Words by Chris Smith. Photographs supplied by Chris Carl Co, Toyo Australia, John and Tracey Rehe. Few Australian custom trucks developed a following quite like the Desperado. When ACT sat down with John “JR” and Tracey Rehe for Issue 2, the conversation was not simply about one Kenworth. It was about a working truck that […]
Words by Matt Raudonikis. Photography by Warren Aaitken, as credited in ACT Issue 2. Bill Long had always liked Kenworth T900s and T950s. When Ray Marshall offered him a 1995 T900 tall-cab, Bill took the opportunity. It was burgundy and white, had about 1.4 million kilometres showing when he bought it in 2007, and soon […]
Words by Staff Writer. Photography by Easton Chang. Two black Freightliner Coronado 114s carrying Harley-Davidson styling were among the more unusual collaborations ACT featured in Issue 2. They took two strong American transport brands and turned them into a matched pair of working heavy vehicles with a deliberate show-truck presence. An idea that started in […]
Words by Anthony John-Pier. Photography by C5 Photography. Aaron Pendlebury’s Volvo FH16 showed that custom truck culture was not confined to conventionals and cab-over Kenworths. The heavy-haulage Volvo combined Scandinavian engineering with a deliberately Australian custom treatment. ACT’s Issue 2 feature focused on a working truck that had to move serious machinery while still carrying […]
Words and photography by Enver Djemal. For GRS Towing founder Barry Hunt, buying a tow truck straight off the shelf rarely made sense. His fleet was built around the work it had to do, and ACT’s 2013 visit found equipment chosen for low loading angles, flexibility and the ability to recover unusual loads. The custom […]
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 […]
Words and photography by Chris Smith. A polished bullbar can look simple once it is bolted to the front of a truck. ACT’s visit to AJ’s Total Truck Gear at Torrington, near Toowoomba, showed how much engineering, drawing, cutting, fabrication and checking sits behind that finished surface. From polishing to manufacturing Anthony Thrush and general […]
Jon Kelly’s Western Star 6900 Butch Cassidy combined heavy-haul specification, PJs Custom paint and HHA’s in-house fabrication.
Steve Lawler reflects on ten years of SLS Group, his 1983 Kenworth display truck and the custom work that grew from a single job.
Mike and Judy Oliver’s Peterbilt 388 brought custom paint and polished detail to working road-train duty out of Cloncurry.