Astran / Middle East Drivers

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
2761

It is real Robert, it’s just a bit smaller than the one Chris had. It owes me about 200 hours…

When I was a lad in the 70’s and saw photos of tilts going through the Middle East deserts and beyond, I knew that was what I had to do. It took me a while, but to me, tilts said "Adventure ". You weren’t delivering pizzas around the local council estate in a tilt; you needed a passport to drive a tilt. I’m not talking about the Norfolk lines tilts that were pulled by the traction hire guys, but the real deal with the big lockers that said " I’VE BEEN TO PLACES THAT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF ". And next week I going to do it all again.
I pulled fridges quite a lot, to many far flung destinations, but somehow, a tilt was always better.
And yes, I have had full strip outs, in all kinds of extreme weather, but that was part of it.
A big disappointment for me was seeing the Euroliners in the late 90’s, because it seemed to take a big part of International away.
Tilts said you were committed to the job. You had to apply yourself, both physially and mentally, to be on tilts. Lazy drivers and the modern steering wheel attendants don’t do tilts.
And there was the ritual of a tilt. Break the seal, pull the cord, stand on the forklift and pull the corner tapes out. Up on the roof and pull the sheet back while you shuffle along the roof bars, just hoping that none of them had been bounced out en route.

Jeff…

2762

Tilts were also far easier to do a “control” on if they happened to be loaded with something ‘interesting’…Crystal ware, nice furniture, beer, various fruit or nuts, beer, light fittings, computers, plasma cutters or if one was lucky, beer…

Can we change the subject, i’m getting all excited here !!

Steve…

2763

I bet that you couldn’t strip down a container and piggy back your mate across Turkey Harry. :wink:

2764

No but if you were in Saudi you could put the container on top of your mate, then load the whole lot on your truck… :laughing: :laughing:
Or…
You could put the container on side ways and pile your mate on the back of that… :laughing: :laughing:

Jeff…

2765

Jeff, you hit the nail on the head mate: it was the ritual. It’s like missing smoking because of the ritual of getting out the tin and slowly rolling a cigarette. Mind you, I was doing up the top corner of my tilt and tucking in the tape when I slipped and fell down onto the catwalk in the wet once, narrowly missing being disembowelled by the air connectors, and ‘ritual’ wasn’t the word that passed my lips on that occasion. Robert :laughing:

Here’s a lovely Turk tilt. This forum’ll end up being called TurkNetUK if we’re not careful! I didn’t take the pic but whoever did made a good job of it - Toddington TIR-camp?

manmanas19281fs4x2nt03pz2.jpg

2766

robert1952:

harry:
I first learned to hate tilts on my first trip to Italy one August when I had to strip and reassemble the stupid heap of trouble on my own. Loaded two cats by crane.v. Bad for the health in 30c sun.
Customs loved ,em on every frontier,they could nick you for anything with a tilt . A box with two doors at the back cut out a lotta problems.

Well, I was just a 5-foot-5-inch puny thing with stick arms and legs who’d spent too much time in classrooms till I discovered tilts! Tilts made a man of me: it was like joining the Territorial Army! I’ve stripped and rebuilt them in Saudi heat, Qatar humidity, Azerbaijan stickiness, German chill, French wetness - that’s the worst bit for a little bloke like me, sitting astride a freezing cant-rail in a gale with the heavy sheets full of pools of heavy rain-water, trying to push them back into place. Come to think of it Harry, you’re probably right - they were [zb] [zb] ing things! Robert :laughing:

0

Put on the gloves,open the back doors,as opposed to ‘put on yer overall & strip & rebuild a tilt in the snow & rain?’ -No brainer! Robert,it will make a man of you & make a man of your wife,especially in Australia. LOL

2767

I always rather fancied those rugged-looking Iranian tilts built by Shahin (of Tehran?). They usually stood high on oversize tyres and bristled with side-lockers and wheel-carriers. I snapped this picture in Patras docks in Greece while I was waiting to board the ferry. After the 2nd glass of Retsina, Iranian tilts usually look much rosier. To take an arse-end picture possibly suggests a 3rd glass. It was 2002 so I can’t remember! Robert :laughing:

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2768

My wife did a quite a few trips with me in tilts, but she wasn’t much good at helping me strip or rebuilding them. We don’t have tilts in Australia,

Kim on the other hand, would trun up pretty much as she is here and within 30 seconds half a dozen guys would be running round her truck with their tongues hanging out, doing everything for her as she sat in the air-con office drinking free coffee.

If we were loading export trucks from our yard she go stuck into it, so she was more than capable.

Jeff…

2769

harry:

robert1952:

harry:
I first learned to hate tilts on my first trip to Italy one August when I had to strip and reassemble the stupid heap of trouble on my own. Loaded two cats by crane.v. Bad for the health in 30c sun.
Customs loved ,em on every frontier,they could nick you for anything with a tilt . A box with two doors at the back cut out a lotta problems.

Well, I was just a 5-foot-5-inch puny thing with stick arms and legs who’d spent too much time in classrooms till I discovered tilts! Tilts made a man of me: it was like joining the Territorial Army! I’ve stripped and rebuilt them in Saudi heat, Qatar humidity, Azerbaijan stickiness, German chill, French wetness - that’s the worst bit for a little bloke like me, sitting astride a freezing cant-rail in a gale with the heavy sheets full of pools of heavy rain-water, trying to push them back into place. Come to think of it Harry, you’re probably right - they were [zb] [zb] ing things! Robert :laughing:

0

Put on the gloves,open the back doors,as opposed to ‘put on yer overall & strip & rebuild a tilt in the snow & rain?’ -No brainer! Robert,it will make a man of you & make a man of your wife,especially in Australia. LOL

2770

The point that I was trying to make Harry was how versatile a tilt could be compared to a container, that’s all.

2771

mushroomman:
The point that I was trying to make Harry was how versatile a tilt could be compared to a container, that’s all.

For the bosses & shippers it was wonderful ,but for the driver it was a sentence to hard labour when it came to strip downs in ,heat,rain.sleet,snow,wind… Containers are a dream- here’s your box,do what you want with it & wake me up when you’re finished. My job is driving -same status as a train driver or ships captain ,not cheap labour for some skinflint clients.

2772

harry:

mushroomman:
The point that I was trying to make Harry was how versatile a tilt could be compared to a container, that’s all.

For the bosses & shippers it was wonderful ,but for the driver it was a sentence to hard labour when it came to strip downs in ,heat,rain.sleet,snow,wind… Containers are a dream- here’s your box,do what you want with it & wake me up when you’re finished. My job is driving -same status as a train driver or ships captain ,not cheap labour for some skinflint clients.

To be honest, it depends on the work. I’ve done UK container work and UK tilt traction - give me the container every time. But for long-haul work I’d rather pull a tilt - stabler on the road - and you only get your hands dirty every two or three weeks!Robert

2773

harry:

mushroomman:
The point that I was trying to make Harry was how versatile a tilt could be compared to a container, that’s all.

For the bosses & shippers it was wonderful ,but for the driver it was a sentence to hard labour when it came to strip downs in ,heat,rain.sleet,snow,wind… Containers are a dream- here’s your box,do what you want with it & wake me up when you’re finished. My job is driving -same status as a train driver or ships captain ,not cheap labour for some skinflint clients.

Wow something that I feel able to coment on, on this thread, not having been on the M/E run.

I spent many years doing unaccompanied tilts, and would do sidestrips on a daily basis, roof off 3-4 times a month, and full strip downs to a flat probably 3-4 times a year. these trailers were often highly abused, and a large lump hammer and a decent pry bar were essential equipment, but I loved it. Worked with some fantastic blokes, and we would were possible allways muck in together even if it meant waiting after our own trailer was loaded, then back to the port rattling on the CB :wink:

Having said all that, I’ve been indulging My idle side doing boxes for the last 5 years or so, which is allright, but every now and then I get a driver assist job, which means you get to get involved with load, bit like Manual or Auto Gearbnoxes, autos make the job easy, but manuals make you feel involved with the task at hand.

robert1952:
To be honest, it depends on the work. I’ve done UK container work and UK tilt traction - give me the container every time. But for long-haul work I’d rather pull a tilt - stabler on the road - and you only get your hands dirty every two or three weeks!Robert

Robert you light weight :laughing: only fooling you’ve hit the nail on the head there. But I was a lot fitter then than I’am now :open_mouth: .

I love reading this thread. keep up the good work :wink

2774

As an owner driver, tilts were fine and a stepframe even better.
You could get almost two loads on a stepframe: 1 heavy on the bottom and a lighter one on the top.

The old 1418 struggled a bit with it — especially with the load above at Doha in 75 which wasn’t far off 40 tons — the only trip I did for Astran!!

Ran fine with a new cover and paint job with the 320 V10 Merc and was well worth the investment in short tyre life

2775

having a problem with laptop here keeps going back to girl in bikini… :smiley: :smiley:

2776

cliffystephens:
having a problem with laptop here keeps going back to girl in bikini… :smiley: :smiley:

lol, same here

2777

There were quite a few photos of her on page 3 of certain news papers in the 80’s. It was, and porobably still is my old friend and flat mate Kim Stevenson.
Previous to coming on with us she drove the White Dragon monster truck for George ■■■■■■…

Jeff…

2778

So who was fisrt to do overland by road Middle East/ Europe? There are plenty transport companies claiming to be the first one to do it overland and the companies and drivers that did it early were truely pioneeres. We all know Bob Paul and Michael Woodman did it in their Guy Warrior in 1964, Willie Betz, claims to have done it around the same time as does Rynart, but by Bob Pauls own admission he says he saw freight movements to and from Afganastan, and thats where he got his idea. I bet it was some of these guys.

I was talking to one of the Iranian Trans Mondo drivers, he told me that his dad used to do Iran Germany in the late 50’s, at which time they used to crane load the trucks onto the Istanbul ferry, in a time before ro ro and the bridge.

Jeff

2779

I think they were doing it with pack-mules in the 11th century, hence the Scammell Crusader. Robert :slight_smile:

2780

I drove a Scammell Crusader once, I think it was designed in the 11th century. :laughing:

Jeff…