A vintage 1925 Republic branded truck has been in Ken Roger’s family for the past 100 years. After spending several years on its restoration, he’s hoping a new owner can bring the “the old girl” back to its former glory.
“In this restoration journey there is still work to be done. Sadly however, I no longer have the necessary resources to complete the job. Therefore, I am compelled to put the 100-year-old truck on the market,” Ken told Big Rigs.
The truck was originally purchased by Ken’s grandfather Jack Rogers. At the time Jack was 30 years old and had just purchased two large adjoining blocks of land. Together they became the Spring Plains Station, located south west of Longreach in Queensland.
A sheep grazier, Jack purchased the truck brand new in 1925 from Longreach Motors for 500 pounds, replacing his two horse teams.
Ken says it became “the station’s workhorse”.
With a speed limit of just 18 miles per hour, it wasn’t quick by any means but proved more efficient than travelling by horse and cart.
“When he would take 13 or 14 bales of wool to Longreach on the Republic Truck, it would take a full day to cover the 80 miles (130-kilometres) to town and a full day for the return trip,” explained Ken.
“That would be at an average speed of about 10 miles per hour. Well under the 18 miles per hour speed limit specified for the truck.”
Ken has been painstakingly restoring the truck for the past seven years, at his home in Dubbo, NSW, before it was transported on the back of a truck to his new home in Queensland – in what has been a labour of love.
Unsurprisingly for its vintage, a lot of time and effort has gone into restoring this truck, including repairing and cleaning up rust along the chassis and body.
Ken has carefully and meticulously restored every component he could and found a solution to replace those parts that were too far gone – such as replacing the radiator core and the floors.
As an example, the truck features unique bonnet latches. Only one of the four original latches could be salvaged so that was used to make a mould. Wax replicas were produced and then cast in bronze.
Numerous other components have been meticulously fabricated by hand.
Interestingly, Ken revealed, “The engine was running and the truck was mobile before restoration work commenced. No mechanical work has been performed on the engine or the drive train.”
The Republic Truck was produced at the Alma Manufacturing Company in Michigan, USA. Between 1913-1929, Alma produced around 75,000 Republic trucks.
These trucks were sold and serviced in more than 50 countries, including Australia.
In the USA, there were over 3000 dealers selling these trucks; along with dealers all over the world, including on every mainland state in Australia.
Only a small number have survived here in Australia, making Ken’s treasured family heirloom a very rare find. His hope is to find someone willing to take on the job of restoring this incredible piece of history.