The old 141 that didnt want to come home

It was always a normal practice when we were in Istanbul to get the trucks serviced there as it was a lot cheaper…so once loaded we would return to Octay parking…this was a new truck stop we used cos the Londra wanted to put the prices up for all western drivers and we arranged to move…this site was a lot cleaner…all concrete parking with restaurant…garage… wash…spares etc so i had the outfit washed…dropped the trailer and put the unit in the garage for an oil and filter change and grease up…topped up with diesel…petrol in the fuel tank and the belly tank…spirit down the air lines and in the air tanks because it was winter time and i always did this to avoid any freeze ups…and it always worked. The next day i set off to Kapicule the turk border and on into Bulgaria…all customs documents stamped…seals checked…and that saw me heading across the bridge and the queue into Romania…so far so good…i saw a few brits coming the other way but none was heading home with me at this time.so i was on my own…i crossed through Bucharest ring road, on through Pitesti and over the mountain where i stopped for a kebab and a coffee…next stop was over the dam as we wasnt allowed through the town of Vilcea which was a spa town and a lot of Rumos spent their holidays there..i parked at the side of the dam for the night and set off in the morning about 10.00..and headed for Sibiu..the roads were very rough but not a lot of traffic..i noticed that the old girl started struggling a bit although the load was light ( about 9 tons) eventually she packed up..so overalls on..tools out of the cab..jacked the cab up..it was below zero at the time..the one thing about romania is ..whenever you stop..after a short while people would appear.or kids..all wanting to know what was happening..even in the middle of nowhere..maybe they hide in the fields.but they always appeared..and i never trusted them..making sure the doors were always locked..for they would steal anything..i checked the fuel filter and decided to bleed it..fired her up..away she went..so i washed up..put the tools away..and set off again..this scenario must have happened about 5 times before i got to Sibiu..where i parked for the night and had a well earned beer or two..the next day saw me heading for Deva..this day seemed no different and halfway across i had to bleed the system a number of times..i checked as far as i could for ways that air was getting into the system..but to no avail..so i had to put up with it..i reached deva as it was getting dark and stopped at my usual haunt where my birdwould meet me for a glass of romanien sherry..i always parked outside the home of the local policeman who made sure my truck wouldnt get messed with and i went tothe birds house` (hovel) next day i set off for Arad the last town before the hungarian frontier…3 - 4 stops later i joined the queue for Gyula…where i once again stopped for the night…it had taken me 3 days to do a 14 hour crossing…but i had made it and pulled into a truck stop and went on the beer…but not before i had the chance to call the office to tell them what was going on…i asked the lady in the bar when i went for breakfast if she knew a good mechanic…and as i described the problem…she translated it to the mechanic…who came 2 hours later…he took the stand pipe from the diesel tank and pressure tested it…then lifted the cab up and started checking there…eventually finding a small pipe that runs from the water filter to the fuel filter…this pipe was hidden in front of the engine…he took it off and noticed it had been repaired before…very crudely braised…so replaced it…i ran home from there with no more trouble and did the next trip without a hitch…you see the boys on these journeys had to be mechanically minded and you had to be prepared to get yourself out of trouble and get your hands dirty…this set us apart from the usual international driver who would normally phone his boss to ask what he should do if the truck broke down…we are and were a special breed…not many of us left nowdays though…look out for more of truckys travels soon
have a nice day

Yet again have you brought to life the toils and troubles that the

TIR Drivers went through whilst they carried out the job of moving

goods Quicker,cost efficient. and the load was rarely damaged by

the use of this means of transport. Once again a wonderful

tale of how to do the job correctly.

trucky, i’m sure that in some of the remote sections of the world, truck drivers still have to perform roadside repairs. places like south america, africa, or australia come to mind.

Great tale, Trucky, and amply demonstrates the self sufficiency of the ‘oldsters’.
My first trip in outback Oz I had 16 punctures in two days (as the new boy I got all the old tyres), changed them all myself and then mended the tubes back at the base before knocking off!
Sounds like that old sketch from Monty Python where a group of Yorkies try to outdo each other with poverty tales

Salut, David.

Spardo:
Sounds like that old sketch from Monty Python where a group of Yorkies try to outdo each other with poverty tales

I can see it now David, someone posting along the lines of:

“Tyres? Tyres? We didn’t have the luxury of tyres. We had to use wadded up newspaper, fixed to the rims with twine, and we were just thankful for that.”

These tales are great and show the job today is a cake walk compared to back then.

Neil…when i were a stagecoach driver…those wooden wheels caused so many problems…there were times when i would leave the depot without axle grease

have a nice day

Good story truckyboy

we

truckyboy:
It was always a normal practice when we were in Istanbul to get the trucks serviced there as it was a lot cheaper…so once loaded we would return to Octay parking…this was a new truck stop we used cos the Londra wanted to put the prices up for all western drivers and we arranged to move…this site was a lot cleaner…all concrete parking with restaurant…garage… wash…spares etc so i had the outfit washed…dropped the trailer and put the unit in the garage for an oil and filter change and grease up…topped up with diesel…petrol in the fuel tank and the belly tank…spirit down the air lines and in the air tanks because it was winter time and i always did this to avoid any freeze ups…and it always worked. The next day i set off to Kapicule the turk border and on into Bulgaria…all customs documents stamped…seals checked…and that saw me heading across the bridge and the queue into Romania…so far so good…i saw a few brits coming the other way but none was heading home with me at this time.so i was on my own…i crossed through Bucharest ring road, on through Pitesti and over the mountain where i stopped for a kebab and a coffee…next stop was over the dam as we wasnt allowed through the town of Vilcea which was a spa town and a lot of Rumos spent their holidays there..i parked at the side of the dam for the night and set off in the morning about 10.00..and headed for Sibiu..the roads were very rough but not a lot of traffic..i noticed that the old girl started struggling a bit although the load was light ( about 9 tons) eventually she packed up..so overalls on..tools out of the cab..jacked the cab up..it was below zero at the time..the one thing about romania is ..whenever you stop..after a short while people would appear.or kids..all wanting to know what was happening..even in the middle of nowhere..maybe they hide in the fields.but they always appeared..and i never trusted them..making sure the doors were always locked..for they would steal anything..i checked the fuel filter and decided to bleed it..fired her up..away she went..so i washed up..put the tools away..and set off again..this scenario must have happened about 5 times before i got to Sibiu..where i parked for the night and had a well earned beer or two..the next day saw me heading for Deva..this day seemed no different and halfway across i had to bleed the system a number of times..i checked as far as i could for ways that air was getting into the system..but to no avail..so i had to put up with it..i reached deva as it was getting dark and stopped at my usual haunt where my birdwould meet me for a glass of romanien sherry..i always parked outside the home of the local policeman who made sure my truck wouldnt get messed with and i went tothe birds house` (hovel) next day i set off for Arad the last town before the hungarian frontier…3 - 4 stops later i joined the queue for Gyula…where i once again stopped for the night…it had taken me 3 days to do a 14 hour crossing…but i had made it and pulled into a truck stop and went on the beer…but not before i had the chance to call the office to tell them what was going on…i asked the lady in the bar when i went for breakfast if she knew a good mechanic…and as i described the problem…she translated it to the mechanic…who came 2 hours later…he took the stand pipe from the diesel tank and pressure tested it…then lifted the cab up and started checking there…eventually finding a small pipe that runs from the water filter to the fuel filter…this pipe was hidden in front of the engine…he took it off and noticed it had been repaired before…very crudely braised…so replaced it…i ran home from there with no more trouble and did the next trip without a hitch…you see the boys on these journeys had to be mechanically minded and you had to be prepared to get yourself out of trouble and get your hands dirty…this set us apart from the usual international driver who would normally phone his boss to ask what he should do if the truck broke down…we are and were a special breed…not many of us left nowdays though…look out for more of truckys travels soon
have a nice day

well truckboy lucky you got home working for bradford