Hotpoint,from Peterborough had new units with sleeper cabs,can’t remember what make.Management had cross-bars fastened across the bunks so the drivers couldn’t use them,the thinking was the n/o money was to use digs.At the time we had Mastiffs,for a mail order catalogue company,3/4 nights out across the seats.Mind you on shop deliveries UK wide,same run every week accomodation was often found(after grab a granny nights)!!!
Sniffy:
The Pod has to be the worst idea yet,
A hole in the roof, climb in and refit the mattress over the hatch, to get out, same in reverse. Imagine the choice in a rush, half asleep, through the base or climb out through the escape window to the floor - Don’t think so !!!Not suprisingly, don’t think many have slept in them
I cannot imagine a situation where the pod would be used with a gas tanker.
Wheel Nut:
Sniffy:
The Pod has to be the worst idea yet,
A hole in the roof, climb in and refit the mattress over the hatch, to get out, same in reverse. Imagine the choice in a rush, half asleep, through the base or climb out through the escape window to the floor - Don’t think so !!!Not suprisingly, don’t think many have slept in them
I cannot imagine a situation where the pod would be used with a gas tanker.
So you are not a pigeon fancier Malc 
.
Does anybody remember those horrible looking things that Carmans had on the J.C.B. contract in the late 80’s.
I bet that Marcus The Bubbleman has got a photo of them 
.
The Pod has to be the worst idea yet,
A hole in the roof, climb in and refit the mattress over the hatch, to get out, same in reverse. Imagine the choice in a rush, half asleep, through the base or climb out through the escape window to the floor - Don’t think so !!!
Not suprisingly, don’t think many have slept in them
[/quote]
I cannot imagine a situation where the pod would be used with a gas tanker.
[/quote]
I agree with wheel nut, but most likely the best kit locker/tool box/wardrobe ever fitted to a gas truck though !!
Oh happy days 60s 70s i remember them well
old 1966 AKi ply wood across bonnet 11,000 blankets
just to cover engine noise, screw driver as key to take door handles of to lock it
ratchet hand brakes, p>>>>s well in floor drivers side, 300 chains passenger side
primus stove to brew up, more ice inside than out.
RADIO HEATER F…K of and work for somedy else if you want those luxury
Happy Days
Danny fleetclean
The DAF pod was a good job. The hatch was 30 ins X 20ins. You did’nt need to close the hatch to sleep unless two people was useing the sleeper.
There was enough room to fit two matress’s side by side.This DAF i had for 2 years.
John
3300John:
The DAF pod was a good job. The hatch was 30 ins X 20ins. You did’nt need to close the hatch to sleep unless two people was useing the sleeper.
There was enough room to fit two matress’s side by side.This DAF i had for 2 years.
John
coopers from bollington.are these still going cause i not seen them out and about
I had an AEC Mercury rigid and used to have 3 or 4 nights out a week and got fed up with the boards across from the window ledges to the bonnet so Christmas break 1976 I used part of another cab(yellow in colour) and made a sleeper complete with 1 inch ply floor!!! First time I drove it was like driving a front-room around!!!
Regards Pat
curnock:
3300John:
The DAF pod was a good job. The hatch was 30 ins X 20ins. You did’nt need to close the hatch to sleep unless two people was useing the sleeper.
There was enough room to fit two matress’s side by side.This DAF i had for 2 years.
Johncoopers from bollington.are these still going cause i not seen them out and about
Hi curnock Coopers have moved to Northwich now and have 80plus waggons. I left many years ago, they had a very good contract with Metal Box Manchester
and we return loaded out of Metal Box london. The london site was on valuable land, So that site was sold and the work was transfered to Hull. This was bad as the return work was then clearing houses. This was a shock to our system.
John
3300John:
curnock:
3300John:
The DAF pod was a good job. The hatch was 30 ins X 20ins. You did’nt need to close the hatch to sleep unless two people was useing the sleeper.
There was enough room to fit two matress’s side by side.This DAF i had for 2 years.
Johncoopers from bollington.are these still going cause i not seen them out and about
Hi curnock Coopers have moved to Northwich now and have 80plus waggons. I left many years ago, they had a very good contract with Metal Box Manchester
and we return loaded out of Metal Box london. The london site was on valuable land, So that site was sold and the work was transfered to Hull. This was bad as the return work was then clearing houses. This was a shock to our system.
John
As Trucknet and my posts drift occasionally 
, here is a bit of History about Metal Box. I found it while looking for information about Hull.
competition-commission.org.u … 058c02.pdf
It is quite a long document, 22 pages in PDF but interesting…
I found that write up intresting. In the 70s when i was on general i have done loads out of South Wales to many metal box plants.I have also return loaded
out of Crown Cork Southhall(beer cans to Burton)Before I spent 5 years at Coopers on 4 wheelers doing many loads from many Metal Box Factories.
Unloading Tin plate was always a slow proceedure was that them or me.■■?
thanks John.
3300John:
I found that write up intresting. In the 70s when i was on general i have done loads out of South Wales to many metal box plants.I have also return loaded
out of Crown Cork Southhall(beer cans to Burton)Before I spent 5 years at Coopers on 4 wheelers doing many loads from many Metal Box Factories.
Unloading Tin plate was always a slow proceedure was that them or me.■■?
thanks John.
In Hull we had 3 plants manufacturing tin cans, and drums. We had the Metal Box Company, Van Leer and Metal Drums. Not sure if any are still there now.
Just recently we were taking copper links to Heinz in Wigan but these were made in France 
I worked at Pickfords in the early 80’s and for the size of company that they were, they had the worst fleet of vehicles imaginable. The majority of them were Bedford TK’s and they were too mean to get any converted into sleepers. You could “sleep” on the parcel shelf behind the seats if you were a contortionist but most drivers either slept in the back of the wagon (sometimes on the customer’s bed!) or across the seats with a bit of improvisation. (If you think using the bed was a liberty, one driver I worked with was doing a removal to Inverness and had a night out there before delivering the next day. As it was a bit cold, he went in the back of the van and took the customers coat out of a wardrobe carton and wore it into town. The trouble was that he bumped into the customer who was out having a meal with his wife! They were not imressed). Anyway, I used to take the back of the passenger seat off and by hooking one end of a wardrobe carton bar to the black heater box and resting the other end under the seat, the bar would support the seatback as it lay across the footwell on the passenger side, therby making extra room to sleep at an angle across the seats. I’d then put the gearstick into first, lay a few blankets in the gap and hey presto - a “bed”. My girlfriend at the time got her mother to make me some curtains that hung on stretched white plastic with hooks in the end - I thought i was the bees knees parked up in the Manchester Truck Stop in such comfort! We got £5.50 a night out in those days. Night heaters!!! I used to carry a hot water bottle with me and get the old girl in the truckstop to fill it up with hot water.
iirc dents of gamblinghay all erf day cab fleet with the fold down bunk. anybody else remember this fleet ■■. used to do lockwood foods etc.
3300John:
The DAF pod was a good job. The hatch was 30 ins X 20ins. You did’nt need to close the hatch to sleep unless two people was useing the sleeper.
There was enough room to fit two matress’s side by side.This DAF i had for 2 years.
John
Hi ‘3300John’ I remember those ‘Cooper’s’ pod sleeper’s from the 80’s 
At the time I was driving a DAF 2100 tautliner also Y reg with a pod and the lads on for Cooper’s always used to give a flash or a wave when we passed or came across each other on the MWays 
Maybe you remember my motor It was purple & white with grey curtains and a red logo after the ‘INVERCON’ name 
‘INVERCON’ were actually part of the BuhrmannTetrode Group of Rotterdam and owned the Northern Ireland Paper Mills who had a contract to supply Sainsbury’s with lots & lots of toilet roll 
It was ‘INVERCON’s’ job to store & redistribute the bog rolls to all the NDC’s & RDC’s throughout the UK 
What should have been a really cushy sorted job was ruined by a corrupt depot manager who didn’t have a clue about running a straight operation
It was a good job whilst it lasted but I was glad I’d moved on before the ■■■■ hit the fan 
Regards
Dave Penn;
was in hospital in Augest for a week … 
… and in the next billet was this old wagon driver . we had got talking and and was telling me some great old tales about his days on the road… and then he told me about this “CABBIE BED”… … that was in an old ERF… that had one fitted…and he used to do runs down to the markets in london in it and he would use the “CABBIE”…
and how he was the envy of other drivers as he had this “CABBIE” fitted …
and i meant to post it on here and ask some of u vetrens of the road… (am only 40…) about it … and it completly slipped my mind until i read it on here … … thanks for the pic .bubbs… 
was in total awe of this old guy and some of his tales…
Hi Dave i can remember that truck very well. Its taken me a couple of days to get back as i’ve been trying to get the grey matter stired up on a story or two.
Did you stay on Toddington services nothbound with us.That was the norm Macc area to London tip and reload then to Toddy and stop dead.When the Metal
box Clapton closed that knocked the shine of the job,We still did Palmers Green and cheque books (metal box printed then)out of Southwark we never told anyone about that job,Then it moved to Liverpool,That was another blow.We started doing more work out of Stratford lift,Anyone who worked out of that place will tell you. It was the worst place in the world to get loaded.We didnt get anywhere after loading only to the gate and that was possibly dodgy.
John
Yes I too remember those Hatcher roof sleepers, and a funny tale to go with it! I can’t remember where it came from though.
A firm used a wagon and drag box van outfit and it was fitted with a roof sleeper pod, the driver took his other half with him on a day run to do some local deliveries and on the return journey she said that she felt tired so he said pop up into the sleeper and have a kip till we get back to the yard which she did. On arriving back at the yard the driver handed the motor over to the night trunk driver so that he could take it away to load it for the next day, and then he jumped into his car and went home. The night man thought that he had won the “love” lottery when after only a short distance from the yard a shapely pair of legs appeared from the sleeper pod as this woman dropped into the passenger seat beside him!
She scared him to death and he frightened the life out of her! He did a 180 and returned to the yard post haste to find an embaressed day driver waiting to collect the forgotten lady! (I bet he had cold shoulder for tea and frosties for breakfast!)
regards doublereduction.
Hi 3300John, sorry for the delay in responding 
But once the ‘Chrissy holly’s start and then the New Year’ before you know it a month’s flown by and you just know youv’e got to trawl the forum to find the post’s you really need to respnd too
Anyway I certainly did used to park up at Todd; NBound and also up at the ‘Red Lion’ at Northampton but it became difficult to get nights out as the depot manager started to double-man nearly all the night out jobs and allegedly the night out money was being claimed for us in his budget for the depot but not paid to the drivers 
Allegedly a lot of other ‘management arranged money making scams’ where being carried out during this period of about 18mths, 84 - 86 and I’d left to become a ‘box jockey’ on the ACL/Cunard contract out of Seaforth a couple of months before the ■■■ hit the fan and the Depot Manager along with his son and a few other relatives who were employed at the time were all given their marching orders
Regards
Dave Penn;
Hi Mate. I drove for MAT for 13 years out of MIFT in Manchester. All the Scanias we had were fitted with a fold down couchette. You had to pull the back off the passanger seat and the bunk folded down and you had a cushion that went on the drivers seat to make up the height diference, on the older motors the drivers seat back also came off and it was a full width bunk but legislation later prevented the drivers seat being altered. There was still room to sit on the edge to get changed. I have spent night after night sleeping on these bunks and they were sound.
Big Leggy:
If there are any old-time MAT drivers on this thread they will have a tale to tell – I can remember MAT drivers in Italy for 2 or 3 weeks at a time with Scanias day cabs fitted with pull down beds – I believe they were known as “couchette cabs” !!
I think these were illegal at that time in Germany if they were used as a sleeper – ok if you put up in hotel though !!