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Aussie Road Train Truckers Season 1 Episode 8
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00:01The dry season in the Outback.
00:05It's when the Aussie road train truckers go hard.
00:09You've got to be done, you've got to be daft.
00:11It's good unloading with people that know what they're doing.
00:13I'm pissed off actually.
00:15To bank as much money as they can.
00:18If that doesn't work, then we'll go to plan B.
00:21I don't have a plan B at the moment.
00:23All before the wet season hits and the roads get shut down.
00:53It's 4.30 in the morning and Jake's playing catch up.
01:05He's racing to join a massive convoy of three road trains heading to Sturt Plain Station.
01:12So we'll load up here this morning and then split the dust and get going down to Alice Springs.
01:23Jake's schedule today is a crazy one.
01:29Yeah, there's no mucking around.
01:32Get them cows there as quickly as you can.
01:35Arriving last means you open and close all of your own gates.
01:41Bit of a pain in the arse driving a road train and getting gates.
01:45Especially when you don't go far enough forward and that back trailer hits the gate.
01:50You've got to walk all the way back up and get back in your truck, move your truck forward and come all the way back again.
02:03The four trucks will load up $700,000 worth of cattle and take them 900 kilometres south to Alice Springs.
02:11So I just couldn't stir planes here into this different yard.
02:18We'll get up here and have a look and get everyone loaded and then, yeah, keep heading south.
02:29It's gonna be a long hot day.
02:32The convoy can't afford any delays.
02:35Don't muck around when they're loading.
02:37They sort of bang them on you fairly quickly.
02:40Gets you gone.
02:42ASAP.
02:44Des is in Cloncurry, Queensland.
02:55One day away from going home after 14 days straight on the job.
03:00But he's not going anywhere until he does the critical job of changing four of his 84 tyres.
03:13Well, now I'm gonna do a couple of tyres like that.
03:15I'll line up and I'll try and do them in the dark.
03:17It's a bit cooler.
03:19Each tyre is worth $500.
03:24Maximising the lifespan of the $42,000 worth of tyres on the road train is a constant grind.
03:32Changing a set of tyres on the rear axle of this trailer.
03:36I'm just gonna put a new set across and keep them ones there for the run-outs.
03:40Change one, change four.
03:44If you put an old tyre and a new tyre beside one another,
03:46one's actually got a different circumference.
03:48So one will actually be spinning going forward
03:50and the other one will actually be going backwards
03:52so they just tear the tread off both of them.
03:57I usually run my old drive tyres for about 50,000, 60,000 k's
04:02which you don't get a great deal more out of them.
04:07Tearing quads out.
04:09You've just got to get a lot more mileage out of them.
04:10That's the biggest thing, yeah.
04:12Let the jack down and just tension the wheels up and she's finished.
04:17These run at 450 foot-pounds.
04:21Tension them up so they don't come loose.
04:26Well, this is a tension wrench.
04:29Des sets the wheel nuts to exactly the right tension.
04:33Too tight and the bolts can snap or be impossible to remove.
04:38Not tight enough and they'll work loose on the road ahead.
04:42Job done, eh?
04:43I'm going to hit the road.
04:44O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
04:45It covers a massive area of 4,000 square kilometres.
04:57Every year, the station transports 10,000 head of cattle worth north of $10 million.
04:59O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
05:00O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
05:05O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
05:06O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
05:07O'Vernes Station in the Northern Territory.
05:08It covers a massive area of 4,000 square kilometres.
05:11Every year, the station transports 10,000 head of cattle worth north of $10 million.
05:26O'Vernes Station.
05:29Today, the station hands are loading 252 wieners onto Glen's triple.
05:36Wieners are young cows that have stopped feeding from their mothers.
05:39And are now ready to graze on pasture.
05:42Yeah, fresh.
05:43Ready to go.
05:45Right across the top end,
05:48convoys of road trains are in an 11th hour scramble to get cattle to their wet season pastures.
05:54Ah, so we're just loaded with steers, or light steers,
05:58wiener steers, whatever you want to call them.
06:00And we're going to take them across to Argyle.
06:03The wieners are being moved to Argyle Down Station
06:06to get fattened up.
06:08Load it, do it shut.
06:10When the wet's showing its head,
06:13everyone just starts ramping up a bit.
06:15Everyone wants to get done before the wet's here, you know.
06:21A little bit warm out there this morning.
06:22You can feel it all changing.
06:24But no, they all ran pretty well, hassle-free.
06:28Wieners are small,
06:30which means the truck has an unusually large number of cattle on board.
06:35We've got 252 steers on.
06:44So we'll go to Argyle.
06:48Argyle Downs is 200 kilometres away in Western Australia.
06:52To get there, Glen's got to navigate, come survive one of the Territory's worst roads.
07:00The Duncan.
07:02Just a gravel road, but it's just got, like, heaps of rock showing itself out of the ground,
07:08which you don't want to bang over too hard,
07:10because at the end of the day, it wrecks your tyres and you'll end up changing tyres.
07:14Even though the roads ahead are terrible,
07:20Glen wants to save some money and get one last trip out of two badly worn-out tyres.
07:27Just a couple of tyres there that are about ready to go.
07:30So we'll just see if we can get today out of them.
07:34If we do, I'll change and stuff.
07:35And then when we get back here.
07:38I didn't feel like getting up an extra 20 minutes earlier to do it this morning, so...
07:42It's 50-50 if the tyres will get him there.
07:47But $1,000 is a decent chunk of change.
07:51Save the tyres, or save time.
07:54Des shifts some of Australia's heaviest loads.
08:08Road train from the back of the workshop.
08:11Copy, matey.
08:13Hey, mate.
08:14Yeah, I'll get a load of 7mm for Ernest Andrea.
08:17And today is no different.
08:22Going over.
08:23Throw a load of 7mm on for Ernest Henry.
08:26One of the mines just local out here.
08:287mm ag.
08:29Small stone.
08:31It's, yeah, crushed down small.
08:33They call it 7mm because that's the maximum size it'll be.
08:36Got a bit of dust and stuff in it, but, yeah, mainly 7mm.
08:42Des's 550 horsepower Kenworth T659
08:46will tow four side tipper trailers full of 7mm.
08:53His load will bust the scales at 100 tonnes.
08:56I'll have a truck in a minute, Captain.
08:59I'll come out for you.
09:05Des is heading for the aggregate loading bay,
09:08where a loader driver is waiting for him.
09:10Yeah, it only takes about 10 minutes.
09:14Put about 12 tonne of bucket on it, 11 tonne of bucket.
09:18Des's machine has been fully tricked up
09:21with all of the best and latest mechanical tech.
09:24I don't need to get out of the truck.
09:26Everything's hydraulic.
09:27I'll just lift my doors up, my lids.
09:31And, um, yeah, and he'll just start putting it in.
09:34The loader driver must fill the tippers in a special order,
09:4210 tonnes at a time.
09:44It's about 7.5 and 16 down the back of the lead trailer.
09:51The lead trailer goes first
09:53to keep the weight on the drive wheels.
09:56If the rear trailers are filled first,
09:58the truck will lose traction
10:00and Des will get dry bogged.
10:03He knows all the weights to put in
10:04because they've done all this before.
10:08Today's haul is part of a 100,000 tonne annual load.
10:14The 7mm all goes undercover to contain the dust.
10:20They keep on ordering the stuff
10:22and we just keep on carters.
10:24So, yeah, they order 3,000 tonne
10:26and as soon as you do that, they order another 3,000.
10:30The 100 tonne neat.
10:40The last trailer is full.
10:42It's time to roll out.
10:44Road train and LV up there.
10:46Oh, yeah.
10:52The lead road train has arrived at the loading ramps
10:59at Sturt Plains Station.
11:05The yard crew is sending the first 150 cattle straight onto it.
11:10All Jake can do is hurry up and wait.
11:22Truck one is loaded.
11:24It'll now park up ahead
11:25and wait for the three trucks behind it to get filled up.
11:28Oh, that air-con fan's not working again.
11:38Jake's air-con has been a thorn in his side all season long.
11:43So I'll just have a quick look in behind here
11:46while we've got five minutes.
11:48It'd be madness for Jake to try and pull the dash apart now.
11:53But that appears to be exactly what he's doing.
11:57There are hundreds of parts in a Kenworth air-con.
12:01I'm just trying to wiggle a wire or something
12:03just to sort of half-locate the problem
12:05or narrow it down a little bit, you know?
12:08And hundreds more in the truck's electrical system.
12:10I was hoping that was going to be a bit more exciting than that.
12:17Jake's DIY fix is motivated by necessity.
12:24I was hoping that was going to give us some sort of result there.
12:27As the day heats up,
12:29temperatures inside the truck's cab will climb into the high 40s.
12:33That air-con had played up and then come good,
12:36then played up, then come good,
12:38and then just stopped completely.
12:42So it was annoying.
12:45Yeah, it is a bit strange.
12:49It's definitely not my forte, this sort of thing.
12:53But we'll sort it out soon enough, I'm sure.
12:59The dash is well and truly apart.
13:02Truck two is getting loaded up
13:05and the yard crew is racing against the clock.
13:08No-one's going to wait for Jake.
13:11No matter how hot under the collar he gets.
13:22Glen is off the dirt driveway
13:24and onto the ragged bitumen of the Victoria Highway.
13:28Yeah, the road from Averne to Argyle,
13:31you got just over 90km of bitumen, I think it is.
13:35This is the Victoria River District,
13:38a spectacular and wild region in the remote north of Australia,
13:43where the cattle stations are bigger than some European countries.
13:51But for Glen, it's eyes on the road.
13:54As you can see along here,
13:57there's a lot of washouts off the edge of the road everywhere.
14:01There's parts where it's washed out the bitumen into the lane.
14:06You might just veer off the road,
14:08and instead of just veering back on,
14:10it might be just a matter of doing that at the wrong moment,
14:13and, yeah, it's gone.
14:16Like, literally, it's a second.
14:17The Victoria Highway was bitumen sealed in 1990,
14:23but the years have not been current.
14:26Oh, yeah, this is a really bad crossing here,
14:32and I don't know why they haven't fixed it.
14:35They relay bitumen up to both sides of it and don't touch it,
14:39so I don't know what the deal is.
14:41But it's been like this for years now.
14:43Glen's battling just to keep his triple on the road.
14:51If you leave the road,
14:52you'd better off gradually riding it out
14:54or gradually coming back on
14:56because anything off the edge of the bitumen is slippery
14:59compared to the bitumen, isn't it?
15:01You know what I mean?
15:03Trucks will end up 100 metres out on the flat there sort of thing.
15:06You know what I mean?
15:08A little bit of rush and roulette, that one.
15:13Glen leaves the bitumen of the Victoria Highway
15:16and hits a dirt road so notorious
15:19it only goes by its first name.
15:23Just turned on to the Duncan.
15:27So I think we're roughly about 40km to the next turn off.
15:34The Duncan, that's a bad one.
15:37You can go from doing your casual 60, 70km an hour to 20, 10.
15:56Des's custom-built Kenworth T659
16:00is specially designed for power
16:02and hard off-road work.
16:05They build them over here to handle that sort of conditions
16:08and that's why if you go up that way
16:10you see, you know, 90% of the trucks are much the same as mine.
16:14People realise that if they put something in there
16:16that's meant for a highway, well, it's not going to last.
16:19Des's entire rig has been set up
16:22for maximum capacity and maximum weight.
16:25It's the biggest fish in a big pond.
16:28Jake's rig is 52 metres long and four and a half metres high.
16:35Glen's is 53 metres by 120 tonnes.
16:40Des smokes them all.
16:43I've got a 100-ton load on four trailers.
16:45They call it an AA B-Quad.
16:48Normally a two-row train with a B-double behind it.
16:53About 52 metres long.
16:55This configuration means that Des has more trailers with more axles.
16:59That helps distribute the huge weight over more tyres.
17:03I've got a 100-ton payload on
17:05which it can handle about 101 tonnes, a bit under.
17:09That brings me gross up to about 157.
17:13The truck weighs about 56.
17:15That's 157 tonnes travelling at 90 kilometres an hour.
17:23And you've got to move it a bit up the front.
17:25Yeah, and you don't realise it,
17:27but you've got a metre of movement at the back end.
17:33It's Des's last day of a two-week-long shift.
17:38But he has to conquer 300 tonnes of rock
17:40and 700 kilometres of road
17:43before he can clock out.
17:45Today I'll be going to three different places.
17:49If the Ernest Henry and Deanna Cannington mine
17:52and I'll go back and trail load on
17:54and go to Julia Creek.
17:56Set against the vast emptiness of the outback,
18:01Des's massive truck
18:02suddenly seems very, very small.
18:07Glen's doing battle with the dunker,
18:19the outback's most dangerous road.
18:22We'll just get up on top of the hill and I'll get out and check everything.
18:26Glen's worn tyres have held so far,
18:29but he's expecting trouble ahead.
18:36He'll either be Employee of the Month
18:38or get stuck in the middle of nowhere
18:42wrenching wheel nuts in the scorching hot sun.
18:45At least if you've got something in your tyre,
18:47you can pull it out and patch it.
18:48This one here is just starting to all let go.
18:54Boy hanging out of it,
18:56the same as it's made on the inside.
18:59If you keep going,
19:00nine times out of ten, you're tyre's f***ing.
19:02Sturt Plain Station in the Northern Territory.
19:10And this monster four-truck line-up
19:12will be the last big cattle convoy of the season.
19:21Two trucks are already through.
19:25Jake's the last in line.
19:28He's had to abandon his DIY aircon fix
19:31to help load truck number three.
19:35Loading cattle trucks,
19:36if there's four of you there,
19:37they're all your boys.
19:39Definitely go and help everyone.
19:40Yep.
19:42Toronto!
19:46That'll be Chief Slidegate man for a minute.
19:50Yeah, it'll be one bloke on the slidegate.
19:52One bloke loading the top deck.
19:55And then there'll be one bloke underneath
19:57waiting for the top deck to be loaded
19:58to start loading the bottom deck.
20:01So everyone sort of just comes together.
20:06Just etiquette.
20:07Yep.
20:08100% every day.
20:10The convoy is headed 900km south to Alice Springs.
20:15But there's still 300 cattle to load onto the two remaining trucks.
20:23An ironclad delivery deadline at dawn tomorrow
20:26means the load-ups need to be fast and efficient
20:28without stressing the cattle.
20:31Secrets for this are going smoothly.
20:34It's mostly having good people in the yards
20:36running them cattle to you.
20:40Oh, it only takes probably half an hour to load a truck
20:43if everything goes smoothly.
20:45The yard team has smashed it in record time.
20:53The third truck rolls out.
20:56And Jake's quad rolls in.
21:02He has two shorter trailers in the middle,
21:04which means he has to open a lot more gates.
21:16B-double.
21:17Des fitted four new tyres to his rig this morning,
21:30so regular checks are critical.
21:37Des uses a laser thermometer to test the wheel bearings.
21:4142.5.
21:43Just checking me wheel bearing, the temperature.
21:48It's pretty good.
21:49If they're starting to get hot,
21:50you know there's something happening.
21:52Like it's either wheel bearing collapsing
21:53or things like that.
21:54Damaged bearings can cause the tyres and brakes to rub,
21:58and the heat from that can trigger a fire.
22:01And then you'll burn your trailer.
22:06It's what truckies fear the most.
22:09A lot of times you can't put them out once they catch on fire.
22:12So they're better off just driving on,
22:14keeping an eye on until actually the whole wheel comes right off.
22:18And with these two, you've got hydraulic lines,
22:20so you've got oil fires, you've got all that sort of thing.
22:27Fire's all right.
22:28Ready to go again.
22:31You need to move on,
22:33otherwise old mate will shut the gate on.
22:34The Duncan pushes west through the stony country
22:42of the Victoria River District.
22:47Glenn pulls up to check on his two dodgy tyres.
22:51This part of Australia annihilates trucks.
23:09When you come down this road, you're more worried about rocks.
23:13Just sharp rocks.
23:14And they do, they literally just pierce your tyres.
23:16Just navigate around them.
23:20If you get outcroft, the rocks come out of the ground,
23:23or you just slow down and go over them gently.
23:27It tends to make different noises
23:29when it's having not so much of a good time.
23:34Oh, no, you just hear everything moving, shake around it.
23:37Yeah.
23:37Stony country, rain and traffic remove the smooth layer of clay
23:44from the top of unsealed roads
23:46and exposes the razor-sharp rocks below.
23:49Say, 45km dirt is f***ing shit.
23:53Like, it can be really shit.
23:55Like, it's shit probably at its best,
23:57but when it's bad, it's f***ing bad, eh?
23:59Through these sections here,
24:04you're still dodging,
24:06like, that's a big fella from the middle of the road there now.
24:09It's so sharp.
24:10The road is terrible,
24:12but there's something even worse up ahead.
24:19A deep, steep, rocky creek crossing.
24:22It's a really mungle crossing this one
24:26because it's so sharp
24:28and all your weight ends up on one axle
24:31when you come through there.
24:33The ground is loose
24:35and the truck is bending
24:37in ways a triple road train should never bend.
24:41F***ing one wrong move
24:43and the creek will bog or break Glenn's truck.
24:47Yeah, that's a f***ing rock, dude.
24:52It's Jake's turn to load up at Sturt Plains.
25:03$200,000 worth of cattle
25:05and he'll be taking them 900km south to Alice Springs.
25:11All going well, mate.
25:12Yeah, just waiting on some cows here.
25:15The cattle load from the front
25:18and run the full length of the trailers over bridges.
25:22Truckies need to get inside to keep things moving.
25:26Sort of watch what you're doing a fair bit
25:28when you're in the crates there with them
25:29because you are sort of getting in a metal cage with them.
25:32You know you're going to come off second best.
25:35The wind and the heat have the cattle on edge.
25:39Where is going?
25:41The cattle are not afraid of humans.
25:44They don't care if there's a truckie blocking an exit.
25:47Back you go, eh?
25:53It's a stand-off.
25:55Boosh!
25:56Back you go, eh?
25:57Jake versus the brahmer.
25:59Ah!
26:05I'm heading out to Ernest Henry Mines.
26:06It's about 35km out.
26:10Des is delivering raw materials
26:12to a mega-mine in central Queensland.
26:19He's carrying 100 tonnes worth of 7mm rock.
26:23This will be the first of three drops he'll do today.
26:27Takes about close to two hours
26:30to do it around by the time we get in the gate
26:32and I've got to go around the back of the mine and tip it off.
26:35Even if Des wanted to, he can't speed up.
26:39All these trucks are only roading at 90km now,
26:42which most places around here
26:44you can sort of hold that speed most of the day.
26:48There are no hills,
26:50few corners
26:51and almost zero traffic.
26:57That's Ernest Henry Mines just in front of us.
27:00That big lump of dirt.
27:00The gatehouse is a tiny outpost.
27:10You've just got to wait here till they turn up.
27:11Me.
27:12That's cool, that's all.
27:15Sometimes you can wait here for a fair while.
27:22Ah!
27:23Back you go, eh?
27:25Jake has dodged a 400kg brahmer
27:27running the wrong way through the crate.
27:29Oh, for f***ing sake.
27:34When you're in the crates,
27:35it is a pretty dangerous place.
27:38Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
27:40Not because that they want to eat you.
27:43Ah!
27:44It might just run over the top of you
27:45just because it's doing what it does.
27:49Cattle doing what they do.
27:51Jake needs to get his 140 cows locked and loaded
27:57so he can start the 14-hour haul to Alice Springs.
28:01Push, push, push, push, push, push.
28:02F***ing sake.
28:04Yeah, it can take a long time to load,
28:06which sort of just slows you down for the rest of the day.
28:09You know, you can make a long day out of it.
28:12When you woke up at quarter to five,
28:16here at six loading,
28:1814, 15-hour drive,
28:19if your cattle don't load that great,
28:21it can be turned into a real long day.
28:23The Ernest Henry mine
28:32is one of the biggest gold and copper mines in the world,
28:36extracting 80,000 ounces of gold
28:38and 50,000 tonnes of copper a year.
28:43This truck here is one that's come from Mount Colin.
28:46They bring the ore over here.
28:48It's processed here and go back.
28:50Access to the multi-billion-dollar site
28:53is highly restricted.
28:56I never, ever get out of the truck.
28:57Got to have a bloke who'd escort me around.
29:01This will be my escort now.
29:04The escort arrives
29:06and Des enters the restricted zone.
29:11Mine's got a thing,
29:12no cameras and no visitors.
29:14That's why, I mean, you've got to be inducted.
29:17All truck cameras go off,
29:19one by one.
29:23Yeah, there's 573, um, cows.
29:30At Sturt Plains,
29:32Jake is signing his load exit papers.
29:35The four road trains
29:37and the $700,000 of cattle they're carrying
29:40are finally ready for their end-of-season journey.
29:44Today there's four trucks.
29:48I think you've said there's 500-and-something head of cows
29:51all together between the four trucks.
29:53So, yeah, we'll all convoy down to Alice Springs.
29:57We should be pretty close to where we need to be.
30:00I'd say by midnight-ish, I reckon.
30:03We're getting mighty close.
30:05Thanks, Brad.
30:12It's, uh, yeah, 13, 14 hours or something.
30:17You do just get it into your head
30:18that it's going to take 12 or 14 hours to get down here.
30:23Jake will be on the Stewart Highway
30:28the whole way to Alice Springs,
30:31900 kilometres of dead straight road.
30:35There's not much going on.
30:37You do sometimes get excited for a bit of a corner
30:39or a bit of a hill or a downhill.
30:41It's easy to get complacent
30:44but lose concentration for an instant
30:47and this is what can happen.
30:54A rolled semi-trailer on the side of the road
30:58is a reminder of how you can lose it all
31:01chasing big money in a road train.
31:04Glenn's battling terrible conditions
31:14on a go-track of a road into Argyle Down Station.
31:18He's guiding his fully-loaded road train
31:22through a deep, dangerous gully.
31:25You got all them little creek crossings into that yard.
31:28The dry creek beds have steep sides
31:34that can destroy a truck's suspension.
31:37Literally, you got one axle on the ground
31:39bearing all the way through the crossings, you know.
31:48Glenn has managed to clear the creek
31:50but there's more bad news up ahead.
31:55Anything come down to our resort, watch it out.
31:57It wasn't a bit steep
31:59but I just got him to have blown out of it this morning.
32:02But, yeah, they're taking a bit steady over it.
32:05Yeah, yeah, too easy, mate. No worries.
32:10In preparation for the wet season,
32:12a new drainage embankment
32:14has been put across the road.
32:16There's a bit of a cave from the yard there.
32:18There must have been a little bit of erosion shit going on there
32:20so they've just put a woo-boy in there.
32:23A mound of dirt to break the flow of water
32:26to stop the erosion.
32:28As you're saying, it was a bit steep
32:30so we'll see what it's like when we get there.
32:35This dirt mound has all the right dimensions
32:38to stop a triple road train.
32:40It's been a huge day for Des.
32:56He's shifted 300 tonnes of rock
32:59through outback Queensland.
33:01But he has one more job to get done
33:03before he can clock off.
33:05We'll spray over them trailers here
33:07and just hose them off,
33:08otherwise the dust will stick to them.
33:11Look at that.
33:12We'll go and wash this thing.
33:15Des never leaves his truck
33:17in anything but perfect order.
33:19The day I fly home,
33:21I make sure that I have a little bit of time,
33:25a couple of hours,
33:25just even if it's just to hose the dust off.
33:27You all right?
33:29Come up nice and clean.
33:32One shiny truck
33:33and that's job done.
33:44All right, mate.
33:46Hello.
33:47See you next time, mate.
33:48You bet.
33:48Thanks, mate.
33:49Catch you later.
33:50Yeah.
33:50See you.
33:50That's Des done for the season.
33:58The Stuart Highway
33:59and a headwind
34:02and a crosswind
34:04are slamming into Jake's fully loaded quad.
34:08Not exactly sure about the strength of the wind
34:11or how many knots it's blowing,
34:12but you can just look at the trees here,
34:15like, they're sort of bent over pretty well,
34:18like she's fairly howling out there.
34:20Headwind can really slow your truck down.
34:24That truck that's trying to pull,
34:25you know, a hundred ton,
34:27you know, trying to pull that into a wind,
34:28you know, it's like you trying to run flat out
34:30with your mate grabbing your shirt
34:31and just putting a bit of weight on you.
34:33And then crosswinds are probably the worst.
34:38Those winds don't just slow you down,
34:40they burn money.
34:42When it's all happy going,
34:43it's like maybe one to one,
34:45but then with that headwind,
34:46it's like 650 metres to a litre sort of thing.
34:49I'm only doing 78km an hour here now.
34:55Jake needs to unload in Alice Springs
34:58at first light tomorrow.
35:00That little element can make for a long day as well.
35:03Yeah, early start, slow loading,
35:07strong crosswind.
35:08Yeah, it's all sort of stacked up against you
35:11from the get-go.
35:12This will be Jake's last run for the season.
35:20He needs to nail it.
35:24And with that comes an 11th hour reprieve.
35:29How f***ing good, we've got an air con again.
35:31Glenn is guiding his 53-metre-long triple
35:42with its 62 tyres over a huge speed hump.
35:48F***.
35:49Road trains don't like sharp angles.
36:11Fully loaded, Glenn's suspension
36:13won't bend enough to clear the mound.
36:15I just, the height,
36:17instead of it coming up nicely like that,
36:19they've just got it like that.
36:21It's grabbing all the legs on the trailers.
36:25If Glenn's not careful,
36:27the low-hanging sections of the trailers
36:29will get hung up.
36:32F***ing legs in the air.
36:34Glenn's just one kilometre from the yards,
36:37but the dirt mound
36:38is pushing his rig to breaking point.
36:42You're seeing two pack wheels come off the ground.
36:44Glenn is less than a kilometre
37:01from delivering 252 young cattle
37:04to the very remote Argyle Down station.
37:07You're seeing two pack wheels come off the ground.
37:09But an unfinished piece of road work
37:13is maxing out the truck's suspension
37:15and putting pressure on its fixed steel frame.
37:18Well, road trains aren't bananas.
37:20They're not meant to bend per se.
37:22Like, they'll flow, I guess,
37:24with terrain to a point,
37:27but you've only got so much movement.
37:30Finally, the back two wheels hit the ground.
37:38Glenn and his 252 wieners have made it.
37:44But his contract states he also has to unload,
37:48and he'll be doing that solo.
37:51I'll go open them yards.
37:56The cattle walk off the truck nice and easy.
38:00Yeah, good.
38:02How it should be.
38:05They run all right, them animals.
38:07Makes life a fair bit easier.
38:12I think I've done.
38:14They're happy they've got shade, they've got water.
38:17These mob will come here,
38:18so I'd reckon put hay out for them.
38:21And that's them for the night.
38:27It's been a long, hard, hot day for Glenn.
38:31But there's one final item on the to-do list.
38:35Probably could have got away with them tomorrow,
38:36but I just don't want to impress me luck, eh?
38:38Probably just as easy as I do them now, eh?
38:40Forget about it.
38:41It's a truckie's least favourite job,
38:46but it's got to be done.
38:47I wasn't going to, but then I'll change it now,
38:51and then I won't have to do it tomorrow differently.
38:54He'll bookend his season the same way he spent a lot of it,
38:58changing tyres.
39:00Truck tyres are an effort to change.
39:04They're probably 80 kilos, really.
39:07Yeah, they do.
39:08They only get harder.
39:09The trailer runs a spider hub.
39:13It's different to a car.
39:15The rims are held on using plates and nuts
39:18and separated by a spacer.
39:21That's just a spacer,
39:22and it's in two rims.
39:25These trucks live in the dirt,
39:27the muck and the mud.
39:29Clean up a bit and see how we go.
39:31All of which sticks to the wheels
39:32and really adds to the fun.
39:35Difficult, dirty, heavy work.
39:42And, of course, it's extremely hot,
39:4540 degrees in the shade.
39:47Believe it or not, we're actually in the shade here.
39:50Probably wasn't the perfect end,
39:51but I guess I need to do it at the end of the day.
39:56Got it done.
39:59Beautiful.
40:01Shut down, walked to the bar.
40:03That's me, finished.
40:05Yeah, beer time.
40:07I think that's pretty well how it rolled.
40:09Yeah.
40:10I don't think it stopped at one.
40:21Jake made it to Alice Springs on time.
40:30He's now on his way back to Catherine
40:32to be with his partner, Hannah.
40:39Jake called me and said that it was his last job
40:42and he was going to be...
40:45That was it, work's all done for the year, coming home.
40:48Sorry, Darcy.
40:49Thanks, girl.
40:50No worries.
40:52Catch up on some sleep.
40:53Yeah, 100%.
40:54Get a list of jobs that you need to get done.
40:58Ooh, a little bit rare.
41:00Which is exciting.
41:03We haven't been home in consecutive days for a long time.
41:06Mmm.
41:08That's yum, girl.
41:09I'll tell you.
41:11Barbecue and bag salad.
41:13Good shit.
41:14Nothing wrong with that.
41:16Is this better than the food that you get on the road?
41:20Um...
41:20He'll say no.
41:22Nothing like a campfire next to the road train.
41:24Yeah, no, it's so good.
41:27That's it.
41:29What I look forward to most getting home
41:32is, yeah, definitely seeing Hannah.
41:34The dogs.
41:35What are you doing, Darcy?
41:37And just being at home, really.
41:43Duke, out.
41:44Get out, Duke, you three-legged...
41:45Go on.
41:46Get out.
41:51Season's done.
41:53I'm happy.
41:54Hm,
41:57Maurice iPad,
42:12you three-legged,
42:17you three-legged,
42:20you three-legged,
42:21and we're having you.
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