Ray Foot built this Mercedes Benz L1924 painted in Modern Freighters, Ltd. colors from a Kibri kit. Modern Freighters ran a large fleet of these Mercedes trucks towing double trailers throughout New Zealand during the '70s and '80s. They were the largest privately owned refrigerated carrier in the country at that time. Modern Freighters were quite unique in their method of hooking their tractor units and semi trailers together. They mounted the fifth wheel upside down underneath the semi trailer (inside the trailers chassis rails) and had the kingpin on the tractor unit. By having the fifth wheel mounted like this they were able to reduce the front of the semi trailer height by a few inches to keep the trailers more level, as the trailers were using smaller diameter wheels than the tractor units.

Posted October 8, 2013