Going thru the gears in a CAT V8 powered 80 ton road train 

Even after all this years this sound is a sound of pure power.

Still remember the cold morning s in winter just before sunup when you kick her guts and let the bags get air while drinking a nice cup of coffee outside and having a cigarette. It haunts me for over 40 years already. Would love to go to Australia and make a trip as a „tourist driver“! Childhood dream

I have seen lots of custom American owner operator trucks over on my side of the pond and let me tell you, none of them come close to how cool and physically capable your truck is! Thanks for sharing!

I've been as low as 2.8 mpg and as high as 5.6 mpg with 2 trailers. The quad trailer roadtrains with Cummins K19 @ 180 tons can go down to 1.5 mpg.

I drove the east coast for 8 years. Those roads never stop calling you. Good on you, trucker!

Man that's a great sounding engine. I love the sound of the V8. I almost had an 3408 in my 1981 Highway Hilton, but didn't because I couldn't get a Jake Brake. The scenery looks almost like going through parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

I like the driver's style. Moderate revs only, using the torque and clean simple gearchanges. Easy on the vehicle, driver - and fuel!

Love these air starters and engines with a lot of displacement. Nice KW ! Greetings from south Germany

You can still get a KW with airstart in Australia if you want. They recently made a batch of tri-drive twin-steer KWs with QSK 19 liter Cummins with airstarts.

I can hear every single power puls through my subwoofer that is amazing!

In Australia you work your way up from light rigid to heavy rigid to semi-trailer then multi-combination (B-Double and road train). You've got to take a test for each class. You can't just jump straight into a road train.

That is one powerhouse of a Kenny.

love the sound of a v8 working hard. great vid.gm16v149

the best v8 diesel engine sound..

Excellent excellent video!.....wish all the "in cabs" videos would be made in this format: no music,little or no talking,no air horn or wind noise. All you want to hear is the sound of the engine while the driver goes through all the gears!..... That big 3408 just sounds beautiful!! Thanks for posting!

Beautiful sound

I've seen your truck out on the paddock many times over the years, a tidy unit for its age. Gotta love the old 3408's. Many fond memories of them. They were the absolute ducks guts back in the early 80's. I wonder where they all are now? Co-ords had a few of them, Lloyd Davies, Barry Cullen, Bob Cepus, Strates Haulage, Selmans are a few names that spring to mind that all owned 3408's. Great stuff.

Gday .. totally agree with "Diesel Beema" Good driving habit!! Cheers mate. "I like the driver's style. Moderate revs only, using the torque and clean simple gearchanges. Easy on the vehicle, driver - and fuel!'"

I love this video. I just set the monitor to full screen and rode along. Sure reminds me of my trucking days 30 years ago. Weird driving on the left side though! Keep 'em coming!

Good to see this video again...

love the sound

Lovely twisted road :D and this traffic is killing me :)

I'd love for that engine start to be me 6 am weekly alarm ringtone.

Great vid....thanks. That sound makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck! It also makes our 44 tonne 540hp fully automatic Iveco Stralis look like a ballet dancer's truck! John.

I love the sound of this monster v8 stright piped, I drive a 379 Pete 500 HP c15 cat 13 speed pulling a 50 ft 8 axle in Michigan with 100,000 lbs of steel on deck I know the feeling

never thought i would like the sound of anyyhing as much as the old 8v92 gm but that really sounds nice good luck mate

Ahh, thanks man! Got my fix of CAT V-8 power! The 3406 and the current C-15 and C-16 have long ago replaced the 3408 out here in California. I love the song of these engines too, but it's hard to beat the sound of a CAT V-8! That's quite the rig you've got there!

must admit that you can't beat the sound of a v8 be it a cat or cummins or mack or even a merc.

Cool vid! I'd love to visit Australia sometime. Thanks for the vid.

very nice sound off the big v8

That's right, but with CAT's special tool on the fuel rack on the pump you can increase both massively, just got to fine tune it for smoke and fuel economy.

I´m still amazed by this video, the last time I drove a 3408 was in Canada. It was an ´85 Freightliner, 110" BBC Coe. We had a good mechanic who could tune those things by ear and a heatmarker. My guess is that the thing made around 750 Hp. Btw. it also had a Fuller RTO 15spd. and 2 speed rearends. It was built to pull super `B`s in western Canada, and could also run express runs with produce out of California to Canada.

I like that airstart. Here in Finland I have been last seen airstart in 60`s M A N long nose.

I love the sound of those air starters probably scares the crap out of people not paying attention.

Love the air starter!!!

Another great video , great work.

Great video.. The open road..what a ride..

"you had me at hello" the noise of the air starter was enough for me!

my couson had one believe it only one in nz pulled like a train all good stuff keep it up

You're right about the 3408E - it and it's bigger brother, the 3508E, power Caterpillar's biggest mine haul trucks, the 777C and the 793C!

another awesome aussie truckie vid.***** thnx 4 the ride!!..Kool cab over KW btw.

haha wow! quite incredible, those things scared the crap outa me when I went from Bris to Melb :P

Haven't measured it but 520 HP at the wheels straight after engine rebuild, more power now with 70,000 kms since rebuild

Ex Backpacker.....been along this road!!!! Awesome!!

I'd love to come live in Australia. In some ways like the Americas of the 50's. Dreamed about it for several years, but discovered Oz too late in life, and now too old. Got an imigration cut off age of 46 there, and I'm 52. Damn good welder and metal fabricator, been doing it for 30 years, your country says it wants people with my skill, but just past the numbers to come there. Maybe in the next life. Great vids you post, keep 'em up, I love 'em.

holy flat terrain... nice shifting and nice truck

It was put on the road in 1980 but Kenworth had it for a while to show off the engine which was the first 3408 in a KW in Australia. It's had a major cab and chassis re-furbish over the last couple of years

love ya trucks incab on the nullarbor stretch and all kenworth trucks cool mate keep em up

Thanks for answer :)

Great Video! so exciting this endless road, thanks for ride.

Great vid!

Yes it is

I never tire of listening to that V8 rumble. Guess you must be on the Trans Access Road. I have some family who lived in Adelaide and are now in Kapunda.

I'm not a fan of the spicer box, you hit them cogs sweet and I absolutely love the cat, thanks mate.

Yeah, 637's, 988's and I believe the D8's still star this marvelous engine. I'm into those too! Hope they don't go the way of the 1693's and D series' (D432's, 346's, etc.) Hard to get over a CAT!

Yeah, Mack had a problem with the V8 here as well, especially when they went to higher HP from 500 to 610. It seems you either got a good one or a bad one. Strangely, they seemed better at heavy weights and stuffed up when they were on lighter loads. Scania also have had reliability problems over here, you rarely see them on roadtrain work any more. But on B Doubles at 62 tonnes, yes.

I do know my Cat engines, I´ve worked for a smaller Canadian outfit where we had 3 of them, and we also had 2 big bore Cummins KTA-600. we were pulling Super B´s from Alberta to Vancouver BC on a regular basis. 63.500kg´s GVW --

My truck is Lloyd Davies old truck......first KW with a 3408 in Australia. We made it into a Co-ord spec a few years ago. Strait's truck belongs to a bloke in Perth, a guy from Geelong and a guy in Pt Hedland own a couple of ex Co-ord's, I'd say most of them are still working. There's quite a few in Victoria.

They are 3.73s which is a bit high for 2 trailers but it handles it OK. The engine used to smoke but we changed it to B-series fuel injection so it is a lot better now.

nice driving mate my old man has been a truck driver all his life and i plan to do the same u like the detroits

I have driven that road Melbourne to Perth !! and the Stuart highway all the way to Darwin and some of the road train dirt tracks I want to live there in the NT one day .

Just pullin your leg,Good video

dam I love the air starter

@4fun2w It disappeared but I saw it being built up in Adelaide and it had twin compound turbos and yes it was putting out around the HP you mentioned. I saw it a few times, it was quick. You wouldn't get away with that these days.

By the way, sounds awesome with the sub rockin' the bass with this motor :)

@scorelvor The step down ratio between the drive shaft and the wheels. so if my truck has 3:7 diff. ratios, then the drive shaft turns at say 1600 rpm and the wheels turn 3.7 times slower thru the diffs.

cool sound! my 660 volvo fh16 sounds fine but this v8 is nice! i sure like to drive in australia sometime.the airstarter is cool...this is different driving then in europe...

never knew it took so long to get up to speed, look that dead straight road, if your not used to it that air start can scare the crap out of you in real life seems truck videos are hugely popular, something I never knew.

We call them Bull Lights for the big lights, they are Lightforce brand & they have a long range, just right for picking out the bulls in the north. Further south we only have to worry about kangaroos & emus which are a lot smaller.

@blobby1972 The starter air tank is independant from the main air tanks. The starter air tank holds enough air to start the truck even if the truck hasn't run for weeks. If it runs out of air because of a problem, you run an air line to a couple of tyres to fill the tank. Much easier than if you had a flat battery with electric start.

That starter reminds me of the Stephen king movie maximum overdrive.

Hey Donk you're on the wrong side of the road. lol Great video.

@llib245 Yeah mate and the steering wheel is on the wrong side too, and I get too much sleep if anything, but thank you for your concern.

sounds like a spicer gearbox? great vid nothing beats the sound of a great V8 and the turbo whistle

I really like the sound of V8 turbo diesels.

hahahahaha it's rumbling my floor. what better way to pass the boring time of driving than to film it. gives you something to do. better than falling asleep

Yes it is.

Yup its like that in most driving ( trucks) jobs

Actually they were in US trucks first because the guy who originally bought this truck was in the US and saw these working and wanted one. KW Australia were thinking about it and later built it for him. (This truck was the first KW in Aus with the 3408). They built about 30 in Australia but a lot more were put in KWs & Peterbilts in the US.

Mate, you'd leave a lot of the guys with the modern electronic C16 600 Cats in ya dust with that thing! What an awesome drive ya did for us... that truck is just amazing! The 45' trailers are about the biggest that you can go, aren't they?

thanx

The air tank for the air starter is completely independant from the normal air tanks, even if you run out of air overnight the starter air tank holds enough air for weeks.

Cheers mate it needs time

Aaah, the beautiful GAFA. 🙂

Well, they make 'em in the U.S.! But they're more common in earthmoving and marine. There's still a few around over here on the highway.

Yeah, that was me....I'm in Perth now. It's a lot different to when Lloyd owned it.

Very cool... Lots of power.. But man even with 600hp.. You can really hear the weight.. Good driver too... Not his first bbq... Great sound...also.. Well done.

The first few gears I go easy but after 5 or 6 gears I give it to her.

They do sound good, there's still a lot of V8 Macks in Australia, not so many left in the U.S. I think. They're all sixes now.

@m648mvp No, the V8s use a Caterpillar Brakesaver which is a hydraulic retarder.

good kenworth, excelent in V8 :p 600 hp :O

Well they say "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line", you definitely have that down.

No probs

well the road sure is straight lol i would love to goto aus and drive some

That's right, you can't get a Jake on the V8 but it's got the Cat Brakesaver which is a hydraulic retarder, it has about the same amount of engine braking. Only problem is, it's heavy and an expensive option. But it's quiet and reliable.

They make them for the mining and oil industries in the US and Australia and you can option them on a new KW in Australia but they are expensive.

done the Nullarbor once was surprised how much traffic there was

Oh my the memories of those roads in Oz. I drove half way round beautiful Australia. The road that nearly killed me was the Stuart Highway. Asked the misses do you see any cars (pulled over for a break) no she says, so I pull out at that split second a road train comes screaming past. Those beasts can fly when not interrupted by a Mitsubishi 4x4. Would haves ended up like all the dead Roos and camels on the side of the road. If your that driver SORRY. it was the Wife not me 😔

@jlopes00 It's not all flat going like that, we even have mountains here. But a lot of the outback is like that, with nothing but small road houses 200-300 kms apart on the main highways. In the remote areas people get lost and die just about every year.

Quad roadtrains are usually speed limited to about 85 km/h which is a condition of their permit.