October 2011

The Ultimate Lady

Written by David Kinch

Currently there are a few contractors in Christchurch working for Steve Murphy Limited (SML) so I took the chance to spend part of the day with Kim Clayton from Murchison who drives a 2011 Freightliner Argosy owned by the Clayton/Borlase partnership.
I met Kim at the Ashley mill and we headed to Balmoral which is an hour north of Christchurch for a load to go back to Rolleston on the south side of Christchurch. Recently before joining forces with Duncan Borlase Kim had an impressive Globetrotter Volvo stock truck with Murchison Transport but when he was made an offer to good to refuse he decided to sell up and have a well deserved holiday. That lasted all of a week as Duncan Borlase rang Kim and asked him to fill in for another driver who had to take leave. That was a couple of years ago and Kim has been on logs since with thoughts of a holiday a distant memory. The Freightliner Argosy is powered by a 525 horsepower Detriot engine with a 18 speed Eaton Fuller Transmission and as we make our way into Balmoral for a load the dust kicks up behind us and we arrive at the Skid site in no time. Kim is then informed it's lunchtime for the bush crew so he loads the argosy with the CAT loader and then chains down the load also using a belly chain which you don't see too much of in Canterbury but is essential in the Nelson and West Coast forrests where Kim usually carts logs from. While watching Kim chain the logs on I notice he's using a totally different system to what I've seen on loggers before. Instead of twitching the chain Kim clips the chain onto a ratchet system and uses a bar to tighten the chains.
We jump in and head south to Rolleston where we're unloaded in no time at all by a guy on a Volvo loader who would have to be one of the most effecent loader drivers I have ever seen making the turn around time very quick so we can head to Oxford for our final load of the day.
While we were at Rolleston I note that the Freightliner has a custom bumper made by Harrier Manufacturing www.harriermanufacturing.co.nz in Sheffield Crescent, Christchurch.
The Argosy is painted by Haddock Spraypainters in Whakatane and the log deck and trailers were built by Patchells www.patchell.co.nz . Being a person who likes to see exhaust stacks on trucks I asked Kim what the reason was for not having them on his Freightliner. He explained that in order to have them he would've had to have sacrificed log length as the headache rack would've been moved back.
We arrive in Oxford and being a Friday afternoon the bush crew had already knocked off so once again loaded the truck using the S.I.Lodec onboard weight system to make sure he sticks within the correct weights allowed. This area in Oxford is being converted to dairy farming and it was mind blowing how much land there was being made available.
Kim loaded the truck and trailer and we headed out of the skid only to find some moron had locked the gate so we went out the back way which obviously was made for trucks as the turning area was ridiculous but Kim being a true professional managed to guide the Freightliner through somehow and we headed to Ashley mill.

I'd just like to say thank you to Kim for the ride and giving me permission for this feature.

The Ultimate Lady

Click to enlarge

The Freightliner arriving at the mill to pick me up