hiya,
get that book in print norm, special price for OAPs i hope, just read a good book by leslie purdon, truckers north truckers south, it’s about an eight wheeler and drag driver a bit before my time but a lot of it representative of my early career, thoroughly enjoyed it, it was one of my birthday presents, just wish i was able to write but i am useless in that area i just tend to ramble on and bore even myself to death but at least no-one is compelled to look at what iv’e written and i do enjoy my little self on trucknet reading sensible stuff by other authors. PS don’t like chips norm.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
Don’t worry lads you haven’t upset me. Iv’e been a bit busy this week and my aircon on the old truck has packed up.If I loose any more weight in this heat I will be fit enough to run a marathon. How did we ever manage before they were invented. I remember some of the lucky so and so’s out ME had air con units built into the roof vent but we had to manage with winding down the windows. that was ok until it became that hot that the air coming in was like having the heater on.Do you remember that Norm, didn’t those marathons have those aircon units?
Being parked up somewhere you should’t reminded me of a 140 I had with a none standard sleeper cab. There wasn’t much head room between the top bunk and the roof and if you turned over when asleep your sholder would catch the roof. This had woken me up in a panic on more than one occation with me trying to hold up the roof, then bailing out ripping curtins down in the bargin. This happend to me in Reims after traveling most of the night I found this nice big parking area and decided to stay there for the night and look for the factory for my re load the next day. At about 10 o clock the next morning I bailed out as previously mentioned.It turned out I was in the market square, standing buy the truck surounded by French shoppers.O did I mention I always did my sleeping in the alltogether. That give them a thrill. It took me ages to get out of there. 
Regards Keith.
hiya,
well, well, well, norm we’ve got a flasher, tell you what i never ever slept in the cab but the stuff i drove was so cold i imagine you would need to put extra gear on to stop you freezing to death, one thing i drove the heater was a world two greatcoat complete with three stripes and extra socks,oh happy days.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
My missis is not to happy with you lot. Apparrently after last nights memary jurker I woke her up. I was trying to hold the roof up…standing on the bed.See that 140 has scared me for life.I must start to ware jim jams otherwise she might get the wrong idea.
Regards Keith.
hiya,
dessert driver, sorry mate bit long in the tooth to attempt making the ladies happy, but am willing to kill myself trying, try wearing jim jams over long johns that should keep you fairly safe,i go the whole hog and wear a cap as well my old lady scarpers to the spare room faster than the proverbial off a shovel, great nights kip,there i go again giving free advice, i’m a mine of useless information.
thanks harry long retired.
Keith, we did have A/C in the marathons, one time in Saudi, it packed up, it was 149 in the sun, the steering wheel was so hot, I wore gloves, if you drove too long, the tyres would go pop, we would start early, and drive until midday, then park up until 4-30, so I could sleep, I shared my mates cab, because it was cool. Then we would start again until dusk. Sandman Norman
hiya,
norm am i getting senile or what?, just put a posting on frenchy’s BRS thread it does answer your post on photo’s and what not but it should have really been on here, i think it’s time i put the damned computer in the bin if you happen to read it you’ll know what i mean, i haven’t a clue how to move stuff about or delete stuff so it’ll have to stay where it is although it doesn’t refer to BRS business at all, sorry.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
Norm I know what you mean about the heat. You could only strip your tilt in the early morning.becouse come midday the sheet went sticky and you couldn’t touch the steel work. On one trip we took shelter in the cold store in Bagdad, it was quite cool in there only 110 deg… We bought one of them insulated flasks and filled it with ice from a stall in the street. We put some concentrated orange in there as well, it tasted great for a while untill a day later when it started to work it’s way through, spreaders every few miles. We’d been very carefull of what was consoumed but the ice must have been dodgey.The heat was a bit extreme compared to the snow towering over the truck when going over Tahir on route to Tabriz only a month before. You would have been in your eliment Harry with the army coat.By the way were the three stripes yours,do’s that mean we have to stand to attention and salute every time your on 
Regards Keith.
Harry, do not worry about it, I may have confused you, but I was just was answering your reply, I never had a camera with me, until I was on M/E, and I done quite a few trips before I took one with me, then I sometimes forget to use it, I missed hundred chances of good pictures, and when I did, I would forget to get the rolls of films developed, at least 4/5 rolls I found in a box in the attic, I have no idea of what was on them. Driving was my passion, not photography, but when I see all of the ones posted, I am full of envy, because I say to myself, I done that, I have been there, but never even considered in taking a photograph, but I am glad I took the few I posted on this thread. Keith at least you had a taste of the M/E, and some of the pitfalls, watch the water, was one of them, and only drink the things you was 100o/o certain of, or you would get the “Deli Belly”, if you got it, you could put it through the eye of a needle, when you went to the toilet, did you ever do a spread axle, the late John Bland did one in the middle of the road in this village, when held up by a traffic jam, he drove off when the traffic started moving, and I saw this pile of sh**t, is it not funny what you remember Ha Ha Ha . Sandman Norman
hiya,
keith the greatcoat was courtesy of some jumble sale, i never reached anything higher than the rank of gunner which is the artillery way of calling you private my trade was driver/operator so no need to salute just address me as SIR will be quite adequate, i had that old coat for donkey’s years, in my early years a lot of lorries hadn’t been fitted with heaters and what did have them, if gardner engined didn’t work very well anyway, even if you muffed the grill up,i once had a bedford s type scammell coupled thing made a couple of tee pieces for the top and bottom hoses and one sunday at home bought jubilee clips and heater hose and fitted a smiths heater from an old morris car and it worked great, had the motor for a week but was put on the tea motor on night trunk while the regular lad had his holidays, did the job and yes they’d given my motor to a new starter and upgraded me to an erf with a 5 lw in it frozen again and that did have a heater, yes that greatcoat was a godsend.
thanks harry long retired.
Still a live lads, just had a rotten cold, since last monday, eyes and nose running like a tap,hard to see, when the eyes are so watery. Sandman Norman
Hi Norm
Sorry to hear your ill. You haven’t caught somthing when you were on holls have you. those symptoms sound like swine flu to me… 
Regards Keith.
hiya,
it’s the bowling causing the problems norm, a man of your years messing about in all that damp grass, change to boules nice dry sand beneath your feet and you could arrange a game with frenchy on his home patch it is a froggy sport after all and all that french sunshine on your back you’ll feel like a new man.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi all
Norm I hope your ok you’ve gone quite. you havent taken to your bed have you. I was thinking today of a tail that might bring a smile to your face. On our first trip to Iran dad decided it would be a good idea to carry some extra fuel on board so managed to get ahold of a long flat tank and mounted it to the rear of the cab, it can just be seen in this photo. By the way the good looking lad with the hair is ME, along with my dad and my sister.
After fitting it he thought maybe it still was not enough so got a local blacksmith to make a tank to fit across the chassis a bit like the Hatcher tanks you used to be able to get. Anyway it was about 8in deep 3ft long and went right across just fitting between the filler caps on the standard tanks. It weighed a ton but he said that didn’t matter becouse it was strong. Well all went well first trip,apart from eastern Turkey when the brackets holding it down broke. this didn’t matter because it was sat between the fillers so it could not get off. This was ok untill on the next trip when going around a corner in Praque, over the tram lines, the unit give a bounce and the tank flew off staight in front of a Scoda car. The car drove right over the corner of it. Apart from knocking the tap of the bottom and the fuel gushing out the tank was undamaged. We quickly got a piece of wood and stoped the flow. By now we had a crowd of people around and there was no shortage of volenters to help put it back on the unit. We were just getting in the cab ready for a quick exit when the Scoda driver came over holding his hands out saying "car ca-put car ca-put ". Dad got out again and went over to look at his car, give over a few D Marks and the car driver was over the moon. Dad said “come on lets get going quick, he thinks he’s only got a flat tyre, but it’s sheared off all his suspension and the first left hand bend he goes around the hole wheel,suspension will part company”. Funny thing was we never did fastern the tank down and did another trip with it it.
Hope thats cheered you up Norm
Regards Keith.
Nice little tale there DD, its always good to hear anyones tales from long distance work, especially if its eastern Europe, greece, Turkey and the Middle East!!
Cheers, bullitt. 
I never had the privilidge of the middle east, but thelittle stories like the one above are quite compelling reading, so you guys that did the runs, please carry on with these little snippets as we do enjoy them.
I met Klunk ■■■■■■■ on the Le Havre - Portsmouth boat a while back and he told me a tale about how he slept with what he was going to have for dinner the next day so his body heat defrosted the can!!! 
hiya,
cracking tale D D i thought things like that only happened to me, here’s a little diesely tale of my own, got a brand new scania 80 when working for bowker’s, the first trip was the usual london, got to the first stop a couple of us running togrther got out of the motor to find the fuel tank had collapsed, the paint shop had painted over the filler cap vent which was a hole pin size the tank hadn’t split so re-made the hole and off i went, got to london tipped set off for MATs at dover, return fuel pipe to pump a flexi had no retaining clip and had rubbed through, bought a length of tube and jubilee clips did a makeshift repair and off i went but i’d jacked the cab over without popping the front and finished up with the only long nosed scania 80 in the uk,nothing said about the fuel tank paint shop had to fork out for a new tank, got thanked for the pipe repair and re-imbursed for the bits i’d bought never noticed the grill which i’d straightened in the docks must have done a decent job nobody noticed anything amiss, returned to yard asked for my old borderer back but no joy got stuck with the 80 and hated it.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi boys
I’m getting worried about Norm Has anyone heard from him?
Harry I’m surprised you did not like the old Scania.I thought it would have been like a Rolls after the Boaderer. Mind you they were a little under powered.I surpose i’m a little biast having Scainas in the family firm since 1970, and still driving a 144/530 now. By the way if you get a leakey fuel tank try sealing it with a bar of soap, rubbing it in the crack. It’s worked for me on a number of occasions.
I’ve just heard that an old friend of mine has just died of the big C. His name was Franky Johnson from just outside Whitchurch. I don’t know if anyone remembers him as he went out ME in about 1974/75 I think only doing one trip but I may be wrong.He went in a Volvo F86 and IIRC ended up doing a short spell in a Turkish cell after an accident.We did his maintanance for a short time in the eightes, another pleasent Gent gone…
Regards Keith.
hiya,
D D, yes where’s norm? hope he’s ok, old M/E man must be as hard as nails in the words of arnie “i’ll be back” now on to scania’s did not like the 80 great shed for the time but wouldn’t wouldn’t pull the proverbial f######n back the old atki with the 220 ■■■■■■■ was a much better tool at 32 tons, the 110 i drove on the odd occasion was a a proper motor though, i could have gladly swapped the old borderer for one of them, i liked the f88 as well but it was really wasted on me with not using the sleeper bit the bunk was great for stowing chains and stuff though another motor i had for a bit while the regular driver took his holidays was a crusader that was a motor, 290 roller, would it go, yeh you youngsters will say 290 mickey mouse engine, but great at the time especially for me having driven stuff with 4 lw 5lw 150 & 180 gardners for the first few years of my career was spent in crawler gear, D D sorry to hear about your pal the “c thingy” isn’t much fun i haven’t got the all clear yet next time at hospital is july may get the all clear then, you just live in hope,till next time.
thanks harry long retired.
Hello boys, I’m back, just got the last few of the cold germs to get rid of, but a lot better and fighting fit, my eyes are clear, and the nose is stopped running, but, I gave it to my wife Anne. Nice tale Keith, I bet you only done that tank, to get some cheap deisel. When we found out how cheap the fuel in Saudi was, we had a couple of oil drums strapped under the trailors, and rigged up a way to fill them and empty them into the main tank, people with bellytanks would laugh at our oil drums, but it gave us a extra 100 of fuel if we needed it, and at 6p a gallon, it was handy if you wanted to do a few loads for the agent, while waiting for your trailer to clear customs, Jeddah to Riyadh was worth £1000, one trailer down and one to pick up and return, they tried to get it for a few hundred, but I said no, it was not worth the hassel. Sandman Norman