News

Apr 29, 2023

Classic Mack Super

By: Warren Aitken, Photography by: Warren Aitken Date:

By: Warren Aitken, Photography by: Warren Aitken

Date: 16.05.2023

TRUCK OF THE MONTH: Ricky Blinco always had eyes for a classic Super-Liner, not a show truck but a plain workhorse. But one thing led to another and what started as a bunk upsize led to a fully blown makeover.

I’m not going to lie to you, I am writing this story with a smile on my face wider than the grille of a 1990 Mack Super-Liner. I grew up as a Mack fan, my house is adorned with Mack models, or as my lovely, better half calls them, "Sooo many toy trucks". As a kid I would spend as many school holidays as I could sitting in the passenger seat of whichever cool Mack my uncle was driving. That Bulldog fanaticism was impaled into me with every iconic air start and every puff of black smoke.

These days my love of trucks allows me to appreciate and evaluate a variety of brands, acknowledging the pros and cons with an unbiased approach.

The moment I hear that distinct whistle and buzz of an old-school Mack I tend to revert to the days when I was drawing Macks on every surface available. Imagining I was the next Gary Clark, only without his skills, talent or eye for perspective.

It will come as no surprise then that when I was sitting back on my couch in Brisbane one afternoon, streaming the last few episodes of MAFS (I mean Ice Road Truckers), my concentration was broken by the distinct sound of an iconic Mack E9 motor. You could hear it working as it pulled two trailers out of Ricky Blinco's yard in Oakey onto the Warrego Highway. You could hear the motor take a breath before going back to work as Ricky Blinco himself changed up through the gears. That sound, that wonderful harmonious tune that an E9 makes when dancing along with a load on made me forget all about Cams and Jules (I mean Polar Bear and Hammer Down).

Instead, it attracted me outside to find out where it was coming from and ensure that I got the story.

For those looking for accurate reporting, you may note that Ricky Blinco's yard in Oakey is some 130-plus kilometres from my lounge room sofa. Yes, it's true, I did take a little creative licence when it comes to setting the scene but that just shows the childlike excitement I get when I have the opportunity to feature one of Australia's most iconic trucks. Truth be told I was in fact watching a video Ricky's son Damon had sent me, but I honestly felt like I could feel the bass of the truck reverberating through my couch.

What makes this such a cool story isn't just the fact this 33-year-old exemplar of Australian trucking is still in action. It's the family behind the wheel of this beast of burden. They are as iconic in the trucking industry as the trucks they run. They have a work ethic that can only be matched by their fleet of hard-working rigs, and they have a down-to-earth attitude and sense of humour that just makes you want to throw a prawn on the barbie, crack a cold one and listen to their yarns all night.

Let me introduce you to our main protagonist, the literal driving force behind Ricky Blinco Transport – Richard Thomas Blinco – though from now on we’ll just stick with Ricky.

While Ricky occupies the lead role with the name on the trucks being Ricky Blinco Transport, the company is a family-built enterprise. Ricky's sons Damon, Jason, Cameron and Allan all have the truck driving DNA entrenched in their veins. Damon has even been roped into the managerial role, working alongside Ricky in the company's Oakey office. A big thank you to Ricky and Damon for taking the time to sit down and walk me through the Blinco history.

Ricky was indoctrinated into our industry before he was even a glimmer in his father's eye. His old man Tom Blinco was the founder of W.T. Blinco & Sons and a true old-school trucker. Ricky grew up spending as much time as he could in the passenger seat of whatever truck his dad was running at the time.

"I started working for dad when I was about 13," Ricky recalls. "Then when I first left school we started doing Darwin in a 1418 Mercedes. I used to sleep on the floor and Dad would sleep on the seat. No Icepack, no air ­conditioning."

This was in the days when a trip from Toowoomba to Darwin and back would be a two-week experience. Towing a single trailer behind the old Merc where at least half the journey was still on corrugated dirt roads, where rain clouds could turn highways into mud-packed goat tracks – it wasn't just a trip, it was an adventure.

Those 1418 runs to Darwin were Ricky's first experience, however they weren't for Tom. Before Ricky came along, Tom had been doing Darwin runs in an old D-series Ford of all things. Tom swapped the Darwin run for more local work once he started a family. Ricky and his other brothers were a good reason for Tom to be closer to home.

During Ricky's youth, his father had mainly been focused on carting grain and timber around the Toowoomba/Inglewood area to locations as far south as Sydney. Much of Ricky's childhood had been spent assisting his old man and when he left school at 14 it coincided with Tom being over the novelty of running to Sydney and ready to embark on the Mercedes-led Darwin runs.

"We used to load general freight out of Brisbane, a lot of groceries and that," Ricky says. "Everything to Darwin was done by truck then. It was nowhere near as big though," Rickys laughs, recalling, "I’d have a little sleep before we got to the Berrimah lights, that's how far out of town it was."

From age 14 until he got his licence in 1975, Ricky was purely an offsider to his dad. Yep, only an offsider, assisting with all the loading and unloading and never getting behind the wheel before he was licensed. Nope, there were never any occasions when a 14-year-old would drive the old 1418 down to Brisbane, swap with Dad before the weighbridge then swap back again afterward. Nope, that kind of thing would never have happened.

The fact that when he did go for his licence, the local cop let him drive around the corner from the station, then promptly signed him off and kicked him out with the statement. "Pull over here, you’ve been driving for long enough." That was purely down to natural ability, not an excess of ill-gotten experience already clocked up.

By the time Ricky turned 17 the Merc was in the rear view mirror. Tom was in a UD and Ricky was behind the wheel of an old steel-fronted Flintstone Mack.

"We were doing Darwin again," Ricky says. "We were also carting a bit of grain and that out of Moree and Narrabri into Brisbane and the likes."

The UD and Flintstone were soon replaced with a more modern R-model and an MAN of all things. By this stage, Ricky was a partner in W.T. Blinco & Sons and the father and son duo were all over the shop. It was during that era of Australian trucking that comraderie, resilience and dogged determination were key aspects.

"We had a good time; it was a game," Ricky remembers. "Dad and I used to get up the road and drink together. We were best of mates. I very seldom called him ‘Dad’, always Tom. If we were together, I’d call him Dad, but if there were others around I’d call him Tom. We were always the best of mates."

It was these experiences, the strength of familial bonds and mateship that would eventually lead to my E9 moving moment on my couch some four decades later. Ricky's purchase of the Super-Liners was in part driven by the desire to work alongside his own sons as his father did with him, to replicate the rapport he had with his dad. For the observant of you out there, you will notice I used the plural of Super-Liner meaning, yes, there will be two of these big beauties at some stage soon, but that's another story. For now, let's get back to W.T. Blinco & Sons.

We’re up to the start of the 1980s now when the Mack Super-Liners were first released and Tom and Ricky came very close to adding one to the fleet. Ricky admits when they first came out he was keen-as to get behind the wheel of one. In fairness though, if you had blood coursing through your veins there's a better-than-average chance you also wanted one. They were staunch, tough and just plain cool.

However, back then it was actually a 1981 W-model Kenworth that the father and son team added to the fleet. Paired with the new International TranStar that Tom drove, the two men set about solidifying W.T. Blinco & Sons Transport as one of the market leaders in the Brisbane to Darwin and Brisbane to Mt Isa area.

A little side note here – Tom's Transtar was the company's first-ever brand-new truck and in recent years Ricky found it decaying away in a farmer's back shed and has bought it back with restoration plans underway.

Though a Super-Liner had been his initial desire, the W-model would become Ricky's pride and joy and end up serving him well up until he sold it in 1996. It helped Ricky establish himself when he ventured out on his own in 1988, forming Ricky Blinco Transport. Although it was now his name on the side of the truck he continued to work alongside his old man, servicing Darwin and Mount Isa. The W-model become a regular sight on the Barkly and Stuart Highways. Three trailers swinging off the back, a sunny smile splashing out from behind the windscreen – it was part of the Northern Territory landscape.

Over the next three decades Ricky Blinco Transport would go through plenty of trials, tribulations and tragedies – from the harsh conditions involved in working in the remote heart of Australia and the Northern Territory to the sudden and tragic loss of his father in 1995. Losing his best mate and mentor was a tough experience for Ricky and the entire family. Tom had the privilege of watching Ricky build an impressive reputation himself and was enjoying seeing his other son Frank break into the industry as well. Frank had literally only just obtained his road train licence when Tom passed away.

As it stands today, Ricky Blinco Transport runs about a dozen trucks with two to three triple road trains heading to Darwin each week. At its height though, Ricky was running around 25 trucks, around 100 trailers and 30-plus dollies, as well as having a houseful of five young boys.

"Yeah, 25 trucks and five boys, no wonder I was f’n crazy," Ricky laughs, admitting that the goal had never been to get that big. "That's when I really hated it, the phone would never stop, then we had that big slump in the mining and we let a lot go, holding onto about six trucks I think."

We are pretty much up to date now, so let's get to the big Super-Liner and how it comes to be in the fleet and with the fleet stripes but a very different colour. In fact, that could be the first question for Ricky. Why the brown? "I just didn't want to be associated with these other wankers," laughs Ricky as he has a dig at his sons.

The origins of the big Mack you see before you began around 2005 with the aid of OwnerDriver's stablemate publication Deals on Wheels. Ricky found an old 36-inch Mack sleeper box for sale up in Katherine. "They never came out much with the cut outs for two exhausts," Ricky recalls. "So I saw this one and bought it. I still always wanted a Super-Liner so now I just had to get the truck to go with it."

It would be a couple of years later before that opportunity would come. Once again I’ll add in a shameless plug for our fellow publication Deals on Wheels because it was while reading another issue that Ricky spotted the 1990 Mack Super-Liner for sale in Townsville. Ironically it already had the twin exhaust setup with the same 36-inch bunk he had previously bought.

Ricky diverted one of his trucks with a low-loader trailer to Townsville and brought his new toy home. "It wasn't great, we tidied it up the best we could and put it to work. We did a few trips to Townsville, Tully, Mt Isa and Brisbane. About 75,000km in it as it was," Ricky says.

Although they put the Mack to work straight away, the big picture plan was to tear it down and rebuild it, which was about the only grand plan Ricky had at that stage. "I knew I wanted to put a big bunk on it, but that's about it."

RELATED ARTICLE: Getting the job done with Mack

Hence, it's why the project truck spent a couple of years working then became more of a yard ornament than anything else. Motivation to makeover the Mack reignited once Ricky started to ease up on his workload and had managed to rope Damon into taking over a more managerial role.

"I got Damon into the office to cover for me when I was off and I just haven't let him out since."

Having more free time meant he could focus on his passion projects a little more. One of those was to have a couple of trucks he could take out and do runs with his boys, like he had done with his dad. The first step meant getting into the old Mack and resurrecting it.

"We stretched the truck, put about 1.2 metres in it," Ricky says. "We had a boilermaker, Mick Crowley, he made the bar, stretched the chassis, put it on rails … all that."

The rails raised the cab and bonnet about 2.5 inches. The stretched chassis allowed for the sleeper to literally be doubled in size. It went from 36 inches to 72. With the added length Ricky added more fuel tanks, increasing capacity to 2600 litres. The truck was also sent to Tony Tester and BigRigBullbars to get a few extra splashes of stainless added to it, enough to make it stand out, not too much to outshine its era.

Mechanically the truck had already had a couple of changes. Ricky had removed the 12-speed ’box and replaced it with a Road Ranger. The front axle had also been upgraded and a new 7-core radiator had been installed. The Mack's original E9 was given a refresher but sadly still decided to pack a sad not long after the transformation had been completed. A new E9 motor was sourced out of the US. Sure, it may have been slightly different from the factory-issued E9 as this particular Renault-modified E9 had been destined for some kind of tank carrier, but it was basically the same E9.

As I mentioned earlier, the brown colour choice was something a little different for Ricky. The lines and scrolls are the same as you’ll see on any of the Blinco fleet trucks, it's just a change from the regular orange to brown. It has been pointed out that ‘brown is just dark orange’ anyway. Regardless, the job done by Keith Devlan in Toowoomba and Spot-On Signs is exceptional. Brown is not a colour that aligns with people's idea of eye-catching but has been used perfectly on this rebuild.

It may have taken 15 years to get this beautiful old immortal of Aussie trucking into the vision that Ricky didn't even know he wanted, but for us big ‘Bulldog’ fans, it has been well worth the wait. There is also something very comforting about knowing this truck has been rebuilt just so it can work. Ricky loves filling her up, loading her up, and joining his boys out on the westbound Warrego.

Before I sign off, let me address a comment from earlier. Yes, I did mention plural Super-Liners. Ricky Blinco Transport has another old Mack sitting in the shed, this time a 1985 model, and the team has plans to rebuild it as a mirror image of Ricky's Super-Liner, 72-inch sleeper and all. All I ask is they don't wait 15 years to finish this one and please, make sure I’m sitting closer than my couch when you let both of them off the lead and up the Warrego Highway.

For more photos of great looking rigs, see OwnerDriver's May 2023 print edition!

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