Wondering if anyone knows the whereabouts of Des Coombes the ICC road foreman?
I’ve got a question for you Jazzandy.
Why on earth did the bosses of the ICC so disrespect their drivers as to make them use non-sleeper motors and why did anybody, European anyway, work for them? Was the money that good?
That the Mack was a strong and reliable truck is beyond doubt but when I was working on Altrex in Holland they purchased 3 or 4 of the cabover version and one short trip round the block convinsed me that it was time to resign even though I had been driving a gutless Mercedes 1926. Did myself a favour really because I then got a job on Grangewood and there never was a Company who were better to work for.
David
I don’t think it was so much disrespect as custom and practice. The owners were Iranians and the bulk of the fleet was based in Tehran with Iranian drivers. Many Iranian companies at that time were running non sleepers. Marand,TBT, Hirsch etc.
The ‘European’ fleet based in Salzburg numbered between 20 and 30 and us European drivers claimed overnight expenses which allowed us to stay in B & B’s so we were actually treated quite well.
Yes the Macks were dogs to drive at first, no power steering and double stick crash gearboxes but to us it was a challenge and once you got used to them they were a dream to drive.
Jazzandy:
This was me in 1973!!
“In the summer time when the weather is high, you can stretch right up & touch the sky”
Ross■■?
Great thread by the way.
Yes the Macks were dogs to drive at first, no power steering and double stick crash gearboxes but to us it was a challenge and once you got used to them they were a dream to drive.
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Jazandy, of all the American trucks that I have , worked with ,driven, owned, imported, sold, repaired, I have to say that Macks, (in all their guises), are my favourites. Simple,strong, unrefined, yes, of course, but they really have something about them, and the Mack “people”, they loved their product, and believed in it, and they were “proper” truck people. If you drove a Mack, and you could not get on with it, well, … were you a proper driver■■? Back to the Bollinger, cheerio for now.
The real skill was driving without using the clutch at all. Crawler was such a low gear that you could slip into at standstill without the clutch and the truck would move off so the real aficionados including some of the Iranians made it a badge of honour never to use their left foot!
The twin stick sorted man from boy on the US trucks… never quite got the hang of it road testing them after repair but figured it was like learning how to dance, just took time!!!.
Mack trucks have their fans as do KW’s and Peterbilt’s, but never mock a truebIood Mackman. I enjoy the grunt and simplicity of the Mack and you can never call them a luxury cab though Andy thinks my V8 Ultraliner has too much bling. 
The F700 cabover with no power steering, twin sticks and camelback suspension was one tough truck for it’s day… but my spine would not enjoy a long trip today… I need my airbags and bouncy cab…!!!
YVR Brit
One thing we did learn very early on was never ever to select ‘Iranian’.overdrive. They call it Georgian overdrive in the States. Basically throwing the thing out of gear to get some more mph downhill. That was solo dangerous and those of us who survived the experiment never did it again!
Jazzandy:
One thing we did learn very early on was never ever to select ‘Iranian’.overdrive. They call it Georgian overdrive in the States. Basically throwing the thing out of gear to get some more mph downhill. That was solo dangerous and those of us who survived the experiment never did it again!
Ah ha! We called it super 7th, or angel gear when we sailed down from Stainmore to Greta Bridge in our Scammell Highwaymen.
One bloke forgot about the twist onto the bridge (the really old one) and tried to get it back into gear.
He made the bridge ok but the whole drive train was knackered and he presented a sorry sight standing by the steaming wreck on the other side.
He expected the sack but the boss said ‘will you do it again?’ Answer ‘no way’. Nuff said, he was wise enough to know that a replacement driver might make the same mistake again, but this one never would - and never did. 
I should have known better. When I was skid I knocked a Fordson Major out of gear on a hill with a trailer load of hay. Luckily I had a guy with me who was able to steer us clear of a hedge and ditch but it was a close run thing!
Here’s a picture of my truck being unloaded at Bruder ■■■■■ depot in Sharnitz Austria.
The cargo was specialist timber from Iran which was used for the manufacture of violins.
Here’s a picture of the guys hard at work at our weekend retreat, the Pension Feninger near the Salzburg border at Walserberg.
Steve Trybowski, George Fardell, Michel Vranjes plus girlfriend.
God we had it hard in those days!
Well Andy, that answers a question that somebody asked on here about four years ago, did George ever wear two watches. One for British time and one for South African time although I am sure that he told me that he was Rhodesian 
.
Regards Steve.
P.S. as regards your photo with the timber, were there any Fiddles on that job.
(Come on somebody was going to ask that eventually.) 
George always wore two Rolexes as you say.
There were plenty of fiddles thanks God!
Just to let you know that I’m telling the story of how I joined Iran Container Company in the thread ‘My First Continental Job’
It’s told as a story but the basic facts are all true. I hope you enjoy it!
Andy, my first trip was with ICC before it became Pars, that was in 67/68 with a round cab B61 and quadraplex. Left Holland on Dec 10 1967 with many problems arrived in Teheran on march 17 1968. I flew back swore I’d never do it again , that lasted a couple of years till I was press ganged to Json Vick and Collintor . The rest is history , ■■■■ am I really this old>?
Very interested to know what you were carrying. Was it Hillman parts for the Peykans?
Just to clarify things. ICC did not become Pars.
I used the Pars name in ‘My first continental job’ because although the basic facts are true it is presented as a story and I didn’t want to be pulled up or nitpicked!
Iran Container was owned by Mr. Vartwevanian and a couple of other Iranian businessmen.
Pars was owned by the Pakseema brothers. I worked for both these companies.
hi on a trip back to the uk,i stopped at the londra,i was driving for ohs,there was stephan trybowski
also on ohs he had a broken arm,he had no money,clothes,anything,the arsoles back in the rainham office
refused to help,i brought him back with me,to the uk,we both had run together before a great guy to be with in a commie country could speak all there lingoi had a blinding row in the office,you do not abandon an employee like that if there is a dispute you sort it out on company premisesi told them to park the truck up their rings,i was fuming,regards peter supple.
Welcome to the forum Pete.
I think this all happened after my time at OHS. I spoke to Stephan and he thinks there are some mixed stories here.
Firstly he was never trucked home from Istanbul and never left in the lurch by OHS. He broke his arm outside Munich when he rolled his truck, and after the medics had strapped him up OHS local office in Munich organised his trip home on another truck. He says there was no row in the office and in fact he had several months of physio before he took up a job doing Saudi internals. On his return to UK he once again joined OHS so there was no rancour there as far as he was concerned. The other thing is that OHS did not normally use Londra, the terminal being up the road in Topkapi so it is unlikely he would have been there.
There was an occasion when he ‘doubled up’ from Istanbul but that was with Bob Davies and he was not injured at this time.
Maybe you are the guy who gave him a lift back from Munich?
Incidentally there is a separate OHS thread on this forum which might interest you.