As previously said I have come back to some driving after a twenty odd year break. I have had plenty of moans since my return I grant you but…
Yesterday had a 64 plate FH500 for day and night. Full leather top spec fridge etc. What a fantastic bit of kit. How anyone can moan if you are out all week in one of these I don’t know. Can’t fault it.
Lovely bit of kit . but it’s usually what you pulling ( load and how it comes off ) that gets people moaning
just go on the old time forum and have a look at what drivers used to go away for weeks in - cant see how drivers can moan about most of the vehicles nowadays, more space/power/easier to drive.
even standing up to get dressed 
god I miss the days of struggling to get ready on a bunk of my old Iveco turbostar. moving everything about to get into bed.
My first was an old Tk couldn’t be any more basic or if you broke that a D series Ford. Horrible beast
I am luckily too young to have driven in the 70’s/80’s. However I have very fond memories of being in my Dad’s Merc 1617, which he ‘developed’ into a sleeper (even though it was a day cab!).
It consisted of a fold down thing which was on hinges fixed to the back of the cab.
Now I drive new FH’s and the like, and if my Dad was still with us, I often wonder what he would make of huge sleeper cabs with fridges, microwaves, flat screen TV’s, Sat nav, Bluetooth, auto gearbox. Probably shake his head and call me a pretend trucker.
I bumped into a mate of mine on Hilton Park a few months back, he was out in my old day cab LF, I jumped behind the wheel for a few minutes, and couldn’t believe that I’d driven that for over 200,000ks, felt so claustrophobic.
war1974:
even standing up to get dressed
I have many fond memories of Turbo’s and Turbostars thank you very much!! Mind you, things seem a lot bigger when you were 6-10 years old going with your dad 
. I do remember the daily routine of moving everything from the bottom bunk on to the seats and vice versa the next morning.
What the trucks lacked in size and comfort was made up by the more care free nature of the job at the time, which is perhaps what most of us actually yearn for when we reminisce, rather than the truck itself.
Try living for up to six weeks in a Volvo F88!
robinhood_1984:
war1974:
even standing up to get dressedI have many fond memories of Turbo’s and Turbostars thank you very much!! Mind you, things seem a lot bigger when you were 6-10 years old going with your dad
What the trucks lacked in size and comfort was made up by the more care free nature of the job at the time, which is perhaps what most of us actually yearn for when we reminisce, rather than the truck itself.
I must admit I agree although I think the 90’s were great my dad reckons not a patch on the 70-80’s. and no doubt some of the younger drivers will say 00’s.
it used to kill me struggling about trying to get dressed whilst lying down on the bunk but you just got on with it, and I still miss the days when it was a bit of board between the front seats as a child with my old man to make a 2nd bed.
I must admit I loved my old Iveco other than that.
European lorries are absolute crap when comes to bunks and sleeping space, let alone other extras.
The Volvo f88 from the post above made me claustrophobic just looking at the pictures on the net.
Never happy? ? ? If I ever get hacked off I always stick on the dvd of Destination Doha, that’ll stop ya moaning when you see what those guys went through.
sortca:
Never happy? ? ? If I ever get hacked off I always stick on the dvd of Destination Doha, that’ll stop ya moaning when you see what those guys went through.
That was filmed a couple of years after I’d started with the aforementioned F88, by this time I had been promoted to a Ford Transcon and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, but even a Transcon would be cramped by todays standards!
I thought I was in heaven after graduating from an 240 Gardner engined A series ERF to an F88…just having a heater that worked was a priveledge!
I’m not sure full leather is that great , Mrs has payed out 3k + for leather 3-piece ( I warned her not too as she feels the colds) ,it looked bloody smart but is now covered in throw overs 
eagerbeaver:
I am luckily too young to have driven in the 70’s/80’s. However I have very fond memories of being in my Dad’s Merc 1617, which he ‘developed’ into a sleeper (even though it was a day cab!).It consisted of a fold down thing which was on hinges fixed to the back of the cab.
Now I drive new FH’s and the like, and if my Dad was still with us, I often wonder what he would make of huge sleeper cabs with fridges, microwaves, flat screen TV’s, Sat nav, Bluetooth, auto gearbox. Probably shake his head and call me a pretend trucker.
Yes but remember in those days it as more usual to have a paid night out in digs with a cooked dinner and breakfast and getting ■■■■■■ with like minded blokes.
A bit different to staying in your cab in a ■■■■ smelling lorry park and eating a microwave meal on your own, as is expected today.
my 1st saudi trip was in a j4 with a 220 ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ type od on back for a bunk…blooming desperate.2nd trip was a transconti,different trip entirely…the only time id be in digs was if i was snowed in somewhere like shap or the cairnies near perth waiting for the cops to drag us up 1 at a time on the end of a chain to the rangerover.id take a hi cab of any description with my microwave,tv,internet,mobile phone,big bed,night heater,in any ■■■■ soaked carpark before id want to go back to the old days again.
eagerbeaver:
I am luckily too young to have driven in the 70’s/80’s. However I have very fond memories of being in my Dad’s Merc 1617, which he ‘developed’ into a sleeper (even though it was a day cab!).It consisted of a fold down thing which was on hinges fixed to the back of the cab.
Now I drive new FH’s and the like, and if my Dad was still with us, I often wonder what he would make of huge sleeper cabs with fridges, microwaves, flat screen TV’s, Sat nav, Bluetooth, auto gearbox. Probably shake his head and call me a pretend trucker.
exactly how you say,but my dad used to say to me you drivers nowadays are spoilt,i used to laugh and agree with him
We did over 4 yrs Living nigh on full time ( me and the ex missus) in an F12…and enjoyed it most of the time. But we did have a big live shed and a swimming pool in Malaga for our down time.
robinhood_1984:
war1974:
even standing up to get dressedI have many fond memories of Turbo’s and Turbostars thank you very much!! Mind you, things seem a lot bigger when you were 6-10 years old going with your dad
What the trucks lacked in size and comfort was made up by the more care free nature of the job at the time, which is perhaps what most of us actually yearn for when we reminisce, rather than the truck itself.
Looks like my Premium is still in the past.
Radar19:
Looks like my Premium is still in the past.
All your gear makes a daily commute from bed to seats to bed I take it? I had the same thing back in 2005 when the boss at the place my dad had worked for donkeys years thought it would be better to go out and buy me a ridgid to gain some experience on before putting me in an artic.
It was a clapped out little 18 ton Merc Atego that did 15mph up any hill loaded and had about half the interior space of a Volvo FL10. I was supposed to be home every night doing multidrop for Norcargo (Bring) out of Stallingborough to Birmingham, first trip went ■■■■ up when my reload was in Ebbw Vale in South Wales and I couldn’t get back in a shift (my fault of course, not Norcargo’s planning), that set the pattern and I was out all week, same thing the following week. After much arguing it was decided to take me out of the hideous thing and straight in to an artic. Thank God for that!