When air con was first being fitted and some lucky drivers had it on their truck, few were aware of how dangerous it was to have it running all the time when there came the time to leave the cab for whatever reason. I think there were several instances of drivers jumping out of an air conditioned cab to do something like change a wheel, to keel over with heat stroke.
Good afternoon ALL,
you can read the Story about Mr Sertel&Sertel Naklıyat&Contex in OHS Thread…plse let me hv your comments plse.
kındest regards
Nazmı Ozcan
John West:
Just reading in the ‘Mail’ magazine an article about Levison Wood ‘Walking the Nile’, a 4,200 mile trek through 6 countries -there’s a project for you Robert. One of the participants, an American reporter, died of heatstroke.
John West:
Just reading in the ‘Mail’ magazine an article about Levison Wood ‘Walking the Nile’, a 4,200 mile trek through 6 countries -there’s a project for you Robert. One of the participants, an American reporter, died of heatstroke.John
Levison Wood, proud of a local lad from Stoke.
Here ya go Mick B and thanks to who ever posted this the first time around.
Hi Steve
Thanks for posting the newspaper article. I always had what I believed to be proper insurance cover, but you wouldn’t want to put it to the test.
I was coming home from Doha one trip, just coming into Damascus when a small minibus I was following started pulling over to drop off passengers, then on receiving instructions from the back of the bus the driver decided he would accelerate back on to the carriageway, needless to say without any indication or second thought as to what might be along side him. As I pulled along side him I felt justified in winding down my window and giving the Syrian driver some advice on his poor driving…At this particular moment I looked back infront and noticed that a breeze block wall about 2 feet high had been built to segregate the traffic at the start of the dual carriageway. Being empty and giving the V8 Scania the full berries I just had time to put one arm up in front of my face as I ploughed into the wall with the offside front wheel. What an idiot…with the help of a couple of drivers managed to change and borrow some wheels and tyres, collect the front grill which had sheered off in the impact and had been run over.
Although the truck did look quite a mess I did manage to get a light load of furniture as a backload and nursed it back into Scania at Stowmarket. My insurance did pay for the repairs which if I remember correctly was just under 6000 pounds.
I never got stopped in Germany but did managed to get stopped on A12, I don’t think that they believed me when I said that the accident had happened in Damascus…Probably got them on a good day…
All the very best
Mick B 
Regarding Insurance cover.
On one trip I ran from Turaif down to Dammam with a guy (sorry, name long forgotten) off Carmans. He had air conditioning and was pulling a fridge. He, like many others had stolen one of the netting squares, which were used as baggage holders, from the train. He had fastened this neatly below his air conditioning vents and kept his drinks in it to keep them cool and handy. To be fair, with A/C he didn’t need to to constantly refill the body’s total loss cooling system as the rest of us did! The fridge van had a small compartment on the front, accessible from the outside and he kindly let me keep bottled water in there, which was certainly cold whenever we next stopped. He used it to keep frozen food in.
Part way down the tap line he pulled over onto the side and I went across for the inevitable cup of tea. we were parked up alongside a burnt out trailer. As the kettle was warming up he pointed to the trailer and said ‘That was mine.’ I gawped at the remains of a 40’ crane-Freuhauf van, burned to the ground, with odd bits of the frame poking up. ’ I got a double blow out. It was far too late for the fire extinguisher, so I pulled out from under and watched it go up. Guess what was in it?’
He passed me my cup of tea. Since the remains of the trailer consisted mostly of ash and a vague outline, I couldn’t even begin to guess. I shook my head.
‘Fire extinguishers.’
I choked on my tea ‘What?’ ‘Yes, fire extinguishers. Once the trailer started to burn, they just exploded and burned, one after the other, until it looked like that!’ He pointed at the trailer. We discussed further how it was possible, but the proof was in front of us.
I can’t remember whether the insurance had paid up or not, but a couple of years later, when I was subbing from Caravan, Angus, a relative of Peter the transport manager was hauling a 20’ container to Riyadh, when he saw smoke coming from the rear. He pulled over to find he’d had a double blow out. He pulled out from under it and swore that it was not alight when he headed back to Dammam for help.
When he got back with Peter following in his car with 2 spare wheels aboard, it had gone up in flames.
The insurance refused to pay, on the grounds that they only covered the unit with a trailer attached. Since the trailer had been dropped before it went up in flames…
That cost Caravan £38,000. The contents were truck radiators.
What I still can’t understand is how fire extinguishers and metal radiators could burn so fiercely!
John
Some good pics on Ferdys site, of Martin Freight.
Anybody know of them and where they hailed from?
Suedehead:
Some good pics on Ferdys site, of Martin Freight.
Anybody know of them and where they hailed from?
Thank you for that link - some marvellous photos there! Robert 
Shady popped this picture of a Scammell Trunker on the Shipping in/out of Poole thread. That Scammell did the Middle-East run before ‘retiring’ to the Portugal run. I remembered that I had an old article about out, so I’ve scanned it for this thread. Enjoy! Robert 
Superb reading,love Scammells. 
Thanks for posting it.
robert1952:
Shady popped this picture of a Scammell Trunker on the Shipping in/out of Poole thread. That Scammell did the Middle-East run before ‘retiring’ to the Portugal run. I remembered that I had an old article about out, so I’ve scanned it for this thread. Enjoy! Robert210
What an emotive picture,fabulous!!!
David
My pleasure. Anyone any idea what gearbox it had? Robert 
The most comfortable thing in the truck was the two bostrum seats that he fitted. But it certainly was an amazing piece of equipment. 
Found this somewere on the web
Danne
Stanley Bull registered, coming down into Dover if I’m not mistaken.
bestbooties:
Stanley Bull registered, coming down into Dover if I’m not mistaken.
Correct on both counts: 34-registered and on Jubilee Way. Robert
And he made it all the way down without setting the brakes on fire. Clearly a highly experienced Abi 
David