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A tale of two tip truck owners

A father and son rolled up at this year's Penrith Working Truck Show in two distinctly different tip trucks

Don Henry with his XF DAF tipper

Don Henry and his son Thomas Henry rolled up at Penrith with two distinctly different rigs.

Don brought along his striking yellow 2016 DAF XF tipper, while Thomas brought along his refurbished 1994 Kenworth T600.

In fact, Thomas is a bit of a dab hand at doing up trucks, operating his own business, Choice Mobile Truck Detailing.

“It’s aluminium polishing and truck washing, sanding and all that sort of stuff,” he says.

Thomas bought the Kenworth from the Coffs Harbour region. An ex-Fred’s Freighters Kenworth, it’s by a “redhead” Cummins.

“I’ve always liked Kenworths and the T600 came up for a good price,” he says. “And it’s good mechanically so I bought it, and I’ve done a lot of work to get it to where it is.”

Thomas Henry will soon enter the tipping game with his 1994 Kenworth T600

Thomas plans following Don into tipper work, but first he needs a truck licence. That’s happening in August.

“It’s my first truck; a project truck for me.

“I haven’t driven yet. I’ve had a few goes, doing detailing. I drive the customer’s trucks on their property, but it depends on where we are.”

Meanwhile, Don is more than happy with his three year old DAF.

“Everything you see is Kenworth, other than the cab. It’s got the Kenworth back end, the Paccar motor, it’s automatic and just so comfortable,” he says.

Don had the yellow paint job shining in the western Sydney sun. Along with Thomas, he had spent the previous two days cleaning the DAF up.

Their effort paid dividends, with the XF winning the award for Best DAF at the show.

Photography: Greg Bush

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