when i was a kid i was obsessed whith trucks that had twin bunks(i always thought it the mark of a true long distance truck)
Always hoped my grandads firm would get rid of the Volvo F86s and F7 and get something more substantial lol
Well the day came, he went onto a new contract and they all got brandnew Merc 1619s medium cab with twin Bunks(top one could only be put down with the seats tilted) the fridge trailers even had front and back TIR plates, i was as proud as anything even though we never went abroad lol
So what wagons had twin bunks from back in the day(ie did the little daf 2300s ,scamell crusaders and plenty of others)
And if anybody has pictures of the bunk layouts please post away
In 1974 i was working for Chapman &Ball and the first lorry i had was a Fiat 619 with twin bunks great motor loads of room and large sleeping area. but we were doing eastern europe and middle east. i wish i could find one now to put into the show circuit. regards terry
ERF B series were twin bunks. You could sleep on both without having to rearrange the cab. Did so many times although I must admit there wasn’t much room for the larger version of me to turn over
Was gutted when my twin bunk Eurotech was replaced with a single bunk FM Globetrotter.
The amount of cases of Stella i used to cram onto the top bunk of the ole girl beggars belief.
Seemed to go through a lot of cab mountings though!
That bottom one looks more like a coffin
I look at the size of the bunks both then and now and wonder how I ever slept in european truck when my resent truck has a 3/4 width bed in the sleeper (room for two if you have the missus with you) and I can actually walk round in the cab between the driving area and the bed.
Anyway ! My first experience of doube bunks wason a night out in Knottingly at Rockware glass when I worked on Swifts. My Volvo F7 was off the road and I had been sent out in a Ford ‘D’ series day cab rigid but got held up there with no sleeper. Jock Shepard (old ■■■■) has a Ford Transcontinental with wto bunks and as we sat in the pub he said " Away with ya laddie, here’s ma kays, start the engine and git in tha top bunk" and then ordered another pint.
I did as he asked and was just snoozing off on his top bunk when he returned to the cab as drunk as a skunk, got in the bottom bunk and proceeded to ■■■■ every 5 minutes for the entire night and as ■■■■ rises I got the worst of it.
Over here running team I found it extremely hard to sleep as the other guy ripped down the interstate at 75mph.
back in 1979 when i passed my test my first truck was a M.A.N 16.232 with a column change. flat as a ■■■■ and took forever to get going, however the cab for the day was very spacious with having the column change and “flat” dash plenty of room to move around and i thought it was the dog’s with twin bunk’s.
Pat Hasler:
That bottom one looks more like a coffin
I look at the size of the bunks both then and now and wonder how I ever slept in european truck when my resent truck has a 3/4 width bed in the sleeper (room for two if you have the missus with you) and I can actually walk round in the cab between the driving area and the bed.
Anyway ! My first experience of doube bunks wason a night out in Knottingly at Rockware glass when I worked on Swifts. My Volvo F7 was off the road and I had been sent out in a Ford ‘D’ series day cab rigid but got held up there with no sleeper. Jock Shepard (old ■■■■) has a Ford Transcontinental with wto bunks and as we sat in the pub he said " Away with ya laddie, here’s ma kays, start the engine and git in tha top bunk" and then ordered another pint.
I did as he asked and was just snoozing off on his top bunk when he returned to the cab as drunk as a skunk, got in the bottom bunk and proceeded to ■■■■ every 5 minutes for the entire night and as ■■■■ rises I got the worst of it.
Over here running team I found it extremely hard to sleep as the other guy ripped down the interstate at 75mph.
The 2300 Daf had a similar set up to the 2800, but only a single bunk, you could have a low mounted bunk with lots of headroom, or a high mounted bunk with lots of storage, in the 2800 you could have a top and bottom bunk or lower the top bunk to have headroom and storage underneath. That was a really good arrangement and they also had a really comfy mattress
My first twin bunk was a 111, by that time everything but the medium cabbed Mercs and F88s/F10s had twin bunks and it was an option in the Mercs and Volvos
My current sleeper looks like this
Except mine has an upper bunk where the cupboards are on this one, my top bunk folds up along its centreline, I can get a load of gear up there and it gets held in by the front section which is vertical when folded up, so it’s much more useful than a few cupboards and a bit of headroom
