After reading Truck & Driver magazine this month and seeing Allely’s DAF driving off the boat into the USA (all beit only round Norfolk, Virginia Docks), i was wondering what other UK trucks have driven across US soil??
I think we all know about a certain Red Renault Magnum and a racing team, but are there any others? Photo evidence??
use to drive a bedford 4 tonner from wainwright to suffield in canada every wednesday when i was based over there for 6 months. ok not trucking in the context of this post but i loved it 10 hour round trip and the best thing was i only had a car licence lol
Wynns heavy haulage did, [a Diamond T I think]
Neil.
Back in 69/70, the company I worked for at the time ( W & M Wood) bought a second hand Scania 140 left ■■■■■■ (must have been one of the first) off an owner driver who I’m told used to go to the US loaded with heavy machinery, He used a ferry out of Antwerp to New York, but he was very limited to the amount of distance he could travel in New York State, if it was over a certain distance he had to transfer the load onto a American Lorry, It was said the American lorry drivers liked the Scania and were amazed at the amount of room for the driver and passenger and especially the vision out of the windows and front axle brakes, but not a bit impressed with the bunk, anyone who’s driven an American lorry will now about the poor vision in their lorries and cramp driving position, but the bunk was something to dream of, enormous.
Ossie
Prodrive based on side of the M40 in Banbury regularly take their race trucks which have mega cab Man tractor units to do the ALMS series all around the states, they have the speed limiters removed at Liverpool but keep to a max of sixty five to reduce the chance of blowouts on the small trailer tyres as they have limited cooling due to the side bodywork restricting the airflow.
Apparently the Yanks are very impressed with the driver comfort and ease of driving with all the features of a top of the range european truck but not with the sleeping department. Because the trucks are still running on english registration the drivers can run on their uk hgv licences which causes a lot of head scratching with the traffic cops as they only ever see US, Canadian or Mexican ones.
I think at the time the problem was with the American Lorry drivers union’s (the Teamsters) who were protecting their work and by not letting lorries from outside America travel too far in their country, I think if we had been allowed to do door to door driver accompanied work and could have travelled further a field in America we would have found more British companies giving it a try, could have been a good challenge for some companies and drivers, and think of all the new thread’s on this site not about my latest trip to Tehran, but how I went to Texas and the truckstop’s along the way,… the mind boggles!!!
Ossie
This truck was shipped to Galveston, Texas and then driven to Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics by a friend of mine. I’ve had the displeasure of driving it several times, fortunately only as far as Scotland. I don’t have any photos of the US trip only this one at Glastonbury last year. The truck has only recently been taken out of service.
Regards KP
this roadtrain took thrust2 to bonneville salt flats for the landspeed record attempt
During the mid 90’s a lad from Towcester who drove the Williams F1 transporter, I remember his first name was Mark, had his entire rig shipped to NY then had to drive the east coast to Florida and eventually Daytona. Every stop he made his Magnum was the center of attention.