Twoninety88:
Putting your bed legs into your boots to stop then being nicked while sleeping in the dormitory of transport cafe digs .
And those were the ‘good old days’? 
what about jamming your hand in the ratchet handbrakes,or releasing it and smacking your knuckles, another one albion elbow banging it on the back wall o the cab when putting it in top gear (g cab )…cab door window goes replaced with persplex. windows with a leather belt with holes in to open.
switchlogic:
Twoninety88:
Putting your bed legs into your boots to stop then being nicked while sleeping in the dormitory of transport cafe digs .And those were the ‘good old days’?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
yep,they were better when you woke up frozen in the middle of the night between a couple of sound sleepers and needed to pish…aim for a boot,job done… 
Bluey Circles:
carryfast-yeti:
320 bhpthe OP must be a newbie! us Gardner 180 pilots could only dream of 320 bhp
I’m sure I used to be occasionally in a ERF that had a Garder 180 (■■?), this was when 32 ton was top weight, used to be regularly overloaded and as it was quite hilly used to go up and down hills at walking pace, could roll a smoke up and finish it by the top of the hill, and descents were interesting with scary drum brakes that would fade to buggery if you were in to high a gear.
Yep, 180 Gardners and 150 Leylands. Taps on the airlines… only ever forgot to turn 'em on once 
How did we get down after sheeting a high load. I reckon any one of us lot could have made a breeze of Mount Everest. I don’t know about anyone else but I liked the old Foden 12 speed. The hugest, most powerfulest, propshaft shearing thing I ever drove back then was a 240 Gardner in a Foden with one of those horrible air assisted clutches.
Box full of maps, sleeping bag and pillow, wash gear, clean/dirty clothes, brew kit, and curtains… all squeezed into a day can Ford Cargo 7.5t.
Getting forkie to lift YOU and the sheet on to the top of load.
The 6pm convoy from Services on M74 into Hamilton town centre as it was no trucks be 6pm.
As long as you got to first drop at the correct booking time, pretty much left to work out route and where you stopped.
Everyone had there favourites, which dictated either an early finish to get a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ or going over your hours to get there to meet mates.
Stand up washing in public toilets with attendants, Tooley St London, Haymarket Edinburgh etc.
Those were the days!!!
peterm:
Bluey Circles:
carryfast-yeti:
320 bhpI’m sure I used to be occasionally in a ERF that had a Garder 180 (■■?), this was when 32 ton was top weight, used to be regularly overloaded and as it was quite hilly used to go up and down hills at walking pace, could roll a smoke up and finish it by the top of the hill, and descents were interesting with scary drum brakes that would fade to buggery if you were in to high a gear.
Yep, 180 Gardners and 150 Leylands. Taps on the airlines… only ever forgot to turn 'em on once
My first artics Fodens, talk about a baptism of fire , had that 12 speed unequal split gearbox in S39, S40, and finally S80 which i still think was a good vehicle, especially cos it was me first artic to have the bliss of power steering and the first with a ■■■■■■■ instead of the poxy (loved by gaffers for some unknown reason) Gardner 180, so a 65 mph cruiser instead of 48 
Can you remember the shift sequence Peterm?, i can sadly, indelibly etched into the nightmare side of what loosely passes for a mind.
Never broke a half or propshaft yet (famous last words), but i worked on road building for a while and drove one of a small fleet of Foden Haulmaster tipper rigids permanently on site, one of the old soaks i worked with managed to rip a propshaft apart at least every other week, what he was doing with the thing i have no idea, but it would always be in chassis deep mud.
switchlogic:
Twoninety88:
Putting your bed legs into your boots to stop then being nicked while sleeping in the dormitory of transport cafe digs .And those were the ‘good old days’?
Who the freck would nick a bed leg ?
Sixties boy:
Box full of maps, sleeping bag and pillow, wash gear, clean/dirty clothes, brew kit, and curtains… all squeezed into a day can Ford Cargo 7.5t.Getting forkie to lift YOU and the sheet on to the top of load.
The 6pm convoy from Services on M74 into Hamilton town centre as it was no trucks be 6pm.
As long as you got to first drop at the correct booking time, pretty much left to work out route and where you stopped.
Everyone had there favourites, which dictated either an early finish to get a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ or going over your hours to get there to meet mates.
Stand up washing in public toilets with attendants, Tooley St London, Haymarket Edinburgh etc.
Those were the days!!!
Tooley Street - remember that well and The Copper Kettle up the road !
No one covered lock rings on old inner tube tires , cone wheel nuts right /left thread…had to keep an eye on them
Tooley St used to be coach park by day and truck park at night and is now the site of the Mayor of London’s building, ironically!
When that closed started parking at Vallance Road, Whitechapel ( birth place of the Krays!) used to park in order of departure eg late starters at back, as you were treble parked.
Drivers moved more freight when parked there, then they did while delivering, you could buy nearly anything there.
I’m just glad that, with being a young ‘sprog’ of only 68 years of age, most of this is from before my time! I do remember replacing numerous Foden propshafts back in the seventies though before they fitted the uprated Kempf shafts, you only had to look at the things sideways and they would drop onto the floor. 
Air clutches didn’t help matters, the throttle was heavier than the clutch pedal! On the steep bank by The Mermaid inn between Bottom House and Royal Cottage was a favourite spot when grabbing for crawler, and you daren’t get one bogged down on sites. Artic units mostly had reduction hubs so didn’t have the same problems.
Pete.
windrush:
Air clutches didn’t help matters, the throttle was heavier than the clutch pedal!
Pete.
Isn’t that when you engaged Foden cruise control Pete, wedging a certain length piece of wood between that lump of cast steel amusingly called a dashboard and the throttle pedal 
, with a bit of practice you could leave it in place and reduce the revs via the engine stop cable for upshifts 
And that’s summat else we remember, stop cables.
Juddian:
windrush:
Air clutches didn’t help matters, the throttle was heavier than the clutch pedal!
Pete.Isn’t that when you engaged Foden cruise control Pete, wedging a certain length piece of wood between that lump of cast steel amusingly called a dashboard and the throttle pedal
And that’s summat else we remember, stop cables.
One of our drivers was getting out of his S50 Foden halfcab when the TM stopped to talk with him and noticed the length of timber by the seat. He asked what it was for; the driver said “If this thing ever sets on fire I don’t want it to go out for the lack of some wood” and I don’t think the TM was that amused!
Pete.
We had some rather primitive speed limiters fitted to our ■■■■■■■ Atkis.
If your foot was on the floor when you when past the limit, 60mph, no power steering, it would not work. Half throttle or backing off then on again, no power, so no chickening out!
Memories can be fun…or slightly frightening when you meet your younger self…
Might be my failing memory, telgraph indicators that sprung out of the door piller? May have been vans rather than lorries.
Windscreens you could open, hinged at the top?
[quote=“Juddian”
No power steering.
Cable trailer parking brake, which either seized or got wound off its spool.
Appalling headlights.
Aahhh . . . my three fondest memories.
Of course that’s just the way it was, just got on with it.
I would NOT want to revisit those times.
![jack smith atky[501].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/4X/4/1/6/41666474d92ea0eee3dafc6eb696813afc40f469.jpeg)
carryfast-yeti:
320 bhp
And us 150 pilots could only dream of 180 power
I think it was the old Perkins engines that had the cold start button on the injector pump ? It sprang back out when it started but i heard some dodgy drivers would somehow keep it pushed in for more power which i think was illegal
Don’t forget that big steep hill you had to walk up to get to work
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Juddian:
peterm:
Bluey Circles:
carryfast-yeti:
320 bhpI’m sure I used to be occasionally in a ERF that had a Garder 180 (■■?), this was when 32 ton was top weight, used to be regularly overloaded and as it was quite hilly used to go up and down hills at walking pace, could roll a smoke up and finish it by the top of the hill, and descents were interesting with scary drum brakes that would fade to buggery if you were in to high a gear.
Yep, 180 Gardners and 150 Leylands. Taps on the airlines… only ever forgot to turn 'em on once
My first artics Fodens, talk about a baptism of fire
Can you remember the shift sequence Peterm?, i can sadly, indelibly etched into the nightmare side of what loosely passes for a mind.
Never broke a half or propshaft yet (famous last words), but i worked on road building for a while and drove one of a small fleet of Foden Haulmaster tipper rigids permanently on site, one of the old soaks i worked with managed to rip a propshaft apart at least every other week, what he was doing with the thing i have no idea, but it would always be in chassis deep mud.
Yep, certainly can. 72 next month and it’s still there… most things more recent ain’t. Those first five were the one’s to trip newbies up, fastest left hand in the business.