Had a quick flick through T&D yesterday before buying but ended up putting it back on the shelf. Yet another big spread on astran.
I’m intrested in the middle east truck story have the astran book and destination doha on dvd and enjoy the old time threads on it.
I know in must sell as it wouldn’t keep been published but it seems a month doesn’t go by without either t&d or cm having more astran tales. But short of finding our ■■■■ snows inside leg measurement what more can be said about it. How about a few articles on some of the other firms at least or some other stuff.
I must admit im sick of seeing that h reg 143 and its owner karl skilton,fair play to um but give somebody else a look in 
astran awesome great respect to allthem old guys Gordon piearce memories in mag very interesting and karl skilton 143 awesome rang him to pick my transcon up in Greece he done it with no props next thing its outside my house all ME guys top respect regards rowly
Not saying it’s not intresting just it seems to be every other month and it looks like astran was the only company to do it.
seth 70:
I must admit im sick of seeing that h reg 143 and its owner karl skilton,fair play to um but give somebody else a look in
Is that the one like Trigger’s brush, everything has been replaced but it’s still the original truck?
We know Astrans were not the only ones to do it, but they were the First from the UK, which is why they get/got so much publicity. It only takes one to do it, and others follow on, there are also other sites to glorify this fantastic company and its drivers, and I know, cos I was one of them.
I’m of the opposite opinion. I could read about that stuff all the time.
truckyboy you did it I didn’t im gutted I didn’t andgood luck to the astran lads
As someone who’s very critical of truck mags, normally because of the obsession with trucks full of tat, I think the mags content has got better. I’ve bought the last two issues of Trucking purely because of some tipper related articles. Trucking had a feature on that Massey Feeds CF unit which I didn’t take much notice of, except that the driver’s had a mural of his kids sprayed on the dashboard. Not to my taste, I find a slight coating of dust a much easier standard to maintain. 
The Middle East related stuff has never appealed to me so I probably wont buy T and D but can see why they keep featuring it.
Because of the political situation and unrest in the middle east, the chances of doing M.E. are unlikely to ever happen again. Shame in a way, doing it today with modern trucks (and more H.S. and ledgeslation) would make interesting reading, and lesson the need for history lessons of the likes of Astran and the hundreds of other companies and O.D.'s that use to do it…
The middle east is not finished, I have some good friends who are still doing it, the only problem today is the routes and diversions, so for example a 2 ferries are used instead of long roads driving through the trouble spots.
truckyboy:
The middle east is not finished, I have some good friends who are still doing it, the only problem today is the routes and diversions, so for example a 2 ferries are used instead of long roads driving through the trouble spots.
Interesting, where do they go? Surely Iran, Iraq, Syria, must be no-go areas, maybe Turkey? Is there a modern thread on T/N about going there…
Fergie47:
Interesting, where do they go? Surely Iran, Iraq, Syria, must be no-go areas, maybe Turkey? Is there a modern thread on T/N about going there…
Since the ongoing situation in Syria made that a big no no I believe they’ve been shipping across to Egypt, driving to the Red Sea and then another ferry to Saudi. I think a ferry in to Israel may also have been used, and so in to Jordan from there and then Saudi.
They used to run Israel on the way home only, they can’t get in to Arab lands going the other way, they get a bit touchy for sine reason. I believe they stopped using that route as the boat got too expensive.
I’ve recently reread the LHP book and that’s what it said in there anyway.
Currently they go down through Italy, boat it to Greece, then by road through to Turkey, get a boat to Egypt, drive a couple of hundred miles to another boat to Saudi, then run across to Qatar from there.
Apparently it can be up to two weeks poncing around between getting to the port in Turkey until they get off the last boat in Saudi.
This is all from what I’ve seen on the Astran Facebook page.