News Flash to all Ken Corrigans mates and well wishers. I ve just spoken to Ken via Skype after receiving an injection he did nt say where he s now feeling so much better that he s going out with Jack Richardson for his first pint in nearly 3 months. Good on him ,regards Crow.
Thats great news , hope he can make it to the dow do next month.Regards foden 46
geoffthecrowtaylor:
News Flash to all Ken Corrigans mates and well wishers. I ve just spoken to Ken via Skype after receiving an injection he did nt say where he s now feeling so much better that he s going out with Jack Richardson for his first pint in nearly 3 months. Good on him ,regards Crow.
it may turn out to be a spinal injection of steroids. They call it Trigger Point Surgery and is often used in arthritis and spinal deformity. I had one in July but it hasnât kicked in yet. 
It isnât dangerous and it is not surgery but the do it in an operating theatre with a local anaesthetic before the BIG needle 
Here you are Crow,repairing the clutch on F89 at Gaziantep.You can see Graham Hazelhurst and his wig behind the truck.
Good infomative pics bruv.Do like your comments about Carbons wanderings, was discussing this with Corrie yesterday. I thought he was going to give himself ahernia he was laughing so much in amazement.As for you Steve as a member of an ever decreasing select Band of Brothers I m disappointed nay dismayed that you put so much stock in these ramblings. I did point out the other day that this has no place on American Junk etc. but wsa immediately attacked by some Buffoon calling himself Jimbosucks or Jimbo trux. I ve no further interest in it and it s sad Carbon that your print run was only 90 copies. Maybe it was aimed at Ladies of the Cloth who were looking for extra curricular tittilation. Wait a minute whats that noise outside Christ it s a mountain lion where did I put that tin of WD40.Fond regards to all Crow.
Steve just for you I ve been trawling thru my memory to find atale worth telling and in an attempt to take some of the Flak off Carbon. Now heres one that should amuse you. Was loaded for Sliven Bulgaria with half of a carpet making machine from Lancashire, my wife Susan was with me it was before we had the kids.After an uneventful run we re having the night at the Nacional. There s a good crew including Chambo and John Willie with Violet which had a knackered diff. There s also an F88 wagon and drag of Deutrans 2 drivers natch. Anyway they re loaded with furniture for where ever. They dropped the tailboard on the trailer and we had an impromptu party there in the car park, cooked meats bread salad and beer, excellent.The following day lunch at Nis Motel with Chambo, as you know the road splits at Nis and Chambo was going to Athens so we split up there.No customs clearance now at Kalotina the wkisky scam had been exposed so it s Despred at Sofia central. Parks up there and the other half of the machine is there. This is the amusing part, it s arented Wheels tractor and a rented Gullivers trailer. Talk about clueless the 2 oafs driving it had nt got a stove or a plate between them,they had a pan and were living off beans and bread one with the pan the other with the lid. The trailer was the type with sideskirts and their belly tank was a 45 gallon drum strapped to the spare wheel carrier.We got cleared that afternoon and we re off to Sliven thats well before Pyce Russe to you Carbon and off to the right.They re leading they ve got a tourist map. I said before you get to Sliven keep looking for a spoon and fork sign we ll park up there for the night and i ll buy you your dinner.About 2 km before Sliven there it is on the left it s dark now and our heroes go straight past I catch them up at the roundabout for Sliven bollock them and we turn round and go back to the restaurant.We order 4 different meals but all finish up with sausage egg and chips lovely and plenty of Pleven Pivo I d got Leva which i d got on the black so it cost the equivalent of about 30 bob for the lot .Factory Georgi Sakiloff next day. A Russian built crane is going to unload us nice â â â â â â â sounding engine.Now this guy is determined to get unloaded before me he d been out about 10 days mainly due to problems caused by their own ineptness so what i ve only been out5. Lunch at the factory canteen best described as bone soup horrible no wine just water. Right now we re off going to the duty free shop just outside Sofia and now their problems are really going to begin they ve just enough diesel to make Sofia not a problem really you can get diesel there buy coupons or use the universal D mark Well i don t need any diesel i d got rafts at Dragoman but guess what no coupons at the duty free shop and our heroes have nt any marks, bloody hell what next.I sold them marks for pounds 3 to 1 was the rate and buggered off away from them then ran upto the Nacional John Willie still there but his replacement diff had arrived strapped to his mates spare wheel.We all mucked in and changed but he had nt got a new gasket so it was siliconed and we rolled the scrap one into the bushes.A big heavy double reduction job similar to the early Scanias. We never did hear of our heroes again you never know they might have been eaten by bears and their rig now completely covered with trees and undergrowth waiting to be discovered like a crashed WW2 bomber. Its a bit long winded boys but its the best i could do it is all true have a nice day Crow.
Hello Crow, itâs great to know that Ken is on the mend and hopefully he will be fit enough for the reunion next month. Give him my best regards and can you ask him if he has heard anything from John Roberts. The last time that John sent me a message was to say that he and Ken had been to Alfie Jones funeral which was well over a year ago. I am sure that John like Ken would have loads of interesting stories to tell and itâs a shame that they never wrote them down.
Did you load your carpet making machine from Cobbles Engineering. Roman Road Industrial Estate, Blackburn. 
. Your story reminded me of when Howard Hughes and myself picked up a load of copper from somewhere near Lake Balaton (for Leicester I think it was) and we met two owner driver from London. They fell out with me big time because I wouldnât sell them my spare wheel but thatâs another story for another day.
Apart from Chris Arbons posts on this forum I donât think that I ever met him but as you will well know you canât remember everybody who you met over thirty years ago. However Geoff, I have a strange feeling that you might remember him from somewhere and that you obviously know something about him that I donât.
Anyway the whole point of an internet forum is for people who have a similar interest in something, to discuss, share stories and it wouldnât be a real drivers forum if the odd tall tale was never mentioned. Now I must admit that I have never been confronted with a bear and a tin of W.D. 40 but apart from that there are a couple of things that Chris has mentioned that really have had me thinking âthat reminds me of that time whenâ and it has certainly brought a smile to my face and cheered me up for the rest of the day.
As I have mentioned on here before, I finished my continental driving experience back in 1987 but the friends that were still running down there told me that after the Iron Curtain was opened up the job changed completely and I have very little idea of what went on after that.
With Chrisâs last post this morning I was disappointed that he mentioned our man from The Forest Of Dean by name and I am now wondering what else is to come.
I am aware that all the stories of driving down to the Middle East will never be told as they actually happened, some of them should be left alone to protect the innocent and the not so innocent. Maybe this is also one of the reasons why so many old hands like to look on here but prefer not to post anything.
Until I have read Chrisâs book all the way through then it might be better if I donât make any more comments about it as I would hate to dismay anybody else 
.
Regards Steve.
Steve to the best of my knowledge I ve never met the fellow Arbon is not avery common English name I knew and liked Howard Hughes and unlike alot of other drivers got on with him very well in fact it was Howard who introduced me to the delights of tinned herring fillets i was very sad when Corrie told me about his demise and the equally sad circumstances surrounding it. If you are on SKYPE you can get hold of Corrie at ken corrigan 2. I don t think he is going to this years Dow reunion but you never know.I can t remember the name of the Co. where i loaded most probably Blackburn I do know that Bowkers did a lot of work for them. Were you amused in my last tale of the probability of our heroes being eaten by bears what a pair of plonkers how not to do the job.As i said before it s difficult to recall amusing and eventful trips but like the last one sometimes you get a flash of inspiration apart from the bears its all true no consolidation. As an after thought John Willie got Violet home but because no gasket between diff housing and diff lost all the oil. Silicone is no substitute for a steel gasket. There does nt appear to be any love lost between our Tony and Carbon can t blame him Tony that is however maybe Carbons needling may spring something to Tony s mind regards Crow.
Geoff, I can put my hand on my heart and say that I introduced Howard Hughes to tins of John West Kipper Fillets and John West tinned Herrings. They used to be in flat oval tins with a ring pull and you only had to put the tin in a pan of boiling hot water for five minutes and then put them on a piece of buttered toast 
. I was upset when I heard of Howards death even though I only found out about six months later, he never did me any harm in fact we had a few good runs together although he could be a bit pompous at times.
Peter The Plater used to tell me that you couldnât get tinned beetroot in South Wales and I believed him, so I would end up giving him a tin if I had any as he was always going further than I was. Looking back, he was probably pulling my leg but I was more than happy to let him have a tin as he was more than generous when he was making Vienna Snitzels from the his trailer box .
I canât remember where I took this photo when I was running with Howard, Diane was his wifeâs name.
Regards Steve.
Good on you Steve I could eat atin right now and they were in a flat oval ring pull tin which reminds me of another product in a larger oval tin sliced roast beef in gravy. We used the lids bent L shaped tucked into the windscreen rubber on the driving side on the 89s to stop the wipers wiping the mirror arm worked perfectly but the constant banging when the wiper hit it used to drive me mad, Volvos never did solve the problem and this was with bottom mounted electric not air but just as bad for such a quality truck what a crap system .Do pour yourself an extra 4x for the herrings regards Crow.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Good on you Steve I could eat atin right now and they were in a flat oval ring pull tin which reminds me of another product in a larger oval tin sliced roast beef in gravy. We used the lids bent L shaped tucked into the windscreen rubber on the driving side on the 89s to stop the wipers wiping the mirror arm worked perfectly but the constant banging when the wiper hit it used to drive me mad, Volvos never did solve the problem and this was with bottom mounted electric not air but just as bad for such a quality truck what a crap system .Do pour yourself an extra 4x for the herrings regards Crow.
Hi Steve/Geoff - Always great to bring up such characters as Howard Hughes (RIP) I always reckoned that man and looked forward to meeting up with him, as you know he knew every trick in the book and took more chances than I ever would, the last time that I saw him was at Mammaâs at Spefeld when he had a Trans-Con- His exploits were always good to listen to and he would command a lot of interest true or false who cared ? - a great character - I think back over the years and wonder who had the better tales to tell, was it Howard or my old mate Len Humphries (RIP) I have mentioned this little quip on an earlier post but I thought it was worth another mention - Regards to all - Fred
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Good on you Steve I could eat atin right now and they were in a flat oval ring pull tin which reminds me of another product in a larger oval tin sliced roast beef in gravy. We used the lids bent L shaped tucked into the windscreen rubber on the driving side on the 89s to stop the wipers wiping the mirror arm worked perfectly but the constant banging when the wiper hit it used to drive me mad, Volvos never did solve the problem and this was with bottom mounted electric not air but just as bad for such a quality truck what a crap system .Do pour yourself an extra 4x for the herrings regards Crow.
As I remember Geoff,the early F88s had top mounted air wipers.The were a real pain in backside.When you put your foot down the â â â â things all but stopped,when you let your foot up they went so fast they nearly flew off the windscreen.Do you remember the one that Geoff Cartledge had?.I think it was one of the first in the UK,the radiator expansion tank was on the back wall inside the cab and it had massive prototype tacho as well.
Hello Fred don t think i ve had the pleasure of meeting you but i m glad you re a Howardphile. I first met him in Greece we were both tippingDTs groupage at Aspro something christ the memory is really going now they were DTs partners in Greece can t even remember their name, was it Omega or something no doubt some one on here will remember. I m off to the boozer Fred stay lucky regards Crow.
I remember Cartledges F88 it was J reg so not one of the first and as regards the wiper set up until the intro of the plastic grille in 1973 all the wipers were top mounted, air wipers continued until the cab trim changed from blue to brown Preg or 1975. Despite ajustments on the linkage they were still a waste of space. Not only that all the British spec F89s had a shorter wheel base 3.8 compared to 4.2 on the others which had a 2 piece prop shaft with centre bearing, parabolic springs and rear shock absorbers. In other words abetter spec than those that we had Tony.there were also quite a few other differences no matter still a good truck. Crow.
mushroomman:
Hello Crow, itâs great to know that Ken is on the mend and hopefully he will be fit enough for the reunion next month. Give him my best regards and can you ask him if he has heard anything from John Roberts. The last time that John sent me a message was to say that he and Ken had been to Alfie Jones funeral which was well over a year ago. I am sure that John like Ken would have loads of interesting stories to tell and itâs a shame that they never wrote them down.
Did you load your carpet making machine from Cobbles Engineering. Roman Road Industrial Estate, Blackburn.
Apart from Chris Arbons posts on this forum I donât think that I ever met him but as you will well know you canât remember everybody who you met over thirty years ago. However Geoff, I have a strange feeling that you might remember him from somewhere and that you obviously know something about him that I donât.
Anyway the whole point of an internet forum is for people who have a similar interest in something, to discuss, share stories and it wouldnât be a real drivers forum if the odd tall tale was never mentioned. Now I must admit that I have never been confronted with a bear and a tin of W.D. 40 but apart from that there are a couple of things that Chris has mentioned that really have had me thinking âthat reminds me of that time whenâ and it has certainly brought a smile to my face and cheered me up for the rest of the day.
As I have mentioned on here before, I finished my continental driving experience back in 1987 but the friends that were still running down there told me that after the Iron Curtain was opened up the job changed completely and I have very little idea of what went on after that.
With Chrisâs last post this morning I was disappointed that he mentioned our man from The Forest Of Dean by name and I am now wondering what else is to come.
I am aware that all the stories of driving down to the Middle East will never be told as they actually happened, some of them should be left alone to protect the innocent and the not so innocent. Maybe this is also one of the reasons why so many old hands like to look on here but prefer not to post anything.
Until I have read Chrisâs book all the way through then it might be better if I donât make any more comments about it as I would hate to dismay anybody elseRegards Steve.
I wrote this piece of doggerel in about 15 mins,I thought it might amuse you Steve.(a small adventure of Chris Carbon)It was a cold wintery day when Chris left the office of Fredrick J Archer,climbed into the cab of his 10 pistoned mercedes and set off on the long journey to Istanbul.He had got a good load for once,Fred was notorious for giving Chris the more difficult jobs.That didnât bother Chris though,in fact he took it as a backhanded compliment.This time however Fredrick J had taken pity on him and given him a cream loadâa full load of sky hooks to be delivered to the glider engine factory situated in spitting distance of Londra Camping.âAbout time I got a decent job for a changeâ mutterd Chris to himself,pleased at last to have an easy ride.On the way down to Dover he passed some of Archerâs drivers on their way back to the yard at Ipswich.One was trying to impart some information over the cb.âdo you copy Chris?â he asked "all the time "replied Mr Carbon.As most trips are monotomous and mudane Chris reached the Romanian border without incident.He left the border at Arrad in the afternoon,keeping a sharp lookout for itinerant non hibernating bears.âYou canât trust them â â â â â â â bears over hereâ he mused âtheyâll have your spare wheel away in the blink of an eyeâ.His blood ran cold as recalled a particulary nasty occurance that happened on a previous trip.Only his quick wits,a can of wd40 and a cigarette ligher had saved him from certain death at the claws of a huge rabid ravaging bear.From the safety of his cab he had stared at the smoking,singed brute.Now,bear language wasnât one of Chrisâs strong points,but he had learned enough to lip read.He was sure the bear saying âFredrick J Archer Ipswich Iâll remember youâ,but he seemed to be having a problem pronouncing âIpswichâ."Maybe I should use my brains this time,and park at a truck stop"he said to himself.Chris reached Londra Camping in the evening a couple of days later.There was a light dusting of snow covering the frozen ground as he alighted from the cab and started to make his way to the restraunt.As he neared the restraunt he saw something out of the corner of his eye,he stooped down to pick it up and was pleased to see it was a 50 pound note.He examined closely and muttered âfrom the feel of this paper I think this was made in the Forest of Dean and not too long ago eitherâ."still itâs better in my pocket,itâll buy a few F Sâs and a couple of trips to the pig alley,although I must get rid of it quickly,I wouldnât want to incriminate myself in something illegal,better to let others take the rap.After a good dinner and quite a lot of F S Chris and a couple of other drivers decide to go to the red light district.In the dim half light of the room Chris stripped off and prepared for action. He had chosen a pretty little dark haired haired girl with a good figure,she looked shyly at him as she spread herself on the bed.Turkish was not one of Chrisâs strong points,but he had learned enough to lip read.He was sure she was saying âGosh look at the size of that dâŚkâ,although he wasnât really sure if she meant him or his wedding tackleâŚmaybe to be continuedâŚ
Hi Geoffthecrowtaylor, Iâm afraid Iâm going to have to take issue with you on the F88 air wipers; we had a J and K reg 88 with metal grilles and the air version but when we got new L regs with the plastic grills and blue interiors they all had electric wipers.
chazzer:
Hi Geoffthecrowtaylor, Iâm afraid Iâm going to have to take issue with you on the F88 air wipers; we had a J and K reg 88 with metal grilles and the air version but when we got new L regs with the plastic grills and blue interiors they all had electric wipers.
Me too, but my issue is the wheelbases in that back in the 70âs most UK Volvoâs were only 3.2 or 3.4m wb, 3.8m units only really came along in the mid to late 80âs with longer necked trailers. I had an Xreg F1220 which had the optional longer wheelbase of 3.6m where most F1217âs only had a 3.4m wheelbase.
I donât doubt that there could have been longer WB F89âs in some countries, but the couple I drove were no longer than 3.4m & one of them was Dutch registered.
Ross.
Well boys im afraid i have to disagree i drove a brand new F88 for Springfield Transport 1973 blue trim air wipers the first F89 me and our Tony bought SVT 953N 1974 blue trim cab air wipers as i said brown trim cab 1975 first 290s electric wipers the other 3 89s we had were all 1977 S reg which was the last year no matter what anyone says that they were produced replaced by F10 and F12.Regarding wheelbases if you look at the pics of the 89s leaving us you will see that the air stack is missing off TTX132S this was because that trailer it was coupled to in another pic is a long neck or long pin type very close to the cab and obviously a 13.6m you could nt turn on full lock with the air stack fitted.It naturally follows that as most foreign trailers especially French were of the long pin type their wheelbases were longer than ours. The way out of this for British hauliers was the sliding 5th wheel UNF497S was the only one of ours fitted with one of these,I kid you not if you could put the two models side by side you would see the difference immediately.regards Crow.We ll not split hairs over actual wheelbase lengths but like as in a joke i can remember when looking at one of STGautiers a French co. that ran a lot of 89s,his is longer than mine.
Amusing little ditty that Tony your imagination is equal to your subjects.You re right Steve in Carbons previous post that was indeed a mega faux pas,it won tguarantee an increase in his readership but it will guarantee him a knee in the knackers at least should the person concerned ever trip over him. What was the old adage no names no pack drill. Now where did i leave me wallet. Crow.
bigr250:
chazzer:
Hi Geoffthecrowtaylor, Iâm afraid Iâm going to have to take issue with you on the F88 air wipers; we had a J and K reg 88 with metal grilles and the air version but when we got new L regs with the plastic grills and blue interiors they all had electric wipers.Me too, but my issue is the wheelbases in that back in the 70âs most UK Volvoâs were only 3.2 or 3.4m wb, 3.8m units only really came along in the mid to late 80âs with longer necked trailers. I had an Xreg F1220 which had the optional longer wheelbase of 3.6m where most F1217âs only had a 3.4m wheelbase.
I donât doubt that there could have been longer WB F89âs in some countries, but the couple I drove were no longer than 3.4m & one of them was Dutch registered.
Ross.
I was going to say the same, most units were 3.4, it was the rise in weights before lorries such as the DAF 3300 that came with 3.8 wheelbase. But it doesnât detract from Geoffs story so I didnât mention it.
My own Saviem was only about 3.2 and I had an old DOW tilt with a dual position pin which sorted the problem for me, before we had sliders