Gallery – Rob van de Hoek

Cattle King is a supreme example of the big Aussie truck era at Osborne’s, sporting an early 3406 Caterpillar under the floor.

CAPTAIN OF THE KING COUNTRY

Otorohanga’s Rob van der Hoek is never far from the truck photography action, whether it’s a truck show or on the side of the road somewhere. Another quiet and understated bloke who typically shuns the limelight, Rob was happy to share his decades-long passion for trucks, and we are again privileged and all the better off for this ‘Back Down the Road a Bit’ page.

Rob’s story is a great yarn, and his journey in trucking from a young fella in the 1980s has seen him in and around some legendary gear.

“An International Acco bread-delivery truck, fitted out with a sleeper, doing deliveries to Waikeria set me off on the path,” he says. “I was hooked.”

He says he spent many long Sundays riding shotgun in Herb Dalton’s Mitsubishi FV315 at Osborne’s Transport and Bryan Lucas’ C Series ERF at Western Bay Transport.

Being based in the King Country meant he was also among the famous Osborne’s Transport Leaders in their hey-day, as well as Paul Tootill’s K144 Kenworth ‘Evil Woman’. What a time, what a place!

Although Rob’s passion is stock trucks, his career in civil construction has seen him working in the Kaiangaroa Forest at times, and as such he has a soft spot for all things big and bushy.

The A6 Leader had the set-back front axle – this one in the colours of Otorohanga Transport.

Mitsubishi FV315s were great workhorses for so many. Here, Herb Dalton’s unit in the colours of Osborne’s Transport is loaded with four decks of sheep.