I saw a Foden back in the 70s where the driver had slung up a hammock in lieu of a proper sleeper cab. Having never tried a hammock myself I’m not sure how comfortable they are, but I guess they were good enough for the Navy… Certainly more comfortable than bits of foam and luggage stuffed between the seats! Anyone else ever tried the hammock option? What about those drop down bunks so popular in the 70s? All looks a bit spartan now.
ghinzani:
I saw a Foden back in the 70s where the driver had slung up a hammock in lieu of a proper sleeper cab. Having never tried a hammock myself I’m not sure how comfortable they are, but I guess they were good enough for the Navy… Certainly more comfortable than bits of foam and luggage stuffed between the seats! Anyone else ever tried the hammock option? What about those drop down bunks so popular in the 70s? All looks a bit spartan now.
Never had a hammock in a lorry but slept in one on board a sailing ship, the most comfortable thing ever, once you learned the trick of getting in one 
My Brother also had one strung between two trees in his garden and I slept in that after a few bottles of wine.
thinking logically they might be a bit difficult to string up in a daycab AEC…
ghinzani:
thinking logically they might be a bit difficult to string up in a daycab AEC…
My very first truck many years ago was the AEC mandator … I did have a canvas hammock which was on a Mattel poll. on parking up for the night my very last job would be to un-hock the hammock that was rolled up to the back of the cab. this would be un-rolled to two poll bearers … i had many good nights out and slept sound in my sleeping bag which was lined with a sheep’s wool blanket … 
Never tried a hammock, think my size would be bit of a problem. But I did use one of those dutch bunks in the dutch scanias Gilder used to import,think they were some form of microwave bunk, 10 hours sleep in 15 mins
Never used a hammock but I did once have an Atki with a day cab and i managed to do a bit of a conversion with a board and a small mattress. A bit cramped but once in my sleeping bag I had some really good nights sleep. Better by far that an FL10 
hi
i tried the hammock bed in a erf day cab. i got a piece of plasic sheet about four feet wide ,nailed a bit wood on each end and tied rope to that, by putting the rope over the tops of the doors and slamming them shut i had the perfect set up. after several trys i managed to get aboard, it was wonderfull, but after a couple of hours i woke up to find that due to body heat the plastic had gone soft and had stretched, i was now bent like a drain pipe u bend, not a pretty sight i can tell you, i swear it took me three weeks to straighten up , so i went back to the drawing board.
RoVic:
ghinzani:
thinking logically they might be a bit difficult to string up in a daycab AEC…My very first truck many years ago was the AEC mandator … I did have a canvas hammock which was on a Mattel poll. on parking up for the night my very last job would be to un-hock the hammock that was rolled up to the back of the cab. this would be un-rolled to two poll bearers … i had many good nights out and slept sound in my sleeping bag which was lined with a sheep’s wool blanket …
haha trust me to use Mandator as an example! So where did the poles attach? Had you bolted something on?
Perhaps one of these would be better suited? You would’nt get her in a hammock - unless she had escaped from the Soviet State Circus!
I used a mountain climbing hammock which was for ■■■■■■■ to rock faces, I cut a broom handle in half, tied the end tapes to the broom handles then dropped the handles over the top of the open doors and shut them. You needed a blanket or coat under the sleeping bag as your back would be cold. No curtains, sleeping across the ancient Seddon cab with oncoming traffic lighting you up, a few times I woke up thinking I’d fallen asleep while driving and having a panic trying to get to the handbrake.
I had an ex-Navy hammock during the seventies which I used in a Mandator for Parson’s of Bristol. It had a single thick rope at either end attached to a fan of drawstrings so I would chuck a rope out of each window, sidle out throught the door, jump onto the roof of the cab & tie the ropes as tightly as I could. Then squeeze back into the cab, shut the windows & climb in. During the night it would sag & you would end up resting on the engine cover. I had the p*** taken for it but it was pretty comfortable. When we moved off flats onto tautliners I would get a lovely sleep - specially during the summer - by slinging the hammock between the pillars. When i moved on to a MAN with a sleeper I would still take the hammock for hot summer nights in the tautliner - no curtain slashing then!
hiya,
On the occasions when i had to take another drivers motor i’e mine being tested or another motor loaded and driver missing have always unloaded their “sleeping” gear into the sheet stores before departing and have come across some ingenious methods of bed manufacture, so much gear i don’t know how they managed to get into the cab one thing i saw was a piece of sheet about 2ft 6in wide and two pieces of alumnium scaffold tube then two pieces of timber with holes the same diameter as the tubes then two trestle things to keep the contraption clear of the seats and bonnet hump personally i could’nt be bothered by the time you put it together and got the p""s bucket installed it would be time to set off again anyway while it was ensconsed in the sheet stores somebody cut the tubes in half and made them into levers to help pull the tensioners over when chaining up steel loads, that driver never spoke to me again,me bovvered no way.
thanks harry long retired.
I used to put a couple of planks from the bonnet to the passenger window ledge in the ergomatic cabbed Leyland, which was OK till you turned over in the night - the planks slipped off the window ledge and you were plunged into the passenger footwell!
The Scammell Crusader was OK to convert - you took out the passenger seat and built a wooden box level with the driver’s seat - with the help of some bits of curtain you had a sleeper cab!
stevecook:
I used to put a couple of planks from the bonnet to the passenger window ledge in the ergomatic cabbed Leyland, which was OK till you turned over in the night - the planks slipped off the window ledge and you were plunged into the passenger footwell!
The Scammell Crusader was OK to convert - you took out the passenger seat and built a wooden box level with the driver’s seat - with the help of some bits of curtain you had a sleeper cab!
hi steve,Used the same method in a Ergo Mercury artic.worked well,untill one night i forgot to lock the passenger door.my mate opened the door in the morning and i ended up on the ground with a broken wrist! 
needless to say i didnt forget again…chris
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What about that old chestnut everybody including myself tells down the pub about a couple of planks cut exactly to size to sit on the little ledges of the door windows in an Atki Borderer which was ok till some smart alec took the screws out of the locked door handle and opened it real quick resulting in the occupant of the nylon sleeping bag shooting out as if being buried at sea.
yep your right,heard that tale too many times,but let’s face it loads of um slept in day cabs .
A guy I worked with at Waugh’s in the seventies always carried a tent which he would pitch on the trailer as soon as he had the space (summertime) Inevitably it became known as a Geordie sleeper cab.
Reminds me of my days in the Buffalo–we (Autocar Transporters) had a depot in Folkstone which was next door to the Dormobile factory that made camper conversions of Bedford vans. The staff got matey with a couple of them, and got them to make a permanent folding hammock out of 1/2 inch square tubing which bolted to the seat harness mountings on the “B” post. It was brilliant, with a proper canvas “mattress” that all folded away neatly during the day–all for £20 fitted.
The missus ran some velcroed on curtains up, and it made a sleeper out of the Buff----they must have made loads of them, most of our (Milton) lads had them fitted.
I also tried tenting before I got the bunk—but it took too long to get set up/take down!
ghinzani:
Perhaps one of these would be better suited? You would’nt get her in a hammock - unless she had escaped from the Soviet State Circus!
I once tried one of these cabbie things but found that when it was flipped down it was so
close to the doors and windscreen it was impossible to get on it.
I surrendered and slept in the back.
The regular driver of that motor did the same!