KENWORTH T659 LIVESTOCK ROAD TRAIN: REVIEW

The promise of deep bulldust, a river crossing and a run in Kenworth’s T659 with a three livestock trailers behind was an adventure not to be missed. We sent Howard Shanks bouncing through the bulldust in Far North Queensland for this report.

“If you’ve got the time and you don’t mind a bit of a drive then you’ll get some great photos at Kinrara tomorrow, we’re loading six decks of cattle at first light then taking them through to Hughenden,” Wes Connolly said, as he placed his mobile phone back in his top pocket.

“There’s bound to be plenty of dust too,” Wes added with a grin.

This was an opportunity too good to pass up and before long Wes had scribbled out a mud-map to Kinrara on a piece of paper. The plan was to make it to Mount Garnet, that night, a few hours away and bunk down at the local pub. Then hit the road a few hours before dawn and hopefully end up at the Kinrara yards at day break.

For the moment though, I was at Kristein and Wes Connolly’s Port Douglas depot. Wes, an electrician by trade, had explained earlier that their involvement in the transport industry was more or less accidental rather than planned back when the building industry was booming in the early eighties.

“We originally purchased a tipper, and then an excavator and the business grew from there,” Wes explained. “Kristein’s father, Burt, had a livestock carrying business up in the Gulf and a few years back we purchased it from him. Today our sons basically handle the day-to-day side of the operations. Wayne, our eldest son, manages the livestock side and Michael manages our earthworks operation, which includes a small quarry. Meanwhile, Kristein and I oversee the administration and look after our farming operation.”

A quick glance at the photos on the office wall and it becomes obvious that Kenworth are the preferred choice of truck in the fleet.

“We have more or less standardised on Kenworth’s T650 and now the T659 for the livestock side of our operation simply because they are such a reliable tough truck. We do a lot of work up in the top of the Gulf and Cape York and you really need rugged equipment to operate up there. The conditions are extremely severe,” Wes added.

“For our tippers we predominantly use T404/T409 in truck-and-dog applications and T650 and T659 for the triple side-tipper applications. We’ve just taken delivery of two new T659s, one with a day cab for our tipper fleet and the other a sleeper cab for livestock applications. Also because we often have to run down the coast to places like Townsville where we can’t tow a road train we specify our T650/T659 to be B-Double compatible,” Wes revealed. “They’re a very flexible truck.”

Mount Garnet
It was well after dark when the lights of Mount Garnet appeared in the windscreen. I’d been told that the pub’s kitchen closed at 8pm, it was 7.59pm when I asked if it was too late to order a T-Bone, then checked into the room. Thankfully it wasn’t too late and a short time later a tender T-Bone arrived along with a cold Four-X stubbie to wash it down.

The Mount Garnet pub is probably best described as a traditional classic Queensland structure. It’s a two story timber building with open louvered windows and full-length deep verandas, a truly historic gem.

However, if you happen to decide to turn in early, then you’d be well advised to pack a pair of ear plugs and those eye patches the airlines hand out on long distance flights. That’s because the down-side of these old classic pubs is that the building creaks and groans with each footstep. Needless to say, with a constant steady flow of traffic to the toilet down the hall lasting well into the small hours of the morning, the relentless creaking went on and on. It was a restless night, but the T-Bone was great.

At the yards
The alarm on my phone erupted at 3.30am. Half an hour later with driving lights blaring into the darkness, I was heading south along the notorious Lynd Highway. An hour or so later I passed the Mount Surprise turn off, which Wes had marked on my mud-map and noted that the turn off to Kinrara was not too far off now.

Sure enough after a half hour run down a narrow dirt road, just as the first pink rays of the sun were peering over the horizon, I arrived at the yards.

Oakdare’s drivers Mathew Prandolini and Shane Adams already had the Billy on the gas cooker. “How do you have your coffee?” Shane asked as he extended his hand and introduced himself. “Standard,” I replied.

Both Matt and Shane and have been operating cattle trucks for more years than they care to remember. Their many years of experience are sought after by the station owners in this harsh country. Today the young cattle are in good condition and will travel easily enough in the stock crates. However, it is not always this straight forward and that’s when the knowledge of a good cattle handler and truck driver comes into its own.

Meantime, while the Billy boiled, Shane and Matt dropped their bullbars and tilted the bonnet and checked their respective oils and coolants. Shane’s aging T650 needed a few litres of oil: “She’s been a good truck; this one has done almost a million kilometres,” Shane mused. On the other hand, as expected, the newer T659 didn’t need any additional oil top ups.

As daylight finally broke, Matt eased his T659 next to the ramp ready to load. Shane headed to the big holding pen at the back of the yards and started herding the cattle through, 21 head at time. Meanwhile Matt was dropping the ‘through-loader’ doors on each trailer. The trailers have a set of doors and ramps at each end (called the through-loader), which allows the entire road train to be loaded without being shifted.

The young cattle ran steadily up the ramp and along the crate, with little encouragement, and Matt quickly closed the trailer’s open pen doors as they filled. It took roughly 40 minutes to load approximately 250 head on Matt’s road train. Then it was Shane’s turn and the process was repeated with each driver again helping out.

“We’ll head down to the Oasis Roadhouse at the Lynd Junction for breakfast,” Matt called as he headed for his truck when Shane’s truck was loaded. “We’ll do all the paperwork there.”

On the dirt
After a hearty breakfast washed down with several cups of coffee it was time to hit the dirt in earnest.

The 250km or so trek from the Lynd Junction through to Hughenden is predominantly dirt, a traditional Outback corrugated dirt track, and it would take a little over four hours before the two Oakdare Kenworths would roll into the Hughenden sale yards.

The roar of the Cummins engines is muted as the tyres hit the dirt, and the stock crates behind rattle on the potholes and corrugations. In the deep bulldust stretches, the rising plume of dust engulfs the third trailer; it is an unforgiving track, but all the while the cattle stand cross-ways in crates apparently not perturbed by the goings on about them.

Cummins engines have long been the preferred choice to power the Oakdare fleet. “They’re set at full noise too,” Matt smiled.

That means they’re set at the top 620 horsepower setting, and in the livestock business that is vitally important. “These trailers are like huge kites,” Matt explained. “They just suck the air in and it is like dragging a big parachute even when they are empty. That’s why we have the big horsepower. We’ve been getting a good run out of the Cummins engines too. Look at the older T650 that Shane’s driving with a million kilometres on it, that engine hasn’t missed a beat in that time.

To get an idea of just how good that engine has performed over the years consider that engine manufacturers measure engine life by their fuel burn. Therefore to cover the million kilometres these triple road trains do, the fuel burn is almost double that of a highway counterpart.

At regular half-hour intervals, Matt and Shane pull up to check their cattle. “If one of the cows fall down in the crate it can be very hard for it get back up,” Shane explained. “If that happens we have to stand it back up as quickly as possible and sometimes that is easier said than done.”

Thankfully all the cattle were still standing and the tyres were all up which meant the trucks were back rolling down the dirt again in no time at all. And that’s how it was all the way to Hughenden, the dust kept billowing from the trailers as the trucks bounced through the bulldust.

Specifications: Kenworth T659
Engine: Cummins ISX
Horsepower: 600hp (447kW) at 1850rpm
Torque: 2050lb/ft (2780Nm) at 1100rpm
Gearbox: Eaton RTLO22915B 18-speed
Chassis: Full-length double frame with sealant between rails
Air Cleaner: Dual Cyclopacs with raised air rams
Fuel Filter: Fuel Pro and fuel/water separator
Electrical: 160A isolated alternator and power distribution box
Front Axle: Meritor MFS73LA
Front Suspension: Multileaf
Rear Axles: Meritor RT52-185 Tandem drive with diff locks to both axles
Rear Axle Ratio: 4.56
Rear Suspension: KW6-60A 21 low profile 21-tonne
Turntable: Jost JSK37
Bumper: King HD road train bar
Extras: Severe Service kit, lower radiator pipe shield, remote diff breathers, extended grease lines to clutch, IcePack 2000S sleeper air conditioner, chassis checkerplate, dolly pull to rear of chassis, 60-litre fresh water tank

First published in trucksales 21 February 2018