bestbooties:
jsutherland:
How cold could it get at night in winter? I read somewhere on this forum that it was under -25C sometimes. How did the night heater perform in such conditions? Come to think about it, were night heaters around in the early 70s or was it more a case of wrapping up in a couple of sleeping bags?
On one trip during the winter,I was driving through Germany heading for Waidhaus and I wondered why there were so many trucks of all nationalities on the hard shoulder of the autobahn.
Not only that,although I was warm enough in the cab with the heater on,there was no outside temperature readout like you have today,the humidity in the cab was freezing on the INSIDE of my drivers window
Much the same happened. I had my DAF at the time and was heading into Czech through Schirnding. However when I got to the lanes at the top, all the lanes were full, all the red lights were showing and I had done enough that day. So I pulled in, had a cuppa and went to bed like toast. The night heater was buzzing away, until about 2.30 and I woke up frozen. I got my tools out and dismantled the night heater to no avail.
I got wrapped up the best I could and shivered all night, in the morning the lanes were still full. I sat in the drivers seat with the engine running, a â â â in hand, when I wound the window down it broke, the glass was still up, or so I thought, it was a quarter inch sheet of ice 
I took a waddle down the hill. Well with some shinier shoes I could have beaten the land speed record. They had tried clearing the ice, they had salted, yet the surface was still treacherous. The border may be closed until lunchtime and it was. I remember the German customs guy inviting a few drivers into his office to warm up and he said it was the coldest night ever recorded in that part of Czech and he had worked there for 30 years.
bestbooties:
jsutherland:
How cold could it get at night in winter? I read somewhere on this forum that it was under -25C sometimes. How did the night heater perform in such conditions? Come to think about it, were night heaters around in the early 70s or was it more a case of wrapping up in a couple of sleeping bags?
On one trip during the winter,I was driving through Germany heading for Waidhaus and I wondered why there were so many trucks of all nationalities on the hard shoulder of the autobahn.
Not only that,although I was warm enough in the cab with the heater on,there was no outside temperature readout like you have today,the humidity in the cab was freezing on the INSIDE of my drivers window
When I got into Czech,there was parked up motors everywhere and I knew it was cold,but when I got to the service area on the motorway south of Prague to park up,went to bed with the night heater on,but after an hour it packed up,so I started the engine.That ran for half an hour before that stopped also.
With two layers of clothing on and inside my sleeping bag,I was [zb] frozen stiff,where ever I lay I was getting pains,it turned out to be hypothermia.In the early hours I along with some other drivers bailed out and went into the motel where it was lovely and warm,and they had a temperature gauge showing the outside temperature was minus 36!After that,I modified my night heater with a separate fuel supply so I could run it on a 50/50 mix of petrol and diesel.
There was several of us from Expo Freight there,as well as myself,there was Alan Jones and Gordon McMillan.
We had to use a tin of grease with a rag in it set alight under the derv tanks to thaw them out.
This was my motor with Alan Jones stood in front.
Bestbooties - sounds like we live in luxury these days compared to then! Thanks for sharing your experience. Can the night heaters these days cope with such extreme temperatures?
jsutherland:
Bestbooties - sounds like we live in luxury these days compared to then! Thanks for sharing your experience. Can the night heaters these days cope with such extreme temperatures?
No better in standard conditions as they still draw derv from the main tank.
Unless the diesel is treated to withstand such low temperatures,in the main tank it will wax up so both the engine and night heater will be starved.
I once spoke to a Danish driver in the Mocamp who told me that you never see a Scandinavian truck froze up,because they add Brake fluid to their derv,apparently a cupfull is all thatâs needed added to a full tank of diesel.
Never had the opportunity to try it.
it definatley worked for me never had problems with brake fluid in the tank,parked up with mickey hawkins one night in domasov no prob with night heater as we had tank on the back of the truck,got to raika mickey decided to knock the icicles off his air tank nocked the valve off, had to jam it with a piece of wood and limped down to hungaro cammion in mossanmagurover to get it fixed
Never ever had frozen fuel anyone who ever looked close at my Volvo would have spotted the stainless steel pipe running from the Engine through the tank down round the pickup pipe and back to the Engine ,tapping into high and low pressure on the cooling system enabled the coolant to flow through the pipe ,a manual shutoff valve closed the system, in summer or when you got into the hotter countrys, anymore info will cost an Arm and a Leg 
Roger
i was going over shipka in john willies victoria, temp around -15 when the turk in front of me lost traction, it was one of those little multi coloured fiats. i was last in the line, they all got going but i couldnt get around the first hairpin, ended up sliding back into the ditch. they had shut the road behind me so no one else came along. i kept the engine running for the first day and night but the derv froze on the second night. luckily john had got me a new âtoyâ, a russian tank drivers survival suit. i got into that and a sleeping bag AND a duvet and was warm as toast all night. i managed to clear my fuel pipes by the next afternoon and kept the engine running on higher revs the following night. next morning a grader came down and towed me out, the turks hadnt realised i was behind them and had told the grader driver they were the last lorries.
ASH, my missus bought me your book for christmas, i didnt put it down for two days, its brilliant, THANKS
jsutherland:
bestbooties:
jsutherland:
How cold could it get at night in winter? I read somewhere on this forum that it was under -25C sometimes. How did the night heater perform in such conditions? Come to think about it, were night heaters around in the early 70s or was it more a case of wrapping up in a couple of sleeping bags?
On one trip during the winter,I was driving through Germany heading for Waidhaus and I wondered why there were so many trucks of all nationalities on the hard shoulder of the autobahn.
Not only that,although I was warm enough in the cab with the heater on,there was no outside temperature readout like you have today,the humidity in the cab was freezing on the INSIDE of my drivers window
When I got into Czech,there was parked up motors everywhere and I knew it was cold,but when I got to the service area on the motorway south of Prague to park up,went to bed with the night heater on,but after an hour it packed up,so I started the engine.That ran for half an hour before that stopped also.
With two layers of clothing on and inside my sleeping bag,I was [zb] frozen stiff,where ever I lay I was getting pains,it turned out to be hypothermia.In the early hours I along with some other drivers bailed out and went into the motel where it was lovely and warm,and they had a temperature gauge showing the outside temperature was minus 36!After that,I modified my night heater with a separate fuel supply so I could run it on a 50/50 mix of petrol and diesel.
There was several of us from Expo Freight there,as well as myself,there was Alan Jones and Gordon McMillan.
We had to use a tin of grease with a rag in it set alight under the derv tanks to thaw them out.
This was my motor with Alan Jones stood in front.
Bestbooties - sounds like we live in luxury these days compared to then! Thanks for sharing your experience. Can the night heaters these days cope with such extreme temperatures?
Who is this Alice who all these old M.E. drivers keep talking about 
she didnât play the saxaphone did she 
.
I drove a German truck which was fitted with a Trumatic Gas heater, two gas cylinders mounted on the chassis provided the heat and it was available almost anywhere. Much better for cold weather as it didnt wax up like diesel, although a mate of mine had a petrol driven Eberspacher in his Komatsu digger
fly sheet:
There you go wheel nut Iâve posted this before on here I think, its in Yugo years ago he was loaded with sweets from Istanbul dunno who the driver is/was he ran up with Me & Alex Ross for a day or 2 until he got fed up with our antics!
Fly sheet
Re the F88 Victoria i now have this truck being used on the show circuit only just started looking at trucknetuk so not very sure how to comunicate through it
Baltic convoys must have been the coldest . . . Uncle Alberts lighter froze !! 
spanners:
fly sheet:
There you go wheel nut Iâve posted this before on here I think, its in Yugo years ago he was loaded with sweets from Istanbul dunno who the driver is/was he ran up with Me & Alex Ross for a day or 2 until he got fed up with our antics!
Fly sheet
Re the F88 Victoria i now have this truck being used on the show circuit only just started looking at trucknetuk so not very sure how to comunicate through it
The driver of that is 3 posts above this one, called Exmoor Badger
The tin hat is on at a jaunty angle. A la D/D
John(gifted mechanic)make a drama out of a crisis . . take the hubs off . . . thats a bad egg that is - you eat it.
Am i the only one thinking that Frank Hook couldnt wait to see the back of him ?
mushroomman:
Who is this Alice who all these old M.E. drivers keep talking about she didnât play the saxaphone did she .
Hi Steve - Surprised that donât remember Alice, she always spoke well of you !! ========= (Joke Mrs Steve)
sinbin31:
Never ever had frozen fuel anyone who ever looked close at my Volvo would have spotted the stainless steel pipe running from the Engine through the tank down round the pickup pipe and back to the Engine ,tapping into high and low pressure on the cooling system enabled the coolant to flow through the pipe ,a manual shutoff valve closed the system, in summer or when you got into the hotter countrys, anymore info will cost an Arm and a Leg
Roger
Hi Roger,
what a great idea. You should have patented it!! You might have been retiring in luxury 
I know a few on here think you retired in luxury anyway.
Were the belly tanks used in winter at all, or was it too risky? The diesel might become frozen inside it and be there for a few weeks. 
jsutherland:
Were the belly tanks used in winter at all, or was it too risky? The diesel might become frozen inside it and be there for a few weeks.
Belly tanks were used all year round, Diesel doesnât actually freeze, it waxes, or rather the wax in the paraffin begins to set. The filter gets a coating of wax, this is the reason an engine will start up and idle but will not develop enough power to drive.
So to âblowâ a belly tank is no problem as the pipes are up to 1ââ bore unlike a few microns of a fuel filter.
Normally a fuel filter heater is more than enough to prevent fuel âwaxingâ
freshir:
mushroomman:
Who is this Alice who all these old M.E. drivers keep talking about she didnât play the saxaphone did she .
Hi Steve - Surprised that donât remember Alice, she always spoke well of you !! ========= (Joke Mrs Steve)
ORRR thanks Fred 
, now you have come to mention it she always spoke well of you too
and the other Grangewood drivers,
and the Pan Express drivers,
and the Falcongate drivers,
and the Whittles drivers,
and the Rumanian Tank Corp ========(Joke Mrs Fred).
jsutherland:
How cold could it get at night in winter? I read somewhere on this forum that it was under -25C sometimes. How did the night heater perform in such conditions? Come to think about it, were night heaters around in the early 70s or was it more a case of wrapping up in a couple of sleeping bags?
When my father did the first ME trip in winter 74/75 there was about -40C in Turkey and he didnât know how bad the local fuel was so his diesel waxed somewhere in the mountains. He used boiling pot and diesel to make fire under tank to warm the fuel and make engine run properly again. After that he always used 10% mix of gasoline to prevent waxing. That truck was usually driven by another driver who was not very happy what his pot was used for!
If itâs colder than -20C I donât stop the engine for night even today. We always throw the night heater fuelfilter away to prevent it plugging, it doesnât need it.
V8Lenny:
If itâs colder than -20C I donât stop the engine for night even today. We always throw the night heater fuelfilter away to prevent it plugging, it doesnât need it.
That reminds me of the small prefilter in the rear of a DAF pump, like a peltit plate on a Ford gearbox, it doesnt need it!
Wheel Nut:
spanners:
fly sheet:
There you go wheel nut Iâve posted this before on here I think, its in Yugo years ago he was loaded with sweets from Istanbul dunno who the driver is/was he ran up with Me & Alex Ross for a day or 2 until he got fed up with our antics!
Fly sheet
Re the F88 Victoria i now have this truck being used on the show circuit only just started looking at trucknetuk so not very sure how to comunicate through it
The driver of that is 3 posts above this one, called Exmoor Badger
Tell you something, i met john a few times, and i always enjoyed his company, and i also know what happened to that trailerâŚ!
