A Rare Canadian/Kiwi in Oz

In-depth

2 Oct

Kelvin Moreland was seen wearing an All-Black’s polo shirt. But this was at a truck show, not an International Rugby match, so he did stand out from the crowd a little. Far from making a wrong turn and heading across the Ditch by accident, he came to Australia with his family many years ago from the land of the Long White Cloud. Whilst assuring us he had embraced the Aussie life, he had good reason for that shirt - and that was the truck he had on display.

The truck in question was a 1976 Kenworth LW924R, a replica of his father, Colin’s 1973 log truck which is pretty special to Kelvin.

“This was dad’s first truck when he got back into logging in New Zealand.” (The first time round he had a Mercedes 2624 log truck in the South Island).

The family came to Australia in 1980 and Kelvin followed in his father’s footsteps.

“He continued truck driving in Australia and we ended up moving to Mount Gambier where we started logging and continued to grow the business a bit.

“We had been thinking about recreating a truck for a long time. We both wanted to do it. Then a mate found this thing for sale. It was actually part of the same order as dad’s original which got run over by a loader. We had to build a shed to house it, and then spent 18 months to 2 years recreating dad’s, including the trailer.

This truck - and Kelvin’s dads - were manufactured in Burnaby, Canada specifically for log transport. The LW series of Kenworths were a heavy duty truck for logging, oilfield and heavy haulage tasks. They were later known as the C500 series. The trailer and logging equipment was originally designed and fitted by Mills Tui, Rotorua in NZ. There were 38 of these Kenworths operating to cart pine logs on the Napier-Taupo Road to the Pan Pac Mill in Whirinaki, Napier.

The combination is designed to carry long logs only – 10-13 metre lengths. The trailers are carried on top of the truck to maximise traction and manoeuvring in forest applications and also to minimise NZ road user taxes which are paid per kilometre on each part in a combination. The trailers are picked up by the log loader/excavator or an electric gantry in the mill yard.

Colin Moreland’s actual truck was written off in a mill yard accident in its later life, so Kelvin had to find an alternative truck for his project. In 2014 he found this truck at the tip of the North Island in New Zealand.

This truck had also worked for eleven years as a logger for Pan Pac. It was sold and converted to a tipper. Kelvin brought it to Australia and rebuilt it to the identical setup as his Dad’s original. A full bare chassis rebuild, engine rebuild, cab restoration and of course, paint as close to Colin’s truck as was possible, without the original’s paint numbers. Hoses and electrics were all renewed and a complete new logging sub frame was built. The trailer was pulled out from under blackberry bushes and has had new axles and an entire new air and electrical system.

The Cummins NTC-350 Small Cam puts out 350hp and 1150ft/lbs. It drives through a Road Ranger RTO-9513 13 speed to Rockwell SSHD diffs (originally 5.29:1, changed to 4.89:1.

The trailer is a 1970 Mills Tui 2 axle jinker.

“We believe this is the only Canadian Kenworth in Australia. In New Zealand at the time you had to buy them through the Commonwealth otherwise you’d pay more tax. There were blokes who wanted to put Detroit’s in them but they had to go for the Pommy Cummins because of the Commonwealth tie up or spend a lot more. Jeez, 350 horses! That was a different time! I’ve nearly got that power in my Ute.”

The paint and scrollwork on the cab was done by the Truck Factory and Kelvin also takes his hat off to Kenworth who were able to source many parts for the rebuild.

“The interesting set up with the trailer is because of New Zealand’s road user charges on a trailer, as well as getting it in and out of the bush. If you didn’t have that trailer sitting on the top I reckon you’d need a pilot’s license to drive it. She’d be off the ground more than she is on. She holds down nicely and sits on the road beautifully.”

These days Kelvin runs 33 trucks, all in the logging industry. These are all B-doubles plus one road train. Apart from four Western stars and one CAT they are all Kenworth - 409’s 3×610s, SARs and Kelvin is happy with them.

“Dad passed away in 2016. He didn’t see it fully completed but enough was done to be able to put his box on the back.”

We reckon Dad would be pretty proud.