Star Performer: Mark Smith’s custom Western Star

Mark Smith has thought long and hard about his dream machine and getting it just right he worked with Western Star and SLS to ensure the truck was everything he wanted and needed it to be.

Original ACT archive feature. Images from the ACT archive; no individual photographer is identified in the retained feature.

There is no denying Mark Smith is a loyal follower of SLS. We first met Mark at the Grafton Truck Show but he has featured his truck as far as Castlemaine in Victoria supporting SLS.

The reason is simple. SLS played a crucial part in making Mark’s dream come true.

Mark is very hands on and every aspect of the truck has been meticulously thought out.

The planning started way before he first ordered it from Western Star, much, much earlier in fact.

“It has been a dream of mine since I was a teenager to have a unit similar to this and be working trucks up and down the highway, so this is like a dream come true,” he says very proudly to Australian Custom Trucks.

The 54-inch Stratosphere Constellation tows a 34 pallet B-double set. He first ordered his truck in October 2011 and it arrived in the country late in May in 2012. He finally took delivery of it in July of 2012. It is powered by a Detroit DD15 set at 560 horses married to an 18-speed Road Ranger.

Mark says this particular combination was thought of six years ago, designed in his head with the help of advice from manufacturers.

“The specs for the truck and the trailers were talked about with manufacturers, what we could have and what we couldn’t have and still being able to provide the customer with what they want,” he explains.

“They want a 34 pallet B-double rather than a 32 pallet B-double.

“For my creature comforts I want a long bonneted truck with a nice bedroom on it, but that restricts you to a 32 pallet truck and a lot of customers just don’t want that.”

The combination features a sliding turntable.

“The sliding turntable is brilliant. I don’t reckon I would go another truck without one even if I wasn’t to use it as much,” he explains.

“It gives you flexibility for taking different loads and it comes into play with the weight as well.

“The turntable slides about an inch and a half each side so there is not a lot of slide.

“You do have to take the weight off so you wind the legs down until you start to hear the air pressure go out of the suspension and then you flick a lever in the cab and move it where you like and just get out and measure it at the same time.”

He says the paint colour code was initially “borrowed” from his ‘06 Custom Softail Harley Davidson which the rig’s colour scheme is based on.

The exhaust system has 8-inch air cooled Dynalflex stacks.

Mark says with the new age engines the DPF can get up around 700 degrees Celsius and the stacks fitted are designed to drag the heat out, and disperse it.

“Most of the time the outer skin of the 8-inch stacks don’t get hot enough to burn you and with the dispersion of the heat it adds performance to the engine.”

However it wasn’t for the engine performance he got the stacks.

“The stacks, cosmetically they look great and they are a great feature of the truck,” he says.

“They offer a nice clean line because you don’t have to have the exhaust shroud, because they don’t generate that much heat. It is a cleaner line and they are a lot easier to clean you can just get in there.

“The initial idea of getting these stacks was because it looked great but the added bonus was having them air cooled and getting better performance, it’s not a great deal but even that is a bit of a bonus and with not generating that much heat you don’t bake the bugs on.”

After he took delivery from Western Star the truck was taken to SLS and the batteries were ripped out from underneath the bunk.

“We built a custom rolled tank style box to put them in,” he tells ACT.

“We kept with the round line and on the opposite side to match it we put a tool box.”

He says the all the tanks were then wrapped in stainless and a stainless flare and light bar was put across the steps.

“Then the aluminium steps looked out of place so we replaced them with stainless ones,” Mark explains.

He says the back light bar was taken off and a new custom one was built.

Rolled guards were put on the back to give the truck a nice rolled line that continues on from the tanks. The truck was dropped down as low as possible to give it that fat look.

The Ice Pack was fitted at SLS. Mark says much needed to be done to ensure it sat flush and was securely fitted.

He explains the blinkers on the front were mounted on the light panel and a slight veranda was put on them to give them the hotrod touch without putting on the common veranda that goes on the headlights.

The back tank had to be shortened to make room to put the battery box, which also acts as a step.

“It was mainly designed to carry the batteries but we did one identical to it on the opposite side to make it match up and we just store the tools in there,” he says.

All the steps were custom made with stainless.

“There is a hell of a lot of thought to doing custom work that goes into a custom truck,” Mark explains. He says even the mounting brackets of the quick release lights needed careful consideration to ensure durability and limiting vibration.

Further customisation included stainless wraps of the tanks, the flares under the steps and the steps, the little bracket for the mudflap to hang off just to square it off so that you are not getting a rubber mud flap to bend when it is supposed to be straight.

Up front the custom vehicle is beautifully offset by a Bar Up bumper.

The blinkers were made by hand by Steve at SLS replacing the original ones which feature on Freightliners.

The headlights are Speaker LEDs. Mark says he has been told by people travelling behind him and in front of him that they are not as irritating on the eye as other LED’s.

“However the white light that they produce is twice as bright has your standard globe light. They are great and I would thoroughly recommend them. If they could fit on my car I would put them on,” he says.

The hubcaps have a matching colour scheme and the custom drop visor finishes the look of the truck.

He says as an owner driver with one truck the great looking rig looks reliable and when you turn up looking smart other businesses are happy for you to represent their business.

“If you turn up with a collared shirt and a trousers and the truck looking the way it does, they are happy to hire you,” he says.

It looks the goods but we asked Mark how it performs.

Performance wise the DD15 is great says Mark.

“It’s great, you drive it a little bit like the old GM V8 so you don’t give it half a chance, you stay on top of it and give it half a gear whenever,” he says.

“But between 1350 and 1800 RPM it seems to love it.

“It is nudging the 1.9 KM per litre for fuel economy and most of the time with the B-double it usually has bricks or roof tiles or cotton or something that is right up on its weight.

“I don’t think that’s bad fuel economy and performance wise it’s up there and it makes the night easy,” he says.

He says his preferences for a bellowing engine have changed as age and maturity has set in.

“When I was young I wanted it really loud but now I am happy that it is quiet.”

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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