Retro Trailer Rescue

Posted on September 17, 2014 by truckbloguk

A fridge trailer in a field, (put your M&S advert voice on!) but it’s not just any fridge trailer in a field, it’s a 1982, Gray & Adams, tandem spread axle fridge trailer in a field! On top of that if the farmers memory serves him correctly he says he acquired the trailer (for fresh poultry storage) in 1990, which means that it served Christian Salveson for just 8 years before being parked up, which would explain it’s surprisingly good condition. Anyway, this trailer has been parked on the road between Hadleigh and Sudbury in Suffolk for as long as I can remember. So me being me, curiosity won and I went to find it a year or so ago. I drove in the farm yard and right through it and found the trailer. I had a call around to try and find someone with no luck, so I took a couple of photos and left. I do like to know where these trailers are lurking incase anyone wants one. At Truckstar Festival this year a certain young man with a known collection of classic trucks, mentioned during a beery conversation that he had started hunting for a 2nd fridge trailer to turn into another caravan trailer. Luckily I hadn’t had too many so I piped up and showed a photo of said trailer. A positive response. So I volunteered to go and talk to the farmer.

Again a positive response. It turns out that it was the perfect time to enquire as the decision had already been made to rid the farm of the trailer. I took a few newer photos of the trailer and it’s general condition and found the manufacturers plate and photoed that too. I spoke money with the farmer and that was that. I forwarded all info onto the interested party, he said yes to me straight away, so I put him in touch with the farmer and a deal was done.

Today was collection day. I managed to get over to see the highly skilled farmer pushing the fridge up the ramps with a chain and a dolly, straight as a die and up she went. Luckily the fridge had a folding rear bumper which helped with clearance both going up the ramps and also to clear the neck of the stepframe. Once on board it was all strapped and chained down and to beat the school traffic through the little Suffolk village high street, a quick exit was made. I ran ahead in my car and just asked a few locals to stay still which the whole outfit gently weaved through the high street. That was that and off to its new owners home.

The plan is to restore the trailer to its former glory and keep the famous blue and white livery then convert the inside into living accommodation.
As you can see this is a great find and a great trailer that has gone to a man who wants to preserve it just as it started life. If you know of any old trailers that need rescuing please please let me know. In my book trailers are in as much need to be saved as the trucks that pull them. Most trailers have long rusted away or been chopped down so any that are still in one piece should be saved. Now I’m not suggesting that every trailer can be bought and restored but at least if we know about them then perhaps we can help a few which will make the likes of The Retro Truck Show at Gaydon all the more enjoyable for us. Hopefully by Truckfest Peterborough next year this little restoration project will be complete. Fingers crossed.

Finally if anyone knows where their is a Petter fridge unit, please get in touch.

Retro Truck Show – 2014

Posted on September 15, 2014 by truckbloguk

THE BEST TRUCK SHOW IN THE UK. FACT.

Why?? I will tell you why, it’s a truck show, organised by a truck nut for other truck nuts, who love their trucks. Get it? a truck show is about the truck. Its not a truck show come Sunday market where you can buy chunky garden furniture and dog treats. It’s a show full of trucks from the best few decades of truck manufacturing that will ever be and the ladies and gents who bring their pride and joys to the show are all passionate enough about them to spend their spare time looking after them and in some cases still working them. Its a great show and the big boys of the show world would do exceedingly well to learn a few lessons of the simplicity of a great show. The premise for the show is any truck that was built between 1960 and 2000 can enter, although there are a few newer trucks too. Just to prove it is a show for the real enthusiast, there are no trophies or prizes to be won, its purely a meet for one and all to enjoy and meet other like minded truck nuts.

What an amazing Scammell Crusader! Its gems like this that appear that make the show what it is. If its your pride and joy you can guarantee that there will be others at the show that feel the same. I was only at the show on the Saturday which isn’t the official show day so unfortunately I didn’t get to see a full show ground, but what was there on Saturday was plenty. Lots of ERF’s, Seddon Atkinsons, Volvo’s, Scania’s, some Mercedes-Benz and many more. As with all shows these day’s a few trucks came with authentic trailers……….

The reason I was at Gaydon on the Saturday was, there was a Middle East drivers reunion and seminar. This year mainly to celebrate 50 Years of Astran and the start of the legendary Middle East run. Writer of the The Long Haul Pioneers, Ashley Coghill organised a truly memorable event, that incorporated hundreds of unseen photos from the pioneers of the Middle East run and even some cine-camera footage that was just incredible and made me realise just how difficult/amazing and unknown those early years must have been. You have to remember the modern day newbie truck driver can’t get from Heathrow to Cardiff without a Satnav, so how on earth these transport heroes got from London to Kabul/Bandar Abbass/Oman and even Doha with no twat-nav or mobile phones is bearly imaginable. The event was sold out and Ashley told me he could have easily sold twice as many tickets. The highlight for me was meeting the men who actually made these monumental trips week after week, month after month through scorching summers and freezing winters. I shook them all by the hand, real gents, and found myself stood between Peter Cannon, Graham Wainwright, John Frost and Gordon Pearce (read the The Long Haul Pioneers!) to name drop a few. I could have stood their for days listening to the stories, some one needs to get all their stories written down, they are just epic. I also took my copy of Ashleys book and managed to get them all to sign it. To say I was chuffed is an understatement, just ask the lady wife. All in all it was a truly unforgettable day.

Once again I will try to tell you that it’s an awesome little show, approx. 300-350 truck, but each one is the stuff of boy-hood dreams if you have your HGV license that is, no matter what your preference. For me an F series Globetrotter like the black one below or a 143 Streamline are my ultimate trucks they are just the nuts!! Incidently more from the Fleetwood F16 to come in the next few weeks.

From all over the UK, Belgium, Holland and Germany with trucks from the 1960’s through to the turn of the millennium you won’t find a better selection of trucks from yester-year. With a great atmosphere and every person being a bit of a truck nut, you can find some one with the same likes or even some one to have a bit of banter with about which is better. You have to put it in your diary for next year people, you’ll be missing out if you don’t.

Finally a big thank you and well done to Lee Herbert and Ashley Coghill for organising an amazing weekend with both the truck show itself and also the Middle East reunion, a really unique event.

Wilson Wednesday & The Super Subs

Posted on September 10, 2014 by truckbloguk

We’ll start with a real belter from husband and wife team, Mr & Mrs Ramm. Loaded here with a Sugarbeet harvester from Germany. To move a truck with loaded with a harvester measuring 14.00 metres long, 3.30 metres wide and 4.00metres high and weighing 26 tons, takes some specialist equipment, permits and a lot of know how, especially with Europe’s 4 metre height limit, N5 HCW is an 8×4 Scania tractor unit with a 580hp V8 engine hitched up to a wafer bed low loader and a Dave Ramm in the hot seat, perfect.

Not all container jobs are are as simple as opening the rear doors of a metal box. Ian “Slim” Godfrey in Aberdeen this morning with an over height open top container. Slim is driving a Scania this week……yes he is!

Driver Gareth Rowlands seen here on a local drop with a little sweeper imported from the continent. Gareth’s big new V8, N6 HCW, looks awesome no matter what the load, or is it just me??!

Sister truck to the Gareth’s N6 is Geordie’s truck N7 HCW. Loaded with tower crane parts down near Bristol. As you can imagine building a tower crane requires lots of parts and lots of loads. N7 was one of many unloading today to get the crane built. Below we also have Jon Pryke unloading crane parts in X300 HCW.

Office waller, or not, James Cartwright was also on the crane job today in old faithful N200 HCW. Also the last contribution on the crane site is the first super sub of the day, one of Hewicks Haulage Scania’s with another piece of the tower.

Driver Little Terry Alderton and his Scania R480 loaded with some kind of hard-arsed looking machine loaded from deep in Southern Germany up to Warwick. Are all of HC Wilson’s loads colour coded??

Here we have a photo sent by driver Gladys of 3 Wilson trucks and another super sub in the form of a Tasker truck driven by Colin Waters. All 4 are heading down through France to Marseille having loaded in England.

Another Tasker truck is super sub number 3. This one driven by Mike Tasker himself. Another crane part loaded from Germany and also heading for Avonmouth.

Finally we have the last super sub off the bench for Wilson’s, a well known truck here on the blog, the one and only Steve Marsh Express! HC Wilson can cover any type of job including hot shot packing crates to Stoke on Trent. All 3 subbies are tried and tested and very reliable which is a must to keep the professionalism of Wilsons reputation on the right track and keeping those bloomin customers happy! Thanks to all drivers for this weeks photos.

WANTED: Petter Fridge Motor

Posted on September 8, 2014 by truckbloguk

Does anyone who where there might be a Petter fridge unit lurking in a yard or the back of a warehouse or somewhere? It’s need for a fridge trailer that is being restored and the photo above is of the ideal unit. The trailer was new in 1982, so something of that age is what’s required. Please send an email to ben@truckblog.co.uk with any info or leave a comment below

Photos are from Seppo and Acab both members on http://www.trucknetuk.com

Truckstar 2014: Scania Tanker from H. Van Toorn & Zn

Posted on September 7, 2014 by truckbloguk

Not a lot to say about this one really, apart from you won’t see a cleaner tanker on the road any where, fact. Just look at the chassis photo, not a single spec of dirt or dust any where, simply amazing. I always have a soft spot for a shiny mirror finish tanker and for what ever reason I think they only ever enhance what ever truck is on the front end, so shiny tanker plus gorgeous red Scania = Show Stopper.

Wilson Wednesday Lite

Posted on September 4, 2014 by truckbloguk

I only just realised that this didn’t publish last night! So a slightly delayed WW this time.

Above we have part time HC Wilson office staff James Cartwright out and about and Sheffield bound for a busy day. A loaded flat rack that as you can see isn’t too big but the Anvil weighs in at a hefty 33 tons. After tipping the flat rack was removed and the James went to load one of a number of pieces that are all destined for Antwerp. SW02 HCW is Wilsons spare 8×4 Scania tractor unit. Plated to 150 tons it’s a handy piece of kit to have as a spare.

The pieces being loaded to Antwerp are all over 4 metres wide and weigh over 30 tons each, so the extra axles help spread the weight. Below we also have R90 HCW a 6×4 Scania loaded with a similar piece. This photo is sent by Wilsons own escort driver Sully.

Truckstar 2014: Trans Rivage

Posted on September 3, 2014 by truckbloguk

A nice line up in the mirrors when we arrived at Assen. 5 trucks and 5 V8 Scania’s with a total of 2,570hp. The front 3 were all in the show spirit on arrival, holding the trucks on the foot brake and all doing doing burn outs on the wet slippy Tarmac. I was so trans-fixed on the awesome sight and sound of the 3 V8’snotice that I didn’t video them, when clearly I should have!

GOTG Closing Time for Entrants

Posted on August 30, 2014 by truckbloguk

The fat lady is nearly here, the curtain is about to fall, the bell is nearly ringing for all entries to this years Gathering of the Griffin show in Ipswich on the last weekend of September. If you haven’t entered your any age, any state of any Scania then you have just over 24 hours to do so. The official closing time for entries is 2359hrs on Sunday 31st August. Contact details are as follows:

Address: Gathering Of The Griffin, 40 Uplands Way, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4DF
Telephone: 07903155898
Email: gotg37@hotmail.com

There will be over 110 Scania’s all in one place, a must for any truck fan not just the Griffin lovers. The show is held at the Orwell Crossing Truck stop on the 27th and 28th September. There are categories and prizes for all models and also the coverted best in show prize. You don’t have to be a polish crazy Scania owner to win the prize as it’s all done to the character if the truck. There are also some very very VIP entrants from Scania GB coming too, it’ll be worth a trip to see what they are. Truckblog sponsors the Best 3 Series in show and last years winner Is the 143 at the top owned by Craig of Denny who came down from Scotland. So if you own a Scania of any age or state get it entered and get it to Ipswich. The whole weekend is tipped off by all the trucks leaving the show together, an awesome sight and sound for that matter!!

Last minute entries – CALL or EMAIL now!!
Phone: 07903155898
Email: gotg37@hotmail.com

3, 2, 1……………….

Centurion #82

Posted on August 26, 2014 by truckbloguk

As some of you will know #82 has been up for sale in Ireland for a little while. The truck looked in half decent condition as it is complete and comes with the badges. It looks to me like the original spec was as it is now, a flat top 143 with 6×2 tag axle. The new proud owner, Paul from Lancashire, has emailed to tell me about his recent acquisition.

Now on my sheet I have no information about #82 and Paul also says that he doesn’t have a lot of info about the truck. Do you know anything about the history of it? Truck reg is J422 SHN. All I can start with is that is was first registered on 1st June 1992. So if you can help Paul then please email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk and I’ll pass the information on to Paul. One of you must know something.

Martyn’s Maiden Mercedes-Benz 2028LS

Posted on August 18, 2014 by truckbloguk

As some of you will by now be aware I started working at Orwell Trucks Mercedes Benz at the beginning of July. Having always worked in transport and l haulage a move into trucks sales seems to have been a good move. When you start at any new workplace it seems there is always a “Martyn Beverly” character some where in the company. Mr Beverly is a quiet man who has learnt his trade from the ground up, he still earns his keep by supplying all the large fleets of East Anglian and beyond with the Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles. The wealth of knowledge Martyn has for MB trucks and vans having worked for Orwell Trucks for over 30 years is amazing. A couple of days sat with Martyn can teach you more than reading any brochure or book or even going on an MB training course. As we clearly have a shared interest in trucks I was keen to let Martyn see some of David Scarff’s MB truck photos, especially ones of local trucks. The above photo was taken by David Scarff outside Fred Archers yard one Saturday morning in the Mid 1980’s. As soon as Martyn saw this photo he said he sold the truck to Archers. Cue the flood gates for plenty more info and all I could want to know about the story of this particular truck. I asked Martyn to write down what he could remember so below is just that…….

With the impending introduction of 38 tonne GCW artics on 5 axles in 1983, operators with fleets of tandem axle trailers and 2 axle units, need a 3 axle tractor unit to comply with the new legislation. Some truck manufacturers had a problem as they nothing developed to meet this requirement. Luckily Mercedes-Benz already produced a suitable vehicle in Europe which could easily be modified to suit the UK market – Enter the 2028LS.

In 1982 Mercedes Benz decided to bring a single vehicle over to the UK to assess its suitability. I saw a picture of it in a Mercedes company brochure under the heading “An intriguing development for the future”. During one of my many meetings with Fred Archer, I told him about this truck and he was very interested as he had seen them whilst on his travels through Eastern Europe. I investigated and found out that this vehicle was at the Mercedes vehicle preparation centre at New Millerdam near Wakefield. I asked asked if I could borrow it and much to my surprise they said yes. Our driver Brian Booth picked the vehicle up and bought it back to Ipswich so we could have a look at the spec as there were no Data Sheets available.
– Left hand drive (enormous steering wheel!)
– L type sleeper cab with twin bunks
– Red orange cab
– Red oxide colour chassis
– Jost sliding 5th wheel
– MB 14.6 litre naturally aspirated V8 engine. 276hp.
– Fuller roadranger constant mesh 13 speed gearbox. 4 speed + range change + splitter on top 4 gears and a crawler. Very unusual as it would have normally been a ZF Ecosplit.
– 12R x 22.5 tyres
– Centre axle permanently steered with air suspension above a steel spring load transfer device.
– Rear axle. Hub reduction, full four bag air suspension with in cab level control
– GVW was 20,330kg
– 3,750mm outer axle spread – the prop shaft was as thick as a telegraph pole!

I took the vehicle down to Fred (Archer) and hitched it onto one of his trailers and we went for an extensive road test around Ipswich, after which Fred definitely wanted to buy it – if the price was right of course! I went away and got the numbers sorted and Fred ordered the vehicle. No records exist but I reckon it was around £30,000. This truck was very unique as it was the first of this model ever to be sold in England.

To prepare the vehicle we fitted the snorkel front air intake, a radio, cab heater, rear wings, alloy cat walk / fuel tank (from GB Engineering in Wisbech), sun visor, full chassis and cab paint and finally it was sign written by Rod Chapple using a good old brush and paint. When finished and delivered to Fred we did a photo shoot with one of his trailers all around Martlesham Heath and pictures were taken off the bridge over the A12. The driver was a chap called Mick Dade who had worked for Fred archer for some time (Mick Dade eventually worked for IST in Harwich as Transport Manager.

You can’t ask for a better write up than that all off the back of one photo. The other photos here are all copyright of Martyn Beverly and as ever please respect the copyright. Fred archer must have been impressed with the big German as I found another David Scarff photo of an A reg MB 2028, only visible differences being it’s right hand drive and no snorkel!

There are a few more old photos in the archives so you never know we might be able to get a few more snippets of the good old days from Martyn and Orwell Trucks back catalogue. Off you go driver, happy trucking……….

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