Well some more interesting memories from everyone. The question from Dave Mackie about his site. I haven’t been on for ages as I lost my login and user name. But if I can get back on I will use it although my contribution will be little compared to the original pathfinders, although I can look at Daves pictures all day long.
Austria definitely had the stubbornest border guards, the clever ones went on to enjoy a film career or become a governor of California The needle and string was mentioned where they sealed the cartons rather than the trailer.
We had a trick in Austria as permits were quite difficult to obtain. UNLESS you had a Dutch registered trailer and an annual permit. In which case you came out of Austria and waited for your mate who took the permission from you and went in, no registration numbers, no identities
Yugoslavian Terminating permits were easy to get, but Transit permits were more difficult, but a fax to yourself at Gevgelia sorted that out. The authorities must still be looking for all these fictitious companies where I loaded from
Pat Hasler:
TIR ?
Why did drivers who had some romantic notion of fitting TIR plates to the truck made people think they were international drivers ?
TIR stood for ‘Trailer insurance route’ it meant the trailers had to stick to a specially set route to be insured by a company, if you found a dropped trailer un-attended with TIR plates you could call a numberand if the trailer had been lost you could get a salvage reward.
TIR only applied to trailers and mostly ‘tilt’ trailers, fitting TIR plates to trucks meat nothing but a for of showing off.
Sorry to disapoint ya all
What are the spikey projections on your Peterbilt wheel nuts all about ? They look like the scythes on the wheels of the old Roman gladiotor chariots !
Must be pretty dangerous and although we have Yankee trucks here in Australia I reckon these would be well illegal in both Oz & UK
The Border at Widehouse, German / Check crossing. Having loaded in Romania with flatpack furniture & left it to the Romanians to load the trailer while I endulged some local ladys in the benifits of being from the west! with Kent cigerettes & chocolat bars. A couple days later i leave with a full load all ready sealed in my tilt trailer. Having passed through all borders to the widehouse crossing, It was only then that a particularly eficiant Guard pulled in an upward manner on my front corner plastic strip, well it came clean out, the cord had not been threded through the plastic strip. I had visions of whole familys of Romanians traveling in cubbyholes built into the load, as its all flat packs, grat for building dens! Anyway they had me spead-eagled up against the trailer. The Russian officer spoke very good english, but i think i recognise the word Siberia & Goolag in any language fortunatly after serching the trailer , no Romanians were found.
A lesson lernt. allways check your trailer.
What are the spikey projections on your Peterbilt wheel nuts all about ? They look like the scythes on the wheels of the old Roman gladiotor chariots !
Must be pretty dangerous and although we have Yankee trucks here in Australia I reckon these would be well illegal in both Oz & UK
Regards
OzzyHugh
OzzyHugh, They are on there because I think they look good, simple as that
They’re not illegal here, not that dangerous either if you think about it, if you get hit by them it may cut you, but the 80000lb lorry attached to them is far more likely to cause serious injury The fitters at my place have all got scars on their shins from them, but they all think they look good too, so it’s a small price to pay
I have made a big Audi sign on the doors of a car who decided to change lanes without looking, never even took the chrome off the tips of the spikes, mangled the car though
Newmercman, I did the Audi sign on a brand new XJ6 on the A40 down by the old Hoover factory in 1974 when you had to go through London to get to Dover and I was in an F89 which as most people know was a left ■■■■■■. Someone had broken down in solid traffic on the inside lane and I had to pull out around him, I did all the right things, indicated for at least two minutes checked the mirrors and even stood up to see as much of the side of the truck as possible. Now before the introduction of idiot mirrors the F89 and conversely the F88 had a huge blind spot down the side of the cab and this company director’s XJ6 was sitting exactly in it. The car behind him had dropped back to let me out so I thought great and eased out to the sound of tearing metal as his door and my wheelnuts made contact, poor guy was nearly in tears when I got out and he asked the classic question ‘‘did’nt you see me’’ and was very surprised when I said no.
chazzer:
Newmercman, I did the Audi sign on a brand new XJ6 on the A40 down by the old Hoover factory in 1974 when you had to go through London to get to Dover and I was in an F89 which as most people know was a left ■■■■■■. Someone had broken down in solid traffic on the inside lane and I had to pull out around him, I did all the right things, indicated for at least two minutes checked the mirrors and even stood up to see as much of the side of the truck as possible. Now before the introduction of idiot mirrors the F89 and conversely the F88 had a huge blind spot down the side of the cab and this company director’s XJ6 was sitting exactly in it. The car behind him had dropped back to let me out so I thought great and eased out to the sound of tearing metal as his door and my wheelnuts made contact, poor guy was nearly in tears when I got out and he asked the classic question ‘‘did’nt you see me’’ and was very surprised when I said no.
Don’t read my post about hitting stationary objects on the Uk forum then although I’ve been in enough 88s to know of the crap visibility down the sides and having driven plenty of LHDs in that little village on the River Thames I do feel your pain
saxonhorse:
Regarding TIR, I used to run a lot in east Europe in the 80s and if the commie caught you taking short cuts off the TIR routes, you were good for getting a ticket.
I think that was just their way of getting a few pieces of Western Currency for their holidays. If it wasn’t the Tranzit routes, they would make something else up.
The Rendorseg, VAM, Politie etc always had ways of making you pay
I worked out that the fines for using the road through Prague were cheaper than the fuel you used going over the mountain to Bratislava. And I would give them a can of coke for their persistence
newmercman:
DD, The Austrians used to Colis seal stuff too, I took a big forklift down to Vienna in a stepframe once and it was easier to leaver the tilt stripped down so it only covered the groupage on the step, when I got to Suben they wrapped a bit of string around the forklift and lead sealed it, that was all good, they were a bit ■■■■■■ off to see a couple of hundred cartons that needed a seal around them too that were lurking under the tilt on the step, of course they dealt with it all in their usual friendly way
Hi NMM,
That puts me in mind of various ‘encounters’ I had with the Austrian customs at Suben.
Yes, you’re spot-on mate, the Austrians did indeed use Kolliverschluss as that was acceptable to TIR.
newmercman:
Just as an aside, those tossers get my vote for the most awkward border guards, not as intimidating as the Commie Bloc soldiers, but awkward and belligerent sons of unmarried mothers without equal, how about those who travelled further, what is your vote for the worst border guards?
Yes, the Austrians (Suben, Kiefersfelden Loibl and Brenner) also get my vote for sheer awkwardness (other words are available ) so sometimes I went to Schärding where they seemed quite tame.
I used to run through the DDR, so I do remember the Commie border guards, but they weren’t half as much trouble as the Austrians!!
While we were in France recently we were introduced to the head of the German motorcycling federation and i showed off a little by greeting him in German, he was impressed and I asked him what part of Germany he was from, he mentioned a village saying it was quite close to Munich but more towards the Austrian Border. When I mentioned Burgkirchen & Altotting and the surrounding factories, he fairly quickly moved the subject on to motorcycle racing and his enjoyable journey down to France
We had a laugh about LKW Brummi Fahrer as he explained to the French president about fat lorry drivers
I bet that they didn’t ask that z.b. if he had a Genehmigung when he went into Austria .
Do you mean when he was born or later with the Gang Show?
With his Gang Show of course .
If The Wooden Tops had spent some time putting all those little Green Shield stamps on to German permits then Poland may not of been over run by German tourist during the September long weekend in 1939 .
The needle and string was mentioned where they sealed the cartons rather than the trailer.
the cord had not been threded through the plastic strip. I had visions of whole familys of Romanians traveling in cubbyholes built into the load, as its all flat packs, grat for building dens! Anyway they had me spead-eagled up against the trailer. The Russian officer spoke very good english, but i think i recognise the word Siberia & Goolag in any language 
.