Improvising is deeply ingrained within the Kiwi DNA. This most definitely rings true for three young truck enthusiasts from Southland.

This month we pop into Winton and catch up with local 12-year-olds Cooper McDowall, Isaac Davis and Flynn Harland. The three mates are mad keen up and coming truckies, who share a passion for the transport industry that is off the scale. Silent reading time for these young lads is not your Alex Rider or Harry Potter … no, these guys will be found nose deep in a copy of the latest New Zealand Trucking magazine.

Cooper’s mum, Melissa McDowall, alerted us to a project that the three boys had embarked upon, inspired by a task their teacher had set for them.

“Our teacher had the class make some shoes out of cardboard,” says Cooper. “This gave me an idea, so I said to Isaac and Flynn we should make a truck each out of cardboard and stuff, and then have a competition to see which one is the best.”

The following weekend they were all into it, scavenging about for various shapes and forms of cardboard boxes, as well as all other manner of usable items they could lay their hands on around the house. A visit to the local $2 shop for materials was also a must.

There was no stopping the lads. “You should have seen it, there were hot glue guns and glue sticks all over the place,” Melissa says with a laugh. Looking over the models the dedication to detail is on point, from underbody exhausts through to CTI systems, it’s all there. Chatting to Isaac about his K104 we asked what the hardest part to build was.

“Probably the cab, getting the Aerodyne sleeper cab roof right. But the deck was easy, that’s just an empty Lion Brown beer box cut up to fit.”

From all of us here at New Zealand Trucking magazine, we congratulate the three of you on your creativity and dedication to completing the builds. Your eye for detail is spot on; we cannot wait to see your next projects.