Monday, Apr 23, 2012 at 22:18
Tony - It is highly unlikely that your truck is a U.S. import. If it was, it would have to have a certification plate affixed to certify the conversion from LHD to RHD - and you would see where the LHD to RHD conversion work had been done, because there would be a mounting position/holes for the LHD steering box.
U.S.-built Kenworths were imported into Australia in very small numbers, starting from the late 1950's. In 1962 and 1963, around a couple of dozen were imported. The first KW truck importers and owners were Doug Cameron and G.N. Blomfield. Reg Ansett was also amongst the first users of Kenworths. These trucks were Seattle-built in RHD to Australian owner specifications.
Shortly after that date, Kenworth commenced Australian manufacture of Kenworth RHD trucks, and have manufactured virtually all Kenworths sold in Australia since that time. Kenworth build to order, and always have done. So if you want a heavy hauler, KW will build it for you.
The tri-drive KW C-500's doing sterling service on mining hauls in W.A., such as the BGC rigs transporting iron ore from Windarling & Mt Jackson to the railhead at Koolyanobbing, are amongst the heaviest Australian prime movers ever built.
I think they are dragging 270 tonnes in specially-built triple road trains.
Your truck has almost certainly been built in Australia for a specific order from a specific client. If the diffs really are 76,000lb, as you say, then they are extra-heavy duty diffs and the truck has been built to haul a massive GCM. I don't recall ever seeing 76,000lb diffs, 55,000lbs is the heaviest on-road diffs that I can recall.
You appear to be confusing GVM and GCM (Gross VEHICLE Mass & Gross COMBINATION Mass). You would not be able to get 45875kgs on GVM, unless you had a substantial number of additional axles.
However, you would be able to get 45875kgs GCM easily with your drivetrain. In fact, the drivetrain specs indicates a possible GCM of around 130 tonnes or more. It appears the original GCM could have been re-rated down, to save on rego fees.
The best people to talk to about your truck, are the blokes on the HCVC
forum. There's a thread currently running there, about Australian KW truck history.
The bloke to talk to is "Swishy" (Ted Beamish) - he's a bit of a character, but he's the KW guru, and he's got S/N and build records of many of the Australian KW's built. I can give you Swishys direct email if you like. His website alone is worth a look.
Beamish Heavy Hauliers -
http://www.beamish.biz/
HCVC
forum - KW thread -
http://www.hcvc.com.au/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1334302211/0
Cheers - Ron.
Email - ronash13 (AT) iinet.net.au (replace the AT with the you-know-what symbol - this is to defeat spammers and spybots)
P.S. - If you want to sell the truck, I have a mate looking for a truck exactly like that.
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