I’m not saying it was or was not Maurice but what I am sure of if You were with Maurice Grey you dont forget him ,Maybe he didnt want to rember.
I have to say I lay claim to the longest bar tow and if anyone has one longer lets hear about it .I towed a non sleeper sedon aki and trailer from the UAE border up to saloniki 110 ft including the bar the worst place was Turkey as cars trucks and buses overtook then tried to get between me and him we even I even had a sign made up in Adana by the little kids at the BP garage with Unsun Arac Dikatt on the rear (non turkish readers Long vehicle Danger) the biggest cost was on the salt flats past aksaray the turkish Police stopped us at night time for theusual marlbourgh but he walked between the back of my trailer and the Aki and didnt see the bar he smacked his nose on the tarmac but he just started laughing but his mate wasnt to happy and it cost us a hole carton of ■■■■ just as well we had brought a few ,I never did find out what happend to the driver but Astrans were not to happy as the trailer was rented and he did a runner.the load he was carrying I transhiped at the border and took it to MUSCAT in the Oman had to wait 3 weeks at Wadi Gissi the border for permit as mine had just been used nothing but 3 guards and long swords sporting old enfield rifles one tin shack and a water pipe but nice people had meal with them every day as my supplies were getting thin.dont know exactly how many miles the Tow was but it must be a record.
Roger Haywood
Hi Roger (Sinbin31)
I know time clouds the grey matter a bit but talking about being on Tow, was it you that i towed back from Damascus up into Turkey ■■
With regard to the border post at wadi Gissi, I also had an extended stay there waiting for a permit to run into Muscat. After spending Christmas eve with Bob Headley we parted company Christmas day after breakfast and i continued my run down to the border, to find No permit waiting for me.
After 2 weeks of polishing all the wheel nuts and slowly going crazy, ■■■■ Snow and Alan Bremner rolled up picked up there permits and were straight through the next day, talk about being demoralised !!
Fortunately mine turned up a day later, despite the sun tan it certainly was not one of the best Christmas i have ever had.
Dave Reynolds
Hi Dave
Fancy bumping into you on here, after all these years. I must thank you again for pulling my trailer from Derraa to Doha with your 1748 Merc, when I blew the gearbox on that old red and black 1628 that I was trying to get to Doha to sell.
Do you remember that occasion ? I got turned back at Haditha because passengers wern’t allowed…so I hitched to Amman and flew to Doha and met you there. The trailer almost didn’t make it and then once the loaded trailer was cleared, you had to bounce back to Derraa solo to pick up your own empty trailer and carry on.
That was the last time we met, although I do remember meeting an associate of yours in Grand Cayman about 12 yrs ago, when I was there on a diving trip.
How’s the equipment hire business ?
I own a Scuba diving and Watersports centre in Barbados now, been here for 7 yrs.
Special rates for TIR drivers !!!
Best regards
Gavin Smith
GS Overland
Hi Gavin.
Yes i do remember pulling your trailer down and i certainly remember bouncing all the was back solo to Derraa to pick up my own trailer, it seamed a long way solo.
Sold the hire business back in 2001, Safeways wanted my yard for a car park.
I have seen lots of posts entered on this site by GS Overland but did not realise it was you , Diveing in Barbados eh sounds great, i have a place in Florida so next time were over we might make the effort to come and visit, i quite fancy learning to dive or swim even !!
Dave.
You were quite right about the Guy but it was warrior I stand corrected The Vabbis came shortly after the guy was 10 RNY the year 1963 correct me if I am wrong, I was in Libya at the time Running between Tobruck and Derra Driving a scammell recovery wagon during my Desert Rat Service R.E.M.E.
I recently read cola cowboys and i dont want to put doubt on what you guys who done the job did but there was a bit when they get to there delivery point in the desert and the author says they had to jump some kind of sandbank in the truck. Ive spent the last nine years on landfill work with artics and i dont think i would be jumping over banks in an artic. Also theres lots of talk about what went on to (oil the wheels of commerce) and i thought that was a bit weird to put in as this would still have been a major business and could have made things awkward and more expensive for drivers and companys doing the run in the aftermath of the book
Sorry to say as an ex ME driver I must confess to having not read the book as I did hear it had many flaws Im sure when the new book by Truckerash comes on the Market all will be revealed so look forward to parting with some of your hard earned cash and read the truth from the real ME drivers before they all part company from this world .We hope that this part of transport history which in itself is unique can be laid down for all to read .
Sorry to say as an ex ME driver I must confess to having not read the book as I did hear it had many flaws Im sure when the new book by Truckerash comes on the Market all will be revealed so look forward to parting with some of your hard earned cash and read the truth from the real ME drivers before they all part company from this world .We hope that this part of transport history which in itself is unique can be laid down for all to read .
Roger Haywood
I will deffintly be on the waiting list for that one it sounds a good read
Another short story. On I think my first trip in my new Transcon in early 77 I collected a already loaded trailer from Bromilows yard it was loaded with thinners. The fact that I could not get a ferry should have set the alarms off. I ended up shipping out of Kings Lynn on Lynn Ferries, not a proper ferry but it was a Ro-Ro, I was the only passenger. When we docked in Hamburg on Sunday afternoon I was escorted to the on duty customs officer who looked at my paperwork and threw a wobbly he said it was too dangerous to stay in the dock and stamped my carnet. No problem I thought I’ll park in the St Paulli fish dock only to find when I drove out of the gate I was in the centre of Hamburg. I saw a sign that I recognized and started to drive towards Launeburg until I could find somewhere to park ( before the wall came down you could drive to and from Berlin with no problems). I had no Hazchem labels as they were not really in then, but I thought it was probably better to keep off the normal policed routes. We had German & Austrian permits by then so I drove down the motorway parallel to the Eastern Bloc border and got to Austria with no problems in fact I got right down to Dammam with no problems. The load was to be transhipped on to a dhow for Bahrain, that when the trouble started!
I parked alongside the Quay and waited for a gang to arrive they finally did full of enthusiasm (not) they took 2 sideboards off the trailer and put one from the trailer to the ground and the other one from the quay into the dhow. Then they spotted the red labels on the cardboard boxes that the gallon cans were in and promptly went on strike for danger money, the agent the gave me a bol******* because of the labels, asking why hadn’t I taken them off? Finally it was sorted and they started work sliding the cans down the sideboards into the dhow, some of them fell down and started leaking. The pic shows the dhow in front of my truck which I took while waiting for things to be sorted.
But under the covered section of the deck on the dhow that my load was going on was a bloke cooking on an open fire.As more cans were getting damaged and leaking I decided to be a long ways away and took my passport and hidden money and got out of the dock. I went back in at knocking off time to find my trailer empty the side boards replaced and the agent giving me another bol****** because he had to wait to sign my cmr’s. I risked looking into the dhow which was piled high with the thinners and the bloke was still cooking away. I don’t think that the thinners could have been as explosive as they should have been perhaps Delboy supplied them
Gavin
Hi There have been many posts on this thread and others as to why every driver didn’t have a V8 Scania or F16 on M/E, let me explain why I didn’t.
In the early 70’s Britain was in on -off recession & money was regulated much tighter than it has been IIRC it was compulsory to put down 33% deposit even then you had to beg for finance. Once they heard that you were considering foreign work they would worry. When M/E was mentioned they threw a wobbly. How could they reposses the vehicle from the M/E if something went wrong?So anything with a sleeper cab was suspect, a left ■■■■■■ was definately out. I had a Magirus Deutsh on order in 75 but when the finance co. discovered I was about to go abroad they cancelled the agreement. I ordered my new Transcon for delivery on Jan 1 77 and sold my Crusader in Saudi at the end of 76 by the time I got home with the cash deposit Ford finance had changed the rules and required a guarantor by the time I had sorted that out I had spent a lot of my deposit.
Besides not all foreign trucks at that time were (in some minds) wonderfull. F88’s went well but the brakes (compared to English trucks) not so good, 290’s were only in RHD ( I owned one in the 80’s and was glad I hadn’t tried to do M/E with it!) Scania’s only wanted to sell RHD and if you bought one from the local dealers in Salisbury you had to pay for all warranty work at the time and claim it back from Scania if you could later (handy if you spent all your money on the deposit and then had an engine problem)
140’s had a bit of problem in Saudi with the rear pistons over heating. DAF’s never came back to us at all when we enquired about 5 LHD’s & and early MAN’s couldn’t keep pistons in long enough to do a round trip.
So thats why we ran English trucks. To my mind if they were maintained properly and don’t forget most of them were not new, they were as reliable as the continental ones, but they were shorter wheelbase with shorter springs, except for the Crusader which had very long springs and was quite comfortable.
Gavin
Gavin McArdle:
Hi are you all bored by my stories by now or shall I keep rambling on?
Gavin
Ignore the pizza takers Gavin, just because some body didn’t do the job the same way as you doesn’t mean it’s not interesting.
Keep posting the brilliant photo’s mate.
Regards Steve
.
.
.