All it took was a visor – a European styled, Kiwi sourced, cool as ice visor. One visor that spurred me on to a two and a bit hour long flight, followed by a four-hour drive (Melbourne traffic, need I say more) and a night in a rather dodgy motel. One visor that piqued my interest in a truck that already had an abundance of interest-piquing enticements.
Like the 770hp Scandinavian powerhouse behind the visor, this needs talking about. Or there is also the hardly spoken about Scania CR23 cab – that in itself should have been enough. Then there is the hard-working family company responsible for putting all these aspects together – they definitely deserve to be talked about. There are plenty of reasons why I made the long, long journey down to the New South Wales and Victorian border, but I reiterate, the tipping point was still the visor.
Before we get to the sizeable Scania road train you see before you, I want to shine a light on the company responsible for such a staunch setup – McNaughts Transport in Finley, New South Wales. It is their colours that are so beautifully preserved on this state-of-the-art Scania. It is the epitome of a country transport company, preferring to keep their head down and do the job their clients need while flying below the radar when it comes to snooping journos like me.
The company has its head office in Finley, and a major grain depot and yard in nearby Berrigan. The company roots and allegiances are firmly behind the local community and there is hardly a local event that McNaughts Transport isn’t involved in, from the likes of the Berrigan Cup and Tocumwal Gold Cup through to the Finley Show Society. None of this is done for recognition or accolades, it is all part of the small-town bind that has seen the family company grow through hard times, harder times and more than a few prosperous times, all on the back of the community spirit you find in small towns.
From John McNaughts’ origins with one truck delivering hay to the locals, the company now has around 50 prime movers on the books, with depots and coverage nationwide. Their portfolio covers everything from bulk freight and general freight to walking floors, silage transportation and even dangerous goods transportation. In among all that they do grain storage, fertiliser storage and even fertiliser blending.
All of these services are a result of the community spirit that drives their business and has seen them survive some tough times. Speaking with operations manager Darryn ‘Scoota’ McDonald, you get a real feel for the ethos that runs through the company.
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“I’ve been here on and off since 1997,” Scoota says.
“It has always been a family business – that’s how John was and now Dan, his son, is running it, and he is the same. Even when I went off with my own truck I could always talk to them and get their advice.
“Dan likes to see other people succeed. They also do so much for the local events and sports teams.”
The humble country approach is the reason the majority of this write-up is based around the driver of the Scandinavian super truck, Jason Biggs.
“We generally like to fly under the radar,” Scoota says.
“We just like to do our job and look after our customers.”
That sort of attitude I can completely understand, although when you have a fleet that looks as good as the McNaughts trucks do, flying under the radar is almost a contradictory approach.
Throughout the McNaught story, the green and white colour code has predominately been draped over American branded vehicles – Kenworths, Western Stars and similar. The R770 is no oddity to the fleet though, in fact the Scania badge has had quite the impact in the green and white colours.
“We have 13 Scanias at the moment, though we are about to sell one so it will go back down to 12,” Scoota says.
“We got into them around 2020. At that stage we didn’t have a service manager and maintaining our trucks was paramount. It’s hard to retain drivers if your gear isn’t good so we needed a good maintenance plan. Scania came up with a great package, and the service and relationship we formed with Scania salesman Roger Lake has seen us keep coming back.”
Now let’s focus on that one particular Scania in the McNaughts fleet, the one with that visor. First thing first, it’s not just the visor that separates this Scania from the other R-Series in the McNaught garage. How many are aware that Scania has a CR23 cab? The standard is the CR20 and until you look behind the side fairings, you would know no different.
The CR23 is an acronym of sorts – C=Cab, R=R-series and 23=2.3m internal cab length. Technically the internal cab length is 2.27m, but the CR22.7 doesn’t have the same ring about it. The extended cab models are not built in the Scania factory and instead are manufactured by Laxa Special Vehicles, which as of 2020 has been fully owned by Scania. They specialise in custom variants and in the past few years have sent over 70 of the CR23s down under. They are rapidly becoming the preferred option in the R-Series cab configuration.
The extra 270mm allows for a slightly larger bed, an abundance of extra storage and a general larger feel, which couple with Scania’s already roomy cab appeal.
When McNaughts needed a couple of extra rigs for its expanding workload, salesman Roger Lake sharpened his pencil and offered up the CR23 770S. The company was needing a truck for its burgeoning Dubbo depot and needed a vehicle with the flexibility to cover everything from B-double lightweight work to maxed-out triple loads. The Scania 770S, which is a heavier duty version of the more long-distance, general haulage directed R770, packs a whopping 3700Nm of torque and, coupled with its legendary retarder, was a match made in heaven for McNaughts’ diverse needs, so much so that the team decided to buy two. The second one was handed over to Jason Biggs, a Kiwi boy that felt right at home when he joined the McNaughts family.
“I’ve been here at McNaughts since 2017. It’s a great place to work and they’re really good guys that look after you, look after the gear and I love it,” Jason says.
“Before doing this, I’d been working for Don Watsons doing fridge vans, I also ran for Geoff Sommerville doing extendable stuff and doing the Brisbane Darwin Run.
“I started here with a 90h and brand-new stag trailers. No one else was keen to tow them so I just said I’d do it.”
It was a big call for a guy whose closest experience to bulk transport was driving an old chip liner back in New Zealand.
“It was two very different things, truck and dogs in New Zealand versus a Kenworth with brand-new stag trailers.”
Jason testifies with a smile that he did check out YouTube to get a bit of a heads up on stag combinations and see what and how people were doing it.
After doing his McNaughts’ apprenticeship in the big, bonneted Kenworth and stags, Jason moved on to a big cab K200 and A-double set up, before the boss approached him about taking the wheel of a brand new 770hp Scania.
“The boss was pretty keen on the Scanias and wanted to get me into one. Once the 770 came out it got me interested, and then when the extra cab came, that definitely swung the deal,” Jason says.
“I’d had a little bit of experience with them as an auto sparkie back in NZ, they were brilliant trucks to work on and I had a little driving time on the log trucks in NZ as well, but not much. So I was a bit apprehensive – even up until the week before it arrived, I was reluctant to get out of my big cab.”
Helping sway his apprehension was the fact McNaughts had given Jason a lot of input into the design and set-up of the new powerhouse. That includes the aforementioned visor that opened my wallet for flights down.
“One of the first things was getting the visor for it – we got that out of Go In Style NZ,” Jason says.
“They were great to deal with, they had all the fittings and talked us through how to install it.”
Go In Style is the NZ arm of Dutch company Go In Style, who are one of the market leaders in aftermarket accessories throughout Europe. The NZ branch also supplied and assisted with the addition of extra LEDs for the front and sides of Jason’s 770S.
“We also got the next level bullbar with a bit of extra height. It’s a King Bar – McNaughts has always bought King Bars, and they also supply the Scania bars, so we just got the big one.
“I designed the paint job for it one weekend at home. The other ones are wrapped but the boss decided to get this one painted. It was a bit of a rush coming up to harvest. I drew it up and took it in and showed the boss.
“He reckoned it looked pretty good and sent it off to the painters. I thought the painter would adjust it because I’d just done a rough version, but they pretty much copied it exactly. I also removed all the hub covers from it – one got dinged up early and I just removed them because I reckon the Euro trucks just look better with painted stuff rather than stainless.”
The extra cab was spec’d up with the dual fridge setup, wall mounted TV and the full storage cabinet set up in the sleeper. A sleeper air system was mounted behind the cab along with the hydraulic package.
“The only thing with it is the fuel tanks, they’ll be different on the next models but this one we can only get about 850L on,” Jason admits.
Though he was also quick to point out that fuel has never been an issue – even running at max weights the majority of the time, the fantastic Scania fuel economy has never left him riding the fuel light.
“We’re doing about 1.2-1.3L with a triple, 1.7-1.8L with an A-double and around 2.5L with a single, all at max weight,” he says.
Jason has now clocked up over 100,000kms in the Scania and the earlier apprehension is long gone for the European convert.
“I was kind of surprised at the start because it went straight into carting rice and that’s hard on the gear. They get a hard life in the paddocks, but the Scania wasn’t falling to bits like I thought it would,” Jason says about the Scania and its DC16 engine.
“In my previous truck, you knew you’d done a day’s work by the end, but in this thing, it just makes it easier. It’s comfy and works with ease. We’re running at 91-114t all the time and with all that power and the retarder, it makes it so much easier.
“The Scania is at least 20-25km/h faster up any hill, which is good, but the best part is you don’t lose your momentum as much in traffic. Coming out of Melbourne, it’s pretty much uphill all the way and the Scania does it easy.”
Another feature that ticks Jason’s criteria is the airbag system on the Scania.
“It’s got the air bag suspension all the way through, so on the highways it rides like a dream. But also, in the paddocks, you can bump all the way up to avoid all the stubble and stuff, and I have that all preset on a single button.”
As we cruise along the NSW back roads, the thunderous Scania V8 sound is muffled by the insulated cab but is still purring enough to know it’s working. I appreciate the visor for its practical usage – Jason’s opinions on the big European powerhouse is nothing but glowing. Along with the power, the comfort and the coolness of the Scania, he focuses on things like impressive manoeuvrability both on and off road and the great support service the company has received from Scania in Melbourne.
Yes, I know my attraction to this King of the Highway was predicated on the appearance of the European drop visor, but it is good to know that the Scandinavian stalwart is displaying the same characteristics of the company it carries the colours for – hard working, durable and reliable.
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