“The Super-Liner is just right for my application”

Pattel’s Heavy Haulage have used Macks for 44 years, and there’s always been a model that’s right for the task.

Since 1958, the Pattel family have been synonymous with road transport in Queensland. Now entering their fifth generation as a family business, the Pattels have been driving Macks since the first R-Model, and their latest acquisition, a Super-Liner, is carrying the tradition forward.

If it’s big we move it

Since taking over the original concreting business from his father, Colin Pattel has taken the company in a new direction.

“We’ve specialised in the heavy haulage area,” says Colin. “We do road trains and general work, containers, grinding balls and heavy machinery for the mining & construction industry. If it’s big we move it.”

The company’s new Super-Liner joins a CH and a Trident in the Pattel fleet.

“The Super-Liner MP10 has m DRIVE and the old camelback suspension,” says Colin, “and one of my drivers, Mark, just turned 50 and been driving manuals all his life, so it’s a bit of change for him, but he’s loving it.”

A long tradition

The Pattel family have a long history with Mack. Having bought their first Flintstone R-600 in 1970, they continued to buy them throughout the decades, with the fleet seeing an R-Model, F-model, a V8 Cruise-Liner, ’85 Super-Liner, ’89 Super-Liner, a ‘90 V8 Value-Liner and a series of Titans from the 1995 model through to the 2006 model.

And a sound business decision

Although Colin clearly has an emotional connection with Macks, his decision to buy the new Mack Super-Liner rather than continue the series of Titans was a pragmatic one.

“I’ve got to keep a close eye on the weight,” he says, “we can pull 90 tonnes on permits in the Territory, but only 70 here in Queensland or New South Wales, and when you fit a Titan out with all the bells and whistles, it adds up. The Super-Liner is just right for my application, it has the horsepower and torque of the Titan but a bit less weight. I’ve also gone back to the smaller sleeper cab, every kilo counts.”

Tough competition

Out of the long line of Macks Colin has driven, he concludes that his favourite is probably the 1995 Titan.

“I love my old V8s,” he says, ”these days the power’s good, but it’s not quite the same. I went everywhere in that old Titan, she did a lot of very heavy work in all sorts of remote places, and it wasn’t until we hit a million kilometres that I had to do a re-build of the motor and the diffs. I’ll be very interested to see how the new Super-Liner goes against that record, but I’m pretty confident in the new truck.”