going off this
what is the worst state u have driven a truck in??
i once drove a scania 4 series with half a windscreen after it had been in a crash, went around the corner from r yard to pick up a box that needed movin
when i arrived all the office were taking piks laughing, i wasnt laughing as it was freezing !!
( link edited to picture ) jd
blimey…i’d have taped him a new windscreen…when doing this kind of stuff you do need to make an effort. 
One with a bypassed heater matrix in winter. Made the gaffer drive it in the end. That weekend it was fixed.
Drove another 30 miles with no power steering.
Drove one all the way from J33 M62 up the A1 to Newcastle, tipped and back to Hull with no clutch slave cylinder. Thank god it was an Eaton twin split and I was only carrying empty paint tins.
Eurotech with more crack than windscreen, more rust than metal, vast numbers of multicoloured spotlights all saying “VOSA - PULL ME NOW!!!” the bars from which were holding the rest of the motor together, and a red suspension warning for which the solution was, apparently, to take the tops off the wheelarches off to stop the molten plastic smell…Oh, and worst of all, a mouse living in the top lockers. It kept nicking me cornflakes, greedy sod. No matter how many times I relocated them. 
It’s a long story… 
mark h:
going off this
what is the worst state u have driven a truck in??
i once drove a scania 4 series with half a windscreen after it had been in a crash, went around the corner from r yard to pick up a box that needed movin
when i arrived all the office were taking piks laughing, i wasnt laughing as it was freezing !!
( link edited to picture ) jd
i wounder when some one will say drunk
Saw some remarkable sights when doing M/E 30 odd years ago.
Busted windscreens were common and on several occasions I’ve seen the shattered glass replaced with a plywood screen with a hole cut in it the size of a letter box!
The best must have been seeing a broken down Tonka,(local Turkish truck),returning from Baghdad.In the absence of a straight bar for the tow,the drivers had roped the two trucks together back to back,tailboard to tailboard!
As they were travelling in the opposite direction to me,I only caught a quick look as it passed,I did a quick double take in my mirror.The driver of the towed vehicle was enjoying the view of where they’d come from,but I did wonder how they went on going round corners!
is that the magnum clarkson used to ram the brick wall in top gear making its way home. 
see foreigners go to any lengths to get work over here. 
that should,nt be on the road anyhow. got a bulb out
Arizona 
Taxi!!! 
I drove an old X reg MAN which has now thankfully gone to heaven…… the body of the truck (box) was a bit dodgy it had been bodged back together with a few nails and some planks of wood… as the body had started to “splinter” in various places but fitters had said it was safe to drive, did walk round checks and everything seemed o.k… apart from the 2 big cracks on the windscreen going from one side to another going through “my view” as VOSA would see it.
Was only doing a local round so planned to get windscreen repaired when I got back in the afternoon, got all the way round and no trouble at all then all of a sudden driving up the A1 near sawtry would you Adam and eve it Mr VOSA appeared and proceeded to do a sssllllooooooowwwwwww drive by, and i mean slow, he’d he’d obviously seen it was a fairly old truck but had M.OT etc. I was so close to home and just was waiting for the flashing lights to come on but they didn’t and he moved lanes and checked someone else.
Question: What it VOSA’s/POLICE’s view on a blown bulb - will you get a GV9 and have to sulk in the layby and wait 5 hours for a fitter to turn up■■?
The amount of trucks i driver if i was to keep a spare set of bulbs for every truck i’d need a drag on the back marked up HALFORDS
true this the only one i can think of is a scammel noisy and smelled of oil, ho and the air wipers that only went every few minutes
Why Reg, you say Arizona, Why is that…■■ I live there…!!!
I used to work at a place we had a Renault R310, It was used to transfer trailers between the Crane Fruehauf factories at North Walsham and Dereham.
You basically got this motor when yours was in for MOT and they’d keep you on shunting work for a week. Nice change when you were used to tramping for the rest of the year, 8 til 5 and a quite a bit of standing round drinking coffee. 
First thing in the morning turn up and start the motor and go and get a coffee and wait for the smoke to clear before getting in.
The cab interior was a delight, The original light blue Renault trim was now a nice mixture of dirt and grease, most of the foam had gone from the seat and the gear lever and steering wheel had been worn shiney by years of use. The passenger footwell was full of straps and old papers.
You sort of guided it between the hedges more than actually steered the thing, the gear lever action was more like stiring a couldron and the cab rolled like you were in a force 10 gale.
Once it had warmed up and on the road there was hardly any smoke, but when you were stting in traffic steam would rise up from the front of the windsceen.
Although it was all legal it did look such a heap the Ministry asked the mechanics not to use it to bring trailers up for test as they reckon it didn’t look to good in the test station when they would fail far tidier trucks.
despite all its quirks or maybe because of it I did quite enjoy driving it, and it always meant a week of easy work and home every night.
The Foden in my avatar had a collapsed suspension seat, so I had blocks of wood wedged into the base to keep it solid. I made it last for about six months and then the gaffer found me one out of a scrapper, bliss! We always managed to get trucks home, I ran all day with no power steering once on a Sed- Ak when a pipe burst. Disconnected the pump from the engine and it wasn’t too bad until you got on a site, muscles like Popeye by knock off. Ran with no clutch when the master cylinder collapsed, I was loaded with sand from Meriden to Ashbourne and it was no problem with a Fuller until you stopped! Got good at starting it in gear on the starter motor.
We had one owner driver in the '60’s who ran for a week with no windscreen as he couldnt afford one, he put some goggles on and coped until he got pulled over. Worst thing I had though was when the heater leaked on a Foden 6 wheeler that I drove and it was disconnected for several days, it was January and we were running tarmac to Doncaster’s North Bridge at night, I couldn’t keep the screen clear and ended up being off work with real flu (not man flu)!
Like being back in the 1950’s!
Pete.
Munchman:
Why Reg, you say Arizona, Why is that…■■ I live there…!!!
WE KNOW 
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Before i started driving for a living, the factory i worked at was split by the canal. They used an old daf 10 tonner to transfer coils of steel between the factories by road (approx 300 yards). The floor, lower bodywork and steps were made up from offcuts of steel, crudely cut to fit and then pop-rivetted in place. The engine always blew clouds of smoke out and used more oil than diesel. If you tried to change gear, the lever would come off in your hand so it was taped on with duct tape. The steering wheel was worn flat and had bite marks in it! When it got stolen, the driver had the biggest smile on his face… until they brought it back!
timmo:
When it got stolen, the driver had the biggest smile on his face… until they brought it back!
jeez some people are desperate.
i bet it was found down the road.
Lucy:
Eurotech with more crack than windscreen, more rust than metal, vast numbers of multicoloured spotlights all saying “VOSA - PULL ME NOW!!!” the bars from which were holding the rest of the motor together, and a red suspension warning for which the solution was, apparently, to take the tops off the wheelarches off to stop the molten plastic smell…Oh, and worst of all, a mouse living in the top lockers. It kept nicking me cornflakes, greedy sod. No matter how many times I relocated them.It’s a long story…
Could have sworn I saw you in that last week.
Ken.
My Transcon had an unfortunate meeting with Carlos Fandango the forklift driver in Alicante, result was a busted screen & the nearside A pillar bent so a new screen wouldn’t go in, I drove it home with no screen at all It was summer so it wasn’t too cold but I got peppered with flies & my sunglasses took a proper beating, not something I’d do again in a hurry 
i bet it was found down the road.
[/quote]
How did you guess?
The police found it at the roundabout up the road, surrounded by a mess of steel coils! The driver never used to strap anything because of the short distance. The first time the thieves went round a corner, everything went sideways
During the storms of 1988■■ we were doing round timber haulage from the South East and Boxhill. At the time any truck with a breath of life in it could be put on the job, cash payments at the saw mill and a lot of blind eyes turned
I had a 140 which had an intermittant fault. The engine kept throwing all its oil out and overheating I took it to our local tyre dealer who wanted it for the tyres and swapped him for an F10 with remoulds on. It cost me a new turbo oil feed pipe to get it going, and I set off with my trailer to Tilmanstone.
On the way back I was pulled at Sandy weighbridge and had a full inspection, the copper asked me all about the truck, when I had got it and how much I paid. I said that I swapped it for a knackered Scania and reckoned it stood me at 2 grand. He told me to take it back, not let him see me ever again and drive home carefully.
I tipped my timber, got paid for the load, went back for my Scania and said the Volvo wasnt up to the job. The next day I drove the Scania to the scrap yard and swapped it for a Saviem ex Burton Tailoring. This little beauty did about 7 trips to Athens and only ever cost me a light bulb