Truck Shite

[CreepingJesus]

I'd think why all wheel drive trucks aren't popular or common over here is down to cost and complexity. We tend to operate as cheaply and simply as possible, rather than pragmatically. I couldn't begin to count the number of times in my tipper days that I'd wished for at least a driven front axle to grind my way up and out of axle deep clag, rather than the lost time and potential damage of a gentle shove* from a machine. 

[808 Estate]

I was working in the East Midlands motorway control centre on Friday (testing some electronic equipment) when a major incident occured on the M1. A 113 ton mobile crane had caught fire and promptly brought both carriageways to a standstill. It was probably the biggest vehicle fire I had witnessed. Not because of the size of the flames, but because it took 2 1/2 hours to extinguish them. Fire engines were arriving using both carriageways and at one point there were 7 appliances in attendance. During the course of the incident, there were 11 appliances in total that had visited the site, including 3 specialist foam and water tankers. 

I expect some insurance company is having a bad day today as I am guessing 113 tone cranes arent exactly cheap or easily picked up on Autotrader.  I missed seeing it getting towed and would love to have seen what they used for that.

 

[5speedracer]

  On 12/03/2023 at 07:27, warch said:

I can never really work out where the market is for some vehicles. A 4x4 tractor unit designed specifically for agricultural use sounds ridiculously niche to me, so the market must be quite small. On the other hand, I mean look at it coolest looking thing ever. I think it has extra hitches for 5th wheel and ag trailers as well as a PTO for actual fieldwork. 
 

Behold!

Btw farmers overseas do often use trucks for off field haulage in favourable (dry) conditions, it was even done in the UK by some operators.

Expand  

Looks like the Germans don't bother building hardcore forest roads they just send one of these in.

 

[worldofceri]

With regards 4x4 trucks versus tractors for agricultural, forestry etc use, a lot of the choice for operators will boil down to the bureaucracy in whatever place they are operating.

If a farmer in the UK wants to operate an HGV, they will need an O-licence, operating centre, plus C+E and CPC qualified drivers.  But if they operate a tractor they need none of that, and if the sixteen year old driver is caught hauling grain or whatever in excess of 100km from base (or whatever the restriction is), it will be a slap on the wrist, small fine and carry on next week.

Operators in other jurisdictions may have different rules to contend with, different exemptions and/or stricter or more lax enforcement.

[Datsuncog]

More of a lorry than a truck, but still...

Hiding behind some magnolias at a local garden centre - a Morris LC3, I think.

Faded paintwork points to earlier signwriting from a previous life:

I'm reading that as 'N.W. Hall, Ripon, North Yorkshire' - dunno if that rings any bells for anyone?

[sutty2006]

  On 12/03/2023 at 15:15, 808 Estate said:

I was working in the East Midlands motorway control centre on Friday (testing some electronic equipment) when a major incident occured on the M1. A 113 ton mobile crane had caught fire and promptly brought both carriageways to a standstill. It was probably the biggest vehicle fire I had witnessed. Not because of the size of the flames, but because it took 2 1/2 hours to extinguish them. Fire engines were arriving using both carriageways and at one point there were 7 appliances in attendance. During the course of the incident, there were 11 appliances in total that had visited the site, including 3 specialist foam and water tankers. 

I expect some insurance company is having a bad day today as I am guessing 113 tone cranes arent exactly cheap or easily picked up on Autotrader.  I missed seeing it getting towed and would love to have seen what they used for that.

 

Expand  

Wow. I would also love to know how they recovered that. Because one the fire has fucked all the air systems the brakes are toast. Put it on a trailer? I don’t think so….. is there even a trailer that’s big enough for 113 ton? Wow. What a huge weight of lump to shift. Cut it up on site? Pfffft yeah ok. Lol

[MiniMinorMk3]

An air-cooled Magirus Deutz hauling some air-cooled VWs, circa 1951.

 

[CreepingJesus]

About the crane - they do come apart. I remember being fascinated by, and pissed off by (because they were getting in the way) Sarens and Mammoet mega cranes at Leith docks when I was working the pipe shifting gig. They'd bring them in from the Netherlands (iirc) partly stripped down, to set them up for the wind farm jobs. 

Saying that, it's one thing doing it on a closed and spacious dockside, quite another on a motorway with a chargrilled example and the authorities tapping their watches. These things are diesel hydraulic drive, so the risk assessment for burnt residues alone must've been a nightmare for fire crews and fitters alike.

Edited March 14, 2023 by CreepingJesus
Save us from the cutter, autocorrect...

[busmansholiday]

  On 14/03/2023 at 12:39, sutty2006 said:

Wow. I would also love to know how they recovered that. Because one the fire has fucked all the air systems the brakes are toast. Put it on a trailer? I don’t think so….. is there even a trailer that’s big enough for 113 ton? Wow. What a huge weight of lump to shift. Cut it up on site? Pfffft yeah ok. Lol

Expand  

Allelys would shift that with no problems, they're the lot you see hauling 120 locos around the country.

[sutty2006]

  On 15/03/2023 at 07:43, busmansholiday said:

Allelys would shift that with no problems, they're the lot you see hauling 120 locos around the country.

Expand  

Yeah they take some weight, but trains are a different ball game. I recon that crane must me physically longer, wider than a train. I might have to do some googling to see what happened to it.

[Jon]

Here in rural NZ, fert spreading trucks are quite common, so there's an agricultural 4x4 HGV use not yet mentioned.

Mercedes, Scania and (for some unfathomable reason) Iveco are most common versions locally:

Like so. Often seen bombing along the roads between farms at 90kmh on those tyres. Not unusual to be towing a fert trailer, too.

 

Not seen one of these Mercs yet, though:

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 15/03/2023 at 09:45, Jon said:

Here in rural NZ, fert spreading trucks are quite common, so there's an agricultural 4x4 HGV use not yet mentioned.

Expand  

Kind of a gritter back end on a decent chassis/drive setup? One of our luxury* Welsh single axle drive versions below.
Bit of fancy computer controlled dispensing setup to adjust for prill size, groundspeed etc etc and you'd be up and running for the fertiliser but you could pretty much just use a bog standard gritter for liming as there's no need for much accuracy for that - school mate of mine ended up welding those in Australia (before he got deported for breach of visa).
Only thing comparable UK farming would be a Unimog but way smaller

[quicksilver]

There's a week of 'orse dancin' (thanks to Rob Beckett for that description of dressage) going on at the local equestrian centre.  Loads of horseboxes about, most very fancy but this was more up my street. I don't even remember these early Renault Midliners with the round lights.

[bigstraight6]

One of our 8 leggers has just come to grief ending up on it’s side and has been written off, the engine is already going to keep another one on the road though..,,

[puddlethumper]

  On 16/03/2023 at 19:16, bigstraight6 said:

One of our 8 leggers has just come to grief ending up on it’s side and has been written off, the engine is already going to keep another one on the road though..,,

Expand  

A tipping gone wrong ?

[EyesWeldedShut]

 

  On 16/03/2023 at 19:14, quicksilver said:

There's a week of 'orse dancin' (thanks to Rob Beckett for that description of dressage) going on at the local equestrian centre.  Loads of horseboxes about, most very fancy but this was more up my street. I don't even remember these early Renault Midliners with the round lights.

Expand  

Horse dancing - You Tube Tristan Tucker doing Brett Kidding (2017) if you've not come across him.

There's a horse dancer in this house (not me) and we (that is I) have been trundling around in weird vehicles a lot - many of the 'bespoke' manufacturers used to build on weird chassis back when your Renault was a baby (we had a G reg AWD TL for example).  These days there's a lot of cash on the circuit and a lot of new builds at jaw-dropping prices. 
The Renault is likely an Oakley build looking at the luton moulding (see the TK below) - today's Oakleys are rather well appointed and they still do a 7.5 tonner https://www.oakleyhorseboxes.co.uk/supreme-non-hgv/ but forget* to mention how much of the 7,500 kg is left for the horse after deductions for full living, shower (human & horse), heating, passengers etc etc - usually not enough  - bigger is better

 

[catsinthewelder]

  On 16/03/2023 at 19:14, quicksilver said:

There's a week of 'orse dancin' (thanks to Rob Beckett for that description of dressage) going on at the local equestrian centre.  Loads of horseboxes about, most very fancy but this was more up my street. I don't even remember these early Renault Midliners with the round lights.

Expand  

I reckon someone's bodged those round lights in to get it through the MOT as they can't find any original ones without knackered reflectors.

[bigstraight6]

  On 16/03/2023 at 19:31, puddlethumper said:

A tipping gone wrong ?

Expand  

I believe so…

[quicksilver]

  On 16/03/2023 at 19:47, EyesWeldedShut said:

 

Horse dancing - You Tube Tristan Tucker doing Brett Kidding (2017) if you've not come across him.

There's a horse dancer in this house (not me) and we (that is I) have been trundling around in weird vehicles a lot - many of the 'bespoke' manufacturers used to build on weird chassis back when your Renault was a baby (we had a G reg AWD TL for example).  These days there's a lot of cash on the circuit and a lot of new builds at jaw-dropping prices. 
The Renault is likely an Oakley build looking at the luton moulding (see the TK below) - today's Oakleys are rather well appointed and they still do a 7.5 tonner https://www.oakleyhorseboxes.co.uk/supreme-non-hgv/ but forget* to mention how much of the 7,500 kg is left for the horse after deductions for full living, shower (human & horse), heating, passengers etc etc - usually not enough  - bigger is better

 

Expand  

It is an Oakley (their name is on the front) and I think the oldest Oakley I've seen. Plenty of the modern ones about, looking very impressive and no doubt hugely expensive, mostly on DAF LF or Iveco little uns or big Scanias.

  On 16/03/2023 at 20:28, catsinthewelder said:

I reckon someone's bodged those round lights in to get it through the MOT as they can't find any original ones without knackered reflectors.

Expand  

I think they're factory as the American Mack Midliner uses the same ones. Can't find any photos of a Renault version with them though.

[warch]

  On 15/03/2023 at 09:45, Jon said:

Here in rural NZ, fert spreading trucks are quite common, so there's an agricultural 4x4 HGV use not yet mentioned.

Mercedes, Scania and (for some unfathomable reason) Iveco are most common versions locally:

Like so. Often seen bombing along the roads between farms at 90kmh on those tyres. Not unusual to be towing a fert trailer, too.

 

Not seen one of these Mercs yet, though:

Expand  

They do use Unimogs for lime spreading in the UK, and people like the electrical companies use Man and Unimog trucks for pole carrying. The interesting thing about the TGS is that it’s an agricultural tractor unit (prime mover) which seems a interesting niche.

Is that a Zetros in the bottom picture? I know of one lime contractor who was planning to get one for his business but couldn’t get Mercedes to sell him one. 

 

[Jon]

A quick Google does reveal it's a Zetros - there's certainly a confusing bunch of names for Mercedes trucks these days.

Fair to say, it's erm.. very purposeful looking! Grille aside, it could've been made any time in the last 40 years.

[davocano]

  On 11/03/2023 at 18:21, willswitchengage said:

Having done a lot of travelling in Asia a few years ago those Sinotruck things are everywhere, also branded Howo and CNHTC. Never saw any Volvo based though, they looked like an indigenous design:

Expand  

Sitrak is another brand that comes under the Sinotruk umbrella.

[MKT]

RE: Ford HGVs, M-Sport (Cockermouth) run them to transport the rally team around Europe, saw them in Finland last year.

[willswitchengage]

  On 12/03/2023 at 07:27, warch said:

A 4x4 tractor

Expand  

For most applications though a driven front axle will just add a lot of weight and driveline drag. MAN has a fancy new technology called hydradrive or something where the front wheels can be driven hydraulically, on demand, at low speeds, which seems a clever compromise.

Those agri tractors look neat though.

The MB Zetros hasn't been a massive sales success for either overlanding or military/government uses, I haven't come across any in RHD flavour or otherwise sold over here. I guess the Unimog is preferred in most of those applications.

[martc]

(the former) Dunhills Transport Cafe, 62 Burley Road, Leeds.

[martc]

IFA action...

IFA's were exported widely to countries we didn't like (for example Syria and Iraq) and, they were often seen in military service you could spot them in the backgrounds of our sad our adventures in Iraq.

On a lighter note, here's one, still in use in Iraq, for the more mundane task of tipping soil...

Looks like someone has tried to make it look a bit like a Volvo.

[Dyslexic Viking]

These IFA trucks are one of my dream vehicles, just a shame that a truck driver's license is a nightmare to get and keep.

[sutty2006]

  On 22/03/2023 at 09:57, Dyslexic Viking said:

These IFA trucks are one of my dream vehicles, just a shame that a truck driver's license is a nightmare to get and keep.

Expand  

If it’s pre 1960 you can drive it on a car licence. I looked into that a fair few years ago when I reeeeeaaaaallly wanted an m35a2. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

  On 22/03/2023 at 10:22, sutty2006 said:

If it’s pre 1960 you can drive it on a car licence. I looked into that a fair few years ago when I reeeeeaaaaallly wanted an m35a2. 

Expand  

I don't think those rules apply here. And an IFA W50 is newer than 1960. So that is unfortunately not possible.

[CreepingJesus]

Just out of curiosity, were IFAs imported into Scandinavia? We got their little street sweepers here, but watching resurrection videos on YouTube, there seem to be plenty of those bigger 4x4 trucks still around in the Baltic states.