TOP TRUCK
KING COUNTRY AND
FOR
Story and photos by Craig McCauley
The red and white livery of DT King has been serving the rural folk of western Southland for almost a century, with the International product a stalwart in the company’s success. Shady Lady 2 is the latest in a long line of big Inters.
T
he name DT King is a roadtransport institution in the south, its ancestry able to be traced back to the late
1920s. Company founder, the late David Thomas King (DT), operated a flax mill near the site of the current depot at Pukemaori, 70km west of Invercargill. He acquired a solid-tyred International truck in 1928, initially used to haul bundled flax from his mill to the nearby Orawia railhead. Word spread among the community, and an enterprising King began carrying fuel in four-gallon tins for the emerging forestry industry. His flax and trucking operations ran in tandem for several years until stocks of flax began to dwindle, and the milling operation was wound up. King focused his attention on the transport business, and on 8 July 1938, the company of DT King & Company was registered. International trucks have featured strongly among the company’s asset register throughout the decades. K Series trucks were the predominant movers in the early years, superseded by Loadstar, Fleetstar and various models of ACCO. International 3070s joined the fleet
70 New Zealand Trucking
Dec 2022 / Jan 2023
in the late 1970s, and these gave way to several S and T Lines throughout the 1980s. The last International S Lines disappeared during the early 2000s, and in the ensuing decade, a mix of primarily UD, Mack and Volvo trucks were purchased. Fleet No.149 is one of a pair of International 9870 R8s put to work by Kings in 2022, with the competitive tare weight offered a prime consideration. Propulsion is provided by a triedand-true drive train of American origin; a Cummins X-15 E5 engine, producing 432kW (580hp) and 2508Nm (1850lb/ft) of torque. Behind that, a manual-shift Eaton Fuller RTLO20918B transmission puts the power on the pavement via a pair of Meritor RT 46-160GP rear axles, which ride on International’s IROS air suspension. Front axles are Meritor MFS143 wide track sitting on three-leaf parabolic springs with International’s ECAS air suspension on the second steer. Intertruck supplied the 9870, painted ex-factory in King’s livery, and an Ali Arc bumper and tidy stainlesssteel DEF tank covers were among
