ronhawk:
Downtown. Jeddah just before the change over ■■? When the A series where we’re at home!!! Come on Wirlinmerlin put your bikes on !!! Ron
Interesting photos
When did they change over from left to right??
Yo Yo trailer. Loaded with palletised Mousy non alcoholic beer - had been lying in the port for 2 years before they started containerising it a the bottles kt exploding in the 40c plus heat.
Cheers
Ken
ronhawk:
Three Black Country lads , Trans Arabia style up the creek, from right to left ,the good, the bad , and the ugly !!
Hi Ron, could you please tell me who the lad is sitting at the table on the right hand side, at the front. He reminds me very much like a lad called Tommy from Yorkshire who used to do internals with a White Road Commander in the mid eighties. He used to display a number plate in the front window with the name ■■■ Machine, if that rings any bells.
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve, that lad on the right '? Reminds me of some one ? I think it’s not my place to say who it is I will leave that to my mate Martin, who will be sticking hyperdemic needle in himself, if and when he tell us ■■ Ron
Ron and previous Jerry as well…I really DO respect you and your work, a lot of miles from home (I don’t
know if S. Jones had frequent deliveries via you as passengers for spares) but I assume you had the tough
job chosing the right part, partnumber and with the pricelist on his back Ken ‘warning’ and sitting on the tilt.
Attached some examples on how to chose the right part…it is up to you what happened after ordering 
Tools is quite another chapter…I will try to picture them later
A-J. S,Jones of Aldridge had a very good and comprehensive part division ,and franchise for ERF in the midland area ,there stores would after the initial order, obtain and issue any part ordered, from a foot brake valve to hub reduction 1/2 shaft , the fact that all of the ERFs had there ID and where we’ll documented there was no problem with the parts, including ■■■■■■■ , I do remember however John Davies ,re wiring the main loom that had burnt with the heat of the engine in the chassis ? Strand by stand on one of the B series well done JD , lads going back to Jeddah had some very heavy excess baggage myself included !! From the photos that I have seen now ? It looks as if TA was a scrap it !! rather than repair it ? !!! Ron
I am up to page 7 of 31, reading every post and loving it! I wish I could have been driving back then and had this ‘adventure’. The modern world is so sanitised and boring [emoji20] I’m sure it wasn’t as much fun at the time as it seems with hindsight but wow, to have those memory’s…
nomiS36:
I am up to page 7 of 31, reading every post and loving it! I wish I could have been driving back then and had this ‘adventure’. The modern world is so sanitised and boring [emoji20] I’m sure it wasn’t as much fun at the time as it seems with hindsight but wow, to have those memory’s…
sanitised and boring are good words to describe it today !!
Far from the Maddening Crowd !!! Re living some memorable times , this was a TASECO TMS ERF that had gone of the tarmac and was well stuck in soft sand on the Al Jubayl high way , going out with Vic Turners son Scott to do a recky , I found the artic well stuck , unable to get near the front end,I drove on and found good stretch of hard desert and did a large circle to get back to the accident !! In doing this I came across a Bedouin tent about A mile out in the desert , stoping the Range Rover ,Bedouin Man was great and greeted us warmly invited us into the tent ? Sitting in there was his family three women all masked up , Scott and I sat along side them leaning against a big chest but you could see there smiling eyes this was really special and they gave us Shii! pored out of the traditional tall kettle boiling on the twig stick fire with the long brass spout, it was something that Scott and I will never forget , I wanted to take a photo but he waved me off , and gestured me to take a photo of his chickens ??the Sun was just going down , he then got up ,cleaning a part of the Desert with his cloak he began to pray to Ala , we waved to the women they did not pray and drove back to our camp down the Abqake Rd Ron.
ronhawk:
Far from the Maddening Crowd !!! Re living some memorable times , this was a TASECO TMS ERF that had gone of the tarmac and was well stuck in soft sand on the Al Jubayl high way , going out with Vic Turners son Scott to do a recky , I found the artic well stuck , unable to get near the front end,I drove on and found good stretch of hard desert and did a large circle to get back to the accident !! In doing this I came across a Bedouin tent about A mile out in the desert , stoping the Range Rover ,Bedouin Man was great and greeted us warmly invited us into the tent ? Sitting in there was his family three women all masked up , Scott and I sat along side them leaning against a big chest but you could see there smiling eyes this was really special and they gave us Shii! pored out of the traditional tall kettle boiling on the twig stick fire with the long brass spout, it was something that Scott and I will never forget , I wanted to take a photo but he waved me off , and gestured me to take a photo of his chickens ??the Sun was just going down , he then got up ,cleaning a part of the Desert with his cloak he began to pray to Ala , we waved to the women they did not pray and drove back to our camp down the Abqake Rd Ron.
Eric ‘Dixie’ Collins (RIP) and I delivered to a VOR site - an aircraft beacon - in the middle of nowhere, literally 50 miles from any highway. We turned off at Sakaka and headed for Jordan.
The Bedouin who owned the land invited us and the American who was in charge of it all to dinner that night. His tent was similar to your photo, with Persian carpets on the floor, except there were no sides. His wife didn’t wear the veil and joined us for the meal. She howled with laughter at Eric’s shorts ( I wore jeans).
The sky was spectacularly dark, with millions of stars.
The rice and lamb was rancid. Luckily it was very dark and I managed to push most of my meal about without eating much.
Poor Eric, suddenly said, ‘I’ve just, gulp, eaten, gulp, an eye!’
The Beddoo was delighted, he somehow understood that Eric had got an eye and was pleased for him. Eric was less ecstatic!
For months after, any mention of eating an eye had him close to vomiting!
John
Brilliant, enjoyed your storyJohn,I have just deleted mine it was very true but to near the knuckle■■? Sorry. DBP you have obviously read the revised !!! And revised tail this to has been Deleted ■■? Har Har Ron
Again excellent posts, we all love near the knuckle Ron, we are getting to know you now , deep -down you are one of the lads.dbp.
I never had the privilege of driving out to the middle east. I just drove “locally” in Europe. Did you have a fridge in your trucks? How did you keep you food, liquids, cool in the heat?
Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Johnny
jsutherland:
I never had the privilege of driving out to the middle east. I just drove “locally” in Europe. Did you have a fridge in your trucks? How did you keep you food, liquids, cool in the heat?Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Johnny
It depended on who you worked for whether your truck had air conditioning. Backsplice who posts on here worked for Saramat and they had f89s with A/C. Most of the Trans Arabia trucks had it, but Taseco TMS who Ron & Merlin worked for after TA, had no A/C.
I did internals from '76 to '81. I didn’t have A/C. That was Ok in winter. From late November until early April, the temperature was in the seventies in the day, and down to about 10dgrees at night in most of the desert. But Jeddah, which is in the tropics was always hot.
It amused me in DEstination Doha where one of them says ‘it gets cold in the desert at night’ - well, it was the middle of winter!
In summer it never got cold even in the middle of the night. Not bad away from the coast, your sweat evaporated. In Dammam and Jeddah it could be miserable trying to sleep, particularly as the mosquitoes came out at night and tried to eat you!
To answer your question, there were fridges, but they weren’t up to the job out there. Nobody used them. The other disadvantage with a fridge was that it pumped more hot air into your cab. We bought American ‘cool boxes’, which we filled with ice at the garages and kept cold drinks in them. Mainly water, you soon got sick of Pepsi.
You drank constantly. We had those small fans on the dashboard, but all they did was blow hot air at you in summer. You could get a bit of relief by soaking a towel and having it over the fan, the air was cool for a while, but it soon evaporated and you couldn’t mess about stopping every few minutes.
John Longhorn used to soak a towel and hang it over his head and shoulders. I just kept drinking.
We also had ‘elephant’ jugs - large thermos flasks which we filled with water - later, in about 1980, when it became available, milk.
I went across a washboard desert road out to a camp once. I’d filled the elephant with milk. When I got there it was cottage cheese!
John
Thanks for the insight.
John your discription of living in KSA was brilliant , but there was one time I was thankful for a warm coat and that was arriving at the Mack truck late evening ,in the mountains 1/2 way to king Solomans mine, in the middle of nowhere ,the night was cold I slept in the container , I would have been warmer in the sand ,but no mosquitoes, , the day was hot ,the cooler box was ambient temp the water was warm The food was served with sand , the toilet was under the trailer,with your back against the axle , Ron
@Ron, you really keep this thread going and interesting!
When there were no drivers returning to Jeddah after their wll-earned/deserved weeks off,
how did the supply of parts was organised and effected? By truck? By plane?
Tomorrow I hope to make some pictures of early tools, you’re perhaps familiar with but out
of your age I assume you were then playing with the first Matchbox/Corgi ERF with milk cans?
Wish you a superb summer-evening aside your watermill
A clear shot of the bridge near the top of Al Tief, aprox 8000ft this was coming back after the recovery of Trans Arabia Mac 114. ,this Mac Caught fire just short of the top pulling 65 tons going up The trailer chassis buckeled with heat, Ron
A-J, going to the air cargo hall in down town Jeddah, with a box from TA to the UK ! As I approached the place, an Indian guy took the box off me !!and gestured to follow him ? Getting to the counter he wanted money ? I felt like" Martin "!! He is really tight , and pulled the box off him , and told him to " get Off " I was as green as grass at the time and did not know the ropes !! To answer your question I think parts where flown in as well as collected from S Jones Ron
Was there no such thing as a mosquito net back then? Sorry for my ignorance [emoji5]
