Where are these roads and why are they so hard to get up?
A couple of years ago I bought a Dolomite Sprint that was in Redruth, Cornwall and went to collect it with my Audi A4 Avant 2.5 Tdi & transporter trailer. Some of you will remember. Full story here: viewtopic.php?t=71332&p=907452
A local tractor dealer said he’d weigh in well with my diesel if I collected a couple of cab doors for him at a farm in Somerset on the way back. The trailer was one of those where the wheels are outside the bed, so here I am trimming the grass & hoping I’m on the right road! (No pratnavs here!)
After thought being a wonderful thing - it would have made more sense to collect the doors on the way down with an empty trailer.
Remember going over Hardknott &Wrynose several times with Dad & Mum in the 60’s & 70’s and parking up at one spot to watch the many cars that didn’t make it up because either they didn’t know how to drive and suffered from burnt out clutches and/or boiled up cooling systems.
Rode shotgun with a then 18 yr old girlfriend in her Dad’s newish Ford Sierra in the 80’s.
(RIP Joe) East to West. With my guidance she did very well indeed.
Last drove it West to East about 10 years ago in a Sierra 1.8Tdi estate with near 200,000 miles on her. No problem at all. Remember following a guy down in a newish motor and he hardly ever let off the brakes all the way down. Didn’t dab mine more than a handful of times.
Andydisco: A V8 forward control Land Rover would be the ideal vehicle for this road summer or winter!
Towtruck656: Welcome to Trucknet. Obviously you can drive.
Saaamon: have you heard of something called Google?
Mike-C: seems we have owned several similar motors.
(notice you didn’t further comment on the night out allowance thread 
)
When I was doing farm work in Yorkshire, I had to do a drop somewhere outside of Skipton, and I missed the turning I wanted and ended up going down this “road” where every few hundred yards I had to stop to open and close gates but by god was it a horrible road with hairpins and one wrong move and I’d have been off the road 
Another one was where I missed another turning and went past an “unsuitable for HGVs” sign thinking the farm was down there as they often are - it went fine until I got to a hairpin bend, now you try turning a 26 toner around, reversing up a steep incline around hairpins 
Managed it though
I once took the scenic route from Oswestry through Snowdonia (A5) to Anglesey in a 44 tonner . It was 3am in the morning though. Never again!!
Driveroneuk:
Saaamon: have you heard of something called Google?
For a moment i thought this was a discussion forum… How foolish of me…
Saaamon:
Where are these roads and why are they so hard to get up?
They are both in the Lake District and run from Eskdale across to Little Langdale.
They are great fun to drive and narrow with 1 in 3 hairpins and a surface with trenches like the Somme! 
A must do really. But please don’t take an artic up there as you’ll get stuck.
I had a friend come over from Germany who wanted to do the Hardknott pass on his motor bike, he stalled it on one of the steep hairpins and dropped it but he was straight on it again, loved every minute.
Whilst at the bottom of the hill one day we saw an ancient VW camper loaded to the hilt going up, we all had bets on how far up it would go, think it managed halfway before it gave up in a cloud of clutch smoke.
You’d have to be off your trolley to go anywhere near it in any type of lorry !
the truckers on here who deliver to farms, this the sort of roads you go on?
anyone in general would you drive across in your truck, for a laugh, as nothing legally stopping you from what i could see 
Thats Hardknott Pass in ■■■■■■■■ no way would you get a truck over it. Hairpin bends and steep climbs make it a test in the car but fun on a motorbike 
been across in a sprinter van… never a [zb] again. new shorts please.
I’ve been up that Hardknott pass three times in…Dolomite Sprint/Landrover series II and a Mondeo !! Funniest thing is the look on your passengers faces Second funiest thing is trying to do a handbrake start if you have to pull into a passing place
i’d give it a go, but i think i’d like an empty trailer for the 1st run 
Try cycling up it 
Holy moly no thanks! Well, in something like this maybe? sure!
Been over it in my car but having been a budding rally driver in my younger days didnt find it that daunting but wouldnt attempt it in a truck.
Being a farm delivery driver ive been down some tracks roads that would make many a RDC fella quiver, mind you id quiver if I was sent to a RDC!
Theres some seriously narrow lanes in shropshire with high hedges so you cant see anything that may be coming. Ditto Northumbria and North Wales. Theres one we deliver to in North wales nr Ruthin the farm itself is ok and room (just) for an artic. But its the route in theres a turn off a minor road between two houses thats squeeky bum tight big four wheels is max that will make it, then 1 1/2 miles of hope you dont meet anything roads with mirror bashing hedges and built up banks that the edges of the rear tyres just catch. Then the road goes up and up and up with trees that hang low as nothing much goes up the road then it opens out a bit and all is well for the last mile
I used to go to a farm in Devon that was a bit like that - not so much the tight turn in but the hedges and banks. The funny thing was that the locals were well used to us and they would see us coming even though we wouldn’t see them untill they were safely backed into a gate or reversing at high speed towards one.
Different in the summer though with the tourists…
I’d give it a go with one of our twin axle rearsteer blowers, having gone over there a few times in various cars and 4x4s I dont think I’d attempt it with a normal triaxle.
Once saw a farmer up there with a fully loaded (with sheep) Landie and triaxle Ifor Williams trailer, was funny watching the tourists trying to get out of his way coz he wasnt stopping for anyone !!
Heres a couple of pics of some of the type of roads we go down most weeks
Been on LPG mini-bulkers for a while now and some roads are right belters. There are times when you HAVE to be nice to a farmer and his tractor!
faz82:
Thats Hardknott Pass in ■■■■■■■■ no way would you get a truck over it…
IIRC somebody tried it in a Spar W & D a couple of years ago. Don’t think he got very far.
toowise:
…Heres a couple of pics of some of the type of roads we go down most weeks…
Pic 4 (with the ford): Had some fun on a road like that just along from Irongray recently, not the same one is it? Unsure as it’s not pitch black and there’s no sheet ice!
nickb67:
:toowise:
…Heres a couple of pics of some of the type of roads we go down most weeks…Pic 4 (with the ford): Had some fun on a road like that just along from Irongray recently, not the same one is it? Unsure as it’s not pitch black and there’s no sheet ice!
That ones near Ludlow just off the A49, although we deliver to a couple of farms up near Dumfries, one called Byreholm (IIRC) near Penpont has got a nice gravel surface on his drive thats about a 1in5 gradient!!
toowise:
I’d give it a go with one of our twin axle rearsteer blowers, having gone over there a few times in various cars and 4x4s I dont think I’d attempt it with a normal triaxle.
Once saw a farmer up there with a fully loaded (with sheep) Landie and triaxle Ifor Williams trailer, was funny watching the tourists trying to get out of his way coz he wasnt stopping for anyone !!
In an earlier life I used to deliver parcels around North Yorkshire and twice a week my run was across from Ripon, up to Bedale, Leyburn, Aysgarth and Hawes, then backtracking down through Hellifield or Grassington with farm and catering supplies before starting my proper shop deliveries in Skipton. That was interesting with dry stone walls, narrow passing places and manic sheep farmers and sheep leaping over walls. In summer it was much worse with grockels in camper vans. The best thing was getting paid to drive in the most beautiful scenery in the world. My Yorkshire 
If I could go back 35 years I would be quite happy with a TK Bedford again 