Back in Black — Damian Martin’s Kenworth Legend 900

Damian Martin works his way from driver to owner driver, creating a striking Legend 900 number 224.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Warren Aitken.

There is a certain type of person that becomes an owner driver. These are the people that live and breathe trucks.

You can often spot an owner driver by the look of their truck. After a weekend off the road it is shiny and clean. There is a definite element of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and everything is in order, everything is in place, neat and tidy.

There is no exception to the rule when it comes to Damian Martin, 42, owner of Kenworth Legend 900 Number 224. As well as living and breathing trucks, Damian knows the business, having spent two decades as a driver.

He does it to provide for his family, his wife Jaylee and his two daughters Chloe, 11 and Aila, 7.

He originally started as a spray painter by trade but even as a kid his dream was to be a truck driver and own his own truck one day.

It’s not surprising with a person with this much passion for the industry that he drops some big names of people that he has worked for in the last two decades.

Damian started his trucking straight after he finished his spray painting apprenticeship. Essentially, he started a second apprenticeship driving rigids doing semi local work progressively moving up the food chain.

“I always wanted to do interstate, I started at the bottom, you had to know someone or be someone to be able to do interstate back then or you would have to start at the bottom and work your way up,” Damian tells ACT how it used to be.

“I started in the towing game, tilt tray and recovery work whilst I was doing my trade.

“Then I started doing runs to Brisbane out of Byron Bay for a local company doing multi-drop chicken deliveries.

Depending on what run you had there was anywhere from15-35 deliveries all over Brisbane some days,” he says.

“In between these jobs I worked in my spare time to gain some more experience by doing heavy recovery work with Paul Burvill for Bangalow Heavy Towing. This was a good stepping stone into over length and heavy load experience,” he explains.

He then started working for Lester and Mark Clements from Clements Haulage. This involved over length and over width pre fab houses and cabins.

“They do all the oversized haulage, houses and cabins,” Damian says. “That was a learning curve maneuvering oversized and wide loads.”

He says old Lester Clements was pretty tough, and he kept him on his toes.

“He was very fussy but in that line of work you have got to be, it was a good experience because it helped when I started driving the B-doubles, I took to it pretty well because you are so used to it being over length or over width you come to a corner or an intersection you don’t know too well and you take it that much wider.”

Then the interstate line-haul bug took over,he got a start with an owner driver doing Sydney to Brisbane.

Circumstances changed and he got a start with SRV Road Freight services.

The late Bob Cosgrove gave him a start and to this day, Damian still rates Bob as one of the most influential people in his driving career. ”The knowledge, experience and kilometres these older generation drivers have under their belt is almost unheard of these days. I always stick by the saying, you can’t buy experience.”

“I still think working for Bob, Errol, Jane and the family rates as one of the best jobs I’ve had. It was a great family atmosphere with some great workmates.”

With this sort of experience now behind him, and a keenness for everything trucking, it was a natural progression to work for some of the best-known names in trucking. Mill’s Transport, GTS Freight Management, Causley Transport, Stuart Herne from Hernes Freight Service and Brown Citrus in the highly specialised refrigerated freight sector.

His childhood dream to own his own truck was still burning strong and the opportunity to do so came nearly six years ago.

It was Brett Tynan, owner of Exodas Transport, that sold him a K104B Aerodyne.

Buying the truck went hand in hand with an opportunity to start working as a tow operator for Berle Transport based in Ingleburn, Sydney.

The job was carting Streets Ice Cream out of Sydney for Brisbane then carting meat out of Inverell for Aldi and the company was looking for a Brisbane based operator.

“Darren Berle and his brother-in-law Michael Fitzsimmons gave me a kick off as an owner operator,” he says, grateful of the opportunity.

Damian took the opportunity and worked hard six days a week driving from Brisbane to Inverell, to Sydney and back to Brisbane.

It was 18 months later, in 2014, he would buy his very first brand new truck, a Kenworth T909 from Brown and Hurley, Yatala.

At 980,000 kms and four years later he was ready to sell it to make room for the 900 Legend you see in these pages. He says it was time for it to go.

“I had a few issues with the 909. I had the oil burn issue which resulted in a rebuild, the conrod bearing recall and it cracked the head the week before the 900 was finished. This all resulted in a lot of downtime off the road,” he explains.

“It makes you really appreciate the older Signature or C15 pre-EGR engines, that’s for sure. You’re lucky to get a million kilometres out of an engine anymore,” he tells ACT.

“I sold it a year earlier than was ideal but dealing with all the problems it had, you lose your faith in it, fingers crossed this one is a little better,” he says frankly.

In the time between the 909 and 900 he also purchased a T904 from a mate. He had a go at running more that one truck but reckons it was too hard competing in the general freight market, especially chasing bill’s and dealing with drivers.

After a few years, he finished up as a tow operator and bought his own single refrigerated MaxiCUBE trailer but has since reverted to a new B-double MaxiCUBE set up and says that this better suits the work he does and keeps his customers happy.

So with the 2018, Legend 900 and 2017 model B-double MaxiCUBE trailers, he’s happy to be his own boss and provide a reliable service.

Part of the reason he chooses new equipment is because of the customer base and the need to ensure the quality of the produce he carries is in top condition throughout the trip and on arriving at its destination.

“The way produce is, the industry has changed a lot, there is a lot more Coles,Woolworths DC type work these days so you can’t afford to go in there with product under temperature, you have to really be on your game.”

“You don’t need your fridge motors breaking down or cutting out when you have potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of freight on board,” he says.

Damian says Scott from Trailer Sales Rocklea, Qld was great to deal with. “He really stands behind the MaxiCUBE product and has bent over backwards to help with any minor issues that I’ve had,” he praises.

“This really makes a difference as an owner driver because a lot of the time the bigger company’s are the ones that get looked after instead.”

He says Queensland Thermo King (QTK) in Brisbane look after the Thermo King units and are really great to deal with.

Buying the Legend 900 for Damian represents the era he started driving in he explains.

“I guess it goes back to when I first started in the industry. The 900s were always a truck that I liked. I drove one for SRV for a little while. You get that one model that sits in your head and stays with you,” he says.

Damian tells ACT he told Paul Hurley at Brown and Hurley, Yatala, a long term mate of his, that when the 950 Legends came out that if PACCAR ever did a 900 version, to put his order in.

“He just laughed and said, he’d see what happens.”

Damian kept his ear to the post and as soon as there was a whiff of what was going on he placed his order with salesman Dave Constable from Brown and Hurley, Yatala who he says was great to deal with.

He went to the Bayswater factory and did the factory tour and picked up his Number 224 Legend 900. It was just a bare chassis, no guards but with the factory paint job, a BMW Solid Straight Black with a clear over base.

The unofficial truck name now is “Black Betty” although he also considered “900 Reasons”. The name he says is something he will work on.

“I have always wanted a black truck.

I am a spray painter by trade and I know it’s a little bit of extra work but nothing compares to black and chrome! But yes,it does attract dust with ease!”

After picking up the truck the next stop was to put on the Superchrome rims in Sydney and then back to Rocklea Truck Electrical for the customisation.

“I had a plan in my head, I said to Brock from RTE this is what I want and this is how I want it but feel free to offer advice, if you go along and you want to do something or change something, just ring me,” Damian says.

“Brock had a lot of input into how and where bits and pieces went. He added a few special bits and pieces which was good.”

From the front eight extra grille bars were added as well as headlight surrounds and a chrome strip in the middle of the bonnet.

RTE added the drop visor and changed all the roof lights from bullet to square lights to make it look more like the original 900s for the old school look.

The additions included Vortox aircleaners, aircleaner lights and mirror lights.

For the exhaust stacks the pipes were changed to 7-inch straight cut.

RTE manufactured custom exhaust shrouds and added under-bunk stainless trim.

The top step was taken off the tanks, it now only has two steps on the front tanks.

RTE put on bracket-less low mount smooth stainless guards.

It also has a lit up infill on the dovetail on the top.

RTE made a custom stainless connection box with Legend 224 engraved on it.

The deck plate was custom made and painted.

RTE also added a rear light bar and included a Sleeper Air unit.

Chop tops were put on the doors, with lower door trim and stainless under the window.

Lights were added behind the aircleaner and the mirrors to all look the same, Damian says he likes the continuity.

The little touches like Kenworth weights for the mudflaps and the infill between the two guards adds to the class and lights behind the cab give the 900 Legend an old-style look.

To top it all off King Bars provided the custom bar with the engraving and the lights cut out.

“I really owe a huge thanks to Brock, Kim and the team at RTE. They were so good and helpful to deal with,” he says.

“It really made the whole process so much easier. I don’t think some people really know how hard it is to spec and build a truck up from scratch…It’s a lot more stressful than you’d think. Once it’s done and built, you’re stuck with it for a long time so you need to get it right the first time. But judging from the comments and positive feedback I’ve had for the truck, I think we’ve done ok,” he laughs.

After Damian’s run with the 909 ACT was interested in finding out how the Legend 900 was faring.

“I had a little drive-line vibration issue with the Legend 900,“ he explains.

“But we narrowed the problem down to a balancing issue. We’ve got it sorted now so hopefully I can enjoy some trouble free miles!”

He says as an owner driver he doesn’t have the luxury of keeping his truck off the road for two or three days to allow engineers or technicians to have a play with it to work out the issues.

“It’s a relief that Cameron, Chris and Ryan at Brown and Hurley, Darra, QLD were quick to rectify the issue,” he says.

“Being an owner driver has its ups and downs, there’s definitely a lot more to worry about I guess but at the end of the day I wouldn’t change a thing!”

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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