Old Thunder Guts retires

In September I received another welcome email from Mike Houghton. He said he'd just been with his wife to check out an AEC Marshall that was still working on a farm a couple of hours away. Peter Vincent, of yellow Octopus fame (see below), had bought the truck and asked Mike to go over her. As you can see from the photos, Mike found her very scruffy and well named - "Old Thunder Guts". How did she get this name? "Well, the muffler is very small and right behind the driver's ear and she does thunder", said Mike.

Above: note the muffler and exhaust. Mmm, noisy...

Mike reported the good news to Peter and they arranged to collect the AEC on Thursday, October 1 before checking her over on the Friday prior to an early start on Saturday morning for a 9am arrival in Gore for the start of the Southern Classic Commercials tour of Southland.

At the time, Mike said, "None of the other guys know that Vic is coming or that the Marshall will be there." It stands to reason that you can imagine their immense surprise at seeing the Marshall turn up. More on this and other wonderful Kiwi trucks on the run shortly.

What a magic, magic machine. She looks rough but if she can do the Southland run after a day's TLC...

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!

Adventures with Kiwi Mike

Here's another trip from Mike Houghton in New Zealand. This time he went to Wellington for a show as a guest of Peter Vincent in late 2008. Peter owns the yellow Ergo Octopus - perhaps one of the hardest working, show-attending classic trucks in the southern hemisphere. Peter, a Leyland nut, owns Vincent Aviation operating out of Wellington and Darwin. Last year, Peter sold his AEC Mammoth Major 6 to a restorer in Napier and naturally had to deliver it!

In his travels Mike also visited Vic Draper's - Leyland nuts in New Zealand understandably tend to congregate. Vic is well known for his excellent Leyland restorations particularly his LAD-cabbed 'Hypo Hippo' which is perhaps the most impressively restored LAD ever. He's now working on a short-wheelbase Octopus which, given these photos were taken last year, would be well underway now.

Mike says:

You can see the new chassis rails on top of the 20ft box in the background. The cab is now finished and came from an Albion Riever that I picked up in Southland with my Beaver and carried to Picton for the start of the Long Lap in October 2007.

While at Vic's Mike snapped a couple of other vehicles in the Draper collection. Despite what the mudflaps say, the Loadstar has a GM 6V53 in it. The tractor, however, is not what you'd expect. She is powered by a Ford Cargo turbo motor and, according to Mike, is very smart off the line!

Finally for this Houghton instalment are a couple of photos of Mike and his yard in action. The Nissan (model anyone?) is still working for a local tree-lopping contractor and was parked in the Houghton yard overnight while the Merc on the back of Mike's Beaver (captured by Alex Vincent) is a mobile wardrobe as there isn't enough room in a Beaver for two people's clothes for a weekend! It's always great to see couples enjoying their old vehicles.