gulflander”, was opened by 1907 but by then the whole area was on the decline. Even the cattle, which had been the town’s mainstay, started heading south as the main railway line was extended further out towards Mount Isa.
Today, though, Normanton is a genuinely delightful little town with an excess of old world charm including a few interesting buildings such as the distinctive “Purple Pub”, with tourism and a lucrative cattle industry the mainstay of income in the area.
Bradley Hawkins, owner of Hawkins Transport, has had a lifetime in the regions cattle industry having grown up on nearby cattle stations. Bradley is first to admit that the journey of his company hasn’t been easy with sacrifices often testing both personal and family stamina.
“I started out working around Charlie Hudson’s transport yard,” Bradley began. “Charlie was a true outback trucking pioneer and was very well respected in these parts. Over the years taught me lot about life, plenty about trucks but importantly how to run the business side of the operation too. When I started with Charlie I was just a young kid and all I wanted to do was drive trucks, back then I never had any aspirations of running my own business.”
“By the mid nineties, Charlie decided to retire and sold a lot of his operation to Curley’s in Cloncurry,” Bradley continued. I was pretty well settled here in Normanton and decided it was time to branch out on my own,” Bradley smiled. “Meantime the bank decided to lend us enough money to purchase two of Charlie’s old trucks, the twin steer cabover and our first C501. The cabover had a single deck and two double deck McGrath trailers while the C501 pulled the full six-decks.”
“The old cabover has been a great truck for us, it has earned us a lot of money and really been to some rugged places over the years,” Bradley enthused. “For a long time it was working out paddock carting, which is where it carts cattle on the station and might not see a road for months. We’ve now put it in the long yard so to speak, having retired it from the arduous cattle haulage task and replaced the cattle crates with side tippers, now it works for the council on road maintenance.”
A quick look in the cab of the cabover reveals it is real driver’s truck, and back in 1981 when it rolled off the Bayswater production line it would have been one of the biggest road going Kenworth’s in its day. For starters it had the massive 19-litre KT Cummins power plant, rated at 450 horsepower, coupled to a 15-speed roadranger, which was then coupled to a 4-speed Spicer-Joey box, (auxiliary transmission). The auxiliary transmission provided two under-drive ratios, a direct ratio and one over-drive ratio.
However we’ll have to leave the old cabover for another day as it was the rugged C5s that we’d come here to see and they were ready to head further north, up a dirt track that’s not marked on many maps.
For anyone remotely involved in the trucking industry the sound of four big bore Cummins Signature engines all combined with the clank of the doors on the cattle crates as four triple roadtrains begin to roll certainly gets the adrenaline pumping.
These are no ordinary C5s either, they optioned for extreme conditions, and it’s worth spending a few moments checking out the specifications. As you’d expect power wise under the hood is a Cummins Signature rated at 600 horsepower, coupled to a Fuller RTLO22918B transmission. The tailshaft is Spicer’s SPL250 that connects to Dana D52-190 axles with cross-locks in the rear, and a final drive ratio of 4.78:1 all riding on Kenworth’s KW6-60A21T steel spring suspension.
They have a full-length chassis insert, which is what the old truckies called a “double-rail-chassis” and wheelbase of 6500mm. That long wheelbase is to accommodate the six fuel tanks that give the C5 a fuel capacity of 2300 litres.
It’s also worth sticking your head under the bonnet and checking out the rugged front end which is something that you’ll only see on these more rugged specked C5s and that is the 9.1 tonne Kenworth slipper spring and which boasts Metror’s heavy MFS73LA front axle.
When the lead C5 hit the dirt track half an hour so out of town, that heavy-duty front ends really comes into its own. It makes the truck very sure footed and the beefed up cross brace keeps the whole front of truck rigid. Combine that with the two track rods, which fix the axle in position, give the truck very good road handling even on the roughest tracks.
“Because the front axle is fixed in position the steering angle never changes no matter what the front axle does,” Bradley explained. “For instance the left wheel might drop in a pot hole and the right wheel rise over a bump at the same time, with this slipper front end the steering wheel remains straight. Compare that to a conventional front suspension with shackle pins and in the same situation the axle can move up to two inches (50mm) forward or backward to compensate meaning the truck’s steering changes. Out here in this country the slipper front end is the only way to go.”
It is not only the dirt tracks where these front ends shine, remember that shocking one lane strip of bitumen that leads to Normanton, most of the roads up this way are like that, and they work equally as good if not more so on those roads as well.
While walking around the rig, it’s probably worth noting the hose coiled up at the front of the trailer and the large round tank behind the landing legs. That’s what’s referred to as a belly tank and used to carry an additional 1200 litres of diesel fuel.
“Out in some of this country you can be down to as little as 500 metres per litre of diesel fuel,” lead driver Scott Heritage explained. “The belly tank can be pressurized with air from the truck’s compressor which in turn feeds the fuel into the truck’s tanks as required.
These cattle being loaded here out of Normanton are bound for a live export ship over 2000 kilometers away that’s leaving Darwin in four days time. The cattle are let off the truck for overnight stops along the way.
“The best thing about Kenworth trucks is there is nothing that you can’t buy for them,” Bradley concluded. Take our old cabover for instance, it was made in 1981 and we can still buy any part for it. There is a synergy between the older models and some of the parts on our latest C5s too. It is that simplicity in maintenance and, Kenworth’s durability combined with their service life of over 20 years, along with the driver acceptance that make Kenworth the best choice for our fleet.”
Truck Specs
Model Kenworth C5
Engine Cummins Signature
Horsepower 600 hp (447)kw @1850 RPM
Torque 2050lb/ft (2780Nm) @ 1100RPM
Gearbox Eaton RTLO22915B 18-Speed
Chassis Full-length double frame with sealant between rails
Air Cleaner Dual Cyclopacs with raised air rams
Fuel Filter Fuel Pro & fuel/water seperator
Electrical 160A isolated alternator & power distribution box
Front Axle Meritor MFS73LA 7.3t capacity
Front Suspension 9.1T Slipper Spring
Power Steering TRW Ross TAS 85
Rear Axles Dana D52-190 axles with cross-locks in the rear diff.
Rear Axle Ratio 4.78:1
Rear Suspension KW6-60A 21 Low profile 21Tonne
Brakes HD (P-type) drum brakes with auto slacks
Windscreen Two piece flat
Turntable Jost JSK37
Wheelbase 6500mm
Interior Crimson cab trim, HD Diamond pleat vinyl
Seats Charcoal HD Extreme air suspended driver’s seat
Bumper Steel HD Road train bar
Battery Box Slide tray LH under cab above tank
Extras Severe Service Kit,
Red Dot Rooftop Condenser
Lower Radiator pipe shield,
Remote diff breathers,
Extended grease lines to clutch,
IcePack 2000S sleeper air conditioner
Chassis checker-plate
Dolly pull to rear of chassis
60-Litre fresh water tank
Gantry Mounted Toolboxes