Random Shots #35 Western Star

Owen Davis Trucking of Lower Sackville, NS, with its distinctive colour scheme of red and black with pinstripes, has been around for better than 55 years. They are also noted for being loyal Western Star customers (and why not?) with an entire fleet of exclusively WStars.
There are actually two lines if business that I am aware of in the Davis group. Owen Davis Trucking, also known as Davis Specialized Carriers are the big guys that haul oversize loads, and their trucks have been pictured here before (always Western Stars.)
They also have a topsoil and compost operation known as Owen Davis & Son Contracting. They run dump trucks and tractors, also Western Stars.
I noted a new wrinkle in the group last night at Fairview Cove, namely this Western Star day cab with a big Raglan trailer. The trailer consists of a two axle dolly, trailer, two axle dolly, and two axle steering dolly. The whole works has an air suspension, and as shown with engine off, the air bags are empty and the trailer is sitting on the ground. The cab is also down on the frame. Once the engine is started up and the air is pumped up, the whole rig sits up and rides on air cushions.
The big Caterpillar 385C crawler came off a ship in the past few days, and is a typical Owen Davis cargo.

The unusual wrinkle is the company name on the cab door, which now reflects the active participation of another family member in the company, and an apparent sharing of resources between the two companies in the group.

Vacation Time

I will be on vacation for most of August. This will mean very few posts on this site.
Never fear I will be loading up on truck photos, which I will post starting up again in September.

Freightliner "Original" Coronado

Freightliner has upgraded their Coronado model, with a more modern looking truck.

The Original Coronado, as Freghtliner labels it, was discontinued in December 2009. New trucks still may be available through dealers, but they are no longer manufactured.

Brennan Farms of Hartland, NB runs this Original Coronado carrying feed from the Dover Mills flour mill in Halifax to their large beef cattle operation in northern New Brunswick - in the heart of potato country. This is only one of several trucks in their fleet, making a regular run between Halifax and Hartland.

See also www.customtrailers.ca/ for manufacturer of the trailer.

Ford W series

1. Ford W operating as mobile chapel at the Irving Big Stop in Salisbury, NB, June 30, 2010. It no longer displays plates.

2. The same truck in Halifax, October 11, 1987.

3. A newish Ford W in Halifax May 17, 1975, loading fish.

Ford built a basic COE tilt cab back in the 1970s, called the W series. The first models had a square shaped rad, but by about 1973 a rad with a Louisville shape came in. This improved the appearance a bit, but it was still plain jane cab. It was competition for the Chev/GMC Titan/Asto, but was a more basic vehicle.

They were not built to last for decades, so I was pleased to see one on the July 1 weeekend. Mind you it hasn't been driven much in recent years. It has spent most of its time at New Brunswick truck stops, first at Steeves Mountain and now the Big Stop at Salisbury, with a mobile chapel trailer.

Cheetahs Never Prosper

The mudflaps say Cheetah and so do I.

I suspect this unusual B-train double combination exceeds the length limit in Nova Scotia, but I didn't have my measuring tape with me.

B-trains with two twenty foot containers are common enough, but a B-train with a twenty foot and and a forty foot container, gets uncomfortably close to the limit for rigs of this arrangement - that is 25 meters overall length, with a total box length of 20 meters (that is the length of both boxes plus the space between them.)

You be the judge.

Here are the published regs:

www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/regs/mvwd.htm

I coulda bin a contendah

Wish no more Marlon, this is a Pierce Contender. Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service has this recently delivered 2009 unit posted in Sambro, NS, station 63. (Photo taken July 18, 2010)

The Contender is budget price line within the Pierce family of apparatus and is built in Bradenton, FL. http://www.contenderbypierce.com/

Pierce, based in Appleton WI is owned by Oshkosh, but has absorbed several other concerns over the years, including the Canadian Nova Quintech in 1997.

Engine Company 63 runs this 1500 gpm pumper, with a 1000 gal tank in the rural/suburban Harrietsfield-Sambro Fire Deparement district of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Oldie from the shoebox - Ford Sharknose

Sleepless in Halifax....

1. This rare Ford diesel short hood seems to have lost its sleeper.

2. A most unusual appearance.

I call them Sharknoses, but these were N model Fords produced starting in about 1963. This particular rig was operated by E.E. Rhodenizer of Berwick, NS, when I took this photo November 10, 1979.

Random Shot #34 Convincing Pete

With a roo bar fit for some serious moose bunting, Oceanside Fisheries runs this Pete conventional from Sambro, NS down the US east coast. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine are legendary moose country - so the bar is probably very worthwhile insurance.

The rig was 'parked up' as they say in the UK, at its home base in Sambro this afternoon.

Random Shots #33 Big KW

Where has this excellent Kenworth been hiding? Just because I have never seen it before, here it is direct from its parking spot in Mount Uniacke, NS. It looks ready to roll, with tarps stacked neatly on the ground, but no one was around to explain. And, there is no owner or operator's name to be seen anywhere on it.

With a name like Big Bampy - perhaps the owner is a Red Sox fan!

From the shoebox: Lackie Brothers, heavy haulers

Lackie Brothers of Waterloo, ON ran a heavy hauling and rigging outfit until the late 1980s or early 1990s. They are no more, but I did catch some of their equipment back in 1982, setting up for some heavy hauls off the Halifax waterfront.
1. Old Kenworth, with tombstone rad, ready to hook up to a flatbed trailer.

2. Huge KW ready to go.

3. KW tilt cab with a trailer load of shores and bracing gear, and a crane to handle it.

4. The tombstone rad KW complete with some big steel billets for ballast, arriving on a float trailer.

5. A set-back front axle Western Star with engine trouble pulled the KW and float.

According to what I can find, most of Lackie Brothers' equipment was sold to G.M. Smith Ltd of King City, ON,

BLB, Hemmings - what next?

A little self-congratulatory pat on the back. In the past few weeks Truckfax has attracted the attention of Hemmings Auto Blog twice - with rare trucks - namely the Fargo and Mercury items.
Today's Biglorryblog has some of my photos of Peterbilt COEs. BLB's daredevil editor asked for COE Petes and he was inundated, but was good enough to publish some of mine.
Click the link on the left and have a peak. Otherwise this is a teaser:

North American Van Lines Alberta Ltd of Calgary was using this Pete COE and drom for military personnel re-postings in the summer of 1986. It carried no less than 8 license plates, one for each province between here and Alberta, plus the Northwest Territories!
The truck was laying over in Dartmouth, at the MicMac Motel on the MicMac rotary-a favourite spot for moving vans. Sadly the motel and vans are no longer there-nor is the MicMac Rotary (not so sadly).

Random Shot #32 FL crew cab

How many tentraisers does it take to raise a tent? Well more that you can get into a conventional truck cab apparently. Hence this Freightliner crew cab.

Doors are always a big expense item for truck cab manufacturers. The cost of building a door, with all its fitments for windows and things is quite high and the demand for crew cabs is relatively low. So crew cabs generally use the same doors as regular cabs. It is always interesting to see what sheet metal contortions are required to fit them however, and there is certainly a lot of that in this particular version.

Long Load in New Brunswick

Big load for the road.

Not the longest load I saw on the weekend, but the others would not stop for me to take a pic! This windmill mast was conveniently parked in Woodstock, NB on July 5.

It is all in a normal day's work for Maltais Transport of Chambly, QC, to haul these cylinders around, and they have special trailers for the job. Consisting of a two axle front dolly and three axle rear dolly and two axle rear steering dolly, they use the structure of the mast to support itself during the haul.

Nice widenose KW on the front too!

Maltais has a new web site - still under construction, so some sections don't work yet, but be sure to see the videos.

www.maltais.ca/en

Road Trip Results

A quick road trip to Quebec June 30 to July 5 yielded some interesting results. The first happy find was this 1950 Cadillac-Miller combination body hearse/ambulance, about to commence a restoration process in Florenceville, NB.



1. In all its glory.

2. That is the Truckfax mobile unit in the background- not a flower car.

3. Miller was based in Bellefontaine , OH and later merged with Meteor.