With the withdrawal of the model, finding a cool-looking Freightliner Argosy will be an ever-more wonderful thing as time marches on. If this big 2012 ‘Freighty’ hangs around in the Eden Haulage gold, it will surely become such a truck.

Its early years were somewhat chequered for owner Phil Collinson. Not the truck he wanted, the Argosy was purchased when another supplier couldn’t deliver. The EGR Detroit Diesel was dogged with trouble from the outset and the Eaton AutoShift was “slow as the second coming, and unreliable,” according to Phil. When it finally gave up the ghost at 600,000km, Phil decided to quit the combo at the head of the powertrain and retro-fit a brand new Cummins Gen-2 Signature and Eaton Roadranger 18-speed manual. “Jason and John Fowler were both at Transport Repairs here in Invercargill at the time, and they did a superb job to better than factory spec,” Phil says.

“Fuel consumption on its first run was 2.1kpl as opposed to 1.8 average for the previous set-up. I couldn’t be happier with the truck since the transplants.”

Interestingly, CAROTS was one of the first HPMV 22.3m units to hit the road in the South Island. It was on the cusp of the new legislation when it wasn’t known if four-axle trailers would be more viable than five.

Approaching 1.8-million kilometres on the clock, it’s the only ambient unit in the fleet, running from the deep South to Marlborough and back. “I’ll have to decide shortly whether it gets a cosmetic refurb and truck chiller, or replaced.”