CreepingJesus

I noted this problem a while back, and it's not as bad for me as it was, but it still happens and it's still bloody annoying! OS's Silk/Kindle, Firefox/Ubuntu and Chrome/Android.

I had a weird dream a while back that I was sat in a Leyland National, staring idly out of the window at the passing scenery, when the person in front of me got up for their stop. I realised they'd dropped their hat, so I picked it up, called to them and started to dash forward; only the front of the bus kept getting further away, and now the driver was impatiently waiting for me to complete my task. But I couldn't, because the bus kept getting longer and longer. The passenger whose hat I was trying to return, was walking away, waving to me quite happily, so I gave up, turned to sit down and found I was right where I'd started. An the bus was back to normal length, so the driver tutted, shut the doors and drove on. An infinitely telescoping Nasher? Can't remember that being one of the many unlikely prototypes!

One of Garage 54's many, many, many 'experiments' . If you can hack up a Lada in some way, they've probably done it.

The pics look fine to me - they fulfill the required task of showing an epic build! The livery is literally the cherry on the cake for me, as my granny worked at UCBS, as did probably half the women of Clydebank. She remembered her time there fondly, so it's giving me a wee glow too.

The man, the legend, the enigma... (does have English subtitles) @Dyslexic Viking, it seems all Kirovets K700 awakenings must be a trial! In this one the engine was seized, but (spoiler alert) not too badly...

Phase one Volvo V70 - bought because I like estates, and it was a decent price. Didn't mind that I thought it would be a boring plodder, because it fitted the bill anyway. Turned out to be one of the best cars I've ever owned; quick enough, ridiculously comfy, never failed to lug mountains of stuff around, munch long distances at speed, and even shrugged off a T-bone from a blind old biddy in an X5. The BMW came off second best. And I could just sit and listen to five pot idling burble all day long. Of all the rental vehicles, it would have to be the Fiat Marea. Wasn't expecting much, but it was light years ahead of any other Fiat I'd driven. Well made, solid, planted on the tarmac, and still begged for its' neck to be wrung, as a good Italian car should. Pity I never got round to buying one.

And in QLD they're all as mad as cut snakes anyway! 😂

I know when my cousin was a miner in Queensland, he used to go the odd trip out in his mate's Kenworth; proper multi trailer coal wagon strictly from mine to docks and back. If I remember the details correctly, the whole rig was licensed specially under local exemptions for that route, and because it had a (not otherwise approved) Cummins QSK brute powering it. It was far from the only rig of the type, but they were the only things up to the job.

IIRC the Russian government increased the import duties on second hand vehicles, maybe about five to ten years ago, deliberately to choke the market. I assumed they'd been leant on by manufacturers! But the American trucks were a bit of a status symbol in Russia, which doesn't apply so much in Africa; like most undeveloped places, it matters more that you can massively overload it, and it doesn't snap.

I had the pleasure of the company of a couple of ex Hungarocamion lads on a job, many years ago. Their tales were extensive, as you'd expect: Africa, Asia, Middle East, never mind Europe and Russia, been there, done that; and although they often travelled in convoy, they were all the crew they had. If it needed fixed, they fixed it. So it went, that they started out in Bloc times with homegrown equipment, because they knew how to work on them, and they carried spares. As the Iron Curtain fell apart, European manufacturers came in, and they accepted that having access to spares and workshops all over their routes might be a good thing. It was a pragmatic decision, for the most part. I heard something similar from an ex Polish army tank fitter I knew.

Well jealous! Dream trip for me, that I will get around to some day. The only things I'd add are possibly La Sarthe and a pit stop at Rheims-Gueux. In fact, as Circuits Of The Past was one of the first YT channels I subscribed to, there's so many places I'd love to see, and better still, drive.

I haven't read a funnier collection thread in ages! That is a win chariot.

Just searched for the rugby thread (started 2015, untouched since this March) and it was fine.

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if it were true. Away, way back in this thread there's pics of a scruffy Scanny 124-420 'red dot' that I had use of. It had something like 1.2 million k's on it, and other than needing a good tidy up, its' only mechanical issue was occasionally jumping out of second gear. Needed a gearbox overhaul, or maybe a good used one, but it wouldn't have been a huge ask either way. They chopped it for a newer one... It was only delivering engineered timber to building sites: image? What image? It's no bloody wonder the main 'refurbish for service' content I watch on YT is from Germany, Russia and Pakistan. Granted, the latter two have to 'make do and mend' through necessity, but even so, they all have in common that tired engines get pistons and liners, tired gearbags get synch rings and bearings, and it gets stitched back together and sent out.

Our haulage industry is very 'consumerist' and for the most part, old equipment is bad for image. Add in that the bulk of second hand sales come off the back of the deals manufacturers do with the big corporate fleets, and so smaller fleets will tend to fall into line. It's pretty much only those sorts of owner drivers (or farmers, sole traders etc.,) who use genuinely old equipment; probably because it's bought and paid for, they know what it'll do, and they can probably service it blindfolded! There's really no reason not to use an ERF like that; even though the company is defunct, the makers of the bits that compose it, aren't. Cummins, ZF, and Rockwell/Cameri parts aren't any harder to get than anything else. It'll plate to 44t and hook onto an ISO equipped trailer, and the 'lack' of BHP isn't that big a handicap when you've got a manual box. So you can't go into London (or any other LEZ)? No bother! Most truckable stuff isn't within LEZ's anyway. And if it's just you driving it, you're not going to rack up the interstellar kilometres that a triple shifted corporate trunker will.

Some grossly unsuitable choices for a gravel road hillclimb, but it doesn't seem to stop them...😂

Definitely double headed. Some sort of high maneuverability carrier that needs to be so low it can't have a driveshaft up the middle, but isn't expected to work indoors much, or on public roads? Doesn't look especially heavy duty either, nor extensible, which rules out most 'specialised carriers' I can think of. Maybe carries whatever it carries on the roof? That looks fairly robust. Definitely intrigued though!

The humble estate has been in decline for a long time, unfortunately, it was the glut of people carriers that started it. Those of us who want a stuff carrier are...stuffed. The perfect practical A.N.Car doesn't have the cachet as a status symbol.

ISTR the MoD buying a load of 6x4s towards the end of production (presumably GM couldn't give them away by that point) for general purpose use. True, the army had loads of the AWD variants, but if I'm remembering correctly (and that's by no means certain!) they went to the RAF and navy for non off-road duties. Lugging stuff around in the many and varied support roles, in other words. It was partly why AWD/Multidrive assumed they'd won a watch when they bought the TL/TM rights from GM. As an aside, I remember a Multidrive Foden Alpha being advertised in Commercial Motor years ago: it was a one-off 6x6 prototype with a powered, steerable three axle drag - yep, 12x12 with a gimbal in the middle - rated for 55t, and only one careful* owner. The army, who'd decided it wasn't for them... Not cheap, even as a reject, but what a thing to tool about in!

Probably a Cummins L10, unless it's a Q-plate because it's a bitsa. Most likely ex-military though. Cracking example of the breed!

I remember there being at least one Mk3 Astra LSD, due to someone in the factory making a slight error* with the badge spacing. Presumably they had realised you'd need to take something to liven the journey up a bit...

There was the Vauxhall 'Antibes' range, which was a triumph of glamorous dream over dreary reality.

That would've been one of the longer trips in the Seven replica! A 911 is sensible by comparison. Going to Spar for milk probably feels like going from the transporter to La Sarthe pits in a 911. Well jell, as they say. Well boughted sir.

By late last night, that was starting to creep into my head too. Thankfully the site came back, so I didn't get as far as wondering if it was the Illuminati in league with the Shape Shifting Alien Reptiles. Nor did I fetch my balaclava and jump leads to set about persuading someone to drop the legal action. All is well. All hail the cult of beige.

If Les Baston is still working his Sed -Atki 400, that would be in with a shout, surely? A or B reg, if I recall correctly.