Special feature: Australian-made Leaders

DOW's Rod Simmonds tracks one of the many Australian-made Leader trucks that still show up on classic truck runs today

Undoubtedly, Leader trucks’ fibreglass cab (based on FR Mack moulds) has stood the test of time better than most, and with the typical American driveline, they were pretty much bulletproof, if not a little rough around the edges.

Leader was notable for being the first manufacturer to standardise Caterpillar engines to trucks, to fit automatic transmissions to diesel trucks in assembly, and the first truck manufacturer in Australia to offer disc brakes.

Many A6 Leaders went into refuse and drilling work where automatic transmissions were a must. They started a local assembly in 1972 and sold their 1000th truck in 1980 but closed down in 1984 in tough economic recession times. Many are still hidden around farms in Australia and New Zealand to this day — some 40 years later.

New Zealand industry legend Marty Greaves knows Leaders very well and had a love-and-hate relationship with them during his time at Osborne’s Transport Te Awamutu, which operated the largest fleet in the country.

These trucks were generally described as a good gaffer’s motor — simple and tough but hard going for those spending the long hours (before logbooks) in a rough and ready cab with few creature comforts — actually, no comforts.

David Pope’s Leader

One of the more interesting Leader tales starts with David Pope’s Greytown-based Leader 1982 A8 8×4 unit.

Initially ordered in 1981 from Wade Motors, Hamilton for bulk and stock work with Transport Wairarapa (TWL), David and Robbie Robinson ordered different Leaders for an upcoming contract — a first for owner Bill Hargreaves, who only wanted owner-drivers as strike busters in the difficult trade union times during the Muldoon era.

David’s spec was the Overlander A8-3406 with 3406 Cat 325 and typical of the day, with a 14-speed Spicer transmission. Robbie’s was the step-forward cab version A8-3306 with Cat 3306 270 and 14-speed Spicer combination. The truck cost David around $135,000 (with 20% interest rates at the time) to buy and it went into the TWL Masterton fleet as 406-A — the fleet number still used by David today.

David parted ways with TWL after 12 months, removed the tipping deck and built his own stock deck to replace it. The independent stock work with local agents kept him busy, and he ended up working the truck day and night when needed. The big two-deck cattle/three-deck sheep nationwide-built crates were always loaded to the maximum — back in the days when ‘volume loading’ was the norm.

David repainted the complete unit into the blue colours loosely based on trucks he saw in Queensland and worked mainly on the Richmond Meats work supplying their East Coast freezing works.

“The truck pulled like schoolboy and the Spicer gearbox; once mastered, it was a dream,” David says. “Once you got going, you hardly changed gear; just used splitter to keep momentum.”

Then one foggy morning near an intersection south of Featherston, he got hit by a local whey tanker and wrecked the cab. David escaped with minor injuries and was lucky to survive at all, given the fibreglass cab just about disintegrated in half.

So, the truck was a write-off and a sad sight for all to see when towed to Waggs Truck workshop in Carterton.

David hired a local Leyland Crusader to carry on working until another new truck was sourced — the soon-to-be-famous Scania R142.

The rebuild

Osbornes brought the wreck back and rebuilt it into a working truck again, and it was soon back on stock nationwide. Renamed ‘The Sheep King’, it went back to hard labour for many years.

After that, it spent a few years with Mike Thomas Contracting on machinery moving and then back to the Wairarapa into the hands of Mike Tatham.

It was around 15 years ago when a well-known restorer of trucks, tractors, and steam engines from Carterton started on another mid-life restoration, this time turning the truck back into the original Transport Wairarapa Ltd colours.

He rebuilt a deck to accommodate his restored tractors for shows and along with a FR Mack, visited many parts of the country for many years.

Now the Leader is awaiting another restoration, as serious chassis issues have rendered it off the road for now. Mike is undecided whether to sell it or repair it, as he has several other projects on the go. The truck is still in great condition otherwise and some 43 years later is a testament to the Aussies in Toowoomba.

Displayed at Auckland

• Truck Show 1982
• Wade Motors Leader, agent
• Te Rapa Hamilton
• David Pope, Greytown A8 3406
• KH737 originally 1981
• Then after the crash, rego LO2614 ‘Sheep King’ Osbornes, Te Awamutu
• Then renamed ‘Miles Better’ in reference to rebuild/upgrade
• Mike Thomas Contracting
• Mike Tatham, Carterton
• Mileage-original Cat 3406 with over a million kilometres, original Spicer gearbox still in place

Images supplied