Truck Shite

[quicksilver]

Their is a 56 plate ( I think it's a modern one) Scania near me which sounds fucking awesome, you can hear it miles away yet it looks like any other fleet truck.  Is that just the pipe or a custom engine?

Must be one of the V8s, available with 580 or an absurd 730bhp. They sound utterly glorious, especially with upright pipes.

[martc]

w f.jpg

 

The new Foden Marvin.

 

Didn't anyone at the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation  Boalloy look at this and think 'this is the most depressing looking lorry in the world'? And then decide to put a more cheerful face on it?

 

Foden

 

 

Marvin the Paranoid Android

 

[quicksilver]

I went to Aylesbury yesterday. Normally that would be cause for a grump but the circus is in town and they're tooled up with a fine collection of classic British lorries including several beefy ex army 4x4s with big winches. The P-reg Fodens are their newest trucks, no modern rubbish here!

They've got Fodens...

P15 THL - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

P819 PGJ - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

M870 BNO - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

ERFs...

F51 CNY - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

M210 RKN - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

L857 RFL - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

B334 JJH - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

4x4 Renaults...

K314 VUE - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

N811 UOA - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

4x4 Bedfords, including one Puddlethumper might like - his van is E734 WOL and this is E735 WOL

E735 WOL - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

A119 OFX - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

Just for Cavcraft, one of his favourite Ivecos...

Unknown - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

And to make up for that aberration, the crowning glory is a 40-year old Scammell Crusader...

UEY 446T - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

UEY 446T - Circus Fantasia by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

All in all a good day and the chap I spoke to at the circus really liked the Maxi as he used to have one.

[puddlethumper]

I'll have to keep an eye out for Fantasia and see if I can get a pic of mine next to E735WOL.

[puddlethumper]

Some Dutch ex army shite and other stuff.

[Pillock]

Popped down to the Crouch Recovery and Military open day. Holy shit! More to follow, here's a taster

 

[Pillock]

Ok, here we go. For those that are wondering WTF? - Crouch Recovery are a local firm but they've had a series on Channel 5 (or one of the offshoots) called Trucking Hell. It's a little bit psuedo-drama but it's quite fun to watch what they get up to.... and it means there's a bit of a celeb following for the firm and some of their drivers. Must have been a good thousand people there.

The day was held at the Market Harborough depot which I think is more for their military vehicle sales - the recovery depot is a bit further up the road. That said there was a decent turnout from recovery vehicles too, but most of what was on show was the army stuff. And by "on show" I mean parked up in varying states of dilapidation.... it was certainly an Autoshite friendly place, had I know how big it was I'd have put a post up beforehand!

Are we nearly there yet? Erm yeah I think this might be the right place.

Mmmm, Pye

These were the stars for me. I bloody love this shape DAF, proper childhood memories. The Scammel was the first of many, many Scammels. Both are in service but not used a lot, I guess what once was one of the most powerful trucks on the road is now merely average.

This also set the scene for the amount of rusty shite we were going to see. I understand that Crouch Senior has retired from the recovery business and just spends his days buying old trucks at auction. More than once we overheard "If I had the space...." from those wandering around.

"Yeah mate, up the stairs, turn right at the DAF"

Indoors was a load of Land Rovers, don't really know what I'm looking at. Deffo Land Rovers though.

I do freakin' know a Unimog when I see one though!

Also, quite obviously, a variety of recovery trucks through the ages.

And Army shizz

And a tractor.

Then we walked outside....

[to be continued]

[Pillock]

Out the back of that bit were some more heavy recovery vehicles, part of the collection rather than working machines by the looks of things

 

More Unimogs, YAWWN so bored of those (not bored of those at all, they're fucking awesome)

 

From here it all got a bit Scammelly - in fact I think there was a Scammel Enthusiasts Group had made the trip, lots of embroidered shirts with forum names on the back. Goncalo had some port markings on it, not sure if it was a foreign truck or worked at the port.

 

Cummins POWER

 

CHARGECOOLED. To an 11 year old me that was the closest to arousal I probably got.

 

Not sure where I'd stand on the MoT front if I bolted a frickin' vice to the front of my car. Didn't really look easily removable either, imagine that smacking you as it went past.

 

Seen enough Scammels yet? No? 

 

From here it was into the military vehicle, erm, collection (is that a nice way of saying junkyard?) at the back

 

[to be continued]

[worldofceri]

While we're eagerly anticipating the next instalment have a potato-cam shot of one of their fleet recovering a unit to my now-defunct former employer's.

[Inspector Morose]

Isn't that a Bedford TM cab on that Cummins Scammel?

[Pillock]

One of a number of the excellently-named OSHKOSHes. It's like someone making a truck got their metric and imperial mixed up and it all got scaled up.
EDIT: You fucking dickhead Pillock, that says Foden on the front. The WhooshBosh was parked behind, and even bigger

 

Who doesn't love a good Dodge. Or is it a Renner? Actually now I see a large photo it's clearly got a diamond on the front.

 

There's something really cool about military versions of every day trucks. Even though this has just had a headlamp repositioning and a dose of khaki it looks well tough.

 

Well, I guess not in all cases. There were loads of these Leyland DAFs (So many that I didn't actually get a decent picture of one solo, they were like vehicular wallpaper!) and they just look.... gawky.

 

But these. Based on a Leyland DAF cab that was everywhere on the high street in the late 80s, Scammellify it a bit and it looks well hard.

 

Bedford TM Justice. Worst camouflage ever though.

 

There were TK's to the Maxx

 

No frickin' idea. Is that a French reg?

[Pillock]

3 minutes ago, FPB7 said:

Isn't that a Bedford TM cab on that Cummins Scammel?

You know what, I totally missed that! It fits so well.....

[Pillock]

There was some older stuff. Sorry, not too up on vintage trucks at the best of times even less so when it's perhaps something that was made for the Army or found in a French field somewhere after we'd chased the Germans out with sticks and catapults.

Presumably this ^^^ will become one of these if you just polish it a bit

 

No idea but it had a massive game of Jenga on the front

 

That was it for the storage yard. Most of these were complete, if a little tatty. I say that was it, I didn't photograph everything and I've not posted all my photos, must have been 50-60 vehicles in there. Some of it was two or three deep and they'd taped it off as it looked like you'd get tetanus if you wandered too far down. Most of the newer stuff like the Leyland DAFs were chalk-markered as being sold from auction and a lot of them had "Starts and drives" written on too.

Most of them.

 

From here, we walked back towards the workshop

[Redfred]

On 6/25/2018 at 10:22 PM, quicksilver said:

How uber rare must this be? Looks like a MAN (same cab) but it's actually a Saviem, possibly the only one left in this country as there were never very many to start with and they rotted badly. It's recently emerged from restoration after being barn stored since 1994 with just 70,000km on the clock.

 

GSE 543T - I Craig by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

GSE 543T - I Craig by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

It was the standout from this year's Gaydon Truck Show (held on Shitefest weekend). Plenty more photos from there in my Flickr album.

I swear I’ve been in that very truck. When I was a kid I used to go to my dads work on a Saturday morning, usually got paid for cleaning the vans, cars, wagons or whatever was around at the time. Ian Craig used to occasionally do deliveries for my dad and I’d sometimes go out with the drivers if there wasn’t much doing in the yard. I remember seeing one of Ian Craig’s motors and thinking I’d never seen one before, so maybe this.

[Pillock]

This seemed to be more stuff that was being broken for spares. It was parked outside the workshop which made sense, maybe if you've got some sort of urgent requirement for a bit from a military truck they'll just whip it off.

 

Here you see a pair of TK's going for it whilst another looks on, the dirty buggers.

 

This had "Starts and drives" on the windscreen. I rather think not.

 

Leyland DAFAid was a short lived flavour of fizzy pop, notable for an aftertaste of rust and hydraulic fluid.

 

I believe this one is called "Reverse Cowgirl"

 

This sort of summed up the day well.

 

Whereas this summed up Crouch Snr's approach to just hoarding shit. I mean, who on earth is still running one of these and will phone up in a panic for spares?

 

Royal Navy seemed to be operating on a different scale again to the Army

 

 

Back to cranes means we must be near the start/finish line

 

FIN

[Inspector Morose]

I remember we used a firm for our bus recovery that had an Antar. One day, he ran out of motors so came out in it to drag a bus back after it shat its engine (oh the joys of decrepit RE ownership while trying to run a bus service). The Antar was still petrol powered and I had to ask “that” question.

” When you’re dragging with that, how much does it do to the gallon?”

”Ooh, about one.”

He didn’t make much money on our job then.

[rml2345]

One to the gallon sounds pretty reasonable from an 18.4 litre V8 petrol propelling something the size of a small bungalow with a bus hanging off it. Makes you wonder what the army got out of them when lugging 50 tons of tank about. 

[I_am_Diesel]

Some of those trucks look like they came from the REME museum that used to be at Bordon.

[Vin]

14 hours ago, Pillock said:

No frickin' idea. Is that a French reg?

Ward LaFrance M1A1 of WWII vintage...

[somewhatfoolish]

On 5/19/2019 at 7:19 PM, Pillock said:

Indoors was a load of Land Rovers, don't really know what I'm looking at. Deffo Land Rovers though.

 

Series 1 lwb pick-up, series 1, Belgian Minerva?, series 1.

On 5/19/2019 at 7:29 PM, Pillock said:

Not sure where I'd stand on the MoT front if I bolted a frickin' vice to the front of my car. Didn't really look easily removable either, imagine that smacking you as it went past.

 

Standard on REME recovery things probably since the war, a Swindens vice.

On 5/19/2019 at 8:59 PM, Pillock said:

There was some older stuff. Sorry, not too up on vintage trucks at the best of times even less so when it's perhaps something that was made for the Army or found in a French field somewhere after we'd chased the Germans out with sticks and catapults.

Presumably this ^^^ will become one of these if you just polish it a bit

 

No idea but it had a massive game of Jenga on the front

 

 

Scammell Pioneer; go anywhere, through anything and probably scale buildings too with a run-up. The other two are AECs, Militants I think

 

On 5/19/2019 at 9:08 PM, Pillock said:

 

Looks like a Coles.

[Sir Snipes]

Why do the military move the headlights down into the bumper?

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, Snipes said:

Why do the military move the headlights down into the bumper?

have been wondering about this myself

[sheffcortinacentre]

When there made 4wd the extra height meens that the headlights are above the maximum allowed from the ground

[chaseracer]

On 5/20/2019 at 11:31 AM, Vin said:

Ward LaFrance M1A1 of WWII vintage...

Probably imported on or slightly after 6.6.44...

[chaseracer]

Screaming 2T Detroit Diesel?  Grab your Kleenex and go to 4:00, gringo...

 

[Shep Shepherd]

The mingebag company I currently drive for has a fleet of M-B Atego 18 tonners with demountable fridge boxes and manual transmissions, the youngest one being ten years old, the oldest being eighteen years old. All of them are filthy inside and out and are close to being end of life vehicles due to being hammered relentlessly by many different drivers over the years. Here are the ones I drove this week:

More shit than shite, if you ask me! If nothing else, they are good vehicles to gain driving experience with. I hope that I won't have to drive them for much longer, as I have an interview/driving assessment with a well-known general haulier on Tuesday

[sutty2006]

Good trucks them old mercs. They’ll keep going for a long time. May be a bit shit but they drive so much better than the newer ones! 

[Shep Shepherd]

15 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Good trucks them old mercs. They’ll keep going for a long time. May be a bit shit but they drive so much better than the newer ones! 

They must have been amazing when they were new.

My biggest complaint about them is the fact that quite often it's impossible to select any of the gears, particularly if you're in a hurry. I imagine that advanced age and high mileage are big causation factors. 

I look forward to the day when I'm behind the wheel of a newer truck, preferably a Volvo or a Scania.

[bigstraight6]

One of the first 18 tonners I drove was an 03 plate example of these about 6 years ago now, I rather liked it and it had that unmistakable knock that Mercedes lorry engines seem to have. Good luck with the driving assessment Shep..

[mat_the_cat]

48 minutes ago, Shep Shepherd said:

I imagine that advanced age and high mileage are big causation factors. 

What's classed as high mileage for a truck?