Australian Custom Trucks

As stories go this one has everything, crime, murder, a criminal mastermind, surviving cancer and the most prominent music star that the world has ever produced. One of the challenges in this story was getting the title right. The truck name is My Way, it’s unique colour is Truck Purple, but I settled for the Hitman’s Bodyguard in honour of the new owner of the big purple 2008 4800 Western Star, Mark “Hammer” Dixon. Mark was the bodyguard of some of Australia’s most notable criminals including Mark Brandon “Chopper” Reid, Roberta Williams, wife of underworld figure the late Carl Williams, and Roger “The Dodger” Rogerson, a former highly decorated detective sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force. Roger turned to a life of crime, then entertainment, and is now…

It is a Friday afternoon in late January, and I am catching up with one of Brisbane’s most iconic trucking families, the Deen family. A few cousins surround me. They are typical Aussie blokes. The conversation goes from the Holden Maloo ute Mussy Deen just bought, which after this month’s announcement, seems like an excellent investment, to the latest Mack Super-Liner 1988 rebuild in Australian Custom Trucks magazine, done up by Dennis Kelly. Jock Deen, from Gainscout Transport Services, is doing up a 1988 Super-Liner. He says they just caught up with Dennis and truck whisperer Glen Beutel recently to see the truck first-hand. “I am doing mine up at the moment, and I was getting the tank measurements off Glen, I want to lift the bonnet higher,” Jock says.…

“Once you learn the basics, there is a lot you work out yourself, because you do it over and over again.”- Tony Fulton. Tony Fulton’s Kenworth K200, although looking incredibly sexy, will be acting as a background to yarn about how he is changing the industry. If you don’t know him already, by the end of this article, you will. Tony, or Tone, has embarked on some serious promotion of the industry in the best way possible in these times. He has become what the kids call an “influencer”. These social media influencers use the power of electronic media channels like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and other platforms, and I am too old to know about, to inform and entertain. Tone has captured the imagination of the trucking community. He is…

When we bought the B61 from Malcolm Coffey, he told us he’d bought it from Price’s wreckers in Dalby about ten years earlier. The battery box had P. CALEY ARAMAC sign written on it, so we knew who the three previous owners were and probably would have left it at that. However, I thought it would be nice to know when it was built and whether the gearbox and diff’ were original. It has a 673e motor, so we knew that it was from a Power Pup and not original. I thought it would be nice to find out a bit about the truck so we sent the chassis number and a donation to the Mack Museum in the USA. The museum replied and sent us a pack of literature…

Based in Western Sydney, family, trucking business Raygal Landscapes has not just one show truck in their fleet, but two. One is a new school old truck, the other an old school new truck. Both created through hard work, with a build brief that utilised all the years of experience of the Galea family, immediate and extended. BADRAY is a 1992 T900, while RGT900 is a limited edition 2017 model, and they both are labours of love. Here are their stories. ‘The New School Old Truck’Raygal Landscapes was created over 20 years ago, back in 1996 when Ray Galea and his wife, Cathy, started a landscaping supply business running a mixed fleet of trucks. Ray’s first truck was a Ford D Series. The fleet was mixed and evolved into the…

SCANIA EASY PAY Times are tough with COVID-19. Scania to started a service now pay late scheme for its retail owner and fleet customer base nationwide. Scania Easy Pay provides approved customers with short-term finance from $3000 to as much as $50,000, for servicing or repairs. This funding can be used for vehicles serviced or repaired at Scania’s nine company-owned and operated branches around Australia, or via participating members of its 60-strong authorised independent dealer network in urban, regional and rural centres Australia-wide. BIG RIGS Big Rigs National Road Transport Newspaper ended abruptly this year. News Corp, the Rupert Murdoch owned media company, decided to turn most regional publications into digital-only publications. Specialist publications were closed. Big Rigs has been a popular read for most truckies on the road, and…