Young Gunn — Shannon Gunn’s one-off International Transtar

Shannon Gunn transforms his original Transtar into a distinctive working truck.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith.

For this industry Shannon Gunn is young… not yet 40, he has carved a living out of carting agricultural machinery as a primary contractor for Case New Holland (CNH).

He has plenty of experience under his belt and explains he studied Hotel Management before starting to drive trucks at 21 years of age.

“Funnily enough, I finished my Hotel Management course and then went driving trucks and later went into farming as a job,” he recalls.

After farming he came back into the driver’s seat carting livestock.

From there it was hay and agricultural equipment.

At 26 he decided to try his hand out in an office job.

“I finished driving when I was about 26 and went to work in an office in operations for a container carting mob in West Melbourne,” he tells ACT.

The young Gunn was doing well and before long, word of his achievements had spread and he was duly poached by another company based at the wharf.

“When I was at Extra Transport I ended up running the workshop, so I was fortunate, I got a hell of a lot of experience over the seven years I was there,” Shannon says.

In 2009 his career once again diverged, this time opportunity offered him a chance to run his own business.

His father had originally held the contract with CNH and the contract was up for tender again.

“We won it, and the rest is history,” Shannon says.

Today there are 16 trucks in the group, which is a partnership. The Group vehicles are mainly based in Melbourne and Brisbane but run all around the country.

The Transtar was first brought to our attention by Shaun “Orchy” Orchard who has a long history in the industry as a fabricator and a driver.

Laurie Williams gets credit too for driving it to a not so secret destination in the middle of Koroit for this photo shoot.

Shannon says he has always loved International Transtars, so it is to no surprise why he has completed this project and why it’s the pride of the fleet.

“I spent a lot of time in an S-Line,” he says.

He is the third owner of this 1997 Transtar which was originally owned by the Mayne Nickless fleet carting steel.

Back then it was a bit shorter running as a day cab.

“I stretched it with the vision of putting a 50” modular bunk on it,” he explains.

The chassis extension from 5.8 to 8.1 metres was done by W & P in Campbellfield.

He says his truck had been thoroughly worked during the stretching process.

“I’d just been right through that truck of mine when I stretched it. I put a new gear box in it and went right through the motor. I knew it was mechanically perfect,” he tells ACT.

The bunk that is on it now has come from another Transtar.

Shannon says he had been following the truck for years and when it came up for sale in Roma, QLD, it was an easy purchase.

“I pretty much rang the guy and said I’ll take it,” he tells ACT.

“It was a 1997 heavy-duty road-train spec with six-rod suspension and spider wheels. Mine was on airbags and 10 stud wheels.”

“We measured it up and thought well that cab will fit on that chassis, so I swapped them over,” he says.

It was far from plain sailing however, like any project of this nature there were issues that came up in the conversion process.

The donor truck had lived a harsh life being out in the scrub hauling floats and side tippers. Shannon says everything in it was knocked about.

“Every time we seemed to pull something apart we found something else wrong,” he tells ACT.

“When we went to bolt it all together not everything lined up.

“It was a bit of a mission, the whole thing.

He says in hindsight he would of approached this project much differently.

“I should have pulled the motor and gearbox out, put it in the other truck and swapped it that way, I reckon it probably would have been quicker, but you live and learn.”

The Transtar though is now a one of a kind, the only one left in existence with this bunk.

“The other two that originally had this bunk converted by Truck Art in Wagga (they did three in total) have gone to God. This is the only one in existence and there is not another one like it,” Shannon says.

For the donor vehicle it is still with Tatiara Trucks in Bordertown, who changed the cabs over, at this point its most likely new life would be a tipper with its day cab, hydraulics, six-rod suspension and long chassis.

“I’ll just sell it to someone when the time comes,” he says.

Once the mechanical work was completed with the cab swap the paint work commenced at Ferguson Paint and Panel in Bordertown. Shannon reckons the idea was to have this flagship different from the rest of the fleet.

“All our fleet trucks have a blue chassis, white with blue and silver scrollwork and our logo,” he explains.

“Fergusons came back with a few options when it was all white and said, what do you like?”

“I wanted something that stood out and made it look a little bit different so I gave them some direction on changing some aspects of the paint scheme,” he tells ACT.

Shannon says the skirts, which really do look good on this Transtar, were originally created by Truck Art.

He says he had to modify them to complement the extended look and to fit with the new cab.

Once the paintwork and the skirts were completed, it was off to Kyzer Kustoms in Shepperton to fit the lights and other extras.

“I went to Luke from Kyzer Kustoms and said there’s a few things I want, then I left the rest up to him.”

Trans Air & Electrics in Bendigo completed the inside of the cab to finish the makeover. They installed an upright fridge, the bunk cupboards, DVD/TV, microwave, Icepack and the heater.

“Because the air-conditioners were no good in the Transtars, they never worked, it has a slave air conditioner as well,” Shannon explains the use of the Icepack.

It is a big wagon for a farm truck and powering it is a reworked Cummins N14 with a 22 series 18-speed Road Ranger running on 4.1 diffs.

He admits this was a project that he wanted to be spending a bit more time in but managing his business means he simply doesn’t get the time to be on the road.

The silver lining he says; “I’ve got a few guys working for me that like it and they’re happy to take it to places, like shows”. Orchy’s son, Josh Orchard, can safely take credit for the presentation of it whenever it appears at a truck show.

Shannon is in awe of what the truck looks like today and is proud of his project.

“Every time I get in it, it’s a 20-year-old truck that looks like this, it’s a great thing to drive,” he admits.

“With respect to everyone, and blokes that have 900s and 909s, I’m like well this is something a bit different. There’s only one in Australia, it’s a one-off Transtar, not another one like it.”

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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