They were 10x4's, ie the back two axles were driven, the foremost rear axle had airbags and no drive. They would have carried about 30 tons I guess, but on KI they just loaded them up...to the point where when turning tight corners with a load on the frames eventually broke in half. After that they made semi tippers out of them. I went for a number of rides on these trucks, and loved them. The noise of that straight 8 Gardner was awesome, and like nothing I had heard up till then. They had that much torque I reckon if they had enough traction they would climb up a telegraph pole...but eventually they wore out and were replaced with Volvo semi tippers...the end of an era. Some of the remains were put in a hole, the cabs were sent back to the mainland, I never found out what happened to the engines and running gear. Maybe sold, maybe buried. The back 4 cylinders of that big Gardner were hanging out behind the cab, for all to see....
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and I remember that they had a switch on the dash that said "deep reduction" which enabled me to hop out of the truck and walk alongside it as it was climbing a steep part of the route loaded, and then hop back in while it was still moving, as it was going so slowly...the Gardners were a brilliant engine, but tended to smoke a bit when they were idling for a while. These trucks copped a real pounding on the unsealed roads that they traversed, the Fodens and Atkinsons were for years the only ones that would stand up to it, other trucks fell to pieces. Great days...
