GITI Tyres Big Test - Heavy Metal

The six tall chimney stacks at the old Meremere Power Station which were roughly a half-way landmark during the Hamilton-Auckland journeys of my childhood have long gone.

But appropriately there is a pair of tall metal stacks awaiting us in the grounds of the former coal-fired power station on the morning of this month’s New Zealand Truck & Driver Giti Tyres Big Test.

They belong to the new Nikau Contractors Kenworth T909 heavy haul unit, built to a custom specification and rat...

GITI Tyres Big Test - The Cattle Beast

The Tararua district provided dry cows and a rainy springtime morning for New Zealand Truck & Driver to try out the latest addition to the Beale Trucking fleet.

The 750hp Volvo FH 16 Globetrotter XL stock unit in the familiar red, black and silver livery of Beale Trucking is a work-in-progress for Regan and Toyah Beale’s Mangatainoka-based company.

Although the firm’s young driver Regan Taylor has been busy clocking up 10,000km in the Volvo across five weeks, t...

GITI Tyres Big Test - Deceptive Benz

Something about the new Carter’s Bulk Haulage Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3263 8x4 isn’t quite what it first appears to be.

Check out the frontal styling and you’ll notice the visual deception, with the `cheese grater’ Arocs grille swapped out for the honeycomb grille from an Actros.

It’s one example of the eye for detail that Debbie and Dan Carter have for the specification and presentation of the Carter’s Bulk Haulage fleet. They not only reckon that the grille swap looks b...