Truckstar Festival 2013 – Assen, NL

Posted on September 1, 2013 by truckbloguk

I went to the Mecca of all truck shows and came home and the blog promptly crashed and I’ve been unable to write anything about it on the blog….until now. I finished work on the Thursday evening and hot footed it up to my old work to pick up my truck for the weekend, I had the 141 and my wingman for the weekend was Mr James Cartwright who took the slightly more comfortable 143. Any way we loaded up the trucks and headed off to Harwich for the evening cruise to the Netherlands. Very enjoyable it was too. When we arrived at Harwich we had to put on our yellow vests incase we got run over, then follow the yellow lines to the check in. Then the jobs-worth on the desk bluntly refused to let us buy Vignette for 2 trucks on one DKV card! Idiot. It seemed that we were not the only ones heading out on Thursday night as we were soon joined by Doyles amazing 8×4 Scania tipper and a well lit tractor unit also from Doyles.

I think in this little write up I’ll concentrate on the show as a whole weekend away and then i’ll do some truck based write ups in the next couple of weeks, just to drag it out a bit. So once off the Stenaline boat in Hoek and we popped round to the Tekno museum. As the museum is only open to the public on Saturdays we were pushing our luck a bit, but as the Dutch are clearly the best hosts in Europe the lady on reception said yes come on in. It was either that we said we’d come all the way from England or it was James good looks that got us in! The Tekno museum is a must for any of you model collectors. They have 1 of every model they have ever made on display and also a small selection of models for sale. I managed to found a very familiar Scania 141 model on display……

Anyway off we went north up through Holland to Assen. Just over 3 hours and plenty of heavy heavy rain we got to the Assen TT Race Circuit. Plenty of waving and hooting as we got closer. That’s when you really begin to realise that it is only the UK that treat trucks and their drivers like scum. In Holland we were treated like true professionals and James and myself tried to keep up to the expectations! When we finally arrived the rain was just clearing, having followed us the whole way up from Rotterdam. We reached the check in trailer and were greeted by a very happy and very soggy Dutch women who was happy to see us and give us all our wrist bands and bits before pointing us in the direction of the track. The old-timer section of the show is in the pit area on the inside of the track, so you have to drop down and through a tunnel under the track. The path through the tunnel is always lined with people taking pics and listening to the engine noises! So an obligatory honk of the horn and I floored the old V8 through the tunnel. She may be 30+ years old but EGV 565T still sounds awesome. In my opinion the raw-ness of the 1 and 2 series V8 Scanias is unbeatable. It wasn’t til we arrived at the parking area that we found out James in N500 HCW was actually booked in to the heavy transport class so would be parked slightly further along. I asked if we could park together and with a call on the radio and a “no problemsch” reply they parked EGV and N500 side by side. We got out the cabs and instantly melted in the humidity, unfortunately this stayed for most of the weekend. The little tin cab of the 141 gets rather warm, for those you haven’t had a night out in one. Best thing to do is open all windows and sun roof, and just lay very still, the cab gets very hot during the day! The parking area so filled up with some amazing old-timers including a couple of great Irish trucks. One from the lovely old brothers from Mackin International (after a few beers the stories of the golden days of Irish trucking were soon flowing!) and also the well worked but still legendary Astran 143.

The rest of the day was spent wandering round looking at all the trucks arriving. Due to lovely lack of Health and safety and men in hi-viz vests thinking they are GOD, I nearly got a Peterbilt in the back. I was taking a photo one way when James told me I better turn round, this is what I was greeted with….

…he was busy reversing into his parking space. No one telling us to move or closing the lane. In Holland I think the UK’s over the top Health and Safety culture is replaced with some thing called common sense. It was there all weekend, or not if you like. You are left to your own devices and what a refreshing change it is. Now to James and myself watching trucks with a few beers is like watching game of football. So we spent Friday evening sat in the main stand on the pit straight watching all the trucks. Before it got too busy all the drivers were waiting at the bottom of the straight, letting it clear before letting rip and roaring up the pit straight. I think this was best summed up with 2 awesome Scanias from French operator STH. The big brown Longline keep steaming up the straight followed by the red Tcab. The red Tcab was like an over excited dog chasing their owner, although i’d much rather hear the V8 roar than the yap yap of a little dog any day. The following pics were taken on the straight up to about 2300hrs, when the straight was still full of trucks arriving and waiting to be parked up round the circuit.

While we were sat watching the evenings arrivals it was pouring with rain and a thunderstorm was busy rumbling away. While the storm was busy flashing and banging we noticed that Mammoet had been busy setting up their mobile cranes, only in Holland!

The love of trucksl goes on and each night at the show, all the trucks are ticking over with all the lights on for all to enjoy. A great time for taking night shots. I had a few tips on how to best use my camera and hopefully you’ll agree that they aren’t too bad either. If you want truck doors opened or closed you just ask and the drivers oblige, people walking round see your taking a photo on a tripod and they either stop and watch, take their own photos or walk round you. If you ever feel like a bit of a plank in the UK for taking truck photos, in Holland you don’t. Its normal.

I could post them all up here, but I took some thing like 900 photos all in all. The show is just amazing it really is. If you’ve never been before you have to go. Even better if you can enter a truck and spend the weekend there. Over the weekend we just wandered, watched and drank (sensibly of cause children!) and enjoyed the great hospitality on offer. Including a BBQ and beersch all night on Saturday all for €15. This was all thanks to Arie Spaansen and Anton Brouwer. Mr Brouwer has a drop body that opens up to be a V8 Scania bar and that’s where we spent our night. Listening to what can only be described as the amazing taste in music the Dutch have and the intermittent playing of a V8 Scania sound effect that made the ground rumble. Awesome. Brouwers gorgeous Scania 140 rigid.

What a great view for a BBQ…..

Any way I think you get the idea just what a great weekend the Truckstar Festival is. Over the next few weeks I will put some more photos and blogs up to show you what there was. Really there is just too much to put up here, even this blog has taken over 2 hours to put up. I’ll leave you know, but if you want to see all my photos from the weekend then please click: HERE

Assen Trip……1 Week to Go (truckbloguk.wordpress.com)
Gathering of The Griffin Show 2013 (truckbloguk.wordpress.com)

From Russia With Love……..

Posted on August 27, 2013 by truckbloguk

Back with a monster blog by Matt Ireland. Yes him of Transam Trucking fame, living the rock n roll life of concert trucking. Matt and myself have been beaten by technology, so to see the photos you’ll have to hit the link at the bottom, but in the mean time you’ve got to watch Matt’s video’s of one of his mammoth trips across Russia in his trusty DAF. Over to a few words from the man himself:

So this is a video diary I have prepared and also photos, both trucks and non trucks. I’ll start with the video links as they sort of explain where and what. They are all quite long (except part 3). I’ll admit I’m no Luke Vernon, I’m not very good at them.

Once we got to the border this was the route; Kazan, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg, then back via the same way…

However, from Kazan to Samara, the route we actually went on was like this. the “direct road” was pretty much un-passable apparently so we went round!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

All the photos of the trucks I took are at this link: HERE

I hope you enjoy!

Assen Trip……1 Week to Go

Posted on July 18, 2013 by truckbloguk

! week to go until I finally go back to Truckstar Festival Assen in the Netherlands. I went way back in 2009 and have been trying to go back ever since. Why? Well if you ever went then I can almost guarantee you, you wouldn’t enjoy Truckfest ever again. For me Truckstar is my Mecca! It’s just trucks, trucks, trucks and perhaps a few trucks on the side. No crappy stalls selling chunky garden furniture or stalls selling binoculars and telescopes, it is just a TRUCK show, take note Live promotions!

This time around I will be taking HC Wilsons Scania 141, yes thank you and yes I am a lucky bugger. Off on next Thursday night Stenaline boat from Harwich to the Hoek of Holland, then a quick trip to the Tekno model factory, followed by a steady drive up to Assen in the north of Holland. That’s about it really, I have no idea how but I will try and update the blog, or the blog Facebook page from my phone or even the TB Twitter if I can. If you see a odd looking chap with a Tin Tin haircut and a TB T-shirt, it’ll probably be me, so please say hello. Other than that I hope I can update you, although my updates just won’t do the show justice. If you really are a truck lover then you must make the effort and go to this show at some point in your life. These pics here are just a few from my trip in 2009, but to see the rest just click HERE.

Finally a pic of my beloved Scania 141, that made my 1st trip to Assen just awesome. I still miss the truck but hopefully one day I can return to Assen with another classic V8, yea one day there will be another!

Scania Scania Scania

Posted on July 14, 2013 by truckbloguk

Wife: Lets go and look at this posh kitchen place
Me: No ta its the hottest day of the year
Wife: But its only round the corner from my parents
Me: yea yea ok what ever makes you happy, light of my life

1 hour later we drove into a small industrial area in deepest Essex:

Me: I wonder who’s Fowler Welch trailer that is?
Wife: WTF?!
Me: Holy smoke its only bloomin Trevor Starkes 143!!

A mere snap shot of the every day influences trucks have on my home life! Lucky for me the wife has given up paying any attention. I knew that Trevor Starkes was based around there some where and actually I had been past this place before and not seen the gleaming legend that is the Scania 143 owned and operated by Trevor Starkes. A name well know to those in and around the trucking circles of London and Essex, there have been many a classy motor bearing the name, but none quite so awesome as this aging Swedish Supermodel.

Some of you would have seen Trevor in one of the magazines earlier this year, so most of us know that the big V8 is still regularly doing continental work. Mainly fridge work but still keeping the wheels turning on an older truck is these days becoming a harder business than in years gone by. What with low emission zones, euro class emissions rated tax and tolls, it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep the older generation running across the water. I know the Irish are still keeping the dreams of many older trucks alive, as are the Greeks, but even so its not easy. Hats off to Mr Starkes and I just wish there were more gorgeous old trucks like this lurking in yards a few miles from the in-laws house!! I hope Trevor didn’t mind me taking a few snaps when he wasn’t there, but lets face it, I certainly am not the only truck perv to take a photos of the old girl and I certainly won’t be the last………..Trevor, Mr Starkes if you get to read this please can you book yourself in the Gathering of the Griffin Truck Show that is being held at the Orwell Truckstop, Ipswich on the last weekend of September. Its a Scania only show and if any of you want to enter please call organiser Rob Bilman for your entry forms: +44 7903 155898.

Oh and no she’s not getting a new kitchen.

SCOOP!! Middle East Legend on Charity Run

Posted on May 28, 2013 by truckbloguk

As we all read in the June edition of Truck & Driver magazine, Irishman Eoin McGinnity is now the proud and lucky owner of an ex Astran legend. Eoin stated that he’d love to do a Humanitarian run with the “King of The Desert”, so I’m guessing that some one read his plea and made contact. I can reveal that right this minute the old V8 is parked up in Poland heading for the Belarusian border tomorrow and the hopefully onto a small town between Brest and Minsk in Belarus ready for unloading on Friday.

The 143 is part of a small convoy of Irish trucks including a real little beauty you can see in the photo above. Billy Kiely and his aging Scania 82M. Also in the convoy is a brand new Scania R560 loaned especially for the trip by Westward Scania and Tim Culloty’s Scania 164…..so the Irish do like a Scania then??!! Eoin claims his truck is loaded heavier than the rest, so they have a chance of keeping up with him! Below are the trucks parked up in Port 2000 in Poland, where they are parked this evening.
Hopefully more photos to come.

Definatly Not All Sunshine & Sand!!

Posted on May 25, 2013 by truckbloguk

Some of you may and some of you may not have read the book “Not All Sunshine & Sand” by Paul Rowlands, available from Old Pond Publishing for those who haven’t. Paul just wanted to share a little anecdote of the not so glamorous side of Middle East Trucking, during his days driving for Felixstowe based firm Trans Haul UK.

“Aaargh, shit! I don’t believe it” By Paul Rowlands
‘Donkey’ Pete and I were on our way to Tehran and Tabriz respectively and had pulled off the road onto a bit of scrubland about 40kms West of Sivas in Central Turkey, to have a wash and clean up in the sparkling stream which bimbled good naturedly along the almost dried up valley floor. It was the height of summer ’78. In spring this stream would have been a raging torrent from all the snow melt and rain and would have washed you all the way to the Black Sea in double quick time. Now though it gently swirled and meandered its way back and forth across the rock and shale covered valley floor and although freezing cold, looked extremely inviting. I grabbed a bottle of the ubiquitous Fairy Liquid and a towel and locking the cab door, scrambled my way down across the scree in my shorts looking for a pool of still water in a back eddy to have a good wash and scrub up. In these dusty driving conditions, with the windows open to catch any prevailing breeze, your body attracted accumulations of dirt and grime like a magnet.
Pete had disappeared in the opposite direction, upstream. Plenty of peace and quiet and room for a private soak! Having found the perfect little pool below a substantial sized boulder, I slowly sank down into the chilly water. With the ambient temperature in the 90’s, to be sat waist deep in this little backwater with the little stream eddying around me was sheer bliss. I was going to make the most of this, no chemical waste or pollution up here in this barren and semi arid part of Anatolia. From here I could see all along the valley floor, and in the distance, the ramshackle and battle weary old concrete bridge that still spanned the river bed, that’s not going to last many more winters, I thought, hope i’m not driving across it when it goes….

Luxuriating in the cool melt water, I started to wash my grubby torso while watching the water bubbling and gurgling round the edge of my quiet pool. Just occasionally a small branch or bit of detritus, washed down from the surrounding hills, circled my pool and threatened to invade my space before catching the current and floating off downstream.
Then, my state of contented bliss dissolved in a moment of sheer panic!
“Pete, you effing bastard”! I screamed in dismay, just as he appeared from around a large boulder adjusting his zip. “What?” he said, grinning. “Just found a great rock to have a dump Paul, should reach the sea in a couple of weeks”.
“I know”, I shouted. “We’ve just been introduced”. Pointing accusingly at the offending objects….two large floating turds circling my pool on the edge of the eddy, threatening to attack. I splashed water at them, vainly trying them back into the mainstream.
Pete was in stitches watching my futile antics, when around the rock, hove, hove into view his re-enforcements, a soggy mass of newspapers….
“Enough”. I yelled, struggling to get up off the pebbled river bed without making contact with the offensive mess. “Look at that bloody lot”. I said, scrambling out of the water and making my escape. “Sodding floaters! What’ve you been eating…..polystyrene? and i’ll bet that’s my newspaper an all”. Pete was giggling like a schoolgirl. “And there’s no way they’re reaching the Black Sea any time soon”, I called over my shoulder as I made my way upstream to find somewhere less tainted to complete my ablutions….

The photos are courtesy of the Trans Haul drivers collection on www.toprun.ch

TB Polo Shirts

Posted on May 23, 2013 by truckbloguk

Who wants one?? Don’t all rush at once, but the more of you who email wanting one the sooner I can put an order in from the printer, I need 10 or more orders.

Based on a blue polo shirt, with the TB web address heat seal printed across the shoulders and the TB sticker design on the front breast and left arm. Sizes for now are simply S – M – L – XL. Price will be £15 each including standard UK postage, anyone outside the UK please ask for a shipping price.

If your interested, please email me: ben@truckblog.co.uk

Immingham: Owner Drivers / Small Hauliers Required

Posted on May 22, 2013 by truckbloguk

Are you based in / around / near Immingham? Do you want daily traction work from Immingham? Good mileage rate with a minimum day rate?? Yes I know it sounds good, on top of that you will be pulling a relatively new trailer most days and if your really lucky you may get one of the brand new Schmitz trailers that have recently gone on the road with Vorex Logistics BV.

My friend Roland at Vorex has been trying to find good, punctual, reliable owner drivers or small hauliers to pull his Vorex euroliners from Immingham docks. It would seem that it is pretty difficult to find good hauliers in the North who can provide a good enough service for this up and coming Dutch trailer operator. How do I know? I run 2 trucks every day with Vorex and I have to say that the longer our relationship goes on, the more I like the lovable Dutch company! In my opinion Vorex are almost a new breed of trailer operator, very well organised, very personable and run a very decent fleet of around 50 trailers. Vorex also run trailers from Felixstowe but currently this work is virtually covered, Immingham is the problem. So if your based any where near Immingham then please can you get in contact with Mr Roland Staneke and the photo below could one day be you!

Phone: 0031 78 629 1350
Email: r.staneke@vorex.nl
website: www.vorex.nl

Swedish Greenery

Posted on May 15, 2013 by truckbloguk

You have to admit that is a handsome looking Volvo, in my opinion still better looking than its new younger brother. This particular FH13 is piloted by one Phillip Westaby. A big fan of Twitter Mr Westaby joined the TB twitter feed and has since shared some tweets and a wicked little video, which is perfect for those us who don’t get out and about to much these days. Recorded by a windscreen mounted camera, sit back and enjoy 13 minutes of good music and some continental trucking. Do you want to follow Phillip on twitter?…….then click HERE.

Phillip’s twitter account, sums him up in one sentence: “I’m a happy lorry driver from Yorkshire who wanders around UK and Europe in my Volvo, getting married in march 2014!” Driving for Johnsons of Whixley on nursery duties, Phil gets abroad quite a bit, collecting and delivering greenery to and from the Continent. In the meantime he’s busy making us quality videos and sharing his thoughts on twitter. I’m already looking forward to the next video, even though Phil says he’s not much good, the video below is well edited and has some great tracks to listen too, including the ringtone on my mobile phone!!. Good work Mr Westaby, the sticker will be in the post as soon as the next batch arrive!!

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Netherlands – UK – Gambia

Posted on May 7, 2013 by truckbloguk

When you get a photo like the one above, you have to start asking the age old questions;

Who? – Ashley Pearce
What? – Magirus Deutz 6×4 V10 ex German Army tractor units
Where? – The Netherlands
When? – Last week

Could have guessed Mr Pearce would be involved (it did come from his phone after all!). There’s a lot more to it than that but that’s a good start………..

These Magirus Deutz were being collected from the Netherlands on behalf of a very interesting man called Frank, who will be shipping them to Gambia for the next 20 years of their lives. They are ex German Army and of course are in excellent condition and have very very low mileage being in mind they were built in 1980. The main point behind it all is that they are basic. They can be maintained easily and can be repaired at the side of the road. Frank runs a business in Gambia that moves a lot of aggregate so he requires tipper trailers too. As I said the trucks were bought from a dealer in the Netherlands and Ashley and a couple of Franks henchmen went to collect them and drive them back to deepest Suffolk, UK to Franks hide away HQ. It just so happens that about an hour from Calais another dealer was selling a number of old tipper trailers that suited Franks strict requirements for African Trucking. After collecting the trailers it was back on the ferry from Calais to Dover. Did you spot them on their journey? I’d love to see any pics if you spotted the German invasion making its way back to Suffolk. Email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk

Franks love of the Magirus ex army trucks comes from the fact that they are German and they do as they say on the tin! As you can imagine trucking across Gambia requires something that can handle the many unmade roads and the rains that come in the wet season. Having a high ground clearence is essential and also the age old ability of being able to be repaired with a minimal amount of local faciities. Frank says that the Africans can fix anything or make any part that is required, all you need is some form of a donar part and some tools. How many modern day vehicles can say that?? Much like the golden days of Middle East trucking when trucks could be repaired with basic mechanical knowledge and not a dealership or expensive bill insight! One of the aging Magirus dropped a cylinder or 3 on one journey across Gambia. So the driver blocked off the 3 faulty ones and trucked back to the depot on just 7 of 10 cylinders, again with anything newer than 1990 you wouldn’t even think about trying it.

The trucks are 6×4’s with diff locks on each axle. They also come with spare wheel carriers fixed behind the cab with a small crane to lift and lower the wheels. Air cooled engines, steel sprung suspension and even gun holders (all removed before shipping to africa), a varied array of chassis mouted lockers and a dash board full of switchs and buttons labelled in German, mean these old girls really are top spec for trucking in Africa. Also in Franks conversion and pre-shipping yard were a couple of ex British Army 6×4 Seddon Atkinsons. These have turned out to be a labour of love and for the forseable future no more will be purchased. Since Gambia left the British Empire in 1965 all vehicles have to be Left Hand Drive, so the the first thing to do was to convert the Atkinsons from RHD to LHD, not to difficult but still a ball-ache when the German trucks are already LHD. Next the Seddons Atkinsons are standard road spec, so the air tanks and underslung exhaust have to be removed and redirected to a purpose built frame behind the cab, to try and improve the ground clearence. Again not a difficult job but one that can be avoided by buying the German trucks. Still the big Seddon looks great and ready for the African roads, in its natty orange paint work and illegal to use in the UK train horns!

I often wonder what will happen in the countries that recieve all of Europes old trucks when we run out of the correct vintage. There isn’t an endless supply of mechanicaly simple and computer free trucks to ship around the world, so whats going to happen? I have no idea what will happen in the future, but for now Frank says the value of the simple trucks is far greater than anything newer. In fact newer trucks are getting cheaper as they are unwanted in such countries as Gambia. The way forward for now is computer free trucking and what better place to find well kept, low mileage trucks than the huge supplies of ex military vehicles available. The Dutch dealer that Frank bought these 4 trucks from had 54 of these 6×4 Maggies for sale at Christmas, now he has none. 50 were sold in one go to a Nigerian buyer and then these 4 are bound for Gambia. Hopefully Frank is going to send some more pics as and when the trucks reach Gambia and also of some of the things still running around out there. For now it seems Africas roads will continue to be filled with older rather than newer trucks, but for those who love their trucks and enjoying doing repairs and tinkering with engines then perhaps its the place to be.

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