For a truck that’s over four decades old, Jake Goodwin’s 4300 International is an absolute trooper.
Built in Dandenong in 1979, Jake purchased the truck eight years ago from a man named Paul Barey.
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“He did the same job that I was doing when I was driving for my father, carting steel out of Wyalla in South Australia,” he tells Deals on Wheels.
“When he retired, he sold the truck to me.
“He offered it to me for a very good price and was good enough to let me have it immediately and pay it off in installments, without me having to get a loan.
“Every week for a year, I paid him back until I owned the truck.”
Jake says Barey took great care of the rig, and it was “mechanically perfect” when he bought it.
“All I really did was freshen it up cosmetically,” he says. “I added fuel tanks and a different bull bar, and put a different bunk and Alcoa wheels on it.
“It needed a bit of paint here and there — the chassis has been painted, but the cab is original paint from when I bought it from Paul.
“I put a new gearbox in it, it just needed to be replaced because of wear and tear.
“But fundamentally, it’s the same truck.”
Not all that interested in modern machines, Jake always wanted a vintage rig.
“I’m not particularly old, but I think a lot of us truck drivers tend to pretend we’re living back in the 80s or 90s, the hey days of trucking,” he says.
“I don’t think modern day trucking is all that exciting!
“Each to their own, but when you start going down the electronic road with trucks, and computers and speed limits and European influence…It’s just not for me.
“A common thing I hear when people see my truck is ‘Now that’s a real truck!’ and they say that for a reason, because trucks today aren’t quite as robust as they used to be.”
Despite his stylish piece of gear, Jake doesn’t often attend truck shows.
“I don’t really go to shows for two reasons.
“One — I’m usually working on the days the shows are on. Two, my truck doesn’t have the paint job that a lot of people are looking for.
“It’s still very much a working truck, with stone chips and marks here and there, but it’s in good order for what it is.”
The Broadford, Victoria man is a busy owner-driver, doing general freight throughout South Australia and beyond.
After working for his dad for years, he wanted to make his own way.
“I’m a fourth or fifth generation truckie — being an owner-driver is what I know,” he says.
“My dad and grandad were both owner-drivers, and my great-grandfather was in farming, but he started carting timber with bullock teams.
“So we go back to where it all originated really. I was bred with a sense of pride about trucks and the transport industry.”
Jake says being self-employed can be tough, but he has tried working 9 to 5 jobs in the past and the lifestyle just wasn’t for him.
“Being an owner-driver isn’t an easy way to earn a dollar, but it’s still viable,” he says.
“The idea of being a driver for a company is unappealing to me.
“I like being my own boss — I can stop when I want to stop, go when I want to go.
“I don’t like being confined to one place, and trucking gives me a lot of freedom.”
Like many truck drivers, Jake fears the transport industry has become “over-regulated”, but he hasn’t let it get him down.
“I think the industry is being suffocated,” he says. “Unless that changes, I don’t know what it means for the future.
“But do I still like trucking? Yes. I love it.”
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