Dependable W Model — Lindsay Larner’s 1979 Kenworth

Lindsay Larner keeps his working W model looking sharp while adapting it to the demands of modern transport.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith.

Lindsay Larner is an owner driver with a passion for the transport industry. We caught up with him just after he bought a new Freighter trailer which looked impressive behind his W model.

He has been driving for the past two decades starting at Jurss Transport, which is now Blu Logistics.

“I was 20 at the time, I didn’t think they would give me a start but they did and I was there for six years,” he says.

“After six years I had, had enough and pulled the pin and decided to start out on my own.”

Lindsay tells ACT he bought an old ACCO 3070 pretty cheap and did it up. The truck is still at his home and he has thoughts of working on it even more.

“I am thinking of extending its chassis and turning it into a body truck,” he divulges his idea.

With no sleeper in the ACCO he says he made good use of his swag.

“I used to take my swag with me because I only had an old bogie trailer and I used to go through South East Queensland mainly carting timber, fence posts and things like that, I used to just swag it under the trailer. The sleeping quarters in it they call it a bookshelf, there is not much in the cab, you couldn’t roll over you’d have to sleep on your side,” he recalls.

He says he was approached to cart wood from Gayndah, near his home town Mundeubbera, to Brisbane and thought the 3070 just wouldn’t cut it. It was 11 years ago and that’s when he bought his W model.

This particular W model has changed hands several times.

He bought it for $40k which seems to be the magic number for second hand W models. It wasn’t anything like it is today though, a couple of before pictures are on the next page.

“When I bought it, it still had the old garrison steering on it, and had all the old rubber screw caps on the fuel tanks and they were all starting to leak because they were beginning to deteriorate,” Lindsay explains.

“I kept welding them and had to put new tanks on it.

“The only thing that is probably original on it is the cab and the chassis rails because everything else has been replaced,” he says.

He replaced the bonnet with one off an 84 model. He explains the 1979 bonnet is almost the same but the difference is that they stepped out around the power steering box.

“The 79 model didn’t have power steering,” he explains.

“I put the new bonnet on three or four years ago, the old bonnet would rub against the power steering box that I had put in.”

He says that by adding the power steering the truck was too heavy.

He took it to Steve Walters to take out the six-rod suspension and replace it with the latest Airglyde airbag suspension.

By doing this the vehicle length also increased.

“When we did it, it went from 5.4 to a 5.8 metre wheelbase,” he says.

The other issue that came out of this was when the cab and old bunk were air bagged he wasn’t able to put the muffler back in its original place. This meant he had to get the fuel tanks cut and this is where Mick from Truckin’ Stainless comes into the picture.

“Mick put in a stainless steel exhaust right from the turbo and right through,” he says.

Mick also did all the stainless steel skirts and the muffler pipes. He also put a shroud around the exhaust to make it a bit safer. The exhaust gets very hot.

“If that wasn’t there and you touched it, it would take the skin off your arm.”

He says they haven’t got mufflers and are just pipe but this is another one on the to-do list for Mick.

“There is a little muffler but Mick is making me some up now to shove down in there. It’s not too loud driving but it is when using the Jake brake,” he admits.

He says the volume is a bit louder after he recently put a bigger sleeper cab on.

“Mick stretched the cab from a 36-inch to a 48. He cut and shut and did it all,” Lindsay says.

He says it was hard to find someone willing to do the job.

“I couldn’t find anyone interested in doing the job, it is pretty standard, nothing too flash,” he says.

“Mick put in the TV, a normal 36-inch bed, the cab now gives me some standing room to get dressed.”

Lindsay says two new seats were put in as well as a new timber floor with all new rubber on it.

To decrease engine noise and heat in the cab heat suppressant and dampener was also used under the floor.

Lindsay took out the original Cummins big cam 3 replacing it with a DDEC 4 Series 60 Detroit Diesel.

One thing that didn’t change was the 4.33 diffs. They were in it when he got it and he says they work well for what he carts.

“You do 100km/h uphill and downhill. These days you can’t speed anyway. I find it is a good ratio for what I do,” he says.

He may have an older truck but he has adapted it for a modern industry. He has on-board weighing systems to make sure he doesn’t run heavy. Lindsay says that in some of the remote areas he goes to cart wood there aren’t any scales so they are essential to have. But this is what modern owner drivers do, they use technology to make their jobs safer. He, and other owner drivers like him, are the backbone of the industry. He says people say he spends a lot of money on his trucks however he says “it’s a passion, I love what I do!”

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.