When I did that trip to Azerbaijan as a spare driver ■■■ LDD writer, we all stopped by the Black Sea in Turkey on the road up to Sarpi at the Georgian border, because it was such a hot day (August). We had a paddle and splash about wearing just our skiddies and afterwards I hung mine on the front of the tilt to dry. When I retrieved them that evening they were bright green, such was the high level of industrial pollution in the water! Ugh. Robert
Hi Harry.Why do you think i live above the Arctic circle in the ‘‘middle of nowhere’’,it still beats Essex 
Mike
hutpik:
Hi Harry.Why do you think i live above the Arctic circle in the ‘‘middle of nowhere’’,it still beats Essex
After getting pneumonia putting a tilt together just wearing a Tshirt in Swiss at 38c- I am now a confirmed warm weather freak,next stop back to Thailand for me 
ASAP
I’ve been flatlining in this flat country for three years now and am an expert on cabin fever!
harry:
hutpik:
Hi Harry.Why do you think i live above the Arctic circle in the ‘‘middle of nowhere’’,it still beats EssexAfter getting pneumonia putting a tilt together just wearing a Tshirt in Swiss at 38c- I am now a confirmed warm weather freak,next stop back to Thailand for me
I’ve been flatlining in this flat country for three years now and am an expert on cabin fever!
Thailand harry 
now we are talking you know how to live life buddy,is there a mrs harry
Look at the photo seth.Definitely one ‘‘only a mother could love’’. [sorry Harry]
hutpik:
Look at the photo seth.Definitely one ‘‘only a mother could love’’.
I thought the photo was a bouncer or debt collector 
Naa,thats Harry when he was young and good looking.
Hut,there’s a few ladies in waiting when I get back. That snap is an avatar whose an Irish boxer mate of mine. I took the snap 
Hi Harry.I know,you’re like an old cognac you get better and more potent with age.
That’s what I’ve been telling people for many years .
People may get the impression we are getting off topic here but most of us have done Iran ,Afghanistan ,Pakistan ,India. It’s these guys that made Britain Great in the old days, it was these explorers that created an Empire ,it’s an inherent gene that gives them the confidence to leap in where angels fear to tread? - cue the patriotic music (Land of Hope and Glory will hit the spot)
Re box trailer - the unit was a 1626 Merc a very reliable unit but not with a box trailer, just one trip I pulled a box trailer and was very happy my next trip was back to tilts. It might be a load of old bull to some but each to his own.
Gordon
Forest of Dean
gordon john:
Re box trailer - the unit was a 1626 Merc a very reliable unit but not with a box trailer, just one trip I pulled a box trailer and was very happy my next trip was back to tilts. It might be a load of old bull to some but each to his own.Gordon
Forest of Dean
Some of us are tilt men through and through and that’s the end of it. Incidentally, I’ve just been on the Euro-driver’s Forum and there is an excellent little 3-page thread on there, with some sound advice for wannabe tilt users from a few old hands - it’s called ‘Tilts - advice’. A bit of dissent of course, same as on here, but that’s healthy too - no room for rose-tinted specs among TIR-tilt drivers, eh! Robert
Here’s some Iranians that did Europe in the 60’s and 70’s and just to please Harry they’re not tilt’s…
How do you fancy peddeling this over the Tahi in the middle of winter.
Jeff…
Not sure I’d have wanted to take that Austin over Shap in winter, let alone Tahir Pass! Great images, Jeff. I notice that Tempo SA comes up quite a lot in '60s/'70s pictures of Iranian international trucks. Were they a state-owned outfit I wonder? I notice that your picture of a Tempo truck also appears to bear the name of Van Gend & Loos, which was a big (nationalised?) Dutch company. Perhaps they were on a joint venture. Robert
I wouldn’t even want to drive it across the yard to cut it with a gas axe.
There are a few photos on here with an A series ERF, and a the old Motors Pannel Guy, doing Iran, I beleive someone did it in an Atki Borderer as well as Bob Paul in the Guy Warrior, and I thought they were doing it tough. But those guys doing it all year round in 19 40’s ex WWII Macks take the biscuit. (Not only that but it would be a chocalate biscuit )
Jeff…
Nice pics,Jell,but no Marand rigids. Got a lift with one of their lads from turkey to Tehran .
I think he was a bit of an optimist writing “Express” on the side of an Austin commencial. Either that or the sales man had a heck of a talent.
This is the only Marand Co photo I have Harry…
I was talking to Dave Mackie and he told me that him and Chris Hooper came into Dover one Feb and found an old 1940’s Iranian Mack parked up over by the sea wall round the back of the wheel house. The customs guys told them that the Iranians had come in the night before and were sleeping in the cab with only their big coats for warmth. Chris and Dave had a whip round with some other drivers and got enough money together to put them up in one of the hotels on the sea front and a bit extra for food and living.
Jeff…
The Marand O/D that I got a lift with insisted I stayed at his house in Tehran for a week. Good old boy,Sharrif was his name. He had the same kinda rigid but it was a bullnose Merc. I wish I could have been part of the Dover whipround. Funny thing is ,after the Iranian (Truckers,I must stress ) hospitality ,any time I could I would help people on the road -made a few bad judgements but on the whole hoped that the good 'uns would go on to help other people in trouble.
That’s the way you’ve got to look at it Harry. There’s good and bad wherever you are.
Personally I found the Iranian and Turkish drivers among the very best and, I regret to say, many of the Brits. were at the other end of the scale.
I too would have loved to help those Iranis. Those guys would share their last piece of bread with you. Pity that in both cases they’re ruled by ignorant clerics who get the whole country a bad name.
Short story. I was stuck on one of the notorious hairpins on Tahir one winter’s night (no snowchains and all the grader was able to do was tow me towards the edge of a precipice!). In the morning a Ulusoy driver picked me up in his F88 with fridge to give me a lift into Eleskirt to buy some chains. Near the bottom it became obvious that a thaw was setting in. “You go back,” he said, “Two hours.No need chains” he stopped a passing taxi coming in the other direction and soon I was whisked back up to my truck’s previously perilous mountain eyrie. I tried to pay the taxi driver. “Para Yok” was his reply and he reached in his pocket to show me the money that my briefly met Ulusoy acquaintance had already paid him!