Owner/Driver #339
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“This truck also came fitted with one<br />
of the first Cummins EGR motors.”<br />
over 20 trucks, as well as several custom-made loaders. There<br />
is also a constant circulation of around 15 machines and<br />
several crews out in the bush at any one time, helping fell and<br />
organise the logs. Then, the company trucks swing by and<br />
haul them off to any number of local, or state-wide sawmills.<br />
Leeson’s has planted itself in every aspect of the logging<br />
industry, making it very much a one-stop shop for plantation<br />
logging.<br />
Stars to Kenworths<br />
The ‘Big Pete’ that I’ve come down to see is the lone wolf of the<br />
fleet. Well, the lone Peterbilt wolf I should say, as there is a fair<br />
bit of variety in the fleet these days. When I asked Rick about<br />
the early days and what trucks they used to run, his honest<br />
answer was “old ones”. After a laugh, he elaborated: “We’ve<br />
been a bit everywhere, we ran a lot of Western Stars.”<br />
The old photos on the walls testify to that too; there’s plenty<br />
of photos of some big-bonneted ’Stars in the early company<br />
colours.<br />
“We moved to the Volvos, the FH16s and those type of<br />
things,” Rick continues.<br />
“Slowly we’ve moved to the Kenworth brand.”<br />
That decision was influenced by the arrival of a Kenworth<br />
dealer to their local area.<br />
Top: Dan ‘Deppo’ Glover is a young<br />
man who’s worked hard and reaps<br />
the rewards with the stunning Pete<br />
as his workhorse<br />
Opposite above: Hard to tell there’s<br />
almost two million kilometres<br />
behind the Peterbilt’s immaculate<br />
interior<br />
Opposite below: ‘Deppo’ loads out of<br />
Flynn and pulls the Peterbilt up for<br />
me to grab some photos<br />
The company’s first Kenworth, which hit the road in 1994,<br />
was a T950, ironically named ‘Western Invader’, a subtle dig at<br />
the change in bonnet badges for Leeson’s. From that one the<br />
fleet progressed to almost entirely red-badged Kenworths for<br />
several years. During its time, the company has had several<br />
K200s as well as almost the entire range of Paccar’s bonneted<br />
options, including T610s, T909s and the always cool T659.<br />
“The 950 was the ideal truck for what we do really,” Rick<br />
testifies.<br />
So it’s no surprise that, when the 950 Legend Series came<br />
out, there was an order placed for one. It’s still working its<br />
butt off.<br />
Moving forward again, the current fleet is made up of a<br />
real mixture. Still heavily dominated by the sturdy Kenworth<br />
badge, you can also find a few Western Stars as well as a<br />
couple of Scanias and the recent addition of a big Merc as well.<br />
So where did the Pete come into it?<br />
ownerdriver.com.au<br />
APRIL 2021 43