Good old boys 
Iāve had the pleasure of the old TK Bedford, Ford D series, Ford Transcon and ERFās. The days of no power steering and crash boxes. Heaters that barely gave off any heat and no radiosā¦whatever next!
Seems like a rhetorical question to me. Average age, last time I looked, for a UK truck driver is 53. So you would expect a large percentage of guys on here to of earned their stripes by mastering non-synchro boxes, sheeting up flat trailers, (where could you ever get a job in general haulage without knowing how to sheet up?), driving safely with no ABS and steel springs , navigating without satnav, and existing with little contact with base, as there were no mobile phones. It is a much different job now, and not much call for those skills. Have mixed feeling over that for some reason. Can you really miss sheeting a load up?
I often have these thoughts when Iām feeling fed up. Cast my mind back to an old b reg man 321 I had. Wind up windows. No air con. No working radio. Eaton fuller gearbox. It had served itās life as a tipper so was worn out. The windscreen leaked so much I had to wear carrier bags over my boots. The heater was buggered. No night heater.
I was doing stuttgart and Munich in that pulling a step frame knackered old tilt for hay pollock out of mift in Trafford Park . Thought I would die a good few times.
No working exhaust brake. No cab phone. No sat nav.
Happy days
Some of the ones I donāt have pictures ofā¦1959 AEC Mercury, Albion Clydesdale(LAD Cab), Sed-Atk, ERF LV,A series, B Series, Atkinson Borderer, Atkinson Mk 1, Ford D series, Dodge K series, Dodge 300 (Spanish Dodge) and so on.
All my early driving in the 70ās was in a class2 24ā flatbed usually with bolt on skitter box, they were usually pretty ancient by the time dad bought them, think the first was a Dodge, then a Bedford.
Janos:
So you would expect a large percentage of guys on here to of earned their stripes by mastering non-synchro boxes, sheeting up flat trailers, (where could you ever get a job in general haulage without knowing how to sheet up?), driving safely with no ABS and steel springs , navigating without satnav, and existing with little contact with base, as there were no mobile phones. It is a much different job now, and not much call for those skills.
And because none of these skills, along with many more are no longer needed, the job is now at the point that you can get away with having the abilities of a retarded chimp to be able to drive a modern truck, we have many āādriversāā that fall into this category today on our roads as a result, but the problem is that us real drivers have the misfortune to have to work alongside these retards. 
chicane:
All my early driving in the 70ās was in a class2 24ā flatbed usually with bolt on skitter box, they were usually pretty ancient by the time dad bought them, think the first was a Dodge, then a Bedford.
Haha,skitter box,love it (livestock container to the townies 
),been there too,first with a Leyland terrier then a Clydesdale then a big step up to a Freighter,that could go!
My first truck was a 6x4 2624 merc like this, it also had no working gauges or dash lights and it was road legal
Oh hell, yes. B-series ERFās, Bedford TK, MK, KM etc, Ford D-series and first generation Cargoās, Dodge Commando, Leyland Boxer, Clydesdale, Reiver etc.
Mostly old class 3 stuff (thatās 4-wheelers to you young 'uns 
) but most of them didnāt even have the power steering, or if they did it was so feeble as to be of little use. You soon learned the basics of good clutch control when reversing them! Would probably enjoy a spin in one today but Iām glad I donāt have to drive 'em all the time any more.
Remember when I worked in the offices at Meachers, Derby and one of the younger drivers came in crying cos his blinged-up Olympic was in for service and heād got a one-hitter day trip to Manchester in an old EC10 flat-top, perfectly good clean motor but the radio was duff. Couldnāt possibly drive that all day with no radio he said. Got very little sympathy from me, told him I didnāt have a radio in my office either. 
Themoocher:
0One these babies
Automatic box and engine retarder with them
Themoocher:
0Or even better
Syncromesh box A/C not much different from driving a car
taffytrucker:
Themoocher:
0One these babies
Automatic box and engine retarder with them
Need it with an army driver;-)
1970 Erf is what I started on ā¦South wales/Sheffield daily ā¦Blanket on legs in winter ,Gardener 180 never dipped oil one watering canful used dailyā¦Donāt know if it had power steering only remember it being heavy as hell . When we changed wheels then used to throw flat tyres down the embankmentā¦
Janos:
Seems like a rhetorical question to me. Average age, last time I looked, for a UK truck driver is 53. So you would expect a large percentage of guys on here to of earned their stripes by mastering non-synchro boxes, sheeting up flat trailers, (where could you ever get a job in general haulage without knowing how to sheet up?), driving safely with no ABS and steel springs , navigating without satnav, and existing with little contact with base, as there were no mobile phones. It is a much different job now, and not much call for those skills. Have mixed feeling over that for some reason. Can you really miss sheeting a load up?
Yes, Iām aware of that average age number, thatās why I often find myself shaking my head at some of the stuff I read on here.
Compare the stuff we drive around in nowadays to the stuff we started on and you would think we have nothing much to complain about lorrywise.
Take the Axor as an example, 400 odd BHP, oodles of torque, a high roof cab you can stand up in, autoshift (or synchro) air ride seats, climate control, night heater, FM CD player, auto slack adjusters, ABS, disc brakes, air suspension etc etc etc.
And you often read that itās the worst lorry someone has ever driven. Go back 20yrs and most of its features were so far in the future they werenāt even dreams.
Iām only a wee 30 years old, but I learnt to drive a lorry in a 1984 Leyland freighter. Definitely no mod cons in that thing, not even power steering most of the time as the reservoir had a habit of spitting all the fluid out.
Fully loaded with 10,000 litres of oil soon made your buttox clench.
Would an old Albion with no power steering, vacuum brakes with a Scammell coupled trailer with cable brakes count, and remember the hand signal when trying to pull that steering around plus 4inch round mirrors shaking around in the breeze, how did we survive.
Ossie
So there are still quite a few of us still aroundā¦I drove a Maudsley back then and AEC and Thames Trader with vacuum brakes steel springs and a maximum length trailer then was 27ft single axle or 4 in line, soon to upgraded to 33ft, gave a better ride but still had to rope and sheet Also back then was loading from warehouses with overhead cranes from the wharf doors swinging a load of tea chests down onto the bed of the trailer for me to stack, 4 high and a binderā¦lol no H/S mobile phones only 4 pennies in the box and push button A or B to get your money backā¦till we learnt the art of Tapping