Anti-Jack knife Rams,furry clogs, mega wallets on chains attached to flimsy cloth jeans loops. Cute Scandinavian hitch hikers ,blanko toll tickets, marine pumps & hoses ,dodgy permits, strips of rag on mirrors ,cold start cannisters…
Low value British coinage that outwitted German vending machines and telephone kiosks.Being able to bung an Italian or French guardian of the roads a ‘coffee’ sometimes with a brandy allowance if you were in a hurry to get back to the family. 
Five course meals in France for 10FF = £1
Free bottle of Scotch & all the extras on Townsend Thorensen.
Anybody like these abominations?
Bull fighter arrows
Those flags of Europe on a string hung across the windscreen
Dreamcatchers
Love Call signs
Fake horseshoes with horses’ head in the middle
Haulin ■■■ chrome signs
Not forgetting nameplates ,tassely curtains and plastic chains hanging from the cab steps 
Back in the 1950s when I was a kid someone thought that a small chain hanging from the back of a car would prevent travel sickness.For a while it was quite a fad then died a sudden death a couple of years later.I ve no idea if they worked at all but was a very common sight at the time
when I was a kid I had an aunt and uncle who had a few bob and they had a ford prefect sit up and beg type my aunt swore she would be sick if the little chain was not on the car, I worked for the coop bank in the 90s as a messenger we were at aldgate right near the brown bear pub which is often mentioned on here and it was their cheque clearing centre we had lots of large metal trolleys which carried boxes of cheques some had a little chain dragging bearing in mind all the carpets were made of nylon if you pushed a trolley without the chain you would get a bolt of static electricity it used to give you one I can tell you so maybe the ones on the old cars did do something
Suedehead:
Not forgetting nameplates ,tassely curtains and plastic chains hanging from the cab steps
Plastic chains wouldn’t last 5 minutes on our “modern” floor- hugging tippers…I used to have a nameplate in my first 2 tippers-then a trip to a Truckfest and got an italic “Nathan” graphic done to match the signwriting colours and had it put on the door. Got my new one (6 years ago,where’s the time gone?) and had graphics of “Nathan” again plus the (now) wifes’ name on the cab bonnet where Smiths used to name their trucks as a bit of a throwback to the good old days. AND NOT BECAUSE SOME CARLISLE COMPANY WITH GREEN LORRIES DO IT,THANK YOU, The name on the front (Sarah Elizabeth) is the way OF id’ing mine from the others until I put the Canadian plate back on…
Perhaps, when the time comes for a Naf or S****a (name protected as I’ve heard a few “might be buying a” recently, I’ll have “Enslow Princess” put on it as wife’s name means princess apparently, but then again baby’s due in March so… 
How about putting yellow headlamp covers on when in France and Italy so you didn’t look like a English lorry at night?
Or the Jetones you had to use in Italian phones.
robinswh:
Back in the 1950s when I was a kid someone thought that a small chain hanging from the back of a car would prevent travel sickness.For a while it was quite a fad then died a sudden death a couple of years later.I ve no idea if they worked at all but was a very common sight at the time
I remember as a kid in the 80s seeing plastic strips “earthing” the car for the same reason…a lot I noticed were on British leyland cars so perhaps it was an anti-corrosion measure 
Or perhaps something to grab when pulling it off the road when broken down? 
Not necessarily truck fads but as far as cars go …tigers tails on aerials (put a tiger in your tank), crash helmet randomly placed on the back parcel shelf, the original ‘go faster’ stripes on the bottom of doors with ‘Anglia’ or ‘Ford’ or other stuff on them, stripes down the centre of the roof bonnet etc and then they moved to one side, clip on mags!, the original big bore exhaust, bullet hole stickers and many more I’m sure …
When someone watched an episode of Knight Rider and decided to put a talking dashboard into an MG Maestro (2l version I think)
Square steering wheel in Allegros
Foden half cab
The swivelling seat fitted in Aveling Barford dumptrucks so you could, er, look at the tipper while reversing…
Plastic seats in Bedford TMs (Dads’ nomination)
The pull over “Easysheet” which in high winds was anything but easy. Or trying to get one to roll up when it was frosty (starched collar springs to mind)
That little rubber button in the floor of 80s and 90s Fodens which was meant to be an exhaust brake
M&C steve:
toowise:
How about the purpose built sink and cooker unit fitted to the early Globetrotters,They were HATED by most all fitters that were unlucky enough to look after trucks so equipped.
The drain pipe from the sink was routed in such a way that they often burnt through from heat from the engine and as such became very short. The result of this was that when the driver had finished his washing up, or more than likely took a ■■■■, in the said sink it would run out of the shorter drain pipe all over the engine, this in turn caused a very strong and not pleasent smell which would last for weeks !! Not good when having to service the truck.
I used to maintain Peter King’s ( Peterlea Trucking ) trucks, some of which had them fitted. You could sometimes tell that they were parked outside the rear garage doors before you even opened them !!
There was one of Peter’s drivers who was particularly fond of using his sink in that fashion, so much so that he was for some time fondly known as “Sinkpisser”, enough said…
Steve.
Hi Steve,just come back from neck of the woods …pattaya WOW what place that is 
stayed in the AMARI ,spent i lot time in ROO BAR on walking steet,pity my miss was there …sorry to put this on the thread…keith
Treating your drivers with respect
Hi, one of the best inventions was a “Chinese Six”,with the double steer wheels at the front, very handy keeping legal when you did multidrop and unloaded from the rear, dont know why the got the name Chinese, and havnt seen them for years.
regards Andrew.
andrew brick:
Hi, one of the best inventions was a “Chinese Six”,with the double steer wheels at the front, very handy keeping legal when you did multidrop and unloaded from the rear, dont know why the got the name Chinese, and havnt seen them for years.
regards Andrew.
Called a “Chinese Six” Andrew because the layout was opposite to the normal, ie 2 front axles and one rear, like the Chinese read from right to left instead of the “normal” left to right! Get it?
Pete.
windrush:
andrew brick:
Hi, one of the best inventions was a “Chinese Six”,with the double steer wheels at the front, very handy keeping legal when you did multidrop and unloaded from the rear, dont know why the got the name Chinese, and havnt seen them for years.
regards Andrew.Called a “Chinese Six” Andrew because the layout was opposite to the normal, ie 2 front axles and one rear, like the Chinese read from right to left instead of the “normal” left to right! Get it?
Pete.
Cheers Pete, always did wonder how some of these names came about, always just refered to them without thinking, at least thats one answered, the Chinese six seemed to be a good idea at the time with more secure steering and extra capacity axle weights when unloading, but suppose they must have been heavy and needed more maintenance with all the extra steering gear ect.,and became outdated with the appearance of heavier duty front axles, anyway they appear to be a thing of the past.
regards Andrew.
‘Walk thru’ cabs like fords ‘d’ series & bedford tk’s , medium weight tractor units that didn’t have a engine hump in the way
The code some of us knew to get as many free phone calls as you wanted from Spain in a phone box/public phone,put 1 peseta in use the code number and the number you required and voila ,free call.
hiya,
Nationalisation, the good old Red and Rust.
thanks harry long retired.