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Truck Shite


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21 hours ago, Crackers said:

Why's that? 

Say you have a saloon reversed onto the peak, the distance of the car boot from the 5th wheel (trailer to truck coupling) might be 5m or so. Now imagine turning into or out of an A road junction, the boot of the car might now be 3-4m to the right or left of the side of the truck.

Great fun in cities where you could swing the peak over cars or even low height city buses and watch peoples faces or even them ducking.

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On 11/01/2023 at 15:42, 5speedracer said:

No peak, where's the challenge in that?

Are they actually illegal now?

My ex Toleman MAN 16.240 (with a coach differential!) and Hoynor 7 car with a peak when i ran out of Blackbushe a long time ago when i contracted to R P Greaves,Dover.

man rs.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have bought and read one of my favorite books ever and thought I would share a little here. And it is unfortunately not available in English.

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And I'm not good at writing so I try my best and everything is true and has happened.

This is the story of Alta transport, a former Norwegian transport company in the far north of Norway in Alta north of the Arctic Circle and in the Arctic. Things could be wild in Norway in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s, but this takes things to a whole new level. At that time there were almost no roads in the north and many places like Alta were almost isolated in winter.

I share here the first trip from Alta to Gol Norway via Oslo before Christmas 1960. This trip was over 2000 km one way and the cargo was reindeer meat and the truck was his father in-law's 4x2 US Ford F6 flatbed so no freezing unit.

The trip down went well, but the trip north, heavily loaded with machine parts, was a challenge. The last 67 km from where the road stopped in Finland to the first village in Norway there were no roads, so he had agreed to drive with a 4x4 Volvo Viking with a driver who was known in the area, but he never came. So he had to drive alone, so in the dark he headed out onto the ice on an lake in the direction of Norway.

After a good while on the ice, he saw a light in the distance which was a small house which luckily had a telephone line to the policeman in the village on the Norwegian side. After a conversation with him, he was given directions and told that they would look for him with a tracked vehicle if he didn't show up. 

After a while on frozen lakes and rivers, he had to drive into the snow and the birch forest, which went well for a while until the truck got stuck in a hole and that's when the challenges started. While he was trying to jack up the truck, the jack went through the frozen part of the ground and underneath there was marsh, which led to several hours before he got the jack free. And this was at night with temperatures below minus 45, completely alone, far from people. After struggling for hours, he saw a light in the distance and it was the policeman in the tracked vehicle, after a while they got the Ford free and started the journey to the village where the last part the feet were so frozen that the pedals had to be operated with the hands. The last part of the trip went over the mountain on a sledge towed by a bulldozer.

After a while, he bought himself a bigger and more suitable truck, a 1959 Volvo Titan, and there were roads and the company expanded and he bought more trucks and hired drivers, but the wild conditions continued.

Can mention, engine overhaul at night in minus 25, Wolf Attacks, driving with a rifle behind the seat during reindeer transport, common practice with temperatures close to minus 50 was to cover the bonnet with moose skin to keep the engine warm, and for a long time the only bridge on the river between Sweden and Finland was an active train bridge where it was important to keep track of the train schedule, but in winter there was an ice road over the river instead. And all the roads were bad gravel roads. And much more.

From the start to the end, they drove from Alta to Oslo weekly (over 4000km round trip) and at the start 2 men had 320 travel days in a Volvo Titan without a sleeper cab where one slept on the seats and the other on the floor between the levers. After a while he was able to buy a used sleeper cab for the Titan which was luxury.

He owned the company until 1986. And Morris Thomasen is still alive and will be 86 this year and still owns his trusty Volvo Titan which now has over 2.5 million kilometers on it.

Should be the same Volvo Titan in all pictures.

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Morris and the Titan in the present.

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And almost forgot, It was difficult to get premises in Alta, so for a long time he had offices an ran the company on the 2nd floor in the barn of his dad above the pig enclosure and only available with a ladder.

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Sad update. Them photos were taken at 10 this morning. This dinner time I put 16t of drive shaft on the back of it and off he went. Back at their yard the grab driver picked the shaft off the back, started to traverse and dropped it. So the above wagon is now flatter than a flat thing. RIP brave soldier

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14 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Just learned about the Commer TS3 engine and are interesting engines does anyone here knows about these / has experience with them? Were they popular?

 

They were used in coaches as well. Well, not many, but they made a wonderful noise, I remember a trip around the Yorkshire wolds in one, many, many moons ago. 

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On 1/12/2023 at 7:17 PM, Vantman said:

My ex Toleman MAN 16.240 (with a coach differential!) and Hoynor 7 car with a peak when i ran out of Blackbushe a long time ago when i contracted to R P Greaves,Dover.

man rs.jpg

No handrails and a 45 degree angle!  Did you slide off on your bum in bad weather?!

Mind should be back this coming week hopefully.

240 horse power?  You must have known when you’d done a days work in those days!

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1 hour ago, MJK 24 said:

No handrails and a 45 degree angle!  Did you slide off on your bum in bad weather?!

Mind should be back this coming week hopefully.

240 horse power?  You must have known when you’d done a days work in those days!

This was long before handrails were required, just common sense and good footwear were needed.  With lightweight loads and a coach differential 240 horse power was plenty.

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This contrasting pair made an appearance today. Look how tiny the Bedford is - it looks like a half-scale model and even sitting on the front of the trailer it's still lower than the Scania! Last taxed in 1991 and seems in very good shape for something that's been off the road for 32 years so I guess it's a Barn Find.

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On 28/01/2023 at 19:34, Dyslexic Viking said:

Just learned about the Commer TS3 engine and are interesting engines does anyone here knows about these / has experience with them? Were they popular?

 

No personal experience, but I do remember buses fitted with them that made a great noise.  A colleague had a small truck with the TS3 engine, he was rebuilding the brake servo and, when it jammed, used welding oxygen as a pressure source to unjam it. This did not end well as the oxygen reacted with the hydraulic fluid and there was an explosion.
He was very lucky and severely chastened by this, sold the truck…

There was an article in a magazine about a1930s style “special” sports car with aTS3 engine which enthused about the noise. Probably this one.     

 

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1 hour ago, Asimo said:

Anyone know how to pronounce Docwra ? 40 years ago my next door neighbour worked for them so I often had a Transit or Cargo parked outside. He was a grumpy shit so I never asked him.
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Dunno about the pronunciation but they merged with another firm and are now known as Clancy Docwra. That name always makes me think of Clancy Wiggum from The Simpsons.

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9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Dokra. Fuck knows what it means.

An old customer of mine, the workshop lads always pronouced it as Dokra. They were a big customer of Ford Motor company and they used to trial new variations of Transits,they ran a fleet of gas powered Transits in the early 2000s and even had their own mains gas filling point in their yard.

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Randolph Edward Docwra, born 15th May 1891, was the son of Colin Docwra a public works contractor, who in turn was the son of the great Victorian well-borer and sinker, civil engineer Thomas Docwra (d.1882).

1973
M.J. Clancy & Sons acquires water and gas public works contractor R.E. Docwra Ltd

red-lhead.gif

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