This month, we feature Dave Connor, a real trooper who has amassed a significant truck photo collection with as little fuss as you can imagine.

Readers will remember we tested the UD Quon Dave drives for Christchurch-based Charter Transport in the November 2019 issue of New Zealand Trucking magazine.

He’s a quiet, easy-going bloke with a reputation for never ending a day’s shooting with a ‘one that got away’ story. Thanks, Dave, it’s a privilege to have you supply this month’s gallery.

“Riding around with my uncle in the late 1970s early 1980s got me into trucks. Then, following the arrival of Truckin’ Life magazine from Australia at the local bookshop, along with an introduction to Big Rig Photos and the famous Cavalcade of Trucks series, I talked mum into letting me take her camera out, and haven’t looked back since.

“I cycled a lot of miles with camera in bag and then mowed a lot of lawns and chopped a lot of fire wood to pay for photo printing and new film.“In August 1987, I had a selection of photos published in New Zealand Trucking magazine, taken with my newly purchased 35mm SLR camera (first purchase after starting work).

Now, 34 years later, here is episode two, a selection from the previous Instamatic camera from about 1983, when I first got my driver’s licence. Driving was certainly easier than biking over Lookout Point to Burnside.

With two meat processing plants on either side of the Kaikorai Valley Road, Burnside was a favourite place for Dunedin photographers who were into stock trucks. There was often rich pickings.”