or the ones prancing round the services just waiting for a fridge to pull in
Are you parking ?
Yes
Is the fridge running ?
Yes its a load of frozen
I can’t sleep beside a running fridge
Its going to be a long night for you sunshine - keep and eye out and don’t let anyone turn it off like a good lad .
I had an empty fridge on , it wasn’t even running and I was only stopping for a 45 minute break lol
In the early days on Swifts we had a guy called ‘Jock Shepherd’ who drove a Mandator, he made a folding bed behind the seats that dropped down and rested on the steering wheel, one week he was on holiday and another guy took his lorry out, he had to do an emergency stop and the bed fell down and trapped him, the police had to get him out 
To my mind trucks reached their pinnacle around 2000 to 2005ish then started going downhill. Before that period cabs weren’t big enough, night heaters could be temperamental, gearboxes were clunky and aircon was rare.
Since that period retarded auto boxes took off (still to my amazement), emissions laws strangling engines, too many sensors giving false alarms meaning non breakdowns. ‘My’ 2018 truck hasn’t done 30000 kms yet but already the orange EML has had to be knocked off twice!!! The radio has crapped out 3 times and is now being replaced!
As I said, at the turn of the century everything was just about sorted, they were reliable and manual gearboxes were nice and straightforward to use. They also didn’t seem to suffer electronic glitches all the time, they were analogue so got fixed by a bloke knowing what he was doing with tools, not a bloke scratching his head staring at a laptop screen [emoji23]
I think you’re on to something there; however I don’t think it’s so much the proliferation of idiot lights on the dashboard so much as management’s slavish insistence that we stop and call a wrecker every time one comes on.
Pretty much every old Volvo I ever drove at Owens’ back around 2003/4 had the ABS light permanently lit, “they all do that sir”… but as we all know if the Vostapo detect the slightest hint of one having been flashing these days it’s money in the bank for them, the management cop a visit and it’s hassle all round.
FFS it’s not as if lorries didn’t stop before ABS was invented.
tallant:
SuperMultiBlue:
[zb] me what a hero.Would have got used to all you said in 5 mins and cracked on.
Imagine perpetually being in desperation to be acknowledged as a hero
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Ooh!.. but I bet you could if you really tried.
robroy:
tallant:
SuperMultiBlue:
[zb] me what a hero.Would have got used to all you said in 5 mins and cracked on.
Imagine perpetually being in desperation to be acknowledged as a hero
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Ooh!.. but I bet you could if you really tried.
Log off ■■■■■■■■
nomiS36:
To my mind trucks reached their pinnacle around 2000 to 2005ish then started going downhill. Before that period cabs weren’t big enough, night heaters could be temperamental, gearboxes were clunky and aircon was rare.
Since that period retarded auto boxes took off (still to my amazement), emissions laws strangling engines, too many sensors giving false alarms meaning non breakdowns. ‘My’ 2018 truck hasn’t done 30000 kms yet but already the orange EML has had to be knocked off twice!!! The radio has crapped out 3 times and is now being replaced!
As I said, at the turn of the century everything was just about sorted, they were reliable and manual gearboxes were nice and straightforward to use. They also didn’t seem to suffer electronic glitches all the time, they were analogue so got fixed by a bloke knowing what he was doing with tools, not a bloke scratching his head staring at a laptop screen [emoji23]
Have you seen the Lancaster thread at the top? Maybe you and Sidevalve could say summat there about technology??
SuperMultiBlue:
robroy:
tallant:
SuperMultiBlue:
[zb] me what a hero.Would have got used to all you said in 5 mins and bcracked on.
Imagine perpetually being in desperation to be acknowledged as a hero
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Ooh!.. but I bet you could if you really tried.
Log off [zb]
Yeh but admit it, you love me really. x 
Hey! Just realised who you are…you haven’t had a pop at me for years, I’ve missed you ! 
You must have been straining with bulging neck muscles all these months resisting it and holding yourself back, you couldn’t help yourself once over.
Quote; …''Log of ■■■■ ‘’
Love your usual trademark stunning style of repartee by the way…you remind me of Oscar Wilde.
Apart from the cerebrally challenged among us …it looks like most got what I was getting at and coming from, and realised that it was a tongue in cheek comment on how trucks have improved over the years to the point of them being like just driving a large car, in comparison to when driving a car and a truck were like chalk and cheese.
I just got to thinking how ■■■■ easy the job is now in that respect, you can do a 9/10 hour drive in whatever country with whatever their individual traffic type problems chuck at you, and no longer feel like you’ve had a hard day but arrive cool and relaxed…in terms of physical effort needed to drive your motor.
That part of the job has changed beyond recognition, on the other hand other parts of the job have also gone that way, but in a negative direction imo.
Over complicated driver’s hours regs, over regulated, lack of parking, trackers, being pushed to the last minute in many cases, and all the rest of the crap that we all know about.
Just think how much harder it would have been if all that was combined with having to contend with the kind of motors I was on about in my o/p.
In the old days we had ■■■■ trucks but an easier life with authorities, now it’s the opposite, excellent trucks (in comparison) but you can’t do ■■■■ all without getting your arse kicked in some way or other.
Anyway …that was the point I was trying to make.
Franglais:
nomiS36:
To my mind trucks reached their pinnacle around 2000 to 2005ish then started going downhill. Before that period cabs weren’t big enough, night heaters could be temperamental, gearboxes were clunky and aircon was rare.
Since that period retarded auto boxes took off (still to my amazement), emissions laws strangling engines, too many sensors giving false alarms meaning non breakdowns. ‘My’ 2018 truck hasn’t done 30000 kms yet but already the orange EML has had to be knocked off twice!!! The radio has crapped out 3 times and is now being replaced!
As I said, at the turn of the century everything was just about sorted, they were reliable and manual gearboxes were nice and straightforward to use. They also didn’t seem to suffer electronic glitches all the time, they were analogue so got fixed by a bloke knowing what he was doing with tools, not a bloke scratching his head staring at a laptop screen [emoji23]Have you seen the Lancaster thread at the top? Maybe you and Sidevalve could say summat there about technology??
I’m not a total Luddite by the way. I do like technology, when it works properly and brings something useful to the party. I wouldn’t want to be back in the ‘good ol’ days’ of no power steering, air conditioning, no radios and crash boxes. But, sometimes I think they just develop stuff because they can.
nomiS36:
Franglais:
nomiS36:
To my mind trucks reached their pinnacle around 2000 to 2005ish then started going downhill. Before that period cabs weren’t big enough, night heaters could be temperamental, gearboxes were clunky and aircon was rare.
Since that period retarded auto boxes took off (still to my amazement), emissions laws strangling engines, too many sensors giving false alarms meaning non breakdowns. ‘My’ 2018 truck hasn’t done 30000 kms yet but already the orange EML has had to be knocked off twice!!! The radio has crapped out 3 times and is now being replaced!
As I said, at the turn of the century everything was just about sorted, they were reliable and manual gearboxes were nice and straightforward to use. They also didn’t seem to suffer electronic glitches all the time, they were analogue so got fixed by a bloke knowing what he was doing with tools, not a bloke scratching his head staring at a laptop screen [emoji23]Have you seen the Lancaster thread at the top? Maybe you and Sidevalve could say summat there about technology??
I’m not a total Luddite by the way. I do like technology, when it works properly and brings something useful to the party. I wouldn’t want to be back in the ‘good ol’ days’ of no power steering, air conditioning, no radios and crash boxes. But, sometimes I think they just develop stuff because they can.
I agree, but it aint just trucks, absolutely everything is over engineered these days, and you’re right, it’s ‘because they can’
Even having a crap 
…went to the khazi on Exeter msa the other day, there’s a ■■■■ list of instructions on the wall telling you… ‘‘How to operate and flush their revolutionary new water saving toilets’’ .
nomiS36:
I’m not a total Luddite by the way. I do like technology, when it works properly and brings something useful to the party. I wouldn’t want to be back in the ‘good ol’ days’ of no power steering, air conditioning, no radios and crash boxes. But, sometimes I think they just develop stuff because they can.
Im absolutely with you there. New technology that helps is good, but just because its new tech, it doesnt follow that its good.
Franglais:
nomiS36:
I’m not a total Luddite by the way. I do like technology, when it works properly and brings something useful to the party. I wouldn’t want to be back in the ‘good ol’ days’ of no power steering, air conditioning, no radios and crash boxes. But, sometimes I think they just develop stuff because they can.I
m absolutely with you there. New technology that helps is good, but just because its new tech, it doesnt follow that its good.
That’s my view as well. Just because I cut me teeth on David Brown 6-speeds, mandraulic steering and the like doesn’t mean I want to go back to it; I was the first at our place to get an i-Shift Volvo and I absolutely loved it, despite all the doom-mongers telling me to leave my front tow-hitch attached so that I could get pulled out of every farm I delivered to. Ditto reversing cameras, digital tachographs and a host of other stuff; even DCPC in fact because of what I said above about old sweats not knowing the laws.
Having said that, lane departure tech and all the other crap that stops a driver functioning as a driver comes into the “because they can” bracket as far as I’m concerned, not only detracts from the driving experience by dint of being an interfering nuisance but makes drivers lazy and dependent on a machine to think for them. That is not good. There are still several buttons on my Renault’s dashboard which I’ve yet to find a practical use for after over five years of driving the thing across pretty much all terrains and in all weathers; there’s a lot to be said for the K.I.S.S. approach.
nomiS36:
They also didn’t seem to suffer electronic glitches all the time, they were analogue so got fixed by a bloke knowing what he was doing with tools, not a bloke scratching his head staring at a laptop screen [emoji23]
Depends on which bloke you get with the laptop, like many truck drivers, many mechanics/fitters haven’t grown up with this stuff and don’t really have an interest in or aptitude for adapting to new technology, but then the other side of the coin is when you get a young mechanic who is seems blinded by the technology and fails to spot the obvious that an old experienced spanner twirler would find easily.
If you’re lucky you’ll get one who understands the new technology and is still competent on the spanners, although I would say all the major problems I’ve had with a truck over the last few years have been the old school mechanical stuff not the electronic stuff, that’s been more the cause of the minor problems.
waddy640:
My first HGV was a 1965 Bedford TK Pantechnicon which I drove and slept in for a year in 1972/73. I was doing house removals from London to Irish Republic via Stranraer to Larne ferry.
Complete with ‘Whistling Brakes’ Lol… Ah, I remember them fondly. Not forgetting the Ford D series, Leyland Terrier & Clydesdale!
Lennoxtown:
waddy640:
My first HGV was a 1965 Bedford TK Pantechnicon which I drove and slept in for a year in 1972/73. I was doing house removals from London to Irish Republic via Stranraer to Larne ferry.Complete with ‘Whistling Brakes’ Lol… Ah, I remember them fondly. Not forgetting the Ford D series, Leyland Terrier & Clydesdale!
I changed jobs a couple of times and progressed to a D series for journey work and a TK or Terrier for local work.
Juddian:
Times have changed, some improvements, some changes not so good./Snip/ gearboxes in particular unfit for purpose, some makes insisting on scattergun switch layout where the switch you want could be any bloody where. .
Typical. Everyone going on about the old lorries (ah, them were 't days), Juddian uses the opportunity to have a justifued swipe at the modern DAFs.
Win-Stone:
Juddian:
Times have changed, some improvements, some changes not so good./Snip/ gearboxes in particular unfit for purpose, some makes insisting on scattergun switch layout where the switch you want could be any bloody where. .
Typical. Everyone going on about the old lorries (ah, them were 't days), Juddian uses the opportunity to have a justifued swipe at the modern DAFs.
Well its true.
I’ve only driven our latest DAF’s round the yard, haven’t a bloody clue where any of the switches are, there seems to be dozens of the sods just plonked anywhere, i really wouldn’t like a 4am start with one in the middle of winter, i could see mesen going down the road with me torch sellotaped to me bonce (yeah i know d-head ) and me extra strength readers perched on the end of me beak trying to make head or tail of which bloody switch does what, oh and pulling me hair out in clumps when poxy Arsetronic defaults back to eco for the hundreth time arrrgh.
I wouldn’t mind but me previous 460 CF manual was a crackin tool, talk about 1 step forward and 3 buggers back 
Win-Stone:
Juddian:
Times have changed, some improvements, some changes not so good./Snip/ gearboxes in particular unfit for purpose, some makes insisting on scattergun switch layout where the switch you want could be any bloody where. .
Typical. Everyone going on about the old lorries (ah, them were 't days), Juddian uses the opportunity to have a justifued swipe at the modern DAFs.
And with good reason. I`d sooner have a well maintained ten year old DAF than a two year old one.
Dunno about the latest versions to be fair, maybe they have fixed some of the issues?
(Posted as Juddian was replying too.)
