June 27, 2015
Eagle-eyed car spotters may have seen an odd-looking little vehicle on Kingaroy streets on Friday … a bright blue Fordson unlike any seen here before.
Gympie motor enthusiast Trevor Keene was visiting friends in town and brought over his unique Fordson “10/10” truck (10bhp / 10cwt) for the trip.
Trevor located the vehicle as a wreck at Tara about two years ago.
Since then he has transformed it into a tow vehicle for a fifth-wheeler caravan – and driven about 18,000km around Australia – from Gympie to Port Augusta, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Longreach, Barcaldine, Charters Towers, Townsville and back home.
Everywhere it went, it turned heads.
“Ayers Rock said it all,” Trevor said. “When I pulled up, the tourists were all taking pictures of it instead of the Rock!”
Trevor said the actual age of the English sidevalve was a bit of a mystery; it could be anything between a 1950 and 1954 model.
It was most probably manufactured in the United Kingdom, but there was also a chance that it could be an Australian vehicle brought here as a “complete knockdown” and assembled.
Trevor manufactured the tray and sidesteps for the little truck, and installed the fifth wheel. However, other parts are original or have been located at swap meets etc.
Top speed without the caravan behind is about 80km/h “and that’s pushing it”, Trevor said.
With the van, speed drops down to a very sedate 60km/h.
Trevor now has another “improvement” in mind for his little truck. He is planning to install a hook set-up at the rear to turn it into a tow-truck.
As Trevor has built tow-trucks professionally, there’s a very good chance that a bright blue Fordson tow-truck may soon be seen on Queensland roads.
I’m not what you would call a car enthusiast, but I do love seeing the old cars. They have so much more character than all the new cars..