Owner/Driver #339
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“You can’t just have a truck sitting<br />
around for the sake of liking it.”<br />
Top: Check out the T404 loader at work.<br />
This truck, with an adapted Kesla 2024<br />
loader fitted, is one of only three like it<br />
in the country. It was specially built by<br />
Rosin Developments in Tumut<br />
Below: The grassy green look of<br />
Leeson’s Legend 950 really stands out<br />
– even in the company’s custom-built<br />
full-service workshop<br />
subbying for a couple of local farms. For a 24-year-old he<br />
made a damn good go of it, though being able to do his own<br />
maintenance would have been a bonus.<br />
He spent a couple of years as an owner-driver before the<br />
tough competitive financial conditions forced him back<br />
into the paid driver scene. Deppo spent another couple<br />
of years gaining valuable on-road experience until an<br />
opportunity came up to re-join the Leeson’s team.<br />
Now here is the cosmic, stars-aligning, crystal predication<br />
situation. Deppo started at Leeson’s when the Pete turned<br />
up. Nine-and-a-half years later he returns to the fold as the<br />
Pete is being put out to pasture. Freaky, hey? He recalls his<br />
immediate reaction was one of disappointment: “Oh shit,<br />
that’s a bugger, I wanted to drive it. I’ve loved it since it was<br />
brand new,” he recalls telling the boss at the time.<br />
Deppo watched the boys repurpose the old trailers and<br />
the Pete’s cab guard, utilising them elsewhere in the fleet and<br />
leaving the old Pete to get parked up in Garry’s shed. When<br />
the opportunity came for Deppo to talk to the boss about<br />
cleaning it up for him, he took it. He remembers Garry saying,<br />
“OK, well go ahead, take it home and polish it up.”<br />
With no idea of what the future held for the Pete, Deppo<br />
parked it in his shed for a year and spent every available<br />
moment trying to bring some shine back to the old girl.<br />
Second coming<br />
As we rolled into the end of 2018, Rick recalls having a<br />
conversation with his dad in regard to what to do with the<br />
fleet and, in particular, the old Pete.<br />
“You can’t just have a truck sitting around for the sake of<br />
liking it,” Rick says. A valid point when you consider the cost<br />
of registration alone.<br />
As Rick also points out with the smirk only a child can pull<br />
off when talking about family: “It is mum and dad’s company,<br />
so he gets what he wants.”<br />
Garry had seen the effort Deppo was putting into the Pete<br />
and decided he wanted to put it back to work. Like Stuart the<br />
original driver, they’d found a guy that was giving love and<br />
care for it like it was his own.<br />
In order to get it back to working it was decided they really<br />
needed to give it an overhaul. Starting with the old wornout<br />
engine, the local Kenworth agents sourced a brand-new<br />
Cummins EGR motor and chucked out the old one. The whole<br />
truck got attention: it was stripped almost bare and restarted.<br />
48 APRIL 2021 ownerdriver.com.au