pv83:
Hallett&Silbermann from back in the day
Why are that truck’s front wheel hubs so protruding? And could you please refresh my mind concerning the make and model of the car? I remember they were still to be seen in London’s streets when I lived there (1965-73), but there were so many different car makes and models at that time! Perhaps an early Ford Zephyr, or something like that? Thanks.
pv83:
Cracking pic DIG, cheers!The article Dean posted got me thinking, and maybe you or David can say a sensible word or two about it, but wouldn’t using a roadtrain on those roads, filled with cattle, be a case of russian roulette? As I can imagine that cattle will move along the journey, and the third trailer had a habit of “wagging it’s tail”, surely nerves of steel (or big cojones) would come in handy…
Some time ago I was following a French haulier with cattle on board, this was a wag ‘n’ drag, and at certain points the whole thing was hanging to quite a angle, that’s when I thought how careful one must be with such transports, it’s a bit like driving a tanker wagon I reckon?
I can’t speak for Dig, but you are right, I quickly learned that you didn’t want to swerve for anything as the whip effect down the train was deadly by the time it got to the end. This is what happened with my mate Kevin above. I think he was drifting off to sleep but just before he left the track woke up and gave the wheel a tug. Result, his last trailer was in the soft stuff and over.
It reminded me of boarding school days when a favourite trick towel flicking. We couldn’t understand why it was treated, and punished, as such a serious offence. Just a bit of fun we thought. Then we were told that the loud crack produced was actually the tip of the towel breaking the sound barrier. 
True or not it certainly gave us pause for thought. Only a pause mind, we kept the flick low to put a sting into someone’s arse rather than high and take out an eye. 
Froggy55:
pv83:
Hallett&Silbermann from back in the dayWhy are that truck’s front wheel hubs so protruding? And could you please refresh my mind concerning the make and model of the car? I remember they were still to be seen in London’s streets when I lived there (1965-73), but there were so many different car makes and models at that time! Perhaps an early Ford Zephyr, or something like that? Thanks.
Hi Froggs, The Police ■■■■■■ car is a " Ford Zephyr Six ", so you were correct. It had a straight six cylinder engine.
In 1970, I had a 1965 Mk 111 Ford Zodiac which had a straight six cylinder engine of 2553cc capacity. I always
assumed that this was the same engine as in the Zephyr Six. On the forward edge of the bonnet of the Police car
are the chrome words " Zephyr Six ". Take care Froggs, Ray Smyth.
pv83:
Cracking pic DIG, cheers!The article Dean posted got me thinking, and maybe you or David can say a sensible word or two about it, but wouldn’t using a roadtrain on those roads, filled with cattle, be a case of russian roulette? As I can imagine that cattle will move along the journey, and the third trailer had a habit of “wagging it’s tail”, surely nerves of steel (or big cojones) would come in handy…
Some time ago I was following a French haulier with cattle on board, this was a wag ‘n’ drag, and at certain points the whole thing was hanging to quite a angle, that’s when I thought how careful one must be with such transports, it’s a bit like driving a tanker wagon I reckon?
David is certainly right that a moments inattention could result in an O s… moment i certainly had my share.
Our length in those early days wasn’t to exceed 140feet so with 40 foot trailers we had to use dollys with A frames maximum length of 4foot 6inches so the trailers would whip about a bit but an improvement was the use of ball races but no 5th wheel turn table, the problem with these was you couldn’t pull the dolly out if you had got bogged or spun out on a jump up but we managed.
They were certainly an improvement the fifth wheel units once the dust got in between the turntable plate and the trailer plate it would induce a jerky response as the plates stuck momentarily to any movement of the prime mover.
I should mention occasionally a flick on the steering would cause a fish tale at the back usually done to make someone travelling the opposite way to give us more room,i recall on one occasion a round Aus rally ran through our area and at night we could not compete with their driving lights and they would not dip them for us so I showed them the sign writing on the side of my 3rd trailer a couple of times to get the required courtesy of hitting the dip switch.
We would grease as often as every day but sometimes the pressure of work and the timetable would cause us to be bit slack but once I got trailers with just ball races the only way to fly a shot with grease gun every couple of days gave nice smooth tracking.
If the cattle were quite and had been handled a lot through the yards each year they would walk on and stand nose to tail and making sure they weren’t to tight when loading they would travel well, wild cattle were a different story and it was important that they were drafted so bullocks and females were kept seperate from the bulls as a wild bull once on the truck may feel imprisoned and then they would charge around knocking the females and bullocks down.
Sometimes it wasn’t possible to seperate them before loading so I carried several head ropes and would try to rope the bulls to the the side of the crate,all good fun.
Dig
DIG:
pv83:
Cracking pic DIG, cheers!The article Dean posted got me thinking, and maybe you or David can say a sensible word or two about it, but wouldn’t using a roadtrain on those roads, filled with cattle, be a case of russian roulette? As I can imagine that cattle will move along the journey, and the third trailer had a habit of “wagging it’s tail”, surely nerves of steel (or big cojones) would come in handy…
Some time ago I was following a French haulier with cattle on board, this was a wag ‘n’ drag, and at certain points the whole thing was hanging to quite a angle, that’s when I thought how careful one must be with such transports, it’s a bit like driving a tanker wagon I reckon?David is certainly right that a moments inattention could result in an O s… moment i certainly had my share.
Our length in those early days wasn’t to exceed 140feet so with 40 foot trailers we had to use dollys with A frames maximum length of 4foot 6inches so the trailers would whip about a bit but an improvement was the use of ball races but no 5th wheel turn table, the problem with these was you couldn’t pull the dolly out if you had got bogged or spun out on a jump up but we managed.
They were certainly an improvement the fifth wheel units once the dust got in between the turntable plate and the trailer plate it would induce a jerky response as the plates stuck momentarily to any movement of the prime mover.
I should mention occasionally a flick on the steering would cause a fish tale at the back usually done to make someone travelling the opposite way to give us more room,i recall on one occasion a round Aus rally ran through our area and at night we could not compete with their driving lights and they would not dip them for us so I showed them the sign writing on the side of my 3rd trailer a couple of times to get the required courtesy of hitting the dip switch.
We would grease as often as every day but sometimes the pressure of work and the timetable would cause us to be bit slack but once I got trailers with just ball races the only way to fly a shot with grease gun every couple of days gave nice smooth tracking.
If the cattle were quite and had been handled a lot through the yards each year they would walk on and stand nose to tail and making sure they weren’t to tight when loading they would travel well, wild cattle were a different story and it was important that they were drafted so bullocks and females were kept seperate from the bulls as a wild bull once on the truck may feel imprisoned and then they would charge around knocking the females and bullocks down.
Sometimes it wasn’t possible to seperate them before loading so I carried several head ropes and would try to rope the bulls to the the side of the crate,all good fun.
Dig
Blimey Dig, what luxury, a walkway on the top of the crate. 
Not being a tall bloke my legs were stretched to the limit between the roof bars trying to get fallen cattle back on their feet.
Some really good pics there though of what it was like. I suppose the upside down trailer was righted with mates’ help and chains and ropes and stuff. No posh 8-wheel rotator reccers in the middle of nowhere.
Not sure I would have trusted a flick of the wheel, whatever was coming my way, I was concentrating on keeping everything in a straight line. But I never saw any rally drivers, only tourist buses, and they always stopped on one side to allow everyone out to click their shutters. Sad that they didn’t realise that they were soon to disappear in a cloud of red bulldust though.
I can’t remember, but I assume we only had 5th wheel dollies, so that would have coloured our thinking. At what point in time did you get the fixed ball races?
Cheers for enlighten us on that subject DIG
If you coupled 4 trailers to each other, what was the weight that you had to pull then?
pv83:
Cheers for enlighten us on that subject DIGIf you coupled 4 trailers to each other, what was the weight that you had to pull then?
From memory Patrick our triple permit said 115tons but another loaded trailer would probably work out another 25ish tons you can work the total out.I will say that didn’t happen to often usually stock movement on ungazetted roads.
The KW had a phaseII Big cam 400hp ■■■■■■ that was a really good engine and did a great job,it had a 13 speed o/d R/R with 411 Rockwell diffs a top speed of 117kmh, I only used the OD split when empty though it was really geared to fast but just because it has it docent mean you have to use it.
David I started driving that truck which was new and pulled those trailers in 1979 the p/m had a 5th wheel but all the dog trailers had ball race and were probably 5 years old before I got them and I would venture to say the roads had improved when i started in 1973 compared to your time although it was dirt other than the Fitzroy to Broome and Derby then the main hwy from Fitzroy 300km to Halls Creek was dirt then 430km bitumen again to the NT Border and on through to Katherine.
The rollover was fixed by the Station I worked for they had a 10ton crane I contacted them on our uhf radio and they sent it out.He rolled that coming towards me the night before on a 6km straight I got into a bit of trouble over it because it threw the crate completely off and the top deck of cattle that survived were trapped inside so when I pulled up I grabbed the axe and chopped through the side boards and let them out unfortunately they were red tail tagged cattle which meant they were condemed because they were TB infected and I let them into a paddock on a TB free station.Cant win them all.
Dig
oiltreader:
A9 Berriedale Braes, Caithness, serious bit of road, photos thanks to eurodaily3510.
Oily
Ta Oily
Great pics Dig ,keep em coming mate. Will dig out some more Aussi stuff.
Patrick, How about this beast ! Hendrickson.
Click on pages twice to read.
oiltreader:
A9 Berriedale Braes, Caithness, serious bit of road, photos thanks to eurodaily3510.
Oily
A tricky road Oily but terrific scenery.
Thanks DeanO a fair lump of a truck and then the history of the units being repurchased and rebuilt by Henderson certainly a horse for a course.
One thing though when first manufactured 700 hp and torque around 1900 foot lbs was huge but now an off the shelf Volvo can have more horsepower and torque as do most of the other manufacturers, thats progress.
Another shoebox unit
Dig
DIG:
Thanks DeanO a fair lump of a truck and then the history of the units being repurchased and rebuilt by Henderson certainly a horse for a course.
One thing though when first manufactured 700 hp and torque around 1900 foot lbs was huge but now an off the shelf Volvo can have more horsepower and torque as do most of the other manufacturers, thats progress.Another shoebox unit
Dig
Very interesting indeed Dean, cheers.
Yes, times have certainly changed DIG, just a matter of time now before some of the usual suspects will go through the 800hp barrier I reckon…
Great pic by the way, is that a classic Toyota Land Cruiser (BJ model?) that’s on the trailer?
Another batch from the old shoe box collection, scenes from France this time…
(Cheers Herr Sutherland for the technical support )
oiltreader:
A9 Berriedale Braes, Caithness, serious bit of road, photos thanks to eurodaily3510.
Oily
Great pictures from a fine country Oily!!
pv83:
Another batch from the old shoe box collection, scenes from France this time…(Cheers Herr Sutherland for the technical support
Glad to have been of a little assistance. Top pictures from your shoebox.
DIG:
Thanks DeanO a fair lump of a truck and then the history of the units being repurchased and rebuilt by Henderson certainly a horse for a course.
One thing though when first manufactured 700 hp and torque around 1900 foot lbs was huge but now an off the shelf Volvo can have more horsepower and torque as do most of the other manufacturers, thats progress.Another shoebox unit
Dig
Thanskl DIG. Someone else with a great shoebox collection.
