“I think Dad was getting sick of trucks
and he sold the Ford and replaced it
with a Dodge. I came home from school
and bought an Albion tipper. I sold that
and bought a C Series Inter with a 160
Cummins and went carting livestock and
that was the beginning of the business.“
The first big truck John operated was
an ex Rod Moore Road Commander that
John sold when he bought his first new
truck, a 1986 Mk2 Superliner.
“It was the first Mk2 Superliner sold
in Adelaide by John Girke and came with
the 400hp V8 and 12 speed box. I took it
back for its first service and they pushed
it out to 440hp. They told me I would be
able to tell the difference,” laughed John!
“I wore the engine out and put a 525 V
in it. Man, it was a great truck and is still
in the yard today with around 4 millions
kms on the clock. An amazing truck, it
still goes like the wind! We have only just
rebuilt it (late 2018) and put an 18 speed
in it.”
The Superliner has had a checkered
past. It has been flooded once. It was
stranded in five foot of water for 13 days,
rebuilt and later on John had a driver run
into him and the Superliner ended up in a
tree! It was written off so John bought it
back and had it rebuilt it in Melbourne.
A V8 Valueliner came to replace the
written off Superliner and when Mark
came back to Ivanhoe after completing
an electrical apprenticeship, he hoppedinto the Valueliner.
“That was seven years ago. He could
drive but had no licence. It’s the same
old story, like when we were young.
Everyone asks how do you learn and
there is only one way to learn. You have
to get in behind the wheel. Mark did that
when he was about 12. He did his first
road train at 15. It was just in the bush
but that’s where it started. Then he went
away and I thought he would never come
home but he did. He decided that he
wanted to drive.”
Two years later, John asked Mark how
fair dinkum he was about staying and he
replied that this is all he wanted to do.
John told Mark that he had better ring
up and order himself a new truck! He did
that and ordered a new Titan MP10 with
M drive, square tanks and Neway airbag
suspension. He drove it for five years.
Last year Carmichael’s decided to
step out and buy a couple of new ones.
While the timing hasn’t been perfect with
the ongoing drought, interest rates are
a lot better than back in ’86 when John
bought the Superliner.
John gave Mark the job of ordering
and speccing up the two new Titans.
“I gave him the responsibility of
going up to Brisbane with the salesman,
Andrew Thompson. He is 31 now and I
thought the best experience is to just ‘do
it’. I told him to go up and spec it. You’re
going to be around a lot longer than me.Truckin’Life < 015 >RIG OF THE MONTH
John holds his Mk II
Superliner in high
regard and it has set the
benchmark for the fleet