Top Ten: Kenworth C5 Roadtrain Review

Yet for Clint Innes of CJ Livestock Haulage and his Kenworth C5, it’s a challenge faced day in, day – as I discovered for myself on a recent run to Riverview Station.  

It is a little after 6:00pm in Richmond, northwest Queensland, one Tuesday evening late in July. The main street is quiet and desolate, apart from a few young boys riding their bikes and a dog’s solitary bark off in the distance.

Out on the northern outskirts of town at CJ Livestock Haulage’s yard, a yellowish brownish glow from the dust-stained lights of the yard’s tower lit the Kenworth C5 connected to three livestock trailers. CJ Livestock Haulage was founded by Clint about a decade or so back.

Clint was born and bred further north, up in the Gulf Country. And in his two odd decades of trucking he has been up and down just about every track from the top of the Gulf down through western Queensland and into the Northern Territory. Clint, like most folks up this way, is of an easy-going and good-humoured nature. Even so, he has little time for idle chatter and he doesn’t mince his words.

Clint turned the key, flicked down the headlight switch, pushed in the park brake button and eased out the clutch; he and his Kenworth C5 were heading north, with huge bullights blazing into the darkness.

Tonight Clint aimed to pull up at a crudely marked intersection to another station roughly four hours away, on the corrugated dirt track known as the Esmeralda Road. There are no roadhouses out this way and Clint would cook himself a meal using the microwave fitted in the bunk. Then he’d push on into the night for a few more hours before pulling up at a parking bay near the picturesque Gilbert River for the remainder of the night. The road test began in earnest.

“Rough!” Clint explained as he peered into the darkness. “I don’t think many people really understand or appreciate the meaning of the word until they’ve done a trip or two up here. But that is how it has been for years and there are not too many trucks around that can handle conditions like these day in, day out other than these big C5 Kenworths.

“What makes Kenworth stand out in the crowd is the service the company provides, not just from an aftersales point of view, but the serviceability of the truck itself. That to us is vitally important; we are in the service industry and at the end of the day we are only as good as the equipment we use, and that is why we like the Kenworth product – so we can provide the best service to our customers.”

And that was where the conversation ended for the night, as Clint guided the C5 into the parking bay for a well-earned rest.

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING…
It was still dark when the alarm clock went off in Clint’s bunk. He pulled on some well-worn boots and climbed from the bunk before turning the key and the big-hearted Cummins leapt into life.

Outside, the wildlife by the river was busily waking with Australian swiftlets chirping the morning in. Clint strolled around the roadtrain, checking the tyres and trailers, while the Cummins under the hood built up air pressure.

There was only a short 15-minute drive to the aptly named Riverview Station, where the station house has a spectacular view of Gilbert River that Clint needs to cross. Today the crossing is easy and the road was recently gravelled. Only a few weeks before there was three feet of water charging past this crossing and back in the peak of the wet season it was three metres deep.  

Clint admits that one of the biggest challenges for station owners and cattle haulers is juggling the rains, because up in this country it doesn’t take much rain back up in the headlands to trigger at raging torrent downstream. Roads can quickly become cut off for weeks.

“It’s not a lot of fun either when you’re stuck on the wrong side of the river,” Clint added.

Dust lazily rose up from the yards as the cattle gently stirred in the dawn light. Clint pulled his lead trailer alongside the yards just as the sun peered over the horizon. He can load the entire roadtrain without shifting it, using what’s commonly referred to as a through loader system located on the front and back of each trailer.

It is merely a series of doors that form a walk-through platform for the cattle to walk through to the next trailer, hence the name ‘through loader’.

Once Clint had all the through loader doors open, the station hands began opening the yards and letting the cattle run onto the trailers, one pen at a time. It takes roughly half an hour to load the entire roadtrain.

Today Clint would load approximately 150 weaners, bound for a station west of Julia Creek some 600km away over some rugged dirt tracks, river crossings and rutted washouts.

LOADED AND READY
With the paperwork complete and friendly wave from the stations hands, Clint guided the fully loaded big Kenworth away from the yards. His first river crossing would be the Gilbert River in front of the Station house.

Now fully loaded and with all his axle locks engaged, Clint held the throttle on the Cummins at a steady pace, just enough to get the C5 Kenworth to climb out of the river and onto the hard road base, but not so much power as to cause the wheels to spin – something that would quickly see him bogged in the riverbed.

It’s a delicate balance, he admits.

Once out on the bitumen, he takes a left-hand turn on to the Gulf Development Road for an hour or so, then he heads left down a track marked only by a simple sign that says ‘Richmond’. A little further inwards another signs warns ‘No Fuel for 370km’. There is little out here other than wandering cattle, kangaroos and the odd croc or two.

Here at the start of the dirt run to Julia Creek, Clint stopped, checked that all the cattle were standing and travelling okay. It’s something he does every hour or 100km. As he walked around the roadtrain he noticed a wheel bearing on the middle trailer was low on oil, so he topped that up before cooking himself a well-earned breakfast.

As the morning wore on so too did the miles; the trailers clanked and rattled over every bump and pothole while a huge plume of dust that could probably be spotted from the International Space Station rose behind the roadtrain on the long dirt track.

They have a full-length chassis insert, which is what the old truckies called a ‘double-rail-chassis’ and wheelbase of 6500mm. That long wheelbase is to accommodate the six fuel tanks that give the C5 a fuel capacity of 2300lt.

It’s also worth sticking your head under the bonnet and checking out the rugged front end, which is something that you’ll only see on these more ruggedly spec’d C5s. Here you’ll find the 8.2 tonne Kenworth slipper spring, which boasts Meritor’s heavy MFS73LA front axle.

When on the dirt tracks, that heavy-duty front end really comes into its own. It makes the truck very sure footed and the beefed-up cross brace keeps the whole front of the truck rigid. Combine that with the two track rods, which fix the axle in position, and the C5 has very good road handling even on the roughest of tracks.

“Because the front axle is fixed in position the steering angle never changes no matter what the front axle does,” Clint explained.

“For instance, the left wheel might drop in a pothole and the right wheel rise over a bump at the same time, but with this slipper front end the steering wheel remains straight. Compare that to a conventional front suspension with shackle pins and in the same situation the axle can move up to two inches (50mm) forward or backward to compensate, meaning the truck’s steering changes. Out here in this country, the slipper front end is the only way to go.”

While walking around the rig, it’s probably worth noting the hose coiled up at the front of the trailer and the large round tank behind the landing legs. That’s what’s referred to as a belly tank and it’s used to carry an additional 1200lt of diesel fuel.

“Out in some of this country you can be down to as little as 500 metres per litre of diesel,” Clint explained.

“The belly tank can be pressurised with air from the truck’s compressor, which in turn feeds the fuel into the truck’s tanks as required.

It would be just on dusk that night when Clint would pull alongside the yards at Julia Creek, where he’d unload the cattle for the night and enjoy a rest himself.  

In terms of suitability for the task, this Kenworth C5 and its Cannon trailers have certainly proven they’re more than up to the task for remote-area work.

“There isn’t much around that can match a Kenworth C5 for this type of work,” Clint concluded.

“They are the only truck that stands up to the punishment in this country.”

Specifications: Kenworth C5
Engine: Cummins e5
Power: 600hp (447kW) at 1850rpm
Torque: 2050lb/ft (2780Nm) at 1100rpm
Gearbox: Eaton RTLO22915B 18-speed Roadranger
Chassis: Full-length double frame with sealant between rails
Front axle: Meritor MFS73LA 7.3t capacity
Front suspension: 8.2t Slipper spring
Rear axles: Meritor RT52-185 tandem drive with diff locks to both axles
Rear axle ratio: 4.56
Rear suspension: KW6-60A 21 low-profile 21t
Brakes: HD (P-type) drum brakes with auto slacks
Wheelbase: 6500mm
Interior: Crimson cab trim, HD diamond pleat vinyl
Seat: Charcoal HD, Extreme air suspended driver’s seat
Extras: 70-inch Truck Art sleeper