Go on then, theres no fooling you is there, you old devil, Regards Ore should I have said youngish old devil■■?
Lawrence Dunbar:
Go on then, theres no fooling you is there, you old devil, Regards Ore should I have said youngish old devil■■?
I resemble those last few words !!!
Dennis I dont think you tell porkies, what do you think ■■. Regards Larry.PS. Im old myself & getting older by the minute, just like you Dennis, so come on & tell the trueth, you youngish old devil, Eh Regards Larry Monarch of the Glen.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis I dont think you tell porkies, what do you think ■■. Regards Larry.PS. Im old myself & getting older by the minute, just like you Dennis, so come on & tell the trueth, you youngish old devil, Eh Regards Larry Monarch of the Glen.
Don’t remind me mate I’ve just had a letter telling me when I will be getting my pension next year !! That will be,of course, if there’ll be owt left in Osbournes piggy bank to start paying me !!! Cheers Dennis.
This is a shot of one of the first 3 Tri-axles we got in march '83 when 38 ton came in.It is a Crane Fruehauf which I had decided would be right for our operations with minor modification,a flush deck and a heftier chock rail,oh! and I wanted them on ROR axles.Guess what the third one came without the mods and it was on their own Propar axles,which were crap compared to the ROR axles ! When I enquired why Cranes had ignored my instructions I was “fobbed” off with “well thats our standard spec and it seems ok for other customers” Oh! I says, is that so,well you can cancell the order for the next 6 then !!! and I sold the one with the Propar axles “as new” for what we’d payed.I was then introduced to TASK at ■■■■■■■■■■■ by my pal Malc Woodhouse Snr. and guess what ? Give us the spec you want Mr. Smith and we will be delighted to build it for you !!! I think over the next 10 years we had about 130/140 Task chassis up until they closed down then we did return to Crane Fruehauf and we also had some M & G chassis onto which were built Boalloy Tautliner bodies.
IIRC this is a shot of our first revenue earning load on Fleet no. 90 the first of the new Fruehauf tri-axles we got in march '83,its is standing here ready to go in the Mill at Beetham.
This is a shot of one of the two first tri-axles we got in '83,I didn’t like the raised fabricated chock rail,you had to be careful to keep the reels off it or they may have been damaged.I also preferred a high tensile steel headboard,and I never like that bloody great lump of white plastic on the backend.Although this trailer had ROR axles Fruehauf were intent on stuffing their own Propar running gear into you !!
This is a shot of one of the first TASK tri axles we got in March/April '83,by the fleet no. it looks like the 2nd one prior to it going into service.They were well built trailers,cast steel chock ( impervious to damage !),steel headboard,nice clean tough backend and ,of course,on ROR axles,perfect spec for our traffic ! Cheers Bewick.
Did you ever run any Montracons Dennis , we had a large fleet of them which were virtually trouble free in fact the only trouble we had with the 400 + trailers we operated were ABS faults and discs cracking and locking the wheel up,it was a mixed fleet of mainly hire trailers all boxes
ramone:
Did you ever run any Montracons Dennis , we had a large fleet of them which were virtually trouble free in fact the only trouble we had with the 400 + trailers we operated were ABS faults and discs cracking and locking the wheel up,it was a mixed fleet of mainly hire trailers all boxes
As soon as Montracon got involved that was when TASK got “shafted” and following on from a strike at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory they got shut down. I never reckoned Montracon and would never consider them.We were changing over to Tautliners by this time so we swapped back to Fruehauf and later M & G chassis who had been taken over by Boalloy. Cheers Dennis.
M &G. Dennis, the one with the little dog logo on the back xmember, I remember going to their factory at Lye Worcestershire, to get a one straightened out, I was amazed at the gear they had, very impressive I must say. They were a good crowd, I stayed at transport cafe nor too far away from their works & they did the job overnight, I picked the repaired trailer up ., got myself a return load off McPhees at Wolverhampton & back home, The good old days when you did a good job for the gaffer & got a decent bit of money in the old sky rocket, Where did it all go wrong, Regards Larry
I remember when I drove for MAT they would send us out with a knocked down tilt for a flat trailer. Can’t be that bad I hear you say!! Well the tilts did not have any rope hooks on for a start and the side board hinges were used as hooks. Also most of the time the tilt sheet was far too big for the load and trying to fold it up inside itself was a nightmare. You could guarentee that you were as black as the ace of spades after the job. And it was always a new coil of plastic rope that we had as well and it streached like hell. 
Bewick:
ramone:
Did you ever run any Montracons Dennis , we had a large fleet of them which were virtually trouble free in fact the only trouble we had with the 400 + trailers we operated were ABS faults and discs cracking and locking the wheel up,it was a mixed fleet of mainly hire trailers all boxesAs soon as Montracon got involved that was when TASK got “shafted” and following on from a strike at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory they got shut down. I never reckoned Montracon and would never consider them.We were changing over to Tautliners by this time so we swapped back to Fruehauf and later M & G chassis who had been taken over by Boalloy. Cheers Dennis.
I didnt know Montracon were involved with Task
ramone:
Bewick:
ramone:
Did you ever run any Montracons Dennis , we had a large fleet of them which were virtually trouble free in fact the only trouble we had with the 400 + trailers we operated were ABS faults and discs cracking and locking the wheel up,it was a mixed fleet of mainly hire trailers all boxesAs soon as Montracon got involved that was when TASK got “shafted” and following on from a strike at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory they got shut down. I never reckoned Montracon and would never consider them.We were changing over to Tautliners by this time so we swapped back to Fruehauf and later M & G chassis who had been taken over by Boalloy. Cheers Dennis.
I didnt know Montracon were involved with Task
Hiya “ramone” yes Montracon bought out TASK and I found out when their Sales director DES O’CONNOR,not the singer,called to see me but this bloke was a total ■■■■■■■ comedian all the same!!! calmly told me that from then on we would be buying Montracon chassis !! at this time we had some trailers “in build” at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory and I informed this ■■■■■■ that if they attempted to tamper with our spec or stuck a Montracon sign on them the deal was off.IIRC there was a bad industrial dispute at ■■■■■■■■■■■ shortly afterwards and they shut the plant down.The boss of the plant at ■■■■■■■■■■■ was a chap called Tom Dinning and I’d got on with him real well over the years,but I don’t know what happened to him.But I can tell you we had a right carry on to get the last trailers out of the plant,“cloak and dagger” had ■■■■ all on the antics that had to be employed,and I wouldn’t care but the trailers had been paid for !!! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
ramone:
Bewick:
ramone:
Did you ever run any Montracons Dennis , we had a large fleet of them which were virtually trouble free in fact the only trouble we had with the 400 + trailers we operated were ABS faults and discs cracking and locking the wheel up,it was a mixed fleet of mainly hire trailers all boxesAs soon as Montracon got involved that was when TASK got “shafted” and following on from a strike at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory they got shut down. I never reckoned Montracon and would never consider them.We were changing over to Tautliners by this time so we swapped back to Fruehauf and later M & G chassis who had been taken over by Boalloy. Cheers Dennis.
I didnt know Montracon were involved with Task
Hiya “ramone” yes Montracon bought out TASK and I found out when their Sales director DES O’CONNOR,not the singer,called to see me but this bloke was a total [zb] comedian all the same!!! calmly told me that from then on we would be buying Montracon chassis !! at this time we had some trailers “in build” at the ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory and I informed this [zb] that if they attempted to tamper with our spec or stuck a Montracon sign on them the deal was off.IIRC there was a bad industrial dispute at ■■■■■■■■■■■ shortly afterwards and they shut the plant down.The boss of the plant at ■■■■■■■■■■■ was a chap called Tom Dinning and I’d got on with him real well over the years,but I don’t know what happened to him.But I can tell you we had a right carry on to get the last trailers out of the plant,“cloak and dagger” had [zb] all on the antics that had to be employed,and I wouldn’t care but the trailers had been paid for !!! Cheers Dennis.
Sounds like a familiar story,smacks of when Leyland started pushing their products ahead of the superior ones on offer from the companies they had “merged” with or taken over.I was pushing for the company i last worked for to opt for Scanias when some of our older Dafs and Ivecos were due to be de leased at the end of their contract.I wanted Scanias as the fuel consumption from the spot hire ones we were using compared with the Dafs and Ivecos was much better.I went as far as getting demos in from a few other manufacteurers but the Scanias were returning the best results.The other factors were a manual dipstick under the front grill (very few offer this now) and EGR as opposed to the troublesome adblue motors and reliability.I didnt have the final say but after lots of conversations and arguing with our fleet manager i got the go ahead only to then have to start convincing our supplier who are 1 of the big rental players.Reading between the lines he could make more money from supplying us with Dafs than he could with the far superior imho Scanias.
Say no more “ramone”,when there’s a middle man involved he’s going to try and persuade you to take the motors that produce him the best margin viz-a-viz the difference between what he is paying for them and the figure he can charge you while still making the deal look attractive to your “number crunchers”. So I guess Scanias would be at the bottom of the leasing cos. list,not enough margin in the deal, so as far as the suits are concerned it’s bollox to your opinion “ramone” your only running them !!! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Say no more “ramone”,when there’s a middle man involved he’s going to try and persuade you to take the motors that produce him the best margin viz-a-viz the difference between what he is paying for them and the figure he can charge you while still making the deal look attractive to your “number crunchers”. So I guess Scanias would be at the bottom of the leasing cos. list,not enough margin in the deal, so as far as the suits are concerned it’s bollox to your opinion “ramone” your only running them !!! Cheers Dennis.[/quot
I mentioned the saving we would make on ad blue alone (this was 2008) and he came back with ah but Scania will have to turn to adblue by euro 5 (this year) so i told him these are on a 5 year deal so we will be saving 5 years worth of adblue plus superior mpg over that period,he wasnt impressed
Woodpulp traffic from more-or-less every major port in the UK was a staple and regular traffic to Bewick Transport over many years,in later years the daily load count could reach probably 25 to 30,sometimes more as we subbed quite a lot of loads to other hauliers.This is a shot of a 24 ton load of woodpulp in the depot at Milnthorpe which has most probably come down from the east of Scotland and will most likely be enroute to a Mill in Lancs/Cheshire/N. Wales or Cullompton.I was never happy with the this fancy method of sheeting at the front end if the load was not up to the headboard,but I couldn’t be everwhere ! IIRC I may have re-done the front end on this trailer as the shot was taken on a Sunday morning when the yard was full “to bursting” with trailers and tractors.I know I used to do a bit of “tidying” up on one or two loads at times,if it wasn’t ■■■■■■■ down of course!!! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Woodpulp traffic from more-or-less every major port in the UK was a staple and regular traffic to Bewick Transport over many years,in later years the daily load count could reach probably 25 to 30,sometimes more as we subbed quite a lot of loads to other hauliers.This is a shot of a 24 ton load of woodpulp in the depot at Milnthorpe which has most probably come down from the east of Scotland and will most likely be enroute to a Mill in Lancs/Cheshire/N. Wales or Cullompton.I was never happy with the this fancy method of sheeting at the front end if the load was not up to the headboard,but I couldn’t be everwhere ! IIRC I may have re-done the front end on this trailer as the shot was taken on a Sunday morning when the yard was full “to bursting” with trailers and tractors.I know I used to do a bit of “tidying” up on one or two loads at times,if it wasn’t ■■■■■■■ down of course!!! Cheers Dennis.
This is a shot of a Cropper Seddon with a load of woodpulp on board covered with a FLY SHEET and roped over !!! Woodpulp bales are bound with wire and then strapped in 6’s or 8’s with Signode strapping so unless you went over the load with a “fine toothcomb” prior to sheeting you were lucky if you never got the odd wire poking through the sheets at some time in the journey.We never allowed the pulp we hauled at Bewick Transport to be covered with just a fly sheet (that would be a hanging offence),although the loads had to be fully covered with the main sheets to avoid any contamination from road spray ! Croppers always roped over their fly sheets and seemed to use them on loads of pulp as well,defeated the object IMHO !! Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Bewick:
Woodpulp traffic from more-or-less every major port in the UK was a staple and regular traffic to Bewick Transport over many years,in later years the daily load count could reach probably 25 to 30,sometimes more as we subbed quite a lot of loads to other hauliers.This is a shot of a 24 ton load of woodpulp in the depot at Milnthorpe which has most probably come down from the east of Scotland and will most likely be enroute to a Mill in Lancs/Cheshire/N. Wales or Cullompton.I was never happy with the this fancy method of sheeting at the front end if the load was not up to the headboard,but I couldn’t be everwhere ! IIRC I may have re-done the front end on this trailer as the shot was taken on a Sunday morning when the yard was full “to bursting” with trailers and tractors.I know I used to do a bit of “tidying” up on one or two loads at times,if it wasn’t ■■■■■■■ down of course!!! Cheers Dennis.This is a shot of a Cropper Seddon with a load of woodpulp on board covered with a FLY SHEET and roped over !!! Woodpulp bales are bound with wire and then strapped in 6’s or 8’s with Signode strapping so unless you went over the load with a “fine toothcomb” prior to sheeting you were lucky if you never got the odd wire poking through the sheets at some time in the journey.We never allowed the pulp we hauled at Bewick Transport to be covered with just a fly sheet (that would be a hanging offence),although the loads had to be fully covered with the main sheets to avoid any contamination from road spray ! Croppers always roped over their fly sheets and seemed to use them on loads of pulp as well,defeated the object IMHO !! Cheers Bewick.
I saw 1 of Croppers coming towards me early this morning from the east side of Bradford cant think where he had been