Milk Tankers on Ice

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I finally got a day off, so here we go.

It starts from last Tuesday. I woke up to not alot of snow in Essex, so i thoguht the forcast must have been wrong, and i was in for an easy day…

I get down to Barham, just off the A2, and again, not a lot of snow about. I’m early for the farm so i sat in a layby until 7.30

From there i’m heading to Rolvenden, on the A28, and the further west i go, the heavier the snow is, and i see my easy day sowly disappearing as the snow gets deeper, especially down the back lanes.

I know i’m going to have problems at this farm, i did the last time it snowed. It’s only a slight hill i have to reverse up, but it’s enough for a struggle, not helped that it’s round a corner and there isn’t a great amount of room.


I got stuck here, the unit was kicking towards the nearside, so the whole thing was jacknifing. I kept pulling it out and trying different lines, but it wouldn’t go up any further. Until, that is, the farmer gets some sand out and we manage to get it moving

only as far as here though :frowning:

That cant be good either :confused:

after laying much sand, and digging about with shovels and just nailing it backwards once i got going, i finally get up and pull on, and leave the way i came

Onto the next farm, and the road in is no better

This one is quite tight, and where you really see the advantages of having a rear steer

Go right here



Load up and off i go down to a little village just outside of Hastings, which has a nice offside reverse in.


Then off to a farm in the middle of nowhere, which has one way in and out. I got stuck here last time too, and i lost nearly 2 hours trying to get up this hill and waiting to be rescued :frowning:

I managed to slide backwards and wedge up against the embankment when the trailer went it’s own way


I managed to get out and get back down the hill, taking half of the mud with me, and wait for a tractor to come with salt and tow me up


Then i make my way over to Ashurst, to my last farm. No photos here for some reason. It was very uneventful anyway, just more snow

I hope this git gets £30 fine too :angry:

I head back to base, and the snow starts coming down hard on the M25, within minutes the motorway is covered

I’ll do the rest during the week, got so many to upload and sort out and put in order, but that’s one of the days i had :slight_smile:

2

the farm in Ashurst, wasnt New Wharf Farm was it?

3

Hi mate nice pics and read

i was in for an easy day

i bet you wished you never said that :stuck_out_tongue:

keep safe out there mate :sunglasses:

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charliebear:
the farm in Ashurst, wasnt New Wharf Farm was it?

It could have been, i o nly know them by the farmers surname. It was ‘Ashby’ if that helps?

5

delboytwo:
Hi mate nice pics and read

i was in for an easy day

i bet you wished you never said that :stuck_out_tongue:

keep safe out there mate :sunglasses:

Cheers. I’m always safe :wink:

6

C-Kay:

charliebear:
the farm in Ashurst, wasnt New Wharf Farm was it?

It could have been, i o nly know them by the farmers surname. It was ‘Ashby’ if that helps?

name rings a bell, i probably have been shooting on his land. If you come across any Passmores or Jesses thats my family, they have 4 farms round Ashurst and Steyning, and a couple in mid Wales somewhere. Nice bunch, and if you ever go to Coombes farm near Steyning, one of the barns has a fully stocked bar :grimacing: .

7

C-Kay, would i be right in thinking that…

  1. When you try to climb the gradient with a part-loaded milk tank, the milk runs to the back end of the tank leaving you with no traction weight at all on the drive axle?

  2. Milk tanks do not have baffles?

  3. They are no longer tacho regs exempt when on farm collections?

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Not another one of those dodgy TV shows is it :question: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

9

Driveroneuk:
C-Kay, would i be right in thinking that…

  1. When you try to climb the gradient with a part-loaded milk tank, the milk runs to the back end of the tank leaving you with no traction weight at all on the drive axle?

  2. Milk tanks do not have baffles?

  1. The trailer tanks that I’ve had do. Of course, we’re talking of milk tanks used for farm collection.

PS Where are Turners based? I gather somewhere in Suffolk. Is it a large company?

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Nice post, really enjoyed this … :smiley:

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Fair play to you C-Kay, nobody can question your commitment to the job. :slight_smile:

I suggest your boss buys you some snow chains for Christmas, as artics and snow don’t mix!

12

Nice diary of your day. I’m waiting for the next parts :wink:

Btw. do you have phone numbers for those farmers? I think I might have called to the farmer beforehand to plough that hill on which you had got stuck already on your previous run (or at least to ask about the condition of the hill).

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Driveroneuk:
C-Kay, would i be right in thinking that…

  1. When you try to climb the gradient with a part-loaded milk tank, the milk runs to the back end of the tank leaving you with no traction weight at all on the drive axle?

  2. Milk tanks do not have baffles?

  3. They are no longer tacho regs exempt when on farm collections?

It depends how much is on there. This tank held 28,000 litres, so i can load 14,000 on the front. Ours have a plate which comes up about 1/2 - 3/4 of the tank (i assume other tankers are the same), so when it gets to a certain point, it will start running over.

I’m on domestic hours, so not tacho exempt. We didn’t get our hours extended either during the worst of it, unlike others on the same regs.

Ader1:
PS Where are Turners based? I gather somewhere in Suffolk. Is it a large company?

The main headquarters is Newmarket, but the have depots all over the place :slight_smile:

49er:
Nice post, really enjoyed this … :smiley:

Cheers :slight_smile:

howatsi:
Fair play to you C-Kay, nobody can question your commitment to the job. :slight_smile: !

Thank you :slight_smile:

Kyrbo:
Nice diary of your day. I’m waiting for the next parts :wink:

Btw. do you have phone numbers for those farmers? I think I might have called to the farmer beforehand to plough that hill on which you had got stuck already on your previous run (or at least to ask about the condition of the hill).

It’s either pick it up, or it gets thrown down the drain, so i dont really have much choice. The farmer actually phoned up and said not to send an artic, send a rigid as it might have more chance of getting up, no-one told me though :unamused:

Still, it’s all good fun, and an experience

14

Nice diary C-kay, how often do you get stuck in country lanes/farms when there’s no snow? Just wonder why they wouldn’t use 6x4 units for this kind of work, would be better for traction

Do you ever get any trouble with oncoming/parked cars when going down the lanes to a delivery? Can’t say I envy you, at least when I get a tricky one I can drop the trailer in a layby and go in as a rigid, been times when I’ve been thankful for having a drawbar motor :smiley:

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Grayham:
Nice diary C-kay, how often do you get stuck in country lanes/farms when there’s no snow? Just wonder why they wouldn’t use 6x4 units for this kind of work, would be better for traction

Do you ever get any trouble with oncoming/parked cars when going down the lanes to a delivery? Can’t say I envy you, at least when I get a tricky one I can drop the trailer in a layby and go in as a rigid, been times when I’ve been thankful for having a drawbar motor :smiley:

It’s very rare i get stuck when there’s no ice. It’s happened once in a bad way, where i had to take the otherside of the road to make a left hand turn, which was uphill on both roads, and i lost traction mid turn and blocked both sides of the road and the road i was turning into :laughing: That was in the rain and on wet leaves.

As for traffic, it’s just a case of sitting there until they reverse, then when i pass i get ‘you shouldn’t be down here in that thing’ shouted at me quite often. I have learnt that a massive percentage of car drivers cant reverse in a straight line, the way some of them go snaking across the road is quite worrying.

The only time i’ve had to ask someone to move a parked car is when i took a wrong turn down some poxy little road and had to reverse out because there was no room to turn round :angry:

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and i’ve had my moments this last 12days or so where i’ve felt like dropping the trailer and just leaving it there. I didn’t get stuck today though, and only once yesterday so hopefully it’s all over :smiley:

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A few more photos from the following 3 days

Leaving home (a bit more snow than the previous day)

A41

Backroads

Being pulled out by 2 tractors - took over an hour :angry:

Loading in Oving

Revese of the A413, where that copper nearly nicked me doing so a few weeks back.

The guy who was on this route the day before me refused to pick anything up, so i had 2 days worth of milk to collect. Half wa round i had to meet a liner and tranship the load, then carry on


Refuelling at Arlas

Next Day

Stuck in felixstowe

Braintree

Bricked myself going down this hill :laughing: Fully loaded, i had a vision of me sliding straight out onto the road and something coming either side.

Day after, i’m in this thing. The seat doesn’t go up or down, it has one electric window (nearside), the indicators, wipers, washers, horn etc are all on one stick, and it doesn’t like going down into 5th or 6th, which isn’t fun :angry:


18

Don’t you slag those EC’s off C-kay, they were the best we had on the Bulk powders side, plus you could run fully loaded with the lift axle up :wink: :wink:

19

Revese of the A413, where that copper nearly nicked me doing so a few weeks back.

Which ‘made up on the spot’ law was that then?

I know it’s illegal to reverse ONTO a main road, which by definition, says you have to reverse off them if there is no turning space.

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Henrys cat:
Don’t you slag those EC’s off C-kay, they were the best we had on the Bulk powders side, plus you could run fully loaded with the lift axle up :wink: :wink:

Not slagging it off. It pulls like anything and makes me appreciate how easy i have had it comparedto my dad and the other old gits :wink:

Plus i’m useless when it comes to change and i keep going for swtitches that aren’t there :laughing:

DoYouMeanMe?:

Revese of the A413, where that copper nearly nicked me doing so a few weeks back.

Which ‘made up on the spot’ law was that then?

I know it’s illegal to reverse ONTO a main road, which by definition, says you have to reverse off them if there is no turning space.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52332

I think he was bored/after promotion