Gday ALL,
Found this online at http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?
tid=72123, I'm unaware whether it is authenticated. I thought this
may be of interest to the many users of Prestige a/c systems here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The late Ken Rudder, of Sydney was regarded as a pioneer of the
purest form because he started in auto air in 1967, when the industry
was barely five years old.
His award was accepted at Wire & Gas convention by Ken's brother,
Elton Rudder, who also runs an AC workshop north of Sydney.
Ken began in the industry in 1967 and up to 1972 was in his first
auto air job at Air Pty Ltd, Parramatta Road, Camperdown. In 1973 Ken
and his partner Peter Austin started All Car Air conditioning in St.
Peters and moved to Marrickville in 1978. In 1979, Ken sold his
interests to Peter, and started Prestige Auto Air Pty Ltd with his
partner David Cannell.
In 1982, he bought out Dave's interests and continued the business
until it went into liquidation in 1999.
He started Avken Products at Prestons, where he traded until 2002.
Ken then started Vancool, which is still operating today.
His first business had grown rapidly with the popularity of Mazda and
the rotary engine models which most others at the time found too
risky or too difficult to air condition.
Ken Rudder developed a determination to fabricate everything in
house. His desire to be independent was paramount.
Ken was always looking for that little extra to add value to his
products. Ralph Cadman, another great pioneer who imported and
distributed Unicla compressors, recalls Ken's obsession with shiny
bolts. Unicla mount and drive kits were full of shiny bolts, but
there was a shortage of them in Australia.
In an effort to make his brackets look better, Ken would appear at
Unicla's back door, pleading with Ralph to lend him some shiny bolts.
Always ambitious, sometimes beyond reality, Ken's expansion into the
larger premises of Prestige Air was a stepping stone towards
something bigger.
Prestige became the titan of the industry for all the AC applications
that were `too hard'. It was remarkable what Ken Rudder could build,
and he did build the whole system except for the compressors and
cores.
And from doing all this complicated, hard stuff, he just carried on
air conditioning anything that moved and that included backhoes,
trucks, tractors, sweepers and fridge vans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vancool: contact details:
Category: Refrigerated Transport Trucks & Equipment
1090 Bringelly Rd., Bringelly NSW 2556
Phone: 02 47749342
Goto: http://www.vancool.com.au/
Email: rudder@vancool.com.au
Mark, I think there may be a liaison job here for you on behalf of
the syncro community, especially as you are located not too far away
from Bringelly. Perhaps on the pretext of authenticating this history
and as a representative of a large body of past "happy" Prestige
customers, I'm wondering if you could simply speak in person with
people at Vancool, ask them are there still around past key Prestige
personel who may still have knowledge about maintaining our a/c
systems and in fact, they may well know of still working experienced
Prestige system builders, where they are presently located and even
if any left-over component parts are still stored someplace. For
instance, I have 1 or 2 broken plastic swivel outlets on the front of
the evaporator housing I'd like to replace.
Any chance Mark? Think about it please ok.
Cheers.
Ken
Found this online at http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?
tid=72123, I'm unaware whether it is authenticated. I thought this
may be of interest to the many users of Prestige a/c systems here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The late Ken Rudder, of Sydney was regarded as a pioneer of the
purest form because he started in auto air in 1967, when the industry
was barely five years old.
His award was accepted at Wire & Gas convention by Ken's brother,
Elton Rudder, who also runs an AC workshop north of Sydney.
Ken began in the industry in 1967 and up to 1972 was in his first
auto air job at Air Pty Ltd, Parramatta Road, Camperdown. In 1973 Ken
and his partner Peter Austin started All Car Air conditioning in St.
Peters and moved to Marrickville in 1978. In 1979, Ken sold his
interests to Peter, and started Prestige Auto Air Pty Ltd with his
partner David Cannell.
In 1982, he bought out Dave's interests and continued the business
until it went into liquidation in 1999.
He started Avken Products at Prestons, where he traded until 2002.
Ken then started Vancool, which is still operating today.
His first business had grown rapidly with the popularity of Mazda and
the rotary engine models which most others at the time found too
risky or too difficult to air condition.
Ken Rudder developed a determination to fabricate everything in
house. His desire to be independent was paramount.
Ken was always looking for that little extra to add value to his
products. Ralph Cadman, another great pioneer who imported and
distributed Unicla compressors, recalls Ken's obsession with shiny
bolts. Unicla mount and drive kits were full of shiny bolts, but
there was a shortage of them in Australia.
In an effort to make his brackets look better, Ken would appear at
Unicla's back door, pleading with Ralph to lend him some shiny bolts.
Always ambitious, sometimes beyond reality, Ken's expansion into the
larger premises of Prestige Air was a stepping stone towards
something bigger.
Prestige became the titan of the industry for all the AC applications
that were `too hard'. It was remarkable what Ken Rudder could build,
and he did build the whole system except for the compressors and
cores.
And from doing all this complicated, hard stuff, he just carried on
air conditioning anything that moved and that included backhoes,
trucks, tractors, sweepers and fridge vans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vancool: contact details:
Category: Refrigerated Transport Trucks & Equipment
1090 Bringelly Rd., Bringelly NSW 2556
Phone: 02 47749342
Goto: http://www.vancool.com.au/
Email: rudder@vancool.com.au
Mark, I think there may be a liaison job here for you on behalf of
the syncro community, especially as you are located not too far away
from Bringelly. Perhaps on the pretext of authenticating this history
and as a representative of a large body of past "happy" Prestige
customers, I'm wondering if you could simply speak in person with
people at Vancool, ask them are there still around past key Prestige
personel who may still have knowledge about maintaining our a/c
systems and in fact, they may well know of still working experienced
Prestige system builders, where they are presently located and even
if any left-over component parts are still stored someplace. For
instance, I have 1 or 2 broken plastic swivel outlets on the front of
the evaporator housing I'd like to replace.
Any chance Mark? Think about it please ok.
Cheers.
Ken