Heres one for you old truckers.Anyone remember when they became the new got to have item? When I worked at George Reads in the 60.s a rep came in and asked us if we would like to meet suzie,He the produced all the colours from a suitcase.George was well impressed and bought some.They had to be better than those rubber hoses held up by long springs.tangled up covered in grease from the turntable.
leylandlover:
Heres one for you old truckers.Anyone remember when they became the new got to have item? When I worked at George Reads in the 60.s a rep came in and asked us if we would like to meet suzie,He the produced all the colours from a suitcase.George was well impressed and bought some.They had to be better than those rubber hoses held up by long springs.tangled up covered in grease from the turntable.
hey, yes that was innovation and together with the tipping horses it was a hassle behind the cab. The same a bit when the rubber mudguards came, never damage the nice painted steel ones,by changing over and over again with different trailers.
But now with the short gap between the tractor and trailer it occurs sometimes problems.
Stupid rules made by stupid b a s t a r d bums to restrict lenght instead of loadspace.
Cheers Eric,
When did they start fitting them , the mid 60’s ?
I drove a Dodge K Series artic in 1966, It had the rubber type hoses plus A York Hosemaster pole to hook the lines onto but on several occasions the palm couplings used to come off, There wasn’t a lot of room for the three line braking system hoses, So it was converted to the Suzie type, I also had a set of palm type coupled to the push on ones as we pulled some continental trailers from Immingham that still used the palm type & did so for a long time, Regards Larry.
The earliest Susie advert (not with a Z please gents) in the Commercial Motor was May 1964, the ad was from Intertruck Services in Alloa, Scotland. However I don’t think this company made the new lines just distributed them, I believe the electrical line was the first changed to the coiled type rubber coated (small tight coils), you might recall telephone cables were changing to coils about the same time. Although it seems the origin of the term ‘Susie’ is now lost in time I believe it stood for Sus-pended I-nsulated E-lectrical Lead. The coiled Nylon air lines followed shortly after and took on the same name and it stuck for all lines. Here’s the advert below I haven’t found an earlier one. Franky.
hey, the susies are introduced around the late '63’s at the same time as the rubber mudguards were introduced.
Bey Eric,
leylandlover:
Heres one for you old truckers.Anyone remember when they became the new got to have item? When I worked at George Reads in the 60.s a rep came in and asked us if we would like to meet suzie,He the produced all the colours from a suitcase.George was well impressed and bought some.They had to be better than those rubber hoses held up by long springs.tangled up covered in grease from the turntable.
The only good thing about those bl**dy rubber hoses was that leaking ones could be fixed with a short piece of copper pipe & a couple of Jubilee clips. When Susies were a new thing, some of us would carry a short length of pipe with a palm coupling at one end and a Susie at the other, so you had a converter with you.
And while we’re at the front of the trailer, remember the Hope anti-jacknife device, leylandlover?
Retired Old ■■■■:
leylandlover:
Heres one for you old truckers.Anyone remember when they became the new got to have item? When I worked at George Reads in the 60.s a rep came in and asked us if we would like to meet suzie,He the produced all the colours from a suitcase.George was well impressed and bought some.They had to be better than those rubber hoses held up by long springs.tangled up covered in grease from the turntable.The only good thing about those bl**dy rubber hoses was that leaking ones could be fixed with a short piece of copper pipe & a couple of Jubilee clips. When Susies were a new thing, some of us would carry a short length of pipe with a palm coupling at one end and a Susie at the other, so you had a converter with you.
And while we’re at the front of the trailer, remember the Hope anti-jacknife device, leylandlover?
A lot of drawbar outfits, especially in Germany still use the black rubber hose, although the electric leads are Susie types.
Rubbolite were the new fangled lamps and mudguards. Then they started putting those bloody silly cages on the lamps. Everyone had to carry two square lenses and four round lenses plus a set of changeovers, winding handle and a bolt or old inlet valve, full set of continental bulbs and lenses or a light board if you did ferry trailers. 
I was a fan of Rubbolite rear lamps: I fitted a set to my Ford to replace those silly-shaped original ones which always leaked and blew bulbs.