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Punt on Kenworth T601 pays off for Wodonga mechanic

“I went and had a look at it the first chance I got, bought it and then thought ‘What am I doing?’, but I have no regrets now!”

Despite those initial reservations, Dale Twyford reckons the investment he made taking the plunge on a 1997 Kenworth T601 as a project truck has been a worthwhile one.

He was running the polishing cloth over the Kenworth earlier this year at the Rutherglen Rumble, with the T601 originally put into service as a fleet workhorse for Francis Transport  just over the Murray River at Corowa.

Having been on the lookout for a Kenworth to tinker with, the T601 may not have been his first choice, but when it came across his radar in April last year he was soon making a move.

“I guess I was more a fan of the square bonnet Kenworths, like the T650s and so forth, but they are a bit of an iconic truck, the old ‘Anteaters’ – there aren’t a lot of 601s getting around and I thought ‘I could make something of that’.

My brother was talking to one of the Francis employees at the servo in Corowa one day and he said there was one for sale. I said, ‘You’d better chase that up, and see if they are serious about selling it,’ and here we are!”

Dale Twyford with his project Kenworth. Image: David Vile

With Francis Transport running out of Corowa to the major centres, the Kenworth had been a fleet truck, running the highway on general freight. Powered by a Cummins N14 Celect at 525 horsepower running through to a 13-speed transmission, the T601 was in a pretty sound condition both mechanically and structurally when Dale took possession.

He explained: “It’s only been up and down the highway with a single trailer, it hasn’t been outback or anything like that. It has done 2.4 million kilometres all up. When I bought it last year, it had only done 90,000km on a rebuild in eight years. They were just using it on local, pulling a trailer between Corowa and Albury, so it hadn’t done a lot of work in that time. It has been well looked after.

“I took it for a roadworthy straight after and was panicking a bit as I had put my money down for it, but it pretty much nailed that.”

Dale works as a mechanic at Dawson’s Haulage in Wodonga, so his skills were soon put to use on the T601, at both his parents’ place at Table Top and at his home in Howlong.

The Cummins had a blown head gasket, which Dale soon rectified, before he started making a few changes to the appearance of the Kenworth.

“It had spider rims, so we changed that to 10-studs on the steer,” he said. “We put on the extra exhaust stack, and inside I have replaced the sound deadening stuff in the cabin and put a new floor in it, which has made a heck of a difference to the heat coming through into the cabin. We got a bull bar for it that had been on a log truck, it was absolutely buggered but it got blasted and polished up and it has come up a treat.”

With Dale’s brother Jake working as a spray painter at Complete Body Craft, the brothers soon put their heads together to work on the paint, to give it somewhat of an identity change from the Francis paint design. “It is all the original paint, so we touched it up as we went, but we decided to put the stripe on it,” he continued.

“We just taped it up in the backyard in all the dirt! I would like to do a bit of a custom paint job on it one day; our family truck colours are usually blue so I wouldn’t mind doing the chassis blue and maybe doing the cab white with a blue stripe or something, but we will look at that in good time.”

Dale took the T601 to the Kenworth Klassic at Clarendon last year and is looking at making a return visit this September. Having missed the Crawlin’ the Hume heritage run the day before, he wheeled the T601 out for the Show and Shine at the Rutherglen event on the same weekend.

“I haven’t done a hell of a lot with it in terms of  taking it to shows, as I want things to be right on it before I take it too far, so thought I would give it a run over here today.”

Having drilled holes in the chassis, Dale is on the lookout for a set of round tanks to affix to the T601.

He plans to keep chipping away, making some more improvements with a view to having the truck making a dollar or two for its owner.

“We are slowly getting there with it… I wouldn’t mind if it did a bit of local work around the place, just to say it’s done it, and then put it on club rego. As it is now it’s a pretty expensive garden ornament, but it’s all good fun!” he concluded with a grin.

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