International S-Line still making a dollar in the Golden Bay
Richard Sixtus’s 1985 International SF2670-350 was new to Waitaki Transport based in Palmerston.
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Richard Sixtus purchased his 1985 International SF2670-350 tipper from Mainline Commercials in Nelson 24 years ago. His passion for International S and T-Lines stretches right back to his youth. Caught snapping pictures in Takaka of the SF260 by the owner, Simon Vincent found out more about this working piece of history.
“She’s actually a good ol’ truck,” Richard enthuses. “It’s my baby now,” he adds as we chat about his pride and joy.
The truck was new to Waitaki Transport and was based in the Palmerston depot servicing East Otago. It worked hard on rural cartage either as a tipper or often under stock crates carting livestock to the freezing companies up and down the East Coast of the South Island.
The S-Line was a standard International spec of the period with a 350hp Cummins Series 3 Big Cam II engine with 1120 ft/lb of torque nestled under the big hood, a 15 speed Roadranger RTO12515 gearbox and the usual Hendrickson RTE-380 walking beam suspension with Rockwell SSHD heavy duty 44,000lb rear diffs with a 4.11 to 1 ratio.
New Zealand and Australia’s S-Lines were a hybrid of different parts from the International parts’ bin. The cab was a 90” wide version used in America for the vocational market (heavy duty) which was 10” wider than the highway S-Line models. The frame was a strong 257mm heat treated steel ladder design.
Waitaki Transport kitted out the long wheelbase truck with a tip deck and underbody hoists. The sides were great big one piece affairs which couldn’t be lifted out by hand, a forklift or a loader was required to take the weight.
Waitaki Transport sold the Palmerston depot to Palmerston Haulage Ltd run by the Hammond family, it passed through other hands, little is known until Richard purchased the truck in 1996. He says Mainline were selling the repossessed truck for a finance company at the time.
The S-Line with its original deck. The deck looking the worse for wear by this stage.
In the early days Richard utilised the truck to cart logs, using bolsters twistlocked to the tip deck. Richard had his own processing plant and would collect the logs and then tip them off at his yard. That meant the deck was given a really hard time, according to Richard.
Richard says his brother spent time carting for Sollys with the S-Line using one of Sollys four axle trailers to increase carrying capacity.
These days the truck has a much quieter life. Richard contracts to one of the local roading contractors and runs his own 13 tonne digger for doing small contracting jobs around the district. He rebuilt a four axle multi bolster log trailer chassis into a flat deck transporter trailer with a beaver tail. The chassis was pretty much a steal, costing little more than axle value he reckoned.
The deck was replaced a couple of years ago with a good second-hand body with a buried FOB hoist. Richard is still debating whether to fit a brand new deck in the future, even if it would cost more than the whole truck.
The only major mechanical work has been the need to rebuild the motor after the head gasket failed. No one picked up on the blown gasket and the truck carried on until the top of a cylinder had been scored.
This necessitated removing the engine to conduct an out a full of frame rebuild at Dean’s Truck Services Ltd in Motueka. Richard speaks highly of Dean. He said, “He’s a Cummins man, knows exactly what he’s doing with a Cummins.” The overhaul ended up costing twice the original quote due to that Richard reckoned!
The truck has only really required regular maintenance during his ownership. A new clutch was fitted 15 plus years ago. The usual rounds of replacing the Hendrickson bushes has occurred and on one of those occasions, the rear spring were replaced as well.
The NTC350 Cummins has proved to be a good workhorse.
Richard says the diffs have never been touched. He pointed out that the diffs have been upgraded at some stage (probably when it was at Waitaki) as it has RT46-160’s at the back now. The Roadranger 15 speed gearbox is untouched in all the years it has been with Richard.
A few years ago, Richard stripped and painted the mighty Inter. That was a fairly easy operation because at the time he had a sandblasting and painting operation. He also did the deck and went as far as taking the fibreglass bonnet off to do the chassis as well.
He says the cab was really clean with hardly any rust in it at all. He reckoned the only real issue he had was blasting all the putty out of the cab seams. Having said that, the putty had gone all hard and needed replaced anyway he reckoned. The solution was SikaFlex which he mentioned is better than the original putty.
He clearly recalls cleaning out the cab at the time and says the doors were half full of fert! Once the painting was finished, he added new door cards and carpet to the cab to bring it back up to scratch. The passenger seat has been reupholstered, so it’s like new too.
The truck is due to have the doors tidied up again as they have started to rust around the bottoms. Once they come back with new paint on, he reckons the signwriting is due for a tickle up too.
The most recent updates have been practical, to work with the roading gang. The mandatory reversing beeper and a new seat with a three point seat belt keep the H&S team at bay. On the outside he has added a vertical exhaust for the first time, the truck has always had an underframe muffler and he always wanted a stack. Richard did consider adding two, but he reckoned his wife was “dark enough” about the first one…
The S-Line can be found outside Richard’s River Inn Pub on the north side of Takaka
The S-Line can be found outside Richard’s River Inn Pub on the north side of Takaka when it’s not out on a job. He says, “It’s unreal the amount of people who stop and take photos of it.”
Richard’s passion for trucking comes from his youth when he would ride around with Keith Hingston in his dark blue International TF2670 logger (later sold to Peter Friend). Keith thought it was great having a keen youngster in the cab to jump out and open all the gates to and from the skid sites. “I just wanted to go (in the truck) so I could hear this thing going,” Richard recalls.
Richard is pretty proud to still have a good working example of this 1980’s classic truck. “You don’t see too many S-Lines around these days, you know they’re usually wrecked,” he said. His passion for his old girl hasn’t dimmed with age, only increased. He’s keen to give it the next upgrade, a pair of headlight surrounds (which were due to arrive any day).
The best thing Richard loves is regaling the story of the driver of a brand new Mercedes-Benz who parked by the S-Line to take photographs of the pair together. He reckoned that the driver was pretty deflated when showing other drivers the photos of his pride and joy only to have the other drivers ask to know more about the ol’ S-Line.
