taffy davies

I was sorry to learn of death of Kevin Noble (The Baghdad Trucker). I worked with Kevin when he was at Taffy’s, he allways had lots of stories to tell and loads of wise cracks.
Ken

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Rip kev.

Bloody good book.

Frank Roach Mel Hall & Duncan McRae

Apart from the famous photo in a ditch, I wonder if anyone else has any photos of Mr Davies’ Atkis?

I understand that there were four of them?

ive just read baghdad trucker and the guy that wrote it drove for him doing the m/e anyway ive finnally found a pic of one of his motors

tidy, the good old V10 320.
this looks the same truck. cant remember where I borrowed it from.

Used to see them a lot when I was on commie block,most notably when two drivers were on their way home in a day cab.
One of them had driven the day cab down to Turkey where another truck had been in a nasty accident,they stripped the tilt down and put the wrecked unit on the trailer.
I met them in Czechoslovakia after they’d had a boozy night out,and were awaiting the arrival of the local police chief,who they’d been on the ■■■■ with the night before.
They were hoping he would sort out the mess they were in,the stricken unit on the trailer had been leaking diesel overnight and had lifted the pristine new tarmac of the parking area,making the manager of the service area somewhat irritable.

Taffy Davies had many of those Mercs and some painted in Davies Turners colours. He also had F88’s and even ran Atki Borderers to the desert !

here ya go ash i scanned this from the book atki on tahir

Gotta say if i got sent M/E in a Borderer I’d have put the ■■■■■■■ in a ditch too :exclamation: It must’ve been bad enough on the M1 being passed by all those big flash volvos & Scanias, but 2000 miles away from home it must’ve been a real choker :laughing: Heroes the lot of you…

Here’s a more recent picture of the very same Borderer, after it had been modified for a slightly different role at Killingbecks…

top stuff marky it looks like it could do a job :slight_smile:

What is it with you lot & Atki Borderers :question: it seems that it’s a mainly northern thing, but I just don’t get it :confused:

newmercman:
Gotta say if i got sent M/E in a Borderer I’d have put the [zb] in a ditch too :exclamation: It must’ve been bad enough on the M1 being passed by all those big flash volvos & Scanias, but 2000 miles away from home it must’ve been a real choker :laughing: Heroes the lot of you…

On my first trip to Teheran in 1976,I was driving over some mountain is Eastern Turkey on an unmade road,when I got in behind a Rentco tilt trailer,pulled by something chucking out clouds of blue smoke.When I eventually got past it,it was a Mk,1 Atki,Gardner 150 and no sleeper cab!
In those days,guys were driving stuff like that out there then selling it.I should think so,after driving it out,I should hate the thought of having to drive it home again.
It’s been mentioned before,that a German trucker was heard to say,“No wonder you English won the war,you have to be tough to drive something like that out here!”.
I met a Yorkshire lad in Ramtha who along with a mate,had left the UK with a pair of Guy Big J’s pulling tilts,with the intention of selling them in Saudi.
In Turkey,the engine in one truck gave up the ghost,so they had a Turkish garage do what they are good at.They welded up a front towing eye on the dead truck,and a towing eye on the back end of the other trailer,then fabbed up a mighty tow bar,than coupled them up They had got from Turkey to Ramtha and were still going the last time I saw them.Never saw them again though?

It’s no wonder that the ■■■■■■■■ don’t like us, sending ■■■■■ like Atkis & Guys out there to sell :exclamation: :laughing:

What a few of the so called truck drivers of today dont seem to grasp, is that in the early seventies, the atkie borderer was on par with the best on uk roads at that time. There were very few Scanias on the uk roads at that time and most of them were day cabs. To get a Sleeper was a privelage for some and looked down on by others, who prefered their dig’s.
My first trip Abroad was to Hirtshall’s in the north of Denmark with an A series ERF where i had to sleep on boards across the cab and a roll of foam for a mattress. this was a load of fresh herrings on a flatbed 40 foot trailer. loaded in Ulapool with a stop over in our yard at Granton to load extra ice and then to north Shealds to catch a 30hour ferry to Esjberg… in those day’s this was one of the top jobs with top money.
Later I thought i was the bee’s knees with a 2800 sleeper cab daf when we could blow the turks off the road on middle east.when I got a new F12 in 1978 it was like stepping into a rolls royce from a daf. To have Air conditioning filtered air into your cab and cab suspension we were thrilled to bits.

and today they moan about low roofed cabs You dont know what its like to drive a proper truck.

A Scot lost in the Valley’s

M&C Jamie:
What a few of the so called truck drivers of today dont seem to grasp, is that in the early seventies, the atkie borderer was on par with the best on uk roads at that time. There were very few Scanias on the uk roads at that time and most of them were day cabs. To get a Sleeper was a privelage for some and looked down on by others, who prefered their dig’s.
My first trip Abroad was to Hirtshall’s in the north of Denmark with an A series ERF where i had to sleep on boards across the cab and a roll of foam for a mattress. this was a load of fresh herrings on a flatbed 40 foot trailer. loaded in Ulapool with a stop over in our yard at Granton to load extra ice and then to north Shealds to catch a 30hour ferry to Esjberg… in those day’s this was one of the top jobs with top money.
Later I thought i was the bee’s knees with a 2800 sleeper cab daf when we could blow the turks off the road on middle east.when I got a new F12 in 1978 it was like stepping into a rolls royce from a daf. To have Air conditioning filtered air into your cab and cab suspension we were thrilled to bits.

and today they moan about low roofed cabs You dont know what its like to drive a proper truck.

A Scot lost in the Valley’s

Whoa step back pal, it is a fact that when Ian Taylor passed an Atki going to Iran in 1976 that it & any Atki, Big J, ERF, Foden etc was a total piece of crap, they weren’t as good as the foreign competition & in 1976 the Volvo f88 was in its 3rd incarnation, the 110/140 had been replaced by the 111/141 & the 2800 Daf had replaced the 2600 so there was plenty of decent plant about, you said it yourself about your 2800 & F12 so make your mind up mate :unamused:

I’ve driven plenty of proper ‘trucks’ or LORRIES as I prefer to call them, not done M/E but I’ve been to Athens in a D series Ford so I know all about crashing out across the seats & being the hero that I am I once came back from Cadiz in a 280 MAN with no windscreen & the front axle of the trailer chained up :exclamation:

PS knowing what I missed out on I’d have pushed a wheelbarrow to M/E :laughing:

Thought I might stir up a bit of a hornets nest with this post .But if you had read the first sentence it says( A FEW OF). Yes I know what truck I would prefer to drive , but one did not always have a choice. As far as Taffie was concerned he did not like drivers with middle east experiance he wanted novices that he could mould into his way of doing things. He also swore by his Mercedes as the best truck on the road. Regards Jamie.

Jamie, I’m with Taffy on the Mercs, the clue may be in the name :exclamation: but I’ve covered a fair few miles in my time & I’ve broken down in Volvos, Scanias, Dafs & especially Transcons :open_mouth: the only ones I’ve never had a problem with have worn the three pointed star, they vary from a 1632 with the V10 to 1860 Actros so we may have a point :unamused:

Another good post on the m/e that one of my pictures Dozer the two men in are Cris Stevenson on Daysons and Barry Wilson on the Taffy Davies motor ,he had big problems in Iraqafter this when he hit a copper on a motorbike not sure if he killed him but he had a long spell in a Iraqi prison