Truck Shite

[scruff]

I've seen a couple of Turkish Ford Cargos over here a few times now, wonder what they are like?? 

 

[Jon]

Do you love them enough to want one? I know of one almost certainly for sale, though unsure of price yet. I'd have it myself just for a laugh but it's a pipe dream at the moment.

 

Bit far for me to travel, Billy! They're easy to drive though and seem to pick up speed nicely, just like the Dennis recycling lorries I used to drive occasionally back in Britain. I'm guessing that most ageing fire engines over there are now ex-party trucks? 

[Grundig]

Warren T Claim posted a list a while back showing what the equivalent car make was for each truck make. Unfortunately I can't remember any of them but I'd say a DAF lorry was roughly equivalent to a Ford car- not the best but good enough for the job.

 

..As for drivers, I'd say Scania drivers seem to be much the same as Audi A3/BMW drivers - Renault drivers are pretty much good eggs though

[Cavcraft]

Haha, I've just seen your location, sorry Jon!

[Stroller133]

Saw a 1972/3 L-reg Volvo truck this morning. It looked like it was working too, had some kind of a load on a flatbed trailer - sorry no pics. I didn't think Volvo went back that far. I've seen a 1983 tipper when I worked in a quarry back in late 90s.

[willswitchengage]

It's Britain's most photographed truck. Gets everywhere.

 

[Stroller133]

That's the one - today it was near Mansfield.

[Pillock]

And last week it was on the M40 because I about crashed the car trying to get a decent look.

 

It had a "Euro 5" badge on the side. Given the clag it was kicking out, that was 100% wonderful bullshit.

[Split_Pin]

I was thinking the other day, do they actually make manual gearbox 44 ton trucks anymore?

[Richard]

Yes they do. The STGO Cat 2 Daf XF low loader that we use for weighbridge calibrations has a manual box.

[oman5]

Manual boxes tend to be an extra cost option these days but are still available. I drove a Scania 440 with a stick recently, it's a far more pleasant drive.

[Felly Magic]

Even lowly 7.5 tonners these days have that bleedin awful ZF manumatic box as standard. They are utter shit to drive

[Grundig]

 

DAF CF - the autoshite money shot 
 

[Stroller133]

What about tests, if take it in an auto, can you only drive autos?

[cms206]

What about tests, if take it in an auto, can you only drive autos?

Not any more; PCV and LGV test vehicle requirements have changed recently meaning test vehicles should be no older than 2006 IIRC; as most vehicles since about 2000 were automatic you get manual entitlement as standard.

[Cavcraft]

Are Linkman owned by Nobrot Dressingtable now?

[Grundig]

Are Linkman owned by Nobrot Dressingtable now?

 

Yeah - 4 years ago

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TDG_Limited

 

http://www.norbert-dentressangle.co.uk/News/Norbert-Dentressangle-integrates-TDG

 

Douglas Bay Capital are also connected in this, so the writing is on the wall there

 

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/eddie-stobart-offload-majority-stake-6779325 

[Cavcraft]

Oh dear, heard first hand (a couple of years ago) what a bunch of wankers that outfit are from a couple of people unlucky enough to work for them.

[Vantman]

i would have thought that the big Hino's would be the commercial worlds version of a Toyota car (same company)- does it's job well but without character, shame to hear they are dreadful. What has happened to them? There was a rash of them from around 08 to 12 but I don't think I've seen a newer one.

 

 

 

I saw a 57 plate Hino eight wheel mixer this morning on the A28 at Ashford. Probably a Robt. Brett one.

[Wackeldackel]

They had an 58 plate out of Canterbury driven by Phil Milkybar, and a couple on 57 and 08 from Maidstone, schwing stetter 8m3 mixers if I remember rightly. LX08APU was one of the Maidstone ones I think.

[willswitchengage]

Older Hino FYs can also be seen if you look carefully

 

 

Likewise, also surprised that they're not liked by the HGV piloting community

 

[Wackeldackel]

All the hinos I saw, mostly the Brett mixers mentioned by Vantman and a few ragged tippers, all had Jimmy Kelly dealer plates or stickers, from somewhere in Ireland. Main dealer or importer or some such?

[rml2345]

Hinos have been popular in Eire for ages but I don't think they took off here due to them being a bit clunky and spartan. They were also selling mainly to the construction industry just as the arse fell out the housing market and the likes of DAF and Volvo started offering really good deals to win busiess.

[Vin]

From the 1970s Hinos were built in Ireland so that's why they were popular there...

 

They've always been in the UK but mainly 8x4 chassis in small numbers. For a time it looked like Hino had finally captured a sizeable chunk of the 8 legger tipper market by taking the place vacated by Foden when they went defunct in 2006. Don't know how successful they were though...

[Grundig]

 

 

A.K Hale used a fleet of Hino tippers in the 90's

[Split_Pin]

Nearly all Automatic now eh, Blimey. No more Eaton double-splinted halfpiece malarkey then.

[oman5]

Nearly all Automatic now eh, Blimey. No more Eaton double-splinted halfpiece malarkey then.

That eaton twin split seperates the men from the boys. Great once you had the knack, but until then a royal pain in the bum..two stage clutch with transmission brake too

[wuvvum]

They're building a housing estate at the end of my road at the moment, and they've also just demolished some garages to build more stuff on, so it's crawling with Hinos round here.

[quicksilver]

Older Hino FYs can also be seen if you look carefully

 

 

That brings back memories. The SJT plate tells me it came from S&J Tippers, who were based a few miles from here and ran nothing but Hinos. All gone now though.

[gordonbennet]

I keep asking for a Hino, nearest thing now to a proper 80s/90s lorry, designed to be a real working vehicle not a bloody sales reps media centre destined to spend half its life being diagnosed on a bloody laptop.

 

I detest all modern european lorries, they're shit, increasingly the driver is reduced to a steering wheel operative, lowest common denominator rules.

It's almost impossible to take a pride in the job any more, at one time you had to be a competent lorry driver and a strong one at that to even get the bastard out the gate, no power steering, no air assisted clutches, constant mesh gearboxes.

Loads that needed to be handballed on or off or both, then  roped and sheeted on, an art in itself and something you were quietly marked on by your peers, so great pride was taken in doing that well as respect had to be earned.

 

Modern lorries a bloody chimp could drive, and judging by the antics i see on the road a sizeable minority do, active cruise, auto emergency braking, electric parking brakes, lane departure warning, blind spot beepers etc etc, even the idiot's sat nav...what drivers fail to realise with all this shit they think is wonderful is that its all designed to replace THEM, and sooner than they think.

 

No, i don't want to go back to the days of no power steering and handballing 21 tons of fertilizer on and off, but too many babies have been thrown out with the bathwater.

Drivers, being their own worst enemas have as usual shot themselves in the bloody foot, they wanted easy, they didn't want to touch the load just be chauffers of big bling shiny tat (Christ some of them seem to struggle opening the back doors and now they have to strap the load due to VOSA taking an interest are stamping their little feet), they wanted self driving self gearchanging superlight and they've got it, the trouble is that now any bloody fool can attend the steering wheel of a modern lorry there lots of bloody fools doing it and the job has been cheapened and deskilled as a result.

 

And whilst on a roll....what the fuck is the idea of covering the roof of a lorry in bloody spotlights, somehow before limiters we managed quite adequately at well over 80mph with two bloody headlights, why do they now need 20 million lumens to cruise at 53mph.

 

I'd like to have the pleasure of actually driving a proper lorry again to see me last 6 or 7 years out with, i want to change gears meself again, i want simple functional reliable without having to fight or trick the default electronics into allowing me to control the bloody thing.

 

Rant over.

 

Back to reality Tuesday when i'm back on shift, ZF ASchronic gearbox from hell, and there's not a single redeeeming feature of that poxy box i can think of, the only time its any bloody use is when its locked in manual mode in top gear....still it could be worse, i do have the Profi version so am able to override the auto function and make some attempt at normal progress attempting to drive it in manual, some of the fleet spec ASchronics have no manual function, oh joy.