Kenworth W 924 S.A.R.
Hi, started with the 1/16th kit of a Kenworth W900 yankee truck and fully converted it into an Aussie legend.
These trucks were built because of strict road rules and regulations that are in force in Australia back in the late 70's which severely limited how long a truck and trailer combination could be, to be legally registered for "on road use". This was a bit of a draw back toward the stupid "pommie" trucks that were being made and exported all over the world to old English colonies. So the cab over was very popular compared to a conventional truck, so the Aussie arm of Kenworth decided to make these vehicles to suit Australia's road regs. They combined a conventional truck with a cab over and made a short nosed conventional truck, these were made by Kenworth Aust for about twenty years until the road regs were changed slightly, to allow longer trucks to pull trailers around the countryside.
As stated earlier, I started with the conventional Kenworth W900 kit in 16th scale, it is a very bare kit which you can make a W900 from as a 'poverty pack' with NO extras at all. Anyway I wanted an Aussie W900, not a bloody yank thingy, so I had to do that many conversions and changes to the kit that it hardly resembles a normal W 900 at all.
There are that many things that I had to change the list would not fit into this small block I have to write in.
If anybody has FaceBook, then hit the following link and take a tour thru that lot of pics, just to get a very simple idea of what went on in the construction of this model.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156582987375271&type=3
I actually drove this truck for a while at Longs Heavy Haulage out of Brisbane Aust and it was a bloody good truck to drive, that's why there is a model of it.
Had to Scratchbuild the Dolly and the Float as well, the load on the float in the FaceBook pics, of the Cat excavator is just a Bruder 16th scale kids toy for the sand pit, so quite a few mods were made to the Cat as well.
For those that do not do FaceBook ,then you will miss out on seeing one of the better model trucks that has ever been made, sorry, you'll have to join, eh.
Facebook is blocked here in China, Graham, but I can see from your photos that this is a fabulous model. Must be quite a size in 1/16 scale.
Yeh, it's just a tad over 2 metres long when all hooked up.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
I had to change the wheels from 10 stud ally over to the old 6 spoke spider wheels as the truck I was modelling had the 6 spoke wheels. All wheels can be removed from the model and I show the model with the front right wheel removed.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
That's a wonderful and big truck, Graham @radishus4
Welcome to iModeler.
May I ask how much time you spent on this build?
From start to finish about 4 and a half years, BUT, I had a change of house twice, in the period and all work came to a halt for a couple of years, started in early 1988 and eventually finish it in late 1992. Here's a couple of magazine articles about it, pic one was printed in 1991 and the second time it appeared in the same magazine, when it was eventually finished with the dolly and low loader was in 1992.
So it is a "mouldy oldy" as it's been around that long now, over 30 yrs, eh.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
That figure quoted in the magazine article of 1992 is wrong, what happened is the photographer asked "how long did it take to make". I told him about 2000hrs total and he then said. - " 2000hrs at Aust $17.50 per hr, then it's got to be worth $35,000 bucks" and the fools printed that. Rang them up when I got the magazine and said that it is W-R-O-N-G, so they just sent me this letter below.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
This looks like a great experience building this, Graham (@radishus4). One of the largest, most detailed models I have ever seen. You get a huge model and a couple of magazine articles, plus influenced others to start building. Sounds like a win all the way around. The regulations must have changed. I have been to Australia a couple of times and remember some really long rigs. I think they were called "road trains". Well done.
Rules and regulations have eventually caught up with the times, Road Trains are even allowed to enter the major capitol cities now, BUT, they must stick to certain roads only.
Fantastic job, Graham! Welcome aboard!
Looks like a great build and a true labor of love. It sure does take up a lot of realestate, but I am sure you are proud of the outstanding results of your efforts. Really impressive and beautiful.
Wow! Impressive monster of a truck! Totally outstanding. Hard to believe the early 90's are now close to 30 years ago. Whoa.
Being a Big Rig fan, I couldn't skip this one by. That's a very outstanding conversion, and I can appreciate the amount of scratchbuilding that went into it. I took have been to Australia, Queensland in fact! I remember watching the Kenworths and Macks, cruising on the Bruce Highway. Sadly, I never saw a road train, but I'll never forget the sound of those engines! Excellent work mate, and a well deserved entry in the magazine. I'll keep an eye out, for future builds from you 👍
Here's a few photo's showing what the 16 th scale model Low Loader can be made to do. It has the exact same suspension, only in miniature, that the full sized vehicle was equipped with. # 1 shows the suspension that can move exactly the same way as the FULL sized Low Loader could do. Look at the first pic and you can see the weight transfer rods, that move when you raise or lower an axle. You can lift the front axle up and the transfer rods will then apply more downward pressure onto the last axle, as you make each axle rise or fall, the weight it transferred either to the front, or, to the rear axles. This form of suspension was known as a 'Goth 4 x 4 with 2 metre spread suspension' as a bloke by the name of GOTH worked this lot out and patented it. # 2 shows the side wings that can be moved out to support the timbers that are still laid onto the Low Loader, this allows wider loads to be driven onto a wider deck. # 3 shows the timbers have been placed onto the wings from where they are placed/carried on the Low Loader. # 4 shows just how they hold anything that has been placed on them, you would widen the Low Loader when you needed to, then when you have delivered the machine or whatever, you just close it all down again, so you will be of legal width to travel around the countryside again. Brilliant suspension for the application, you could drive over a cattle grid on the highway at full tilt and all spring boxes kept the spring ends held in place. Other floats used to only have the spring ends shoved into the the spring boxes and when you hit a cattle grid at anything above about 30 KPH, the spring ends would jump out of the spring boxes and you woulds spend the next hour, with two jacks, trying to get the spring end back into the spring box it had jumped out of. Vast improvement with the transfer rods.
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.