Exodas — a custom Kenworth K200

A visit to Exodas Transport in Yatala reveals a Kenworth K200 finished with pride and thoughtful custom details.

Original ACT archive feature. Photography by Samantha Smith.

It is early Saturday morning in summer and the sun is out – a perfect day for the beach.

Half way to the Gold Coast from home is Yatala, home of a brewery, the famous Yatala Pie Shop and a steadily expanding transport company, Exodas Transport.

I have heard rumours of a beautiful looking K200 owned by Exodas Transport. This beauty has been customised by Rocklea Truck Electrical (RTE) and I am keen to get it in the magazine.

I meet up with Brett Tynan, owner of Exodas Transport.

Brett’s definitely not one for words…I am taking him more of a man of action.

Now the boss of a sizeable company Brett initially worked for Scotts Refrigerated and later with SRV.

“When I started working for SRV they only had about five trucks, but now they have 60 or 70,” he tells Australian Custom Trucks of the success of the company that he speaks highly of.

It was his association with SRV that helped him start Exodas.

“SRV financed me to get my first truck and it all expanded from there,” he says.

He has done exceptionally well building up his business.

“We’ve been in the game for 15 years and we have built up our fleet to 40 trucks with 80 staff,” he tells ACT.

“We cart all different sorts of freight from refrigerated to express. We also transport a lot of plants within Queensland and interstate,” he says. This is made easier by their network of depots in both Queensland and New South Wales.

Brett’s fleet consists of various trailer combinations, from singles to B-triples with almost every configuration in-between. As well as the prime movers he also owns a contingent of heavy rigid 12-tonne trucks.

As we walk around the B-double closing it up I notice Brett is very particular in folding the remaining strap under the buckle to make everything look neat.

He says that the driver, Troy Bennett, is particularly fussy about how his vehicle is presented but adds this is exactly what he would do as a driver.

“You can see that Troy really looks after the truck,” he says.

“Troy has actually put a fair bit of his own money into customising the K200,” Brett explains.

He says Troy’s last truck was an EGR model that he had put in a fair bit of extras himself into the interior.

Brett subsequently got rid of all the EGRs from the fleet, including Troy’s.

He says that because Troy had added so much to the last truck’s interior he wanted to add more to it for him. It was also a token of respect because he had been working with him for a long while.

However, he says they were tussling on what to add and what to leave out but Troy’s persistence won out.

“I was arguing with Troy with what’s coming off and I ended up giving in to him so he could just get it done,” he says.

The team at RTE put in one of its own Sleeper Air concealed units to ensure Troy is comfortable while resting in his sleeper bunk.

The K200 looks impressive on first sight with its Bar Up bullbar all polished and shining brightly with 17 LEDs on its chin to give it additional light. Behind the bullbar sit the lights that have been changed to white LEDs. Above these are 12 stainless steel vertical grille bars that were put in by RTE.

RTE also supplied and fitted the sunvisor. It is the little things that are added that really make a difference like the chrome door handle covers.

Moving to the top of the cab all the roof lights have been changed to white LEDs to clean up the look of the truck. Lucidity mirror lights were put on the side mirrors.

To dress up the cabin, under bunk trims were put in as well as a rear step light and lower step infill lighting.

The stainless steel under the window trims really stand out and offset the black paint job.

RTE supplied the stainless steel tank panels to the bottom of the square tanks with nine clear LEDs that light up amber and are wired up to the park light circuit. The chrome tank straps finish it off beautifully covering the wrapped and mirror finished square tanks.

The dual exhaust stacks and dual air rams look impressive from the front and rear.

The air rams are painted black between the chrome exhaust stacks for the chrome on black motif that is the theme throughout this truck. A water tank has been fitted and plumbed in as well.

The air and electricity connection housing on the walk plate has been given a stainless finish.The battery box has also had the stainless steel treatment with an attractive wrap.

On the side wing panels more LEDs have been added. They are clear but light up red. Moving along to the back the walk plates are aluminium but they have gone for a powder coated gloss black on both the front and rear deck plate. Looking very stylish are the low mount guards that look much more refined than the usual visible high rod keeping the wheel guards in place. The stainless steel and black guards look impressive on the rear. As you can see by the images, not much was left untouched on this unit.

Troy keeps it looking its best.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

Do you know where this truck is today, or have an update on its story? Tell ACT what happened next. We will verify current updates before adding them to the archive.