Who does it? do you like it ?
I know there are downsides like dont see family much but im thinking of doing some tramping work. What is considered good money for tramping/nights out etc and what do you carry to survive, obviously ,sleeping bag,clothes,laptop,maps, inverter?,chargers,torch,■■■■ nav.plenty of charts, etc
Little stoves/kettles or eat out?
Is it the be all/end all or do you hate it?
Opinions ?
when you start tramping its grim. you dont know anything ,where do i park, (no where is safe) so get that straight.
you eat out a pot,
you wash in a basin,
YOU LIVE IN A LORRY.
all the above come from tramping.
you might get home evrey week?
you might get home in 3 months?
money £470_£600 in the bank (and you dont weeked for nothing)
i wont tell you what equipment you need to survive as were all diffrent.
see if you like the job then make yourself comfy.
Trampins what you make of it like 245 say’s
If you got the same motor week in week out then you collect a lot of stuff. just like living at home 
you’ll wonder how you collected so much junk.
If your married or have kids it can stretch your relationship to breaking point . If your single it can run you down a catch 22… at the end of the day only you can say if you can put up with night after night on ur own.
Some people go into this without realising the stress it can bring on you, someone that has to have company around them will find it hard especialy if you wanna be home.
I loved it the X didnt mind at the time till the kids came along then things changed … 
Give me the chance and I’d be back on it like a rocket now the kids have grown up and the wife has gone
When I retired from tramping It literally took me all day to empty my cab.I found stuff under the bunk that I had forgotten I had.
I did over 40 years tramping and I enjoyed every minute of it, but there where less daft regs than there are now, it was a good life You could park in the street in the old days and no one would bother you, before sleeper cabs we would park in a lay-by near a telephone box and plug in an electric fire,get the cab warm ,then sleep across the seats.
I remember graduating to a “D” range ford, and thought it was the dogs because you had a double passenger seat. Happy days
Both 245 and adie have hit the nail fully on the head. But tramping can be 5 days or 5 weeks and it is a hard thing to get into but just as hard to get out of again. I started out on 4 nights and I carried a small gas stove and kettle, clothes and other sundries, yet I still managed to collect an inordinate amount of cr4p in the truck. When I went on real long distance I was away up to 6 weeks at a time and home for a couple of days before going out again. This was very hard on the family and social lives and I believe it was instrumental in losing a lot of faith in my friends eventually.
If you are single and fancy trying it then go for it. Trampers are a dying breed in the UK and Europe now, but there will aloways be a place for them. Trampers need to be more versatile and flexible. If you don’t think you would handle sitting in an industrial estate for a weekend then maybe euro work is not for you. But Sunday to Friday may well suit as it still gives you time in the pub and money in the bank to spend there. Avoid motorway service areas as they are a total con and the food you are “served” is junk at best and disgusting more often than not. Truth is, a pub meal is generally as cheap and freshe prepped so you are getting a decent meal along with the bonus of a pint and people around you if you want company.
Remember though, you will not have all the comforts of home. Having a TV in the truck is not the same as sitting at home watching Sky, and there is no toilet in the hall for you to use. And please don’t fall into some of the traps like carrying a beer in the truck so you can enjoy a cold one at the end of a hard day. That is a potential risk and drinking alone is usually a bad thing.
Is it the be all and end all or the worst thing in the world? I really can’t say. I have done it, off and on, for 20 years. I have seen some amazing things in amazing places, but then I come home and forget to order the wife a coffee simply because I am used to ordering for one person. I don’t want to do it forever, but I probably will.
demonbiker:
Who does it? do you like it ?I know there are downsides like dont see family much but im thinking of doing some tramping work. What is considered good money for tramping/nights out etc and what do you carry to survive, obviously ,sleeping bag,clothes,laptop,maps, inverter?,chargers,torch,[zb] nav.plenty of charts, etc
Little stoves/kettles or eat out?Is it the be all/end all or do you hate it?
Opinions ?
I do tramping and have done for coming up to 6 months now. It is a very lonely job and you need to be a different breed to other drivers. You MUST enjoy your own company but also be able to strike up a conversation with others if you get fed up.
I feel the most important thing for a tramper that has a family is to have a VERY strong person at home. Its no good taking the job and finding you love it but it is wrecking your relationship. You either get along with it or get out, there is no in between. they need to be a special person and understand that you are doing it for them, as well as yourself. I’m lucky, my wife is used to me being away from being in the navy. A week at a time is nothing compared to 7 months.
As to what to take with you, a gas stove is a must, you never know where you will be parked up (you can plan to a certain degree but not everything goes to plan in life) plus if you eat at butty vans and services every day you may just end up looking like chubby brown! There is a thread on here about what to take with you when tramping but the essentials are food and plenty of water (I always take enough for a few extra days just in case (and I also keep a few pot noodles under the bunk, not good for you but a warm “meal”, and I use that term loosely for if the worst comes to the worst), Maps, baby wipes (cant always get a shower) and some form of evening entertainment, laptop, tv or books. You can’t always get a tele picture.
I was advised when I started to take anything you think you may need, keep it in the truck and if you don’t use it for 6 months, take it home again, you wont need it. Also to keep at least £50 in your wallet if you can, just in case!
One thing you must be able to do is ■■■ in a carrier bag as well (I find this degrading but had to do it a few times). You never know when you will get a dodgy belly but you can guarantee it will be when you are running out of hours with no toilets for miles and miles and you have to park in a layby!
A ratchet strap for your doors should be carried as well, in case you have to park in certain hot spots! But keep a knife with it in case you need to get out in a rush.
The hardest part about my tamping job is working weekends, it does get you down now and again when everyone is rolling out the pubs and youre just starting work and feel like just going home and posting the keys back, but then again you can have a really enjoyable week with lots of variety and everything goes your way.
My advice to anyone wanting to try it is go for it, you’ll either like it or hate it but won’t know unless you have done it.
PS. A good contract phone with some of the various add ons as well for when you do get bored you can just phone the world and his dog without worrying about the bill.
In opposition to what people post on here, there are not hoards of people roaming the countryside waiting to steal loads from unsuspecting lorry drivers; been tramping for over two years and not had a single issue.
The only things i take with me and take home again are sleeping bag/pillow a laptop cd’s/dvd’ and a satnav, EVERYTHING else is disposable, the only time i’ve been nervous of a trip and where to park was my virgin trip to spain, didn’t even speak spanish! it took them about 4 hours to unload so sat on seat in industrial estate in the sun drinking orange juice, better than some holidays i’ve been on
I’m a walking map of where supermarkets are, if i’m near one i stock up, if i park in motorway service station i only park never buy any food unless it’s M&S. My MAN has a fridge, cab heater, more 12v/24v sockets and shelves than you can add up on your break, some of the lads even have cookers in the back of thier trailers. But there’s loads of decent (safe) truck park’s around where you can get a 10oz steak, four eggs and a bavarian bitter for less than £10 so never needed one.
Pretty much what I thought peple would say
! Some good some bad, if the offer comes up
and they money is ok I’m going to do it, own
truck, not sharing, peace and a different adventure
every day!
Bit like camping without the tent!!
For me tramping came hand in hand with lorry driving, its just an occupational hazard.
I’ve been tramping for over 20yrs now and wouldn’t have it any other way, call it gypsy blood, loner or just that you like your own company, or do you just get used to your own company.
I tend to find an ind’ est just on the outskirts or nr a supermarket to park.
Won’t go anywhere nr service stations, or rip off truckstops. Don’t get me wrong there are some superb truckstops where your dinner is in with the tkt or you get a substantial bit off the price of a meal, then as long as your gaffer pays all your parking then its well worth it.
If you need or have to do 15hr days which is generally innevitable with tramping, then for me there’s nothing worse than starting at 5, and getting back to the yard at 20.00, half hour drive home wash, dinner , yawn, bed, up at 3.45 to get ready for 5 start probably = 2 an half hrs with the good lady, kids are already in bed.
Might as well kip in the lorry and get proper 9hrs.
Park up, take 30min walk, away from the cab, back refreshed, and still have 8 good hrs kip.
demonbiker:
Pretty much what I thought peple would say
! Some good some bad, if the offer comes up
and they money is ok I’m going to do it, own
truck, not sharing, peace and a different adventure
every day!
Bit like camping without the tent!!
Questions you lie about if you go for a pint in a strange town.
where are you parked
what you carrying,
after i posted last night a black 4x4 pulled in to layby and checked out the lorrys.
i was empty so not my problem.
a sensible attitude stops you ending up in A+E .
scania245:
Questions you lie about if you go for a pint in a strange town.
where are you parked
what you carrying,
after i posted last night a black 4x4 pulled in to layby and checked out the lorrys.
i was empty so not my problem.
a sensible attitude stops you ending up in A+E .
Excellent point, although I never had any problems with that particular side of it- maybe my Edward Cullen growls sent them packing… 
That said, anything too dodgy looking is always worth letting the old bill know as soon as you can, and it is a fair shout to let any laggards eying you up to see you have a phone and are talking to the plod if you can. If there are not more than one or two then they let you alone as a rule once they know you are watching them. I used to make a note of reg nos if I could and then call. They normally know who is around and never minded when I called them. Failing that, a 6 cell maglite is a hell of a deterrent.
I don’t know, my truck has pretty much all the home comforts, and I have a lot of room in there, so I can carry lots of food and sundry items. As has been said before, you would be amazed how much clutter you build up.
its nice to see in some of the posts the total honesty that a life like this does have consequences on you .
i wont say this lifestyle has been bad .
but i do wonder now and again what my life might have been like if i hadnt got my hgv at 17.
settled for a normal job and never been out the bottle?
well my medicals due this year 28 years time to get a grown up job.
Good point, 245. There has been honesty here which has been missing from similar threads in the past.
The life is what you make it, isn’t it? So many of us have spent a large percentage of our lives living in a shed on wheels, so we know how it goes.
But I had the “normal” jobs until I was 21. They sucked. You were stuck somewhere with at least one person you loathed and watching the clock for 4:30 so you could go home. Normality just doesn’t suit some. Normality for some is waking up, doing the deeds of the morning and being at work at the same time.
Good luck with your medical.
normality is 2.4 kids house 2 cars (had that) now im back to normal living 3 diffrent lives
i would have liked to have tried normal.not pushing for the money all the time.
you get to a certain age i seem to be at it now.
i dont want to be 65 yr old an talking to myself on a ferry cause im the only one thatl listen to me .
Would you prefer to be a 65 year old waiting for a gold watch as a gift from people who never listened to you?
Think of it like this. We, the trampers of the world, have experiences nobody else can have had. We have seen the best and the worst that can be seen. We see the glitz of a city, and we see the slum that sits behind, and we do it it the pursuit of the elusive golden penny.
But every one of these experiences is a little adventure which, if you view them in the right light, make us the last bastion of the pioneers. I have had the arguments with people in the past, and my answer stays the same every time.
In my driving career I have been in the city where Hitler was born, the battlefields where he fought for his country, the city where he failed as an artist and the city where he orchestrated the most devastating mass murder imagineable and ultimately died. I have seen animals most only see on Discovery Channel, I have driven across the lakes and heard the ice crack, seen mountains beyond number. I have been threatened with knives, had people try to stone me, had to square off with people so desperate they had nothing to lose.
If you look at it right then it is all a big adventure, and I did it without having to pay a tour guide.
you put that better than any novelist,and i understand it all as ive went out my way to see ,culture
but my point is I met a guy on a back door last year he had been there since he had left school 16 yr old we had been friends at school ,i gave him a rundown of what id done he envied me an i ENVIED him.
he didnt have the baggage ive got. he s not got amoney job but he has a life friends he s never left edinburgh,hes never been anywhere he where he was away for 3-6 months .
its a trade of money/thrills/spills and normal 8 hour shift and a normal life
like i said honesty
think its a bit late for me to be normal
Yep, me too…
But what you don’t see in his life, is the day to day drudge, the same faces in the pub, the same rows every day, the same shop steward telling you to strike because there were no aero bars in the vending machine again…
All that sounds inviting to those of us who have gone away in the truck and come back to find a bypass around our hometown, but it would not appeal to our spirits. I tried to give it up. I went to work in a garden centre. Within 6 weeks I was driving 2 nights a week for a supermarket, then 3. I went full time on the trolleys for a while but the long haul called me again and I was gone again.
I think, once it is in you, it is there for life.
It is really odd how a trampers mind works, too. I got my trip through today and it is 3130 miles out, and I automatically started to figure out the deviations I will have to make owing to it being winter. Knowing that the river will be iced over and the ferry will not be running is simply something I accounted for without thought. It is a mindset and, I am starting to think, just as much a gift as a math prodigy can do algebra.
my ex allways said as soon as i went out the door i was in driver mode,never looked back she was right,
i was on the job forget evreything else, the trouble is you do forget evreything home you arent intreseted youve had a day from hell then te phone goes (somebody stole her shopping trolley)
it aint easy.
the job owns you body and soul.
It does, no doubt about it.
And it was so much easier before cellphones. Once you were away you were MIA until you called from the ferryport, unless you called in from time to time to let the wife know you weren’t dead yet…
But it gets you and won’t let you go, doesn’t it?
guilty as charged, makes a change no penal servitude to serve,
me lord