It’s a Family Thing

In-depth

27 Feb

Rob Watts bought his first truck in 1988 at age 19. At 53 he still works for himself.

These days he has two complete trucks, one three-quarter truck and one – well you can make up your own minds as to what stage that is at when you see the picture at the end of this article. That last ‘Dream Truck’ was a focus of a story published back in October 2020. If you wish to read that article the link is at the end of this article.

Rob’s business is picking up big rocks, getting them crushed and delivering them to where they need to be. It is a business that has kept him in employ for many years and has grown to encompass daughter Taylah and now her twin brother, Riley. Of course a driver needs a truck so Rob put his ‘dream’ on hold and went in search for a reliable addition to the fleet.

Riley, working as a pipe layer - as well as helping out on the maintenance side for Rob – came to dad prior to Christmas, expressing a desire to climb behind the wheel. Business was good so that was not a problem but a set of wheels was. Rob put his dream on hold and went in search of the right truck at the right price.

Rob found that right truck up for auction a couple of hours north of Brisbane – a 1995 Kenworth K100E. Starting life with Refrigerated Roadways and passing through Lewington’s of Albury. It then carted excavation equipment around on a low loader and finally ended up with a farmer who purchased it to do a job that fell through. It then spent the next six years sitting in his barn. The truck was on the market for $31,000. So Rob bought it, sight unseen!

“I flew up and picked it up from the farmer and drove her home. Well, it wasn’t quite that easy. As I jumped in the cab I asked if he’d checked the water. He said yes but I thought I’d better check it again, only to find it needed some. As I poured it in I saw it was leaving just as quickly via the water pump. And I’m two states away from home!

“The truck runs a series 60 Detroit, so Daimler was the place to go. The nearest was at Toowoomba so I had to nurse her there. It seemed like every 60 km I was pulling up and topping up, but I eventually got there at 5 PM. Thank God I didn’t have to climb up the range! I’d rung the dealership and asked them if they would stay open which they did, to their great credit. 2 ½ hours later I had a new water pump and at 7.30 I was on the road. In that 18 hour drive she didn’t miss a beat.”

Getting the truck home Rob decided that the truck should reflect the company’s original colours of maroon, silver and pink. Rob had well known truck artist, Brad Natoli draw an impression of what he wanted the truck to look like, never having had a cab over in the past. Brad took the design cues from Rob’s original truck which won Truckin Life’s ROTY in 1998.

Then it was on to Mario Grosso of Docdogs Restorations at Oaklands Junction who refurbishes and custom builds trucks, and is working on Rob’s custom built ‘dream’. “Put her on hold please mate, and do this for me if you will.”

“The roadworthy has been done, which didn’t require much - airbags, new cab mounts and a couple of dump valves. I’ll be replacing the exhaust and air cleaner system. The exhaust is knackered and I want to put the air cleaners over the roof as per Brad’s drawing.

“The interior is like new apart from one little rip on the engine cowling which can be easily fixed. The truck has been really well looked after.”

Rob estimates the K100 has probably done less than 1.6 million kays. “Refrigerated Roadways would have gotten rid of it around the 1,000,000 mark, the bloke hauling excavators maybe 20,000km per year and then sleeping in the ban for six years.”

The plan is for Rob to step into the K100, Taylah to take over his T608 and Riley to jump into Taylah’s tandem. (Bit of bad luck there, Riley LOL.)

The K100E is expected to be on the road by the end of March and of course we’ll bring you pics of the finished product as soon as Mario has weaved his magic on it. Meantime, enjoy the progress of turning Old into New. After that Mario will be back onto Rob’s customised dream truck, which we’ll follow with interest.

A Work in Progress