Brian Shiner loves his 1990 V8 Mack Valueliner, which goes better than it looks.
This old Mack might not look real flash, but its owner gives it plenty of TLC and says it goes like a train.
Brian Shiner has been wanting to send his 1990 workhorse to a paint shop for a decade but, like a lot of owner-drivers, he says he hasn’t had both the necessary time and money at once.
But he’ll get around to it one day and in the meantime there’s nothing wrong with what counts, which is underneath the skin. And the V8’s note is awesome.
The old girl has done just over 2.5 million kilometres, with a reconditioning job at 1.4 million kilometres despite no major problems.
“So it’s nearly due to be done again,” Brian, 48, says.
He bought the Brisbane-built Valueliner – which is the successor to the R model – in 1996 from a bloke at Esperance in Western Australia for $115,000 when it had already done 860,000km
“It’s been brilliant. I’ve never had any trouble with it really,” Brian says.
He does all the servicing himself, but he doesn’t have much choice anyway because the population of his home hamlet of Pingrup is only about 60.
Pingrup is about 50km south of Lake Grace on the way to Albany, in the mighty wheat-sheep belt several hours east of Perth.
Brian’s bread and butter is local grain cartage as well as grain and wool to Perth, and hauling fertiliser out of Perth.
He says the truck is very comfortable to drive, and no wonder with its long springs and 6.2m wheelbase.
“It rides like a dream,” Brian says.
He has been in trucks all his life, following in the footsteps of his father Paul who was a small Pingrup trucking operator before going farming when Brian was a teenager.
“I thought he sold me out,” Brian laughs.
“I already knew I wanted to be a truck driver.”
You can read the full story in the November edition of Owner//Driver.
Photography: Steve Skinner