Continuing the discussion from Saviem's fan club (Part 1) - #10000 by pv83.
Previous discussions:
Does anyone know a bit more about Karrier?
KARRIER, part of the Commer / Rootes group, made smaller commercials the likes of small dustcarts, 3 ton urban delivery type vehicles, small artics for parcel delivery that type of thing
1 Like
Thats an ugle looking thing…
1 Like
As said, Karrier became part of the Routes Group. The bonnet and front end arrangement on this lorry appear to be the Commer Superpoise. The half-cab arrangement suggests that Karrier adapted the Superpoise for the carriage of steel lengths. Just my guess.
ERF-NGC
2 Likes
@PV83 regarding your comments at the tag-end of Saviem part 1 about ‘inbetweeny’ tilts.
When I was still doing TIR-tilt work I developed my own language to describe the developing evolution of tilts towards the end of their use.
When the new 13.6m trailers came out in UK in 1990, 12m tilts that were still nearly new could be extended to 13.6m by adding an extra half bay. Indeed, I used one of these on Middle-East work.
13.6m tilts gradually gave way to Euro-liners, which were basically rigid-roofed curthain-siders with tilt-style side boards that could be TIR corded.
Long-haul versions of that, which could be GV60 certified for TIR work recognised in the M/E and Central Asia had tilt-style drop-sides. I invented by own name for these: ‘tilt-liners’. A more sophisticated version of these emerged on Middle-East work in the shape of tilt-liners with sliding roofs. I first encountered one of these when running down to Saudi with an Astran subbie (big Trev) who had one in Astran livery.
Then almost overnight, the tilts became victims of H&SE and disappeared. Personally, I’m one of those rare ex-drivers who really liked the old tilts. But hey-ho!
And yes, tilt-stripping was not always a joyful experience! This my equipage in Saudi over 20 yrs ago.
ERF-NGC
1 Like
What a wierd windscreen on that Bussing, Patrick, do you think it might have been developed to allow easy nose coupling to a drawbar? Just wondering. 
Regarding Karriers, my very first lorry was a Commer Karrier, January 1963, passed my car test in the morning and got set on in the afternoon by the Coop as a popman. 
Personally, I’m one of those rare ex-drivers who really liked the old tilts. But hey-ho!
You certainly were rare. At Micky White’s I rarely found one where the boards all fitted properly. And we had to do complete stripouts often as we carried containers inside, bound for Libya. Bearing in mind what happened later there, I’m only glad we didn’t go all the way. 
When I had my own tilt, it had been used on Middle-East and the owner-driver had thoughtfully colour-coded all the board ends and pillars. They all fitted nicely!
I occasionally used to have a pint with Micky when his daughter had a pub in Kent after he retired.
The first time I rebuilt a tilt was when I picked up a trailer stripped and loaded ready to go. I delivered the load then had to figure out how to put it together.
It was an old much battered step frame CTR trailer. Horrible, even if you know what you’re doing.
Mind you, a couple of days on Corsica waiting for a ferry? The sweat and effort was a fair price to pay.
Rental step-frames were the worst kind of tilts. Foden awful! (As Spardo would say )
Have I started something?
1 Like
Horrible things.
First time I came down the 1N21 out of Pamplona down to Irun I had one on. A good 24 tons of onions in the back.
Those little drum brakes, kept out of air flow by small twin wheels, were smoking well by the half way mark.
Yeah, I was warned about the hill, but I was young(ish) and didn`t quite realise…
Ah yes! That was a descent I always made on tippy-toe. You could always stop at that truckstop on the left near the bottom, where they sometimes served trout allegedly caught in the mountain streams behind the hotel, washed down with lots of vino collapso. Not too much though, because there was that awful wibbly-wobbly section further down by the river which narrowed up and had overhanging rocks on the upward side. They’ve pretty well re-landscaped the whole mountain now!
Here’s a pic I took when a landslide blocked the road where it ran by the river.
And an earlier pic I took near the top before the tunnel was opened
2 Likes
I was down that way in my 4x4 last year, messing about a bit, trying to drive the old sections. Some are cut off into short sections but some are still quite long. Took a bit of a turn off into the hills after that away from the road.
Planning on a proper Pyrenees trip later on this spring.
That first picture raised a few questions for me.
The ARMCo type barriers: I thought they were fairly modern things, but it seems they were invented in 1933. First used in France 1962/3. But when would they appeared in smaller roads like that?
They are there to protect drivers from the killer trees, of course.
There was a campaign at one time I believe a campaign to cut down many of the trees in allees? They were the cause of death of drivers crashing late on Friday or Saturday nights on their way home.