A Man and his Truck

In-depth

12 Dec

Hans Jensen is a regular attendee at the ATHS meets as well as many other truck shows around Victoria, always arriving in his 1962 International AB184.

Originally owned by Bill O’Connell, the AB worked out of Ansett’s on their Overnight Rocket Freight Service. With a 361 Dodge motor, the truck spent eight years doing the Melbourne/Sydney/Melbourne run, averaging 13 hours down the Hume in those days which wasn’t too bad at all.

Hans has owned the truck since 1971. “I used to drive it for O’Connell’s who carted Ansett’s overnight freight from 1957 until 1970. This was the only International in the fleet, the other six vehicles being 7 Series Dodges. In summertime we would drive straight through, Melbourne to Sydney but at other times of the year we would do a change-over.

Hans drove for O’Connell’s from 1967 until 1970 and bought the truck 12 months after he left the company.

“When O’Connell’s bought the truck it was virtually brand-new, having only done a little overnight to Adelaide. When they closed down they sold all the trucks off and I bought this one for $815. . I used it for 10 years from ‘71, subbing for other people - primarily the Victorian Railways and the Country Roads Board. My cousin was going to buy it from me but changed his mind and it just got put out to pasture for 25 years, sitting under a tree on his farm

“Eventually I retrieved it as it held so many memories for me (and he’d never paid me for it). It needed a lot of work after all that time so I stripped it back to the bare chassis rails and did a complete rebuild. It finished up costing double what I thought it would. You just keep going don’t you.

“Notice the three triangle lights on the roof?” said Hans. “If we were going to do a change over, at say Gundagai, to be able to pick the truck up coming down – no radios or Seabees or anything in those days – we would have the three lights on. We’d spot one another, pull over and do the swap. Simple.”

“Also note the strap on the bonnet? All O’Connell’s dodges and the inter-had the bonnets tied down with a strap at the front. The roads were pretty rough back then. There’s also the addition of the old demister on the windscreen which O’Connell’s fitted to all their trucks. None of the old trucks had demisters built in to the dashboard. You’d get up around Goulburn or Yass and on a bad night the windscreen would fog up or ice up. That little element was a lifesaver. People these days don’t believe it.”

**Bonnet strap was a cheap insurance item**

**Demisters weren’t a thing in 1962, so an aftermarket fix was in order**

“The old girl has a few stories to tell. Gavin Cherry was driving this one time. Coming southbound at Sylvia’s gap and around the first bend on the left, a truck was coming the other way on the wrong side of the road. Gavin got over against the wall which took one mirror and the truck took out the other one. That’s a close shave! Just the mirrors went. Fred Smith who used to work for O’Connell’s, he’s been over little Sydney Harbour Bridge on the Hume in this with a semi coming the other way. Neither gave way and went over the bridge at the same time. Hard to believe they actually made it without damage. That bridge is hardly wide enough for one truck.”

“This is the only truck surviving from the O’Connell era. “The truck did 1,000 nights doing Melbourne-Sydney and only had one spectacular rollover at the Hole in the Wall at Picton one early Saturday morning. She ran out of brakes going down there and finished upside down on its roof, jammed sideways. International in Sydney did it up.

“This has got the 361 Dodge motor in it. The V8 Inter motor wasn’t successful. This was on its second motor at 50,000 miles so they chucked it and put in the Dodge which could sit on 4000 revs all night. It was a 70 mp/h truck back in 1962 which is not bad. We used to do the run regularly in 12-13 hours which was good for the era. She carried 100 gallons of fuel so we never had to stop for that. We’d leave Melbourne and not pull up until we got to Mascot.”

Hans is well past his professional driving days but has lost none of his passion for trucks or a life on the road. “I started driving in 1963 and I did a fair bit of highway work but after I married I went into this which would get me home at night. I was one of the ones who liked my wife, or more importantly she liked me.”

Keep the history alive mate!

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