Vale Danny D’Angelo

His son, Giulio D’Angelo, said: “He left us in the early hours of this morning, 4 June 2025, surrounded by his loved ones.

“He meant so much to us and to so many others, we are absolutely heartbroken by his loss.

“Dad, may you rest in peace.”

Glenn Hambleton of Air Brake Systems shared a statement online: “Danny was a genius engineer and he was a pioneer of the early design work of the fifth wheel turntable. My condolences go out to the D’Angelo family for the loss of an industry legend and icon Danny D’Angelo.”

Danny D’Angelo shared his story with Trailer in an exclusive interview in 2019.

He arrived in Australia from Italy in 1955 and spent the following two years bouncing between Geelong and Melbourne for work.

His trade in Italy involved working with brakes, cutting metal and welding.

However, instead of being offered technical workshop work upfront, Danny D’Angelo was tasked with more menial roles such as cleaning of office facilities with a bucket, rag and mop. He did this for about four months before moving onto more relevant work such as painting maritime vessels and working with an industrial chemical firm in Geelong.

While these positions paid well, he said, the roles were often short-lived. The chemical job, for instance, was good for a solid six months but then he was again looking for more work again. This led him to building silo tanks to store wheat – his first foray into the Australian bush.

Through word-of-mouth Danny soon found a new opportunity in freight, hearing stories from farmhands and drivers about making a little coin at the markets. By the 1960s Danny D’Angelo started a family and pooled enough resources to purchase his own truck.

Within a month of operating the vehicle, a drunk driver ‘turned his truck into a pizza’. Danny D’Angelo sold what was left for scrap as back in those days insurance would not cover the damages and committed to restoring the written-off ride.

This focus would steer him toward semi-trailer manufacturing and repair work.

The workload for one man, eventually, became too physically demanding for Danny D’Angelo.

Even when he expanded his operations to hire additional labourers to tackle the work, other challenges cropped up from quality assurance to tools going missing. Rather than continue to accept ambitious projects that would see him toil for days on end, he focused his technical skill on component innovation.

A Victorian trailer manufacturer, McGrath’s, consulted with Danny on a trailer design.

Danny D’Angelo’s custom couplings and bushes demonstrated the advantages of using lighter-weight components instead of relying on heavier imported options. Closing the deal, one thousand units later, Danny concentrated his efforts on a variety of other components including fifth wheels, ballrace assemblies, Ringfeder cross members, landing legs, slewing bearings, skid plates and truck and trailer accessories.

On the back of these engineering breakthroughs, Danny opened his family business, D’Angelo Engineering, in 1968. As of May 2003, the business found a new home in Laverton North, Melbourne.

Over the years, Danny D’Angelo was instrumental in fifth wheel developments including a patented 12” greasy plate assembly as well as other designs that are rated for B-double and road train applications.

He was also instrumental when asked to design and build components for York, Holland, JOST and others around the world as he is known for being an inventor of fifth wheel assemblies and components.

“At the end of the day, making a product is good,” Danny D’Angelo told Trailer. “But if you do your work properly then your customer will never run away.”