Driven a lorry without all of the modern Nancy Boy stuff?
So, no retarders, A/C, electric windows, air seats, night heater, air suspension, ABS, cruise control etc.
Basically a lorry with steel springs, three line brakes and one electrical Suzie, pulling trailers on steel springs without load sensing or spring brakes.
Does such a driver exist on this forum?
Yes, pretty well every lorry I drove in the 70’s. Atki’s , ERF’s, Commer 2 stroke, Ford D series, Bedford TK,TM… oh and you forgot to mention no power steering, that’s why they had bloody great steering wheels. Like to see some of the young lady drivers of today manoeuvering a fully loaded ERF or Atki without power steering, you didn’t want to do a lot of shunting back and forwards in those.
newmercman:
Driven a lorry without all of the modern Nancy Boy stuff?So, no retarders, A/C, electric windows, air seats, night heater, air suspension, ABS, cruise control etc.
Basically a lorry with steel springs, three line brakes and one electrical Suzie, pulling trailers on steel springs without load sensing or spring brakes.
Does such a driver exist on this forum?
My first truck was a Daf with steel springs (trailer too) Bostrom Mechanically sprung seat, wind up window, no night heater, blue air-line, no night heater, no cat-walk or work light.
Or even better
Been there, done it, got the Tee shirt.
That’s why I’m still doing a bit after 45 years because I think I’ve earned a soft job!
matamoros:
Yes, pretty well every lorry I drove in the 70’s. Atki’s , ERF’s, Commer 2 stroke, Ford D series, Bedford TK,TM… oh and you forgot to mention no power steering, that’s why they had bloody great steering wheels. Like to see some of the young lady drivers of today manoeuvering a fully loaded ERF or Atki without power steering, you didn’t want to do a lot of shunting back and forwards in those.
+1 and it is very interesting when you have a front wheel blowout without power steering…
Power steering is allowed 
I’m not even going to mention flat trailers and sheets as I’m not thinking about that part of things (even though I have done plenty of that myself)
I just read some of the moans on here about retarders not working or similar and wonder what we’ve become.
Myself included as the trigger for my thoughts was a conversation I had with a mate about getting an APU fitted to my motor, it’s basically a donkey engine that provides A/C and power when the engine is off, one of my main reasons for getting one is so I don’t have to run the engine when parked in winter. The APU circulates warm coolant through the big engine and charges the batteries, my mate reckons I’m a ■■■■
For the record, my first artic was a 1979 T reg 2800 day cab with a fold down bunk. No Nancy Boy stuff on that at all, except power steering, which is why it’s allowed
Yes --AEC Mercury (TKV 633)not with the ergomatic cab.
One that had split windscreen which opened by pushing it forward to open it to supply the a/c.
Push up windows,balance on the wheel trim and tyre to get in the cab.
Power steering was your arms,indicators was your right arm,
Wipers that worked if weather conditions allowed,
Windscreen washer was stand on the front bumper when you could no longer see,
Heating was an old trench coach that came down to your ankles with a cap and scarf.
Fuel gauge on the tank,that worked providing it was not damaged if not it was a stick to dip the tank.
After leaving the army in 1968, my early list of trucks was: Bedford TK, Albion Riever, Albion Chieftain, AEC Mandator, Mk1 Atki,
Mk 2 Atki, Daf 2600, and many more up to present Merc Actros.
It would be fun to get back in a Mk 2 Atki though!
I could only dream about fold down bunks(apologies to Monty Python)…board across the seats
First artics were a Commer stroker and a Ford D800 on nights collecting live chickens from farms for a firm in Southport, a steep learning curve that was.Graduated to Atki’s and ERF daycabs later, no sleeper cabs, night heaters, in them days( Good old days■■?..don’t think so!!)
Can’t claim to have driven an truck without the most basic of drivers aids, but the first trucks I drove didn’t have most of the stuff on them. Thy included old F7’s which were only put on the road to cover the sugarbeet season, some of the old D series horse boxes my mother owned.
And the E reg Renault G290 I drove for my first tramping job, that did have an air suspended seat, but it was low backed basic thing, unlike the high spec mechanically sprung passenger seat with head and arm rests. I never understood the logic of that. 
It also had a night heater still considered a bit of a luxury by many bosses, but my one not only had them in the trucks, but had them repaired if they went wrong. 
It had three airlines, but the blue one was only for show, it had a label on the cab stating that it was designed to operate on 2 airlines, but they kept the other one. It also had air taps.
We mainly pulled Dutch tilt trailers, and some of the older ones were on springs, they didn’t have mudguards, side guards, side marker lights, fog or reverse lights. And as they’d spent most of their lives near the sea and being generally miss treated, getting posts out when stripping them was a nightmare loads of hitting thing with hammers and bits of wood or getting a friendly forklift driver to try and lift the poles with the forks. At first they wouldn’t budge them they’d spring out with and you’d leap for cover as other parts of the trailer collapsed around you.
My lorry still has steel springs.
Yep, first artic I drove was 1966 Commer 2 stroke ! drove plenty of old un’s in the 70’s for BRS 
Themoocher:
0Or even better
Saw one better than that - an old Army Bedford MK now being used by a load of posh people going shooting 
My first truck was a commer 2stroke 6 Wheeler, then an AEC Mercury.I then had a GUY big J doing Europe and even went to Kuwait in and ex Bakers ERF with a gardner 150 motor,not exactly express,but it was my own so can’t complain.Getting a Volvo F88 was like winning the lottery.
newmercman:
Driven a lorry without all of the modern Nancy Boy stuff?So, no retarders, A/C, electric windows, air seats, night heater, air suspension, ABS, cruise control etc.
Basically a lorry with steel springs, three line brakes and one electrical Suzie, pulling trailers on steel springs without load sensing or spring brakes.
Does such a driver exist on this forum?
Oh yeaaah… Kind of, but then again I’m not sure if I actually exsist or if I’m just a figment of my own imagination at times…
HOWEVER, not all items from the past are quite as sturdy as we remember are they??
Certainly a cracking drive though…
newmercman:
Driven a lorry without all of the modern Nancy Boy stuff?So, no retarders, A/C, electric windows, air seats, night heater, air suspension, ABS, cruise control etc.
Basically a lorry with steel springs, three line brakes and one electrical Suzie, pulling trailers on steel springs without load sensing or spring brakes.
Does such a driver exist on this forum?
I can go even better and remove synchromeshes and power steering as well having driven Bedford TK rigids. Artic wise they’ve all had power steering but I’ve driven a Ford and a Leyland Roadtrain with crash boxes.
Bedford Mks Hmmph modern stuff what about the Bedford RL petrol model no power steering vacuum brakes heat came from the engine so you cooked in the summer nice in the winter though you needed to be a mountaineer to get into the cab its a long way down I know i have fallen out of one, but didnt sue anyone for it, no radio not that you would have heard it Scammel Explorers, Thompson Tankers one foot on the dashboard to pull the steering wheel round, going up hill the second man got out with the chocks in case you missed the gear change, trucks have certainly come a long way since the 70’s they are easy to drive today proof of that is look at some of the muppets driving them. My first job in civvies street 12 ton Bedford arctic with a split gearbox no sleeper cab you just put your sleeping back over the seats the gearstick stopped you falling off no night heater, but did we complain (I see a monty python sketch coming up). yes life is very easier than it used to be but seems to be more stressfull, hey but thats the Uk for you. 
Took my Class1 in 1979 in a Dodge, the gears felt like a stick in a bucket, with a splitter button attached to the stick 
First driving job was a TK Bedford with a ‘sleeper cab’ (parcel shelf) was luxury in the summer because you could sleep with your feet out the passenger window (I’m 6’1" cab was about 5’ across)
First decent motor was a F10 Volvo in 82, then I bought my first motor…A split windscreen 1974 M reg Atkinson, with a David Brown full crash box, no power steering, which gave me arms like Popeye, air controlled wipers, a useless heater, but the ‘luxury’ of a home made ‘sleeper’ fixed to the back of the cab…A complete shock to the system after the Volvo, but the old bird made me money to progress to a 2800 DAF, which was a bag of ■■■■ and accidentally caught fire.
It always amuses me on here when these guys come on here complaining about cab comfort, or curtains letting in the light 
