Page 76 - Demo

Photo Derek Tankersley
Durable DAF
WHEN PALMERSTON NORTH TRUCKIE WILL GUNDESEN
started out in business as a Linfox contractor in 2002, he
bought “a cheap old Volvo.”
Within a year he determined that he needed to buy something
brand-new “because, you know, you’re always scared with secondhand gear.”
He almost bought a Kenworth – then found this DAF 95XF that was a three-month-old demonstrator...and “around 50 grand cheaper.”
The clincher, he confesses, was that “it’s sort of got like a sports exhaust – a Donaldson. So it was the sound of it sold it for me! It’s got a good little rumble.”
There was also the fact that it had a 530-horsepower DAF engine, which “everyone thought was a lot of horsepower – but I sort of liked the look of the future.”
Besides, the 6x4 tractor unit was going to be doubleshifted from the outset – first running between Palmy and Wellington.
“Next thing we were going to Taranaki, going to Tauranga and up to Auckland. You don’t want to do that in a 400 Mitsi.”
Around 2006, “they had a recall....did a Euro 3 upgrade – they had some defects with them. Mine had just cracked a head. It was all-but an inframe rebuild really. Mine had done 600,000k. I also shouted it some new injectors.
“And to be honest, it’s done over 2.2million Ks now and I haven’t put a spanner to the engine since the rebuild. It does turbos about every 500,000 – religiously! But the engine and injectors I haven’t touched them for 1.6million.
“First time we touched the gearbox – a ZF 14-speed synchro 68 | Truck & Driver
manual – was 1.5 million as well.
“Overall it’s still a tidy looking truck. People can’t believe it’s
done that many Ks.”
He rates it “a comfortable truck eh. I mean, when I got it
everyone was bagging DAFs – there were a couple of people had bad runs with them. But in every model you get a lemon.”
He was happy enough to drive it for 12 years, “before I shouted myself a new truck.”
That’s even though “the old exhaust brake does nothing – you might as well stick your hand out the window!”
He does believe that doubleshifting – “keeping them hot – is good for a truck.”
Gundesen, whose Gundy Transport shifted over to AF Logistics (now Foodstuffs North Island Transport) early in the DAF’s doubleshifting life, reckons he’s “retired it a few times” – bought a new XF105 in 2008, with the old 95XF downgraded to a backup.... “so then they went and found me another run. Then in 2011 I bought a new Freightliner...and they gave me another run.”
Now he’s up to five trucks, including three K200 Kenworths
and another new XF105 – and the old DAF has now “truly been
in retirement for about 18 months.” It’s now used only once
every couple of months and, Gundesen admits: “I have been contemplating selling it. Logic says ‘get rid of it’ – because they age really fast when you don’t use them often.
“But then it’s that sentimental thing. It was my first brand-new truck – that got me to where I am now.
“It’s pretty unheard of – a European truck that’s done THAT many Ks. Whatever they did back then they did it right.” T&D
Will Gundesen’s 16-year-old 95XF has clocked up 2.2 million kilometres