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Terry Green’s durable Scania

Owner-driver Terry Green plans to keep driving his 1987 Scania 112M until he retires

 

Terry Green began subcontracting for Mayne Nickless in 1982 and stayed with the company after it was acquired by Toll.

He has never had a reason to move to a different company. And he hasn’t seen a need to upgrade the 1987 Scania 112M which he has driven since 1988.

“You don’t get paid any more for a new truck or an old truck; and the old truck is still doing the same work,” says Terry who lives in Glen Waverly, Victoria, and operates T & L Green with his wife Lilian.

The Scania was originally a prime-mover when he bought it with 100,000km on the clock.

“I had it extended out to a rigid tray truck so I could put a tautliner on the back.”

He has travelled 1,500,000km in the Scania since then.

Terry suggests his truck’s longevity has a lot to do with mechanic, Danny Manak, who has worked on the truck for about 20 years. Danny originally serviced the Scania at Footscray, then Laverton and now at Scania’s Dandenong dealership. “Whenever I go in I get looked after and Danny still does most of the work on it,” Terry says.

“If there’s anything that’s not right – worn or needs replacing – they let me know. It’s better to have it fixed than parked up beside the road somewhere, broken down.

“Touch wood, it’s never been on a tow truck, ever.”

The Scania’s original 11-litre engine was rebuilt six years ago at 1,200,000km, and has clocked up another 400,000km.

Terry spent a decade carting chemicals around Melbourne, usually carrying the maximum 12.5 tonne payload. But two years ago Toll asked him to cart insulation from Dandenong. A full load of insulation only weighs about 4 tonne.

He spends three days a week delivering around Melbourne, and two days a week in country Victoria.

Terry plans to retire in 2018 but expects the Scania will keep working. “I have a friend who wants to buy it from me. So when I retire he said he’d take it off my hands.”

Read more about Terry and his Scania in the June issue of Owner//Driver Magazine.

 

 

 

Photography: Stuart Grant

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