Speechless — John and Karen Duggan’s Kenworth Legend 950

John and Karen Duggan’s Legend 950 combines meticulous custom work with a deeply personal family tribute.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by John Davis.

John Duggan, owner of Duggan Livestock and Bulk Haulage is one tough truckie, working in some of the harshest conditions in the world in outback Queensland delivering stock and everything else he can.

He is a perfectionist when it comes to his trucks and the work done to his fleet must meet a very high standard.

I am talking to John in the top office of the very well-kept Ice Pack Services workshop looking down on his latest acquisition, the number 32 Kenworth Legend 950 that is receiving its final touches before the official handover.

He tells Australian Custom Trucks the reason he does up his trucks is a combination of pride, presentation and attracting the best drivers.

“You like to have your trucks looking good when you are going down the road,” he says.

“You have to have good presentation and that’s how you get the good men, and I’ve got good men,” he says proudly.

He first started in the industry at 18 with the help of his father allowing him to go out on his own. It was a successful endeavour until 2001 when the business fell on hard times.

“We had one hiccup, in 2001 it was just bad, nothing went right and we went out on our arse,” he recalls the difficult times faced.

Quitting wasn’t in his vocabulary and he picked himself up, dusted himself off and started working for Mansells for 18 months, hiring out his trailers, and then leasing a truck off Emerald Haulage.

By 2003 things had turned and he began operating his own business fully again.

“In January 2005 I bought my first new truck and this is the eighth new truck since,” he tells ACT.

“Everything is brand new now and covered under warranty, in four or five years you’ve had the best of them, then its time to sell them.

“When you do get rid of the trucks you get good money for them because they have been done up from the time they go out the gate,” John makes the business case for adding the custom work.

His latest acquisition doesn’t only show off his excellent taste in custom work, or his ongoing success in his business but it goes much further and shows he wears his heart on his sleeve.

“I have an eight-year-old daughter Maddy, she’s autistic with severe autism,” he explains.

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects, among other things, the way an individual relates to his or her environment and their interaction with other people.

Maddy has an extreme form of the condition rendering her unable to speak. At four-months-old she wasn’t making the milestones that she should have been and around 18-months she wasn’t making eye contact.

She was slowly shutting down and withdrawing from the outside world. She started obsessions like thread and fluff pulling, including pulling out her own hair because she couldn’t feel pain. They shaved her hair and tried to transfer the obsession to pulling fluff off a tennis ball.

“She still can’t talk, still toilet training her and she only started using a fork four months ago,” John explains.

This is a massive milestone and the result of a special program of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) which is a one-on-one program run out of the Gold Coast through a not-for-profit autism centre “Little Souls Taking Big Steps” that they joined when Maddy was nearly four.

It meant the family was split while dad worked in Emerald, mum Karen, Maddy and her older brother Jack, now 10, were based on the Gold Coast. The program was intense running six hours a day five days a week.

“The first thing they taught Maddy was to sit in a chair, you wouldn’t believe how hard that was,” Karen says.

She says it went from strength to strength teaching Maddy to point and match objects, feed herself and toilet training.

After two years the family moved back to Emerald.

“We are currently still running a home ABA program for Maddy three hours a day and five days a week as she still has a long way to go,” says Karen.

Maddy has also been able to attend school with her brother Jack at St Brigid’s Catholic School for 2.5 hours a day, fully supported.

Her latest new found joy is trips in the truck with her dad. “It’s hard for John to get out of the gate without Maddy rattling it wanting to go too,” Karen says.

John says Karen wanted to name the truck “Speechless” reflecting the fact that Maddy can’t talk because of her severe autism. He says he took it a step further and themed the truck to make people aware of the condition.

Maddy was given the nickname “Mouse” from birth by her father and that explains the big mouse painted on the side of the truck.

On the truck autism is written as Always Unique Totally Interesting Sometimes Mysterious and the ribbon has Autism Awareness on it.

The words ‘For Mouse “Lots O Luv” Dad and Mum & Jack’ are written on the colourful graphics painted by Geoffrey Barry. Alongside sits John’s other passion, a massive Kenworth bug.

John had actually bought the last truck from the last batch of 950s back in 2007. It had been rated at 130 tonnes. Business got a bit quiet and he says he was approached by someone who wanted to buy it. “We sold it to have one less payment and I’ve kicked myself ever since, I didn’t want to let it go,” he says.

He says he knew this batch of Legends were coming up and when he got the call from Simon Graham from Brown and Hurley Mackay it was a simple decision, “I wanted one”.

He has had three trucks already done up by Ice Pack Services so this would be number four.

“The workmanship when it leaves here is A1,” he says.

“I spend a lot of time with Bones and we are always redesigning something, making something better,” he says.

“It’s a family owned company and a mate you are dealing with not a big multi-national that doesn’t really care for you, you are dealing with a genuine person one-on-one.

“Bones does a good job, I recommend him everywhere I go,” he adds.

Ice Pack Services customised super tough slim racks on the back of the cab which house the Ice Pack unit and double tool boxes that all have skins that light up at night. John says for his type of work having the Icepack units built into the chassis means they are way too exposed to dust, which can cause motor issues hence the racks.

The tanks were polished on their ends and painted red, which really sets off the truck.

Ice Pack Services fitted mirror trims with four lights on each. The SS Air Rams were fitted on both sides for symmetry and to complement the fat stacks. To fulfil its duties running in the harshest conditions an Outback air bag kit was installed.

They made sure the best lights were put on with two HiD spot and two HiD spread lights dressed in chrome with individual switches.

Inside the cab IPS fitted the microwave, the Waeco fridge, a TV, a Bury phone kit, UHFs, a drawer under the bed as well as fitting the bunk air conditioning unit.

Also fitted were 75 and 50 Amp Anderson plugs to the back of the cab and to the rear of the chassis respectively.

A LED light bar was fitted on the rear of the cab wired to a switch on the dash. Elephant ears were put on as well as wing extensions with wing trims featuring eight lights in each (clear/red) with backfills on the trims.

Five cab and five roof lights were also fitted and the bullet lights were removed.

IPS fitted a water tank under the bunk with a pump and fittings for a shower and hand wash facilities.

An auto greaser was also fitted.

Side tip hydraulics with hot shift and return and pressure line at rear with the remote tip switch was fitted.

They slit the left hand rear tank in two and chromed the toolbox steps.

They also fitted the deck plate, stainless mesh as well as fitting an ultra tough heavy duty taillight bar.

They removed the rubber flares replacing them with stainless steel flares.

IPS also fitted a silver stone guard as well as supplying, fitting and painting the dovetail.

The superb King Bars bullbar is fitted with six lights and door kickers and fuelling lights were put on.

To finish off this Legend an orange LED light behind KW logo was utilised to make sure it jumps out at night. John says he is extremely happy with the final look and feel of his Kenworth Legend 950 and thanks IPS for all the work they have done to it.

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