Kent’s Gamble: Jaimie Kent’s Western Star recovery truck
Rear Vision
Words and photography by Riley Blue.
Jaimie Kent took a 1999 Western Star that had once hauled scrap into Port Kembla Steel Works and rebuilt it as a heavy recovery truck for Kent Collision & Kustom. By the time ACT photographed it, the truck wore a vivid purple-and-green finish, playing-card artwork and dice — a theme Jaimie said reflected the financial gamble involved in building it.
A family already steeped in trucks
Jaimie’s father Ray had been an owner-driver and a founder of Riteway Express. The family later spent years in Canada buying, dismantling and exporting used trucks before returning to Australia in 1994.
Jaimie and Debbie Kent gradually shifted the business towards smash repairs, paint, custom work and right-hand-drive Peterbilt conversions. In 2006 the operation adopted the Kent Collision & Kustom name.
Heavy recovery became the next step
Recovery work was a natural extension of a business already repairing damaged heavy vehicles. Jaimie became an Australian distributor for Jerr-Dan equipment in 2008 and eventually decided the company should build a serious recovery truck for itself.
The Western Star combined a Jerr-Dan wrecker and Side Recovery System with the kind of custom finish the shop wanted customers to associate with its name.
Four weeks to the truck show
The deadline was the 2012 Melbourne International Truck, Trailer and Equipment Show. With only four weeks remaining, the truck still lacked its interior, recovery body and paint.
The crew worked long days to pull it together. Two painters spent about a week setting out the graphics and applying pearl silver over the purple base. Todd at Kick Ass Kustoms added the playing cards and dice, while Aqua Dip handled dashboard panels.
The name Kent’s Gamble was more than a visual theme. It captured the risk involved in committing time and money to a large custom recovery build while still running a business.
Operator Dave Fuller told ACT he took pride in driving a vehicle that could handle difficult recovery work and still turn heads. The truck effectively became a mobile demonstration of what Kent Collision & Kustom could build.
ACT archive note: This feature reflects the truck and business as they were presented to ACT in 2013.
From the ACT archive
Originally published in Australian Custom Trucks, Issue 2, Summer 2013. This online edition has been edited for grammar, clarity and digital reading while preserving the interviews, technical detail and character of the original feature.
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Rear Vision — where is Kent’s Gamble now?
Do you remember the Western Star, work on the build or know its later history? Tell ACT what happened next.