On the road to Auckland - with Peter and Vic

First of all, thanks to Mike Houghton for initially sending this email through waaaaaay back in May. Thanks also to Peter Vincent for permission to use his photos here.

Peter had bought a 20-foot box in Auckland and needed to pick it up. Taking along fellow Leyland nut Vic Draper (he of Hypo Hippo fame - loves LADs, must be a good bloke), they hit the road in what must be the best-travelled Octopus in the world (the yellow Ergo cab in the photos). On the way they stopped off at a number of interesting places. Perhaps the most interesting of all was Alf Williamson's yard which was found to be full of Crusaders and Ergo-cabbed AECs among others.

Top: Octopus, Alf, Vic and Crusader. Above: it's all there...and in good company.

Mike adds: "Alf's father, Stan, is a legend over here. He ran a fleet of 50-plus Crusaders on logs and drove a restored one on the Long Lap. Not bad for an 82 year old!!"

"Alf just loves GMs", said Peter.

Alf is doing a ground-up rebuild of an Ergomatic Mammoth Major 6. Peter continues: "It will have a GM 6-71 which it had been re-powered with before Alf purchased it."

Above: very early days in the rebuild of the GM-powered Mammoth Major 6.

Regardless of the engine (I know some of you will be most excited!), this sounds like it will be an impressive bit of gear once she's on the road.

I'll take this opportunity to also thank Mike, Peter and Vic for their efforts in getting/keeping a significant number of LAD and Ergo-cabbed trucks active. You all know my link to these 'style' of trucks, so to see them on the road in this part of the world really warms the heart.

You can tell Vic and Peter are good mates!