Passing the Test of Time: Steve Lawler and SLS Group

An Australian Custom Trucks Q&A with Steve Lawler. Photography by Steve Lawler.

Steve Lawler began SLS Group with one custom truck job and a decision to step out of the driver’s seat. Ten years later, his Maitland workshop was making stainless accessories, fitting complete custom packages and supplying do-it-yourself kits around Australia.

The first job

The starting point was a new T904 for Damien from Costello Transport. Damien wanted custom work but was unhappy with his supplier and turned to Steve, who had already been modifying the Kenworth he drove for his father.

Steve had fitted twin stacks, tank steps, tank trims and custom cabinets to that truck. A friend at Gibbs Fabrication offered access to machinery and workshop space. Steve finished driving on September 29 and began making stainless truck accessories the next day.

“Here we are, 10 years later,” he told ACT.

The risk of leaving a wage

Steve said the hardest part was deciding to take the risk. He was leaving a family business, a guaranteed wage and the security of driving for the uncertainty of starting from scratch.

The customer base built through word of mouth. Early demand came heavily from owner-drivers, but Steve noticed small and medium fleets increasingly using customisation to improve fleet presentation and help attract drivers.

A one-stop custom shop

By 2013 the Maitland workshop had water-jet and laser cutting, a guillotine, press and engraving equipment. SLS manufactured and fitted accessories while coordinating paint and signwriting so a customer could collect a completed truck ready for work.

The product range included visors, bug deflectors, mirror trims, tank wraps, strap wraps, number-plate covers, deck plates, toolboxes, mudguard brackets, rear bumpers and custom signage. SLS also distributed Dynaflex exhaust products and Vortox air cleaners.

The Kenworth that came back

Steve’s 1983 Kenworth had particular meaning. It was the first truck his father Tom bought new and the one Steve had driven for four years. It was also the truck on which he first experimented with customising.

SLS later stripped it, sandblasted and painted the chassis and turned it into a display of the company’s work.

Steve then drove it on a 4,600km road trip with a 40-foot display trailer, making more than 55 stops through four states and attending the Castlemaine Truck Show. At some dealerships groups of staff came outside to inspect the combination; at the Kenworth factory in Bayswater, he recalled a crowd of around 50.

Projects that tested the workshop

Steve recalled 2007 as a standout year, with several trucks in the workshop at once and major jobs for fleet customers. Later projects included square-tank stainless wraps, Volvo D-shape wraps, a heavily rebuilt Peterbilt, a Marchant Brothers T904 and large Betts Bower and Causley builds.

Why customise a working truck?

For Steve, customisation was partly about pride and partly about business. A neat fleet helped create an identity, encouraged drivers to look after equipment and could influence how customers judged an operator’s attitude towards their freight.

His photography habit grew from the same thinking. Steve had accumulated a huge archive of truck photos and used images to document builds, improve procedures and market the workshop.

ACT archive note: Customer lists, products, staffing and business arrangements reflect the 2013 interview and may have changed.