Since passing class 1 I’ve mainly been driving an old FH12 which is now 20 years old. Though it’s noisy, hot (no aircon), takes eons to build up air and is rather cramped inside, I’ve become strangely attached to it. I think it’s because I like driving manuals. For it’s age it also pulls really well. I also enjoy everyone looking at it in disbelief everywhere I go, presumably in shock that it still works. In the ferry queue the first comment from other drivers is always “That’s an old one”, then they start getting all nostalgic.
But all things come to an end and due to it’s emissions class and age the time has come for it to go. This weekend I bought it back from Holland on it’s last journey. The slightly comical thing is that when I got to Europoort I wrote down the milage on the tacho and thought, hang on that number looks familiar. And sure enough, it turned out it had read 552999 all day. (You actually need to add 2 million to get its true milage). When I got back to base in UK it still read 552999. It’s almost as if it stopped recording it’s milage in protest of it’s impending doom.
Of course, it pulled liked a train until the end, and I took great delight in passing a few trucks on the A1 and A66 on the hills.
So, we move on, and I’m sure I’ll shortly be posting asking what on earth all the switches do on modern trucks. I wonder if more recent trucks live long enough to see 2.5 million km…
th2013:
Since passing class 1 I’ve mainly been driving an old FH12 which is now 20 years old. Though it’s noisy, hot (no aircon), takes eons to build up air and is rather cramped inside, I’ve become strangely attached to it. I think it’s because I like driving manuals. For it’s age it also pulls really well. I also enjoy everyone looking at it in disbelief everywhere I go, presumably in shock that it still works. In the ferry queue the first comment from other drivers is always “That’s an old one”, then they start getting all nostalgic.
But all things come to an end and due to it’s emissions class and age the time has come for it to go. This weekend I bought it back from Holland on it’s last journey. The slightly comical thing is that when I got to Europoort I wrote down the milage on the tacho and thought, hang on that number looks familiar. And sure enough, it turned out it had read 552999 all day. (You actually need to add 2 million to get its true milage). When I got back to base in UK it still read 552999. It’s almost as if it stopped recording it’s milage in protest of it’s impending doom.
Of course, it pulled liked a train until the end, and I took great delight in passing a few trucks on the A1 and A66 on the hills.
So, we move on, and I’m sure I’ll shortly be posting asking what on earth all the switches do on modern trucks. I wonder if more recent trucks live long enough to see 2.5 million km…
Sounds like this one is a good candidate for preservation. It is vehicles like this that we suddenly realise too late aren’t around any longer, so now is the time to convince the boss to put it up for sale as such rather than sell it to the breakers for scrap.
It sounds like a true workhorse if you’re still doing Europe in it, definitely deserves to be sold on to someone who will look after it and preserve it for the future generations.
cav551:
Sounds like this one is a good candidate for preservation. It is vehicles like this that we suddenly realise too late aren’t around any longer, so now is the time to convince the boss to put it up for sale as such rather than sell it to the breakers for scrap.
maybe the bossman can put it out for restoration,must be loads of people out there that would love to restore it
th2013:
Here she is…not much to look at really!
I think she will be offered for sale, or possibly export.
0
restorers could make a lovely job of that,talk your boss round to it,i drove an R reg for menzies world cargo heathrow in the nineties and I loved the old girl,still got pictures of it
552999
Funnily enough thats the phone number for www.novadata.co.uk who specialise in transport stuff. Their home page has a picture of your new truck.
Also a listing for beach front property and a smeg washing thingy (something the wife uses to clean stuff).
Put it up for sale in Classic and Vintage Commercials, it’ll soon shift and at a very good price. Just look at the prices people want for old junk on there, I can 't believe people have the cheek to ask for any money for some of the stuff listed as “in need of TLC.” You know that they really mean “in need of acetylene torch.”
I saw a rotten Ergomatic cab on there once, someone thought it was worth about £2k.
In another few years when they find the electric parking brakes and half the other pointless electronic crap isn’t working on the new ones, and costs a fortune to put right, they’ll be buying good old girls like this one up and refurbishing them like billio so they’ve got some lorries they can rely on to do a days work when the rest of the fleet are in the queue for the laptop and ‘‘throw new parts at it till we happen upon the fault’’ .
