What about the hill travelling East out of Hastings towards Rye on the A259 through the little village of Guestling? Not that steep, but interesting with a sneaky left hander half way down, then a real tasty right angle hairpin at the bottom? Every bloody time I went near that hill, I always met either a foreign coach, or a bloody great artic right on the bottom bend…both of which needed all the road to get round the corner.
Richard J:
What about the hill travelling East out of Hastings towards Rye on the A259 through the little village of Guestling? Not that steep, but interesting with a sneaky left hander half way down, then a real tasty right angle hairpin at the bottom? Every bloody time I went near that hill, I always met either a foreign coach, or a bloody great artic right on the bottom bend…both of which needed all the road to get round the corner.
Yes, I’ve driven artics down that one and you’re right, it is sneaky old hill! Robert
ParkRoyal2100:
yoyo5:
Jelliot:
In Australia we have the most stupid law, which is no use of foot brakes on descents, everything must be on gears, backed up with an engine brake. No engine brakes after dark in built up areas. If your caught with your foot on the brake its 3 points and $150.Jeff…
Hi Jeff I cannot remember the law about no brakes on down slopes in Aussie,
Nor me neither. If it’s true the guvmint would fill its coffers chocka-block just from one day on Mt. Ousley (the big drop down into Wollongong) or Victoria Pass (the plummet down when heading west from [zb]).
There seems to be some disagreement about this, so I’ll just clarify if for you.
There used to be and in some place still are signs that read "Trucks must use low gear " coming south into Nemingah on the Moonbie range. Going east or west round the area near Mount Victoria, coming down The Cobbler, Conroys Gap, and Wagga Hill on the old Hume before it was all motorway, are just a few that spring to mind.
Some enterprising law enforcement officers used to recon that if you were in the correct gear you shouldn’t have to use your brakes at all. So using you brakes meant that you weren’t in a low enough gear, to wit, you were disobeying a traffic sign and that used to be $150.
It was only a few “special officers” that used to try and enforce it.
Experience tells me that it not worth trying to argue with that type of person.
I was coming back to Sydney with a single from Dubbo early on morning after splitting down a triple, and was shonking on a bit down the hill round the corners near the Oberon turn heading towards Mt Vic. I didn’t usually go that way as I usually used the Golden Highway and I was a bit stuffed, forgot how steep it was but managed to come down with the Jake banging away and a good bit of foot brake. I must have woke up the local yokel in the candy car and the next thing I knew the night sky was flashing red and blue. It was just a young bloke and he tried to get me for not being in low enough gear, cause he said my brake lights were on nearly all the way down. So I just said it was a faulty brake switch. After about half an hour of him poking about, going through every page in my log book, and getting preached to he let me off with a fix it your self ticket.
On another note I don’t give a stuff about the drop from Cola Vale down past Bargo to Campbell town. It’s not overly steep but it is constant and the best part of 40 k’s. I’m usually up round 65 ton and I’m on the Jake brake all the way down. So you know what you can do with your sarky signs. If you don’t like it you shouldn’t have bought a house so close to the motorway…
Jeff…
And as people have been mentioning about Bedford T.K.'s and steep hills, I can remember going down Fish Hill near Broadway in the sixties in a petrol engine Bedford T.K.
Twenty years later going down it in an E.R.F. it didn’t seem as steep. 
Jelliot:
There seems to be some disagreement about this, so I’ll just clarify if for you.There used to be and in some place still are signs that read "Trucks must use low gear " coming south into Nemingah on the Moonbie range. Going east or west round the area near Mount Victoria, coming down The Cobbler, Conroys Gap, and Wagga Hill on the old Hume before it was all motorway, are just a few that spring to mind.
Some enterprising law enforcement officers used to recon that if you were in the correct gear you shouldn’t have to use your brakes at all. So using you brakes meant that you weren’t in a low enough gear, to wit, you were disobeying a traffic sign and that used to be $150.
It was only a few “special officers” that used to try and enforce it.
That makes more sense. The signs at those spots are still there at Moonbi, Mount Vic, and of course going down Mt. Ousley. I do the Central West and the Illawarra weekly, and Mt. Vic is still as steep as it ever was, yet the only problems I ever see are trucks that have run out of puff and/ or gears on the way up. Mt. Ousley is a 40k limit all the way down as you know, yet I still see the occasional wally steam past at 60+, usually stopped at the bottom with Mr. Plod.
Jelliot:
I was coming back to Sydney with a single from Dubbo early on morning after splitting down a triple, and was shonking on a bit down the hill round the corners near the Oberon turn heading towards Mt Vic.
If I read you right you came through Bathurst, Lithgow then went down River Lett hill - that’s also still there, and a 40k limit all the way down. The bugbear there is that there are several sets of point-to-point scameras - one at the top of River Lett, one just past Jenolan Caves Road, one at the foot of Mt. Vic and one at the top. In short, no point trying to make up any time between Lithgow and the weighbridge at Mt. Boyce.
That was back in the late 90’s, I don’t think there were cameras there at that time. One that springs to mind was the one on the north side of Mt White as you drop down to Gosford. Used to pass that one twice a day when I was doing Coffs/Ingleburn.
Jeff…
Not at all sure where this one is, somebody will. Had a load of bricks for Welsh Border way ,asked one of my mates for directions, sorted. " you,ll have fun on the way down I bet you " Bit confused thought he were on about traffic. Not so far from site I,m coming to downhill stretch , not so steep, ease off n drop a gear n I start slowing down big time. I,m thinking fuel prob n start chasing the box round then penny drops I,m going up not down, an optical illusion. My mate were spot on it def fun. Anybody know where I never did that site again so no clues
coomsey:
Not at all sure where this one is, somebody will. Had a load of bricks for Welsh Border way ,asked one of my mates for directions, sorted. " you,ll have fun on the way down I bet you " Bit confused thought he were on about traffic. Not so far from site I,m coming to downhill stretch , not so steep, ease off n drop a gear n I start slowing down big time. I,m thinking fuel prob n start chasing the box round then penny drops I,m going up not down, an optical illusion. My mate were spot on it def fun. Anybody know where I never did that site again so no clues
I think you’re probably the first on this thread to raise the topic of optical illusions, Coomsey. This works both ways, because just as some ascents don’t look like ascents (as you point out), some descents don’t look descents. By the time I’d got round to doing Turkey they’d built a motorway from the top of Bolu to Ankara; but stories are legion on here and in books of the descent into ‘Death Valley’ (now bypassed), stretches of which appeared to flatten out but which actually descended steeply. In those days if you changed up a gear or two only to find another downward plunge risked setting your drum-brakes on fire and the resultant dreaded ‘brake-fade’. Latterly, manufacturers of auto-boxes and engine-brakes have had the devil’s own job ‘teaching’ modern lorries to recognise deceptive ascents and descents. I reckon your post opens up a new dimension to this thread. Cheers! Robert
robert1952:
coomsey:
Not at all sure where this one is, somebody will. Had a load of bricks for Welsh Border way ,asked one of my mates for directions, sorted. " you,ll have fun on the way down I bet you " Bit confused thought he were on about traffic. Not so far from site I,m coming to downhill stretch , not so steep, ease off n drop a gear n I start slowing down big time. I,m thinking fuel prob n start chasing the box round then penny drops I,m going up not down, an optical illusion. My mate were spot on it def fun. Anybody know where I never did that site again so no cluesI think you’re probably the first on this thread to raise the topic of optical illusions, Coomsey. This works both ways, because just as some ascents don’t look like ascents (as you point out), some descents don’t look descents. By the time I’d got round to doing Turkey they’d built a motorway from the top of Bolu to Ankara; but stories are legion on here and in books of the descent into ‘Death Valley’ (now bypassed), stretches of which appeared to flatten out but which actually descended steeply. In those days if you changed up a gear or two only to find another downward plunge risked setting your drum-brakes on fire and the resultant dreaded ‘brake-fade’. Latterly, manufacturers of auto-boxes and engine-brakes have had the devil’s own job ‘teaching’ modern lorries to recognise deceptive ascents and descents. I reckon your post opens up a new dimension to this thread. Cheers! Robert
hi R 52, A good friend of mine used to fly helicopters for the marines he always said the 3rd most thing he feared was disorientation n trained with a bit more enthusiasm for it. On that hill I was foxed for a few secs but only a bit embarrassing,if the illusion had been other way around n I,d took a run at it like you do I might have been posting a different story. Even worse I would say on some of those foreign hills.
2nd for him commanders, n 1st gearbox failure slightly more scary in helicopter than lorry bound to agree with him Paul
Another Sussex hill which has caught a few out is the descent on the A259 from the Eastbourne golf club heading down into the town…you come bowling over the top, quite happy, round the left hander…and then you see a long and deep gravel run off area, makes you wonder what’s coming. As the drop gets steeper, round the last bend…and there’s a set of traffic lights, just to add to the fun.
By this time you’ve run out of gears to drop down, the brakes are giving off that lovely pungent aroma of cooked linings (what’s an exhaust brake…?) and the run off area has a couple of coaches sunk deep in the gravel.
(did I pack my brown trousers…?)
Richard J:
Another Sussex hill which has caught a few out is the descent on the A259 from the Eastbourne golf club heading down into the town…you come bowling over the top, quite happy, round the left hander…and then you see a long and deep gravel run off area, makes you wonder what’s coming. As the drop gets steeper, round the last bend…and there’s a set of traffic lights, just to add to the fun.By this time you’ve run out of gears to drop down, the brakes are giving off that lovely pungent aroma of cooked linings (what’s an exhaust brake…?) and the run off area has a couple of coaches sunk deep in the gravel.
(did I pack my brown trousers…?)
And you if took the B2013 off that road down into the Meads end of Eastbourne, that was a deceptive hill too. I remember in about 1971 driving up Darley Road where it meets the hill and seeing an artic loaded with carrots on its side and the driver sitting on top of the debris having a smoke! Robert
Yes, there’s one or two interesting inclines around that area…the one the other side (known as Friston Hill) can be a swine too. I used to have to take the sweeper up and down that one…and of course, every time I’d just got cracking, a bus or a coach would arrive behind me. Talk about chaos! There’s me doing 4mph, brushes down, spraying water in all directions, with traffic trying to overtake me (and the bus/coach) oncoming traffic in a state of panic…I loved driving a sweeper!
(My favourite was sweeping roundabouts…going the wrong way round, against the traffic flow… 
)
Richard J:
Yes, there’s one or two interesting inclines around that area…the one the other side (known as Friston Hill) can be a swine too. I used to have to take the sweeper up and down that one…and of course, every time I’d just got cracking, a bus or a coach would arrive behind me. Talk about chaos! There’s me doing 4mph, brushes down, spraying water in all directions, with traffic trying to overtake me (and the bus/coach) oncoming traffic in a state of panic…I loved driving a sweeper!(My favourite was sweeping roundabouts…going the wrong way round, against the traffic flow…
I’d have propped a life-sized teddy wearing a gorilla mask at the right-hand steering wheel (and probably got sacked!) 
. Robert
Greetings,All. Happy New Year. Another hill might be worth a mention is Gatton Bottom,just out of Merstham heading for Croydon on your left.Bit of a job in a Leyland Octopus tipper,loaded with sand with the 0.600 engine.Only did it once,finished up in crawler,just made it. Regards,900x20. 
robert1952:
Richard J:
Yes, there’s one or two interesting inclines around that area…the one the other side (known as Friston Hill) can be a swine too. I used to have to take the sweeper up and down that one…and of course, every time I’d just got cracking, a bus or a coach would arrive behind me. Talk about chaos! There’s me doing 4mph, brushes down, spraying water in all directions, with traffic trying to overtake me (and the bus/coach) oncoming traffic in a state of panic…I loved driving a sweeper!(My favourite was sweeping roundabouts…going the wrong way round, against the traffic flow…
I’d have propped a life-sized teddy wearing a gorilla mask at the right-hand steering wheel (and probably got sacked!)
That may have been difficult…my sweeper only had one steering wheel, and was on the left hand side. 
Richard J:
robert1952:
Richard J:
Yes, there’s one or two interesting inclines around that area…the one the other side (known as Friston Hill) can be a swine too. I used to have to take the sweeper up and down that one…and of course, every time I’d just got cracking, a bus or a coach would arrive behind me. Talk about chaos! There’s me doing 4mph, brushes down, spraying water in all directions, with traffic trying to overtake me (and the bus/coach) oncoming traffic in a state of panic…I loved driving a sweeper!(My favourite was sweeping roundabouts…going the wrong way round, against the traffic flow…
I’d have propped a life-sized teddy wearing a gorilla mask at the right-hand steering wheel (and probably got sacked!)
That may have been difficult…my sweeper only had one steering wheel, and was on the left hand side.
This for our recent Aussie mates. I only drove lorries in Oz in The Territory and WA (on the road anyway, Queensland sugar mill was different), and in the northern part at that.
Don’t remember any really scary hills which was just as well. A B61 Mack with 3 trailers full of cows would have been no fun with no exhaust brake, no retarder and no Jake. 
Were they all invented back in the 60s? And how come Jakes didn’t seem to spread to Europe? Or did they? I do have a faint memory of Cat engined wagons fitted with them.
Are retarders more efficient?
Talking about TKs, TMs and also my first steel cabbed Foden, they all had propshaft handbrakes. What was all that about? Snap a drive shaft and you have nothing left to park it with except for large rocks, as long as it will stay still long enough for you to find someone to fetch one for you.
Spardo:
This for our recent Aussie mates. I only drove lorries in Oz in The Territory and WA (on the road anyway, Queensland sugar mill was different), and in the northern part at that.Don’t remember any really scary hills which was just as well. A B61 Mack with 3 trailers full of cows would have been no fun with no exhaust brake, no retarder and no Jake.
Were they all invented back in the 60s? And how come Jakes didn’t seem to spread to Europe? Or did they? I do have a faint memory of Cat engined wagons fitted with them.
Are retarders more efficient?
Talking about TKs, TMs and also my first steel cabbed Foden, they all had propshaft handbrakes. What was all that about? Snap a drive shaft and you have nothing left to park it with except for large rocks, as long as it will stay still long enough for you to find someone to fetch one for you.
Plenty of trucks with Jake brakes in the UK, though I never drove one myself. The Ford Cargo six wheeled rigids with ■■■■■■■ L10 engines the hauliers ran at our quarry had them retrofitted, blooming noisy though and got some complaints from locals when used early morning. Regarding transmission handbrakes, Bedford and Land Rover fitted them to the gearbox output shaft so if a propshaft or half shaft broke or was removed you had no parking brake, however Foden fitted them to the rear of the differential so even if the propshaft snapped the parking brake still worked. The way our Fodens broke propshafts on a weekly basis that was very handy!
Pete.
