Dave Vella’s orange-accented Kenworth T909

Dave Vella’s dream Kenworth T909 is 18 months in the making and finished with a distinctive orange accent.

Words by Ian Lee. Photography by Ian Lee.

Dave Vella is a man for whom trucking always has, and always will be, a way of life.

From riding along with his old man and uncle, through to getting his own licence, the journey has culminated in his dream ride, the truck you see here. The pride of Davtrans Services, with an S-line in a close second place, Dave’s latest addition to the fleet is a Kenworth T909. A truck 18-months in the making, but well worth the wait.

At 32 years old, Dave Vella has a wealth of experience well beyond his years. From tippers to heavy haulage, Dave has had a steer of them all, learning the trade from his dad driving floats occasionally, or his uncle running fridge vans up and down the south coast.

Carrying out his mechanical apprenticeship at Cummins, he told us ‘I can see why my uncle got me work there, so I could be suckered into working on his truck’. After finishing his fourth year apprenticeship at DaimlerChrysler in Huntingwood, Dave started at Grimtrans, where Damien Grima helped him to get his licence, something Dave is very much grateful for: “Grimtrans help so many people out, they gave me my start running around in a K100G with a Cummins N14. After just under a year, they let me have their new truck, a T404ST. Not bad going for a 22 year old, running Sydney metro in a brand new truck.”

In 2008, Dave took the plunge and bought his first truck. Powered by a Big Cam 2, he still owns it and considers it ‘his baby’. The relationship with the S-line did not start well though, after two days of work the Cummins decided to self-detonate. After a full engine rebuild, as well as rebuilding the 13 speed Roadranger, the truck is still running well today, with Dave using it as a backup truck for the T9 when it is unavailable.

Dave ran through a few more trucks before getting to his current ride, a Silver star Sterling and a Kenworth T908. He had all three trucks running, but gradually dissolved the fleet, selling the Sterling four years ago, and the T908 last year in March.

Finally, Dave arrived at purchasing the T909 you see here on these pages.

Purchased through Gilbert & Roach in Sydney, the big prime mover rolled off the factory line on the 2nd of July, 2017. From there it went to Custom Air, to have an additional aircon/ heater unit fitted. In August the truck made its way back to Horsley Park, to be stripped down. With the trim out, he took the opportunity to fit a stereo system from St Mary’s Car Audio.

Featuring “the latest and greatest from Kenwood,” the system included new speakers, subs, amps and a double DIN head unit.

While the trim was out, the seats were retrimmed by Hawkesbury Auto & Marine Upholstery, so the Kenworth bug on the seat would have the same colour accents as the external orange stripes.

This theme is carried over through the whole truck, the KW badges on the bonnet and door trim panels, fuse box panel and steering wheel all featuring the KW bug, only now it is orange and silver. The complete interior has been retrimmed in parchment coloured trim, not an option from the factory on a Kenworth truck. Internally, the truck is a long hauler’s dream, with all the appliances from home available.

A Delonghi coffee maker sits atop an upright fridge, with a 24 inch TV mounted in the aero sleeper.

The external colour scheme was never meant to stand out as much as it does now, with the idea of orange striping starting out as a joke.

The truck was always going to be blue, to match the trailers Dave normally pulls. While discussing the paint colour scheme, someone mentioned to Dave everyone else is silver and grey go for orange stripes and do something completely different. He thought about it and thought about it, eventually deciding to go on an do something completely different.

Workhorse Collision Repairs in Eastern Creek painted up the orange stripes over the factory blue paint, giving a look which stands out from a lot of other trucks on the road today.

For the front, Dave has gone with a Bar-up bullbar, boasting 4 inch tube, with 90mm by 150mm tube used on the uprights. Lighting duties are assisted by four Great White spotlights.

A lot of this particular Kenworth T909 has had cosmetic work carried out at LA Trucks, a custom truck workshop based in Kemps Creek, south of Sydney. The factory cheese grater steps have been given the flick, old school steps like the ones fitted to T900 Legend trucks are mounted up in their place. The cab skirts have been remade in alloy, to allow them to sit lower. A scratchbuilt custom visor adorns the top of the windscreen, while the splash panels behind the hood have been remade to sit lower and have been painted.

The amount of time, thought and effort in the fabricating of parts is mindboggling, with much of the metalwork being built from scratch.

The mudguard bracketry holding up the Hogebuilt mudguards, through to the one-of-a-kind light bar with KW emblems laser cut into the ends and touched up with orange paint.

The access panel for the Custom Air unit is built into the rear deckplate, with a flip up lid for ease of servicing and maintaining the system.

Looking for a more stable footprint on the front end, the factory rims were swapped for super single Superchromes with stainless steel flares mounted on the hood to allow for the extra width.

The exhaust system is not the factory one by any means, with a Silverback exhaust running 8 inches wide from the Y-piece up to the stacks.

To give a clean look behind the cab, the air and electrical connections have been recessed into the rear panel, along with a water tank and an inverter.

With much experience under his belt, Dave Vella knew what he wanted in his latest truck, a style of his own, and assistance from a select group of firms that could give him what he wanted.

Dave wants to thank Leli from LA trucks for all his help, and Workhorse Collision Repairs for the quality paint job. With a hell of a lot of miles already behind him, Dave is looking forward to racking up a whole heap more in his orange accented big jigger.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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