Expanding Harvest Fleet Words and Photography by Howard Shanks Growing grain and lots of it is what they do best in far north-west New South Wales, however with variable rainfall over the past few years it has highlighted the economic and environmental fragility of broadacre farming systems. We asked Howard Shanks to investigate one lot…
Built to survive the notorious Tanami Track Words and Photography by Howard Shanks There’s not many trucks or trailers can handle the pounding of the corrugations along the notorious Tanami Track deep into Western Australia’s Kimberly country or the 400 odd km run from Cloncurry and the Century Zinc mine near the top of the…
Scania 6×6 XT Spreading with Precision Words and Photography by Howard Shanks It’s somewhat uncanny that for all the technology coming into trucking today, the trucks themselves still lead hard lives and need to be built tough. And, no one knows that more than, Tim Murfett, manager of Launceston based Altrac Spreading, after all, his…
How Freightliner trucks came to Australia Words by Howard Shanks, Images supplied by Freightliner (First Published – March 2002 – revised Jan 2019) Back in 1982 two trucks quietly rolled into the Mulgrave headquarters of Mercedes Benz (Australia). Not well known at the time, only a handful of truck fanatics and industry commentators recognised them…
Cummins X15 Euro-6 Road Test. New emission regulations may be just around the corner, but Cummins and Kenworth are certainly getting ahead of the game with real world testing of their Euro-6 engines and models. Technical Editor Howard Shanks joined the Kenworth Safety Truck tour to experience the new high torque output of the Hummin’…
Barker B-Double Curtainsider Review For equipment to last when their regular runs are throughout the back blocks of Queensland, top quality components are a must. When Oakey based, Auchenroad Haulage’s Shane Wadley orders new equipment he always specifies the best components and that’s exactly what he did when he purchased this Barker B-Double Curtainsider from…
The rugged High Country of Victoria is a region where the measure of a workingman and his horse, or machine, is a revered honor, and in some cases etched in a poetic verse as in the tale of Banjo Paterson’s “Man from Snowy River”. What better place then, to put the new kid in the…
Heavy Haulage into Savage River Words and Photography by Howard Shanks Simply uttering Savage River invokes visions of wild raging torrents of white water cascading through steep rugged rocky mountainous terrain. Its a vision was not too far from the truth as Howard Shanks discovered when we sent him on a Heavy Haulage run to the…
Kenworth Legend 900 – More than just a truck! There is no doubt that the limited-edition Kenworth Legend Series trucks are special. Special indeed! What makes them so special is often a simple story close to the owner’s heart … this is one of those stories … the story about Kenworth Legend 900 Number-16. When…
Drake 7-rows-of-8 Platform Review Words and Photography by Howard Shanks. Drake’s 7-rows-of-8 Platform trailer is capable of carrying some of the biggest and heaviest loads around the country. We sent Howard Shanks off with Deeson’s heavy haulage driver Craig Oldham for this 180 tonne outback move. We pulled up next to the fuel pump outside…