As far as I can remember Alcabar ,Daran.Damman, Riyad, 2,Jedda , and 1 to a bedi who I had to sit and wait for to come out of the desert ,Al Jaharni Astrans agent set this guy into the desert to find him ,7days of waiting time at 70 rls a day payed bye the bedi in cash on collection,3 days more from Astrans on return,the problem was collecting all the Taxes and returning the cash to the border ,so you had to go out the border u came in,I did hear a rumour of 2 trucks wont mention the company who had 2 sets of triptics ,colected a very large ammount of cash and went out through another Border,without checking my files it was a standard rate for Saudi about Ā£5750 I think plus Ā£150 for each drop not a lot as the fuel cost was very high at Ā£1.00 for 100 ltr happy days.
Will be at Gaydon on Sunday any old Freinds I will be with Ash in the Model building or at the Astran Truck hoping to help sell the book .
Not bad money at that time then Rogerā¦ā¦. You must have retired with your pockets full. Sadly I will not be able to make it to Gaydon on Sunday, I am still busy in Kuwait trying to become as wealthy as you
Wheel Nut:
As fuel and belly tanks were mentioned earlier by Gavin. I knew about the tank farm and had the theory demonstrated to me by the master himself; John Williams, while we were making breakfast in a layby near Plzen. we were blowing diesel and he was interested in my belly tank, it was an old DOW Freight trailer I had purloined and it had an 1600 litre tank slung underneath, John was crawling about under it and showed me the quick release straps and the fact it was held on by these over centre clips and just 4 large nuts that were undone with a wheel brace. The tank was round and could then be rolled out from under the trailer by one man. I never came across that one man who could move a tank weighing about a tonne and a half on loose sand After that I used to demonstrate the tank to other drivers and wanted to remove it just to see how easy it was. I never did and the trailer ended up at auction.
One final part about the fuel was that on my first few trips, it was a sharp learning curve. I had heard you could buy black market diesel in Hungary and that there was a government voucher scheme for foreigners, you were supposed to buy them from the border ātouristā office. I never did and went to a fuel station in a small town and just expected to fill up and be on my way. The things that followed was reminiscent of scenes from Hello Hello with the āI shall say ziz only onceā Michelle. Apparently the garage owner was perfectly willing to sell me 1000 litres of diesel for 300 deutsche marks, about Ā£100 I seem to remember. forgive my figures but it was 25 years ago.
But the cloak and dagger antics continued, they made me park near a disused building and pointed to a clock, they were pointing to about 7pm and I didnāt understand. Maybe they were expecting a delivery, maybe they closed at 7, but no, it was because they closed at 5 and locked up, eventually out of the shadows crept the girl from the resistance in Hello Hello and the āstupid policemanā. Michelle took my money and counted it, meanwhile the āstupid policemanā unfurled this hose out of this disused shed and it started to pump fuel into my belly tank. I donāt know how this blatant theft ever worked or was covered up but as an owner driver I was very happy, I used to buy red diesel in Belgium as it was half price of the UK and always bought some fuel for the return trip in Greece, again cheaply.
Hi Malc, this wouldnāt be the same trailer would it D44 complete with belly tank .
I.I.R.C. black market diesel in the Commie Block in 1980 was usually 300 litres for D.M.100 or 75 pound Sterling which equalled 3 to 1. On rare occasions you were lucky if you could get four to one but this was achievable by bartering a pair of Levi jeans or a calculator as part of the deal especially if you were away from the T.I.R. route. I also felt that getting cheap diesel was sometimes a cloak and dagger experience wondering if The Party secret police were going to walk out of the dark wearing their long black leather coats and I would end up spending the night in some dirty forgotton police cell, while the garage worker would end up spending the rest of his life in a Butlins Camp near a salt mine somewhere in Siberia . Having said that I can remember on two occasions when one of the fuel pump men actually ran out onto the road in Szeged and waved me in to fuel up. It turned out that some of his family lived in Austria and were coming for a visit but would only except hard currency for the presents that they were bringing .
Like the rest of the lads I always felt good after a fill up, with all my tanks full and a big grin on my face I canāt remember if it was because I had just pulled a fast one over the Communist Regime and got away with it or was it the extra cash that I had just made tax free .
Blimey u didnt do well I used to get 500 ltr for 100dm till the bloody Greeks started putting 5000 ltr belly tanks ,on there trucks, the fuel was then sold in Yugo for 5 times the price ,thats when the brain came into motion the guys in the pumps got greedy and lowerd the ammount ,the problem with the fuel was the sulpher content I took a sample to a freind and he said add some oil or you will kill the engine this I did every time I filled up ,adding to the red was the best way ,made the engine smoke a little but what did it matter if the rates had been better we would not have had to duck and dive so much, nevermind Happy Days
sinbin31:
ā¦bloody Greeks started putting 5000 ltr belly tanks ,on there trucksā¦
Five THOUSAND litre belly tanks!!
Jesus, they must have been some size!!!
Out of interest, lets assume you could actually use a tank that size when running to from the M/E and you filled up in say Doha to return home, what would it of cost to fill and how far would you have got before refuelling again, if at all??
Cheers, and lets keep the thread goingā¦any one found any new pics??
Bullittā¦ what Roger says is correct the Greeks definitely messed things up in Czech and Hungary and the Turks screwed things in Saudi all due to Greediness. You can see the Turk tanks on the previous page posted by GS, sometimes they were heavier empty than they were loadedā¦if that makes sense
5000 litresā¦I think at that time I was using 40 litres per 100KM so 5000 would have given a range of 12500km.
The cost in Saudi would have been 50GBP at that time (100 SR per 100 divided by 7 = 1GBP per 100 litre)
Micky Chinock used to fill his belly tank with Petrol in Saudi and sell it in Jordan for part cash and a refill of diesel and other times he would use the boat from Tartous to Volos and do a deal in Greece with the petrolā¦That man was wildā¦
Blimey u didnt do well I used to get 500 ltr for 100dm till the bloody Greeks started putting 5000 ltr belly tanks ,on there trucks, the fuel was then sold in Yugo for 5 times the price ,thats when the brain came into motion the guys in the pumps got greedy and lowerd the ammount ,the problem with the fuel was the sulpher content I took a sample to a freind and he said add some oil or you will kill the engine this I did every time I filled up ,adding to the red was the best way ,made the engine smoke a little but what did it matter if the rates had been better we would not have had to duck and dive so much, nevermind Happy Days
Roger Haywood
I found out about the fuel the hard way Roger. I too had my fuel analysed and it was that which voided my warranty, the DAF engine split a conrod down the oilway caused by detonation, it appeared like a banana through the side of the engine block, knocking the starter motor off in the process. This was about 5km from Romania. I got my truck recovered by Jogger John Roberts. In hindsight we should have towed it into Romania and sacrificed it to Romtrans with a few gallons of the crap fuel
Steve, the tank on my trailer was the same, but I think it was D45 which had rear doors and by that time had been tri axled. Lovely picture anyway, cheers
brookie:
By the way, was there a company from Dover (I think) called TAF, probably late 80ās early 90ās?
Regards,
Mark.
That would be TAFT International from the Thanet area of Kent.
Used to see them a lot at Frankfurt Airport early 90ās doing airfreight.
I think they are still going.
ive read all the pages in this topic and im reading cola cowboys according to the book there was alot of drivers killed by either fighting getting robbed or crashing also it was not a run favoured by the insurance companies as alot of stuff went missing,now it has been said in this thread that alot of poetic license was used in the book by the author so is it more fiction than fact lads cuz its kinda tarnished my view of the so called gold run.
It was a paperback & only cost Ā£1.19 ish . After this years reprints its probably all its worth today . I got a passion for ebay at the time . Judging by the authors report , there were some sheerious drinking stories going around .
THE BURPIN SAUSAGE:
WILL DO, AS IT HAPPENS JUST AVIN A COUPLE/HALF A DOZEN STUBBIES AT THE MOMENT,GOIN DOWN A TREAT.WISH I COULD AV KEPT IT GOIN FOR LONGER,BUT NEVER MINDā¦BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND HERE SO AVIN A BIT OF A JOLLY UP TOMORROW AND SUNDAY,MEETIN UP WITH PETER KING TOMORROW SO SHOULD BE FUN.YAKSHAMLA
hiya phil say hello to peter king for me mate its benny . hope you like it down there hope you and ya family are ok email me and tell peter to email me its paulonfair@hotmail.co.uk keep in touch larrrrr
harry: Cola Cowboys was a wonderful book ; it was given to me as a present years ago & I sold it last year for over Ā£70 ! Pure magic !
I got it as a gift years ago & never read it, I sold it on Flea bay too for around Ā£70 earlier this year. I then saw it in Colsterworth cafe in paperback for Ā£10 last week so I bought it, read it & thoroughly enjoyed it. I only wish I could turn such profits operating a lorry
Carl:
ive read all the pages in this topic and im reading cola cowboys according to the book there was alot of drivers killed by either fighting getting robbed or crashing also it was not a run favoured by the insurance companies as alot of stuff went missing,now it has been said in this thread that alot of poetic license was used in the book by the author so is it more fiction than fact lads cuz its kinda tarnished my view of the so called gold run.
To anyone that never did the m/e,itās indeed an interesting read.
However,those who did drive the m/e,can pick quite a few holes in it.
There were quite a number of drivers who lost their lives over the years,but not so many in so short a time I think.
The author travelled with Trevor Long,and he only covered the one trip so there were many routes he did not travel,crossing the desert from H4 to Saudi for example,but did make reference to it,but as he heard it from Trevor and other drivers.
In more than one instance he talks of having all the wheels in the air or a wheel off the road over a sheer drop.
Donāt forget,this was a professional author and he knew how to write and make people sit up and take in what he was writing,so he had to inject a little drama to give the book some spice.
I wouldnāt say it was fiction in the book,but the facts were spiced up to give it some clout to make it more exiting to Joe public,and some of the stories were what he heard about,not what he actually did.
I hope in my book to keep everything factual,'cause I hope there may be some ex m/e men who may read it,and I donāt wish to have them picking the bones out of it.I may inject a little humour in my anecdotes,but everything thatās in there actually happened.
Some old m/e men may think itās boring and be able to top any tale I may tell,OK,so write your own account,Iād rather be boring to some than be picked up on details of my anecdotes.
I would like to think that as Truckerash says of his book,that it appeals to all,truck drivers and arm chair travellers alike.
To clarify my statement on the Greeks 5000 ltr bellytanks this was a small tank some had bigger.they were not used for the ME only Greeks doing Europe the Tank was dropped in Hungary and collected on the way home , filled up and they took the back road to Nis where locals would wait with tractors and trailers loaded with 45 gallon oil drums and DMs (Not Doc Martins) now where they got them from I dont know,another reason why the backloads from Greece paid sht money
You must have retired with your pockets full. 
After that I used to demonstrate the tank to other drivers and wanted to remove it just to see how easy it was. I never did and the trailer ended up at auction.
. Having said that I can remember on two occasions when one of the fuel pump men actually ran out onto the road in Szeged and waved me in to fuel up. It turned out that some of his family lived in Austria and were coming for a visit but would only except hard currency for the presents that they were bringing 
.
