Running on AAS, but it’s not electric
INTERNATIONAL Aa-series trucks aren’t a common sight these days but it’s almost unheard of to see the smaller AA120 pickup driving down the road, much less a four-wheel-drive version.
Robert Handley drove his pristine example up from Taralga to attend the recent Golden Oldies Truck Show in Dubbo and said he’d been an admirer of the vehicle for decades.
“I knew the old bloke that bought it brand new. He was a farmer from Crookwell and bought it so he could get around his country in the wet times. He had a lot of International trucks, probably half a dozen,” Mr Handley told Dubbo Photo News.
“I bought it off his grandson about 12 months ago – I’d had my eye on it for, oh, probably 40 years now.”
The truck has the original pickup bed on it, which was a very uncommon option as most of the Australian-built trucks were fitted with flat table-top trays – but that’s not the only thing that makes this vehicle a rarity.
“I haven’t seen any other fourwheel-drives in this model. There’s a few two-wheel-drives, but four-wheel-drives are pretty rare. And this one’s been upgraded, the original owner had put a Perkins diesel motor into it, a four-cylinder Phaser motor with a turbo on it, and it’s got a fivespeed overdrive gearbox in it,” he said.
Mr Handley described the annual Golden Oldies Truck Show, which returned earlier this month after missing last year due to lockdowns, as “a beautiful day”. And that was despite rain falling in the hours leading up to the event’s start: “I don’t have to worry, I’ve got my camper on the AA, I carry my home on my back.”