god I forgot about old pennies in the phone…
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?
Yup - in the mid 80’s 
Can’t remember the names of the old pieces of junk mind… 
Ironically I’d rate the early 1980s S85 Fodens I drove on the council and the 1978 DAF 2800 I drove on trunking as much better trucks to drive than the early 1990’s Merc 2534 which was the last one I drove.
Ive been driving 23 yrs and the oldest lorry was a e reg fl10,a few trailers on springs with ratchet handbrakes,im out:oops: 
ERV LV rigid (Gardner 100 / David Brown 5 speed gearbox / two speed back axle) with an A series cab here… it was already an anachronistic sight on the roads when I started driving in 85/86…
cliffystephens:
god I forgot about old pennies in the phone…
Always had a pocket full of pennies, the problem was trying to find a phone box that worked or where you could get parked.
Ossie
truckyboy:
So there are still quite a few of us still around…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 sheetTapping
Wow 'tapping ':lol: forgot all about that, we used to do it as kids, until a copper walked past the phone box. We also used to bung up the coin refund from button B with foil, and come back next day for the pennies, misspent youth and all that 
Started on a non HGV Bedford TK, first HGV was a two stroke Commer VCS with horse hair seats! Progressed onto AEC Mandators and then Leyland Buffaloes with Eaton twin splitters. Sleeping in cab was on a sunlounger across the engine hump. Mostly Volvo and Scania from 1979 onwards to present day Actros wagon and drag plus Moffet. Happy days, would I want to go back… I don’t think so!!
Ken
I started on an old (even then) Bedford TK 7.5 tonner in 1984.
JB:
I often have these thoughts when I’m 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 it’s 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
And we’d all go back to them good old days tomorrow.
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?
Ironically, athough i started driving artics in the early 90’s, and i’m almost the average age i have driven lorries with all steel suspension, three airlines and taps etc, maybe the only comfortable thing was power steering i can’t remember. DAF 2600 i think was the eariest one i drove, so not sure if they had power steering or not, but anyway, in all that time i have never had to rope and sheet. Just never been required to do it. If i had to do it now i’d have to ask for help, as although i know the theory…
Both my trailers are on springs, with ratchet handbrakes & 3 airlines - no ABS, didn’t exist when I took my test & got my black book licence!!
My first artic when i passed in 76 was a K suffix plate S39 Foden, obviously a day cab, split screen, 180 Gardner.
No…power steering, night heater, retarder of any description or clutch assistance, side windows pushed up and down, no winders.
Flat mirrors, unheated of course, heater was fantastic in the summer and of no use whatsoever in the winter, engine was in the cab with you under a padded cover, you had to remove that bonnet to check and add oil, and your sleeper cab comprised of two planks, laid on each window ledge and meeting in the middle atop the bonnet, no curtains so used to tape newspapers over the main windows, and yes they would freeze to the glass in the winter.
Solid brass radiator cap and fuel filler, which i used to keep polished so you could see your reflection in them, sad eh.
12 speed Foden crash box, which was a 4 speed with 3 unequal splits, gearstick was in normal place splitter control was 3 way handle on the right had side of the dash panel, and you went either 1L 2L 3L 4L 2M 2H 3M 3H etc or 1L 2L 3L 1M 1H 2M 2H etc, bloody complicated, and all leading up to a mind blowing 52 mph flat out eventually.
Parking brake was a drum on the back of the diff, LandRover style, connected to the large handbrake lever by a cable, unassisted of course.
3 line brakes with palm coupling for red and yellow and large male female for blue line, secondary brake controlled by dead man on the left side of the dash panel…dash panel was a half moon steel casting bolted to the steering column, steering column in turn was bolted directly to the cart sprung chassis, so every road bump transmitted straight up the column and a pot hole could easily snap the watch from your wrist, and as final design feature the dash panel had a row of hard plastic switches each side which stuck in your knee caps continually.
My regular trailer was a York 40ft flat, Gross Train 32t to 21 ton payload on 4 axles, steel springs on trailer, cable parking brake.
My training at the company comprised of there’s your motor, away you go.
My first promotion came 2 years later, with an S40 Foden on an L suffix plate, another 180 Gardner, no power steering, another year on that, and then i got an S80 Foden (the one with the 14" round headlights), with a 220 ■■■■■■■ and power steering, still no night heater, still on 3 line system, but far more comfortable and at least it would pull you out of bed…
Fond memories and yes happy days, and those lorries did stand you in good stead, once you’d mastered a 12 speed Foden box, nothing else bothered you for a moment.
Started out in Holland, DAF 2800 and Volvo FL 6 spring to mind. First job here, 1993, Ford Cargo tractor, day cabbed, with a tiny top sleeper. No night heater, twin splitter box, steel springs. Three airlines, check. Airline taps, check.
Least said about the flat bed trailers the better. Spanner required for daily adjustment, drums presence optional… 
Don’t get me started about skelly conversions…
Happy days.
Took my RYA exams a while back, and during the training, instructors party trick after showing us all the relevant knots was to have us race each other in tying them in classroom. Then, perhaps to make himself look good, we had to do same test with our eyes closed. Everybody struggled just to tie them up in any fashion. Even though it was twenty years since I last sheeted a load in anger, I could do them all in a heartbeat…as could most of the guys on here who used to have to do it day on and day out. So if you are ever looking to use those redundant skills…learn to sail!
I could tie a dolly before I could ride a bike! Out with the old man in the lorry as soon as I was out of nappies and in full “what’s that” “why do you do that” mode my Dad must’ve taught me to shut me up
I can still do them in one fluid motion and probably with my eyes closed, the one thing I never mastered was tying one whilst wearing gloves, always ended up with one glove on my hand and the other in the loop
snap.
l reg (first time round)ford D wae a 2speed axle pulling a low loader wi a single knock out rear axle(jack up remove lines then pull out and roll tae the side then drop to load lol) ,then first artic one regularly a Foden (wi the big round headlights on multi drop all over ireland.
Juddian:
My first artic when i passed in 76 was a K suffix plate S39 Foden, obviously a day cab, split screen, 180 Gardner.No…power steering, night heater, retarder of any description or clutch assistance, side windows pushed up and down, no winders.
Flat mirrors, unheated of course, heater was fantastic in the summer and of no use whatsoever in the winter, engine was in the cab with you under a padded cover, you had to remove that bonnet to check and add oil, and your sleeper cab comprised of two planks, laid on each window ledge and meeting in the middle atop the bonnet, no curtains so used to tape newspapers over the main windows, and yes they would freeze to the glass in the winter.
Solid brass radiator cap and fuel filler, which i used to keep polished so you could see your reflection in them, sad eh.12 speed Foden crash box, which was a 4 speed with 3 unequal splits, gearstick was in normal place splitter control was 3 way handle on the right had side of the dash panel, and you went either 1L 2L 3L 4L 2M 2H 3M 3H etc or 1L 2L 3L 1M 1H 2M 2H etc, bloody complicated, and all leading up to a mind blowing 52 mph flat out eventually.
Parking brake was a drum on the back of the diff, LandRover style, connected to the large handbrake lever by a cable, unassisted of course.
3 line brakes with palm coupling for red and yellow and large male female for blue line, secondary brake controlled by dead man on the left side of the dash panel…dash panel was a half moon steel casting bolted to the steering column, steering column in turn was bolted directly to the cart sprung chassis, so every road bump transmitted straight up the column and a pot hole could easily snap the watch from your wrist, and as final design feature the dash panel had a row of hard plastic switches each side which stuck in your knee caps continually.
My regular trailer was a York 40ft flat, Gross Train 32t to 21 ton payload on 4 axles, steel springs on trailer, cable parking brake.
My training at the company comprised of there’s your motor, away you go.
My first promotion came 2 years later, with an S40 Foden on an L suffix plate, another 180 Gardner, no power steering, another year on that, and then i got an S80 Foden (the one with the 14" round headlights), with a 220 ■■■■■■■ and power steering, still no night heater, still on 3 line system, but far more comfortable and at least it would pull you out of bed…
Fond memories and yes happy days, and those lorries did stand you in good stead, once you’d mastered a 12 speed Foden box, nothing else bothered you for a moment.
Fodens hadn’t changed since I first drove 'em in '67. I remember the old 12 speed very well, not much good when the splitter on the column fell apart 
As for me, it was also, Big J with DB box, which I thought was a lovely box: LAD Leylands: Ergo Leylands and AEC Mandator: KV ERF: TK Bedford with Scammell coupling (drove halfway across London with the trailer brake on), BMC forward control diesel, don’t know the model, but the bloody gear lever was behind your left shoulder like the LAD’s: D type Ford and when we came to Oz, Thames Trader, V8 dodge, both petrol engine and the Dodge went like ■■■■ off a shovel: an even older ford with a wrap round screen, also a V8, but not a patch on the Dodge for vroom: FG Volvo, '83 Merc, 14L V8, not quick, but pull house down and two year old Scania 420 (first time I ever drove a truck with power steer, A/C, proper exhaust brake (not much good) retarder.
I’m glad of the experience and memories, but too old and knackered to go back to it.
Ha, this thread is hilarious! Well done chaps!