I recognise your scenario in Spain! When speed-limiters came in, I soon learnt never to change down with a Twin-splitter until I was doing under 90kph, and if I was atop a hill I’d often do a full stick-change with double-declutch (stick back into same position but one or two splits down, ‘bunny-hop’ style) just to make damned sure it engaged. Happy days, eh! Robert
The Volvo Ishift uses the engine brake on up shifts when you’re climbing a hill and it decides you need a fast shift. I’ve sometimes used that technique with a 13/18spd, it works well on a split, but if a stick movement is needed too you have to be very quick to get back on the throttle gently as the shift goes through neutral or you lose too many revs.
I’ve just bought another motor, a Volvo again, but this one has a 13spd rather than ishift, I’m driving the new one and I’ve done pretty good so far, the odd little crunch here and there as I’ve been a bit slow, usually going from the second to third gear position, but on the whole I like it. I’m a big fan of the Ishift as it is faultless in its execution, but there’s something to be said for making a perfectly timed downshift with a Fuller box, especially from 5th low down to 3rd as you pull into a yard or onto the fuel pumps.
I agree with skipvitesse about those 12spd ZF boxes, I had one in a 2800 and another in a LHD 2032 Merc, awful bloody things, if the shift wasn’t absolutely spot on it played all kinds of tunes and you near enough had to come to a stop and start all over again as they didn’t like skip shifts one little bit, I’m not a fan of the ZF synchro boxes either, nasty notchy things, changing gear was like stirring a bucket of bolts with a broom handle and when they went to a hydraulic shift it felt like the stick was connected to the gearbox with elastic bands!
About the Best truck i ever had for lightning upshifts on hills,
(Quite possibly the only Fully Legal VNL770 in UK at the time? MOT, Tacho, 5th wheel, Lights etc, others that came later were run as ‘Exhibition Units’, No Tacho, No MOT, about nothing really)
A rarity this side of the pond though, a fuller 10 speed with AutoShift, a 10Sp crash box with super fast worm drive electric motors to change gear and a computer to hit clutch brake and Jake Brake (Either 2, 4 or 6 cyls on my Engine) to get revs down fast enough.
apparently Eaton-Fuller patented this box but was copied very quickly by Europeans, Law suits, courts, loads of money, and all was well.
I was dubious at first, one of the 1st Semi-Auto boxes available, you still had to press clutch to start off or come to a standstill, and the clutch was HEAVY, yanks never did get the hang of air assisted clutch, you needed thighs like a weight lifter.
Very similar to the early MAN Eaton box (same company)
My truck had a Detroit 470, sounded great but a bit gutless, not a patch on my DAF XF 480.
When i bought it it was 3 years old, and even with Shipping, Import Tax, Conversion to UK Laws etc it was still way cheaper than a same year FH, and came with dual AirCon, Full size Fridge Freezer, Table and Seats for 4,
Photo taken outside the ‘Joey Dunlop Centre’ Co Antrim after loading 6 cars for Switzerland,
Unloading at Basle Airport
Its first taste of cold weather, beside my Merc (the Albatros) 1758, horrid thing, Volvo spent its whole life in Texas, i ran it for years all over Europe and the back lanes of Ireland, its still around near to Waterford.
My last Full size truck before i gave it all up
A little off subject but I have to agree with you Skipvitesse, I’ve just come off of a 2014 VNL780 and returned to the UK, it was one of the best trucks I’ve ever driven, only the 475 D13 but with the Ishift box so easy to drive Texas to California and as anyone with experience of Los Angeles stop/start traffic will confirm, having an auto box made life so much better.
Back to the subject,
Middle East,
My FAVORITE sign,
Errected when new road, and border, opened,
'76 or '77 i’m not sure, but building was still going on,
A breath of fresh air to use tarmac from S.A to Jordan,
But still a scary place to get out of,
Watching news recently, what a scary place to be nowdays, and we did it without a thought■■?
A wee bit of history for sale,
Original Saudi number plate, circa 1977, in perfect condition,
I was supposed to hand it back, but got out with it,
Great to hang it on your wall,
About £3.50 to post, make an offer
I have just spent the last 3-4 hours rereading this thread from the beginning. What a brilliant collection of personal tales and experiences from an era of the British transport industry that has now gone forever. Some brilliant examples of tenacity, fortitude, true grit and sheer balls!! 
The ducking and diving, waiting days and weeks, getting yourself out of the brown stuff (and the mud!) thinking and acting on your own two feet, its all there.
A great snapshot of the “True Brit” pioneering spirit. Sadly, I believe that some of the contributors have already passed on but well done to all of you. Outstanding! 
bullitt:
I have just spent the last 3-4 hours rereading this thread from the beginning. What a brilliant collection of personal tales and experiences from an era of the British transport industry that has now gone forever. Some brilliant examples of tenacity, fortitude, true grit and sheer balls!!
A great snapshot of the “True Brit” pioneering spirit. Sadly, I believe that some of the contributors have already passed on but well done to all of you. Outstanding!
Amen to that! R
robert1952:
bullitt:
I have just spent the last 3-4 hours rereading this thread from the beginning. What a brilliant collection of personal tales and experiences from an era of the British transport industry that has now gone forever. Some brilliant examples of tenacity, fortitude, true grit and sheer balls!!
A great snapshot of the “True Brit” pioneering spirit. Sadly, I believe that some of the contributors have already passed on but well done to all of you. Outstanding!Amen to that! R
i’d like to echo what bullitt and Robert have said…,and add my tuppennyworth- this ‘simons’ thread has been one of .,if not THE very best one on
our forum.,for all the above reasons… Thanks to all the great contributors for making it so
dm61:
robert1952:
bullitt:
I have just spent the last 3-4 hours rereading this thread from the beginning. What a brilliant collection of personal tales and experiences from an era of the British transport industry that has now gone forever. Some brilliant examples of tenacity, fortitude, true grit and sheer balls!!
A great snapshot of the “True Brit” pioneering spirit. Sadly, I believe that some of the contributors have already passed on but well done to all of you. Outstanding!Amen to that! R
i’d like to echo what bullitt and Robert have said…,and add my tuppennyworth- this ‘simons’ thread has been one of .,if not THE very best one on
our forum.,for all the above reasons… Thanks to all the great contributors for making it so
A Time gone bye,
And so very few modern HGV Drivers will ever know ‘The Great Adventure’,
I read recently that Tahir is now a Crumbling Track, very rarely used and in poor repair, barely passable, Not the same road we had to endure in winter of the 70’s, now bypassed by a modern highway following the old ‘Military’ road we were forbidden to use, i struggled to find the Old Rd on Google Earth,
I have books,
I have Photo’s,
And, More Important, I have Memories,
My God, there are even roads now where back then we had to figure out what to do and where to go!
The ‘Drum Road’ from H4 across desert as an example,
How the heck could you explain the route to a driver nowdays?
One, i have forgotten where, but somewhere central Turkey, i was coming over a crest when i was confronted with a road that just ‘ended’ !!! skid marks evident on road, i could see town i was headed for about 40Kms ahead, but No Road! apparently in summer you drove across salt lake, albeit very slowly, but in winter, or in rain, you drove around edge of lake on a dirt track with fingers crossed
Yes, i was way off the beaten track, but my map said only way to get across central Turkey,
Sod Sat Nav’s, we relied on other drivers and out of date ESSO maps given away free,
Love to sit down and have a ‘Pint’ with a few of the drivers that are left, one day
M1/M6 in my day,
Hedgehogs? Rabbits? Try these buggers at 100KPH
New back then, but a welcome sight after getting through Customs, and always Empty!!! explain why it took a full day■■?
Final image to be put on my Headstone please,
It was a different world, but a good one,
Skip.
When you got it all wrong,
And a long long way from home,
Both guys fine,
In fact Austrian guy managed to drive unit all the way home!!
try that nowdays with VOSA about
Skip
Looking back now over 40 years, at the time it was really a great adventure, you did what you had to do to get to your destination, and then home again.
Whatever was thrown at you was just another challenge to overcome, nothing was going to stop you, it really was an endurance test we intended to win, by whatever means!
We did not think at the time we were doing anything special, just a slightly different way of trucking, and looking back I’d do it all again tomorrow, if the conditions were the same! But alas, we have changed and so have the situations.
We took on this sort of job when we were that much younger and dare I say foolhardy?
If you had never done the job and someone asked you to do it now at our age, would you? could you?
In those far off days you went out open minded until a problem faced you, then you just got on with it, today at our age you wold weigh up the risks beforehand and on balance maybe turn the opportunity down.
I am extremely proud and priveledged to have done the job and met so many great guys, many who are sadly no longer with us, but as long as there are some of us left to tell their tales, their memory lives on.
bestbooties:
Looking back now over 40 years, at the time it was really a great adventure, you did what you had to do to get to your destination, and then home again.
Whatever was thrown at you was just another challenge to overcome, nothing was going to stop you, it really was an endurance test we intended to win, by whatever means!
We did not think at the time we were doing anything special, just a slightly different way of trucking, and looking back I’d do it all again tomorrow, if the conditions were the same! But alas, we have changed and so have the situations.
We took on this sort of job when we were that much younger and dare I say foolhardy?
If you had never done the job and someone asked you to do it now at our age, would you? could you?
In those far off days you went out open minded until a problem faced you, then you just got on with it, today at our age you wold weigh up the risks beforehand and on balance maybe turn the opportunity down.
I am extremely proud and priveledged to have done the job and met so many great guys, many who are sadly no longer with us, but as long as there are some of us left to tell their tales, their memory lives on.
Absolutly
Ian, Excellent last post, very thought provoking, Could or would we still be able to do it? even if circumstances where the same. One thought though, If you could, what would be Your choice of truck to do the trip in…An old faithful or the modern plastic bling machine. We are older now but would still like to believe that I am still up to it and still capable, [wishful thinking maybe]. regards Tony.
Without the obvious problems in the m/east at the present and with a modern more comfortable truck I would certainly be tempted.
I spent three and a half hours doing a 30 minute job today- fitting a wooden carrier strip and a curtain rail - at my sister in law’s. ( Remember the old Mike Harding joke, ‘I was just saying to the wife’s sister in bed this morning, there’s too much happiness in the world today!’ Naw didn’t happen.)
If I’m knackered doing that (fitting the curtain rail that is) I’m not sure I could manage 3,000 miles over 14 countries in less than 2 weeks nowadays, even in a modern truck! But hey, at 29 years old, despite everything, it was the adventure of a lifetime.
More from brother Andy’s Flickr site. How many days did you waste and how much baksheesh did you pay getting this stamp?
I never travelled via Greece, but Andy did - one for Skip and Robert:
Greece - Syria ferry docking, Volos, Greece 07 March 1978
John
is there any body left who worked for Jeff? im 75 and left there in 1976,stroke and heart attack at the same time but survived just, nice to hear if any body are still around.
Hi,i think you will find there are a few of us the grim reaper hasn’t got around to yet.I worked there in 75 and at least half a dozen others are on here and FB.Maybe him upstairs doesn’t want us and downstairs is full up with polititians and the like.
hutpik:
Hi,i think you will find there are a few of us the grim reaper hasn’t got around to yet.I worked there in 75 and at least half a dozen others are on here and FB.Maybe him upstairs doesn’t want us and downstairs is full up with polititians and the like.
Nice to know there are a few of us still around down here on Earth, Bloke upstairs wanted all paperwork 100% signed and stamped,
Bloke downstairs just wanted Backsheesh,
So i am still here twiddling my thumbs and remembering the MAD times of the 70’s,
Would i do it now??
No Way,
Modern Roads,
Easy to drive trucks,
Not really an adventure,
BUT, back then, made you grow up FAST,
How many of us are still around?
skipvitesse:
My longest trip for Jeff, around 3 months door to door,
Pity i opted for Trip Money not wages,
Simple enough looking load,
A bit for Damascus, half a load for Amman, rest for Doha.
No probs,
This was when i used the Volos-Tartous ferry as often as i could to avoid Turkey,
But politics got in the way just before i got to Volos,
Syria would not let me in to unload in Damascus with a Jordanian load on board!! something kicked off between countries way after i left London,
A couple of days kicking my heels in beautiful downtown Volos (remember when you had to park a mile or so inside docks and walk for an hour or so back to Shipping Office in town?) it finally dawned on me i wasnt going anywhere, and back to UK was totally out of the question, paperwork got me trapped,
Communication to Simon office was a hit or miss affair back then, but comments were ‘see what you can do, thought you had been there, done that, and let us know’.
I knew a guy in a shipping office in Athens that had helped me when delivering to Greek Islands the year before, and he spoke excellent English,
So, off to Athens for a chat, after numerous phone calls he figured he could get me a Ferry to Cyprus and another one onto Beirut in the Lebanon,
He could arrange a local Lebanese Tonka to load Syrian stuff in Beirut and leave me to make my merry way into Jordan, apparently it was fine to ‘Transit’ Syria from the Lebenon (try making sense of that?) i had to drive through Damascus!!!
All he needed was ‘Money’, ferries are not free,
That took the best part of a week to get hold of Jeff and get money transferred,
He was quite happy i found a solution, and the cream on the cake was ferry was cheaper than Volos-Tartous,
All looked good until agent mentioned a Lebanese Visa, bugger
No way to get one in Greece for some reason, But i ‘Could’ get one in Cyprus, maybe,
So in at the deep end, destination unknown, got onto an almost deserted ferry in Pireus bound for Larnaca,
I thought i was going to Limassol■■?, Get off Ferry and park on docks, i was not allowed to drive in Cyprus,
Taxi up to Lefkosa and Lebanese Embassy, dead easy i thought, nobody mentioned the ‘Peace Line’ to me (Turkey/Greece, not best of friends)
Embassy closed when i arrived,
Shabby (Cheap) Hotel for night, On doorstep of Embassy at sparrowsfart, they opened door at 10, zillion papers to fill out, have photo taken, come back tomorrow (whats new?)
Next day, wait and wait, come back tomorrow FFS
3rd day hooray, VISA, worried about truck parked in dodgy docks, mad taxi back to docks and book on next ferry to Beirut, luckily next day.
I thought it odd that great big ferry had about 10 trucks onboard, 8 Tonka’s, a Frenchman and me, frog was tipping in Beirut and had been there many times.
From about 20 miles out i saw lots of smoke, must be a big fire somewhere, as we got closer the ‘Big Fire’ appeared to be most of the docks!!
Ferry Captain didnt mess about, straight upto dock wall with ramp halfway down, when close enough he just dropped it, no tying up or any nonsense, all 10 trucks off in 2 mins and he was away at a vast rate of knots,
Total devastation, not a building standing, Not a fire at all, it was a WAR, we were shuffled to corner and parked under curfew for 3 days, docks had been mortared only a few hours before we docked,
Being young and stupid i thought this was all very exciting,
On 4th day it was thought safe enough to let us wander out of docks, but be back by 6pm curfew,
Frog and i walked for hours amongst ruins, loads of guys with guns, everyone staring at us, they must have thought we must belong there, no trouble at all ( act innocent, look innocent and no one notices)
Try that today in Middle East, we wouldnt have lasted 2 mins,
Count the bullet holes, they were everywhere, what were they shooting at■■?
Frog looking quite relaxed, said it was a fantastic city before war, just like Nice & Monaco
Shot of Famous Hilton Hotel with Mortar Bomb or Tank shot, through 11th floor
Blown up Tank in Hilton car park entrance
This wasnt Disneyland, but i was wandering streets looking like a tramp, and got away with it,
Took a day or so to get Damascus load onto a Tonka, and i was ready to go, but low on fuel, guess what? virtually no diesel left in whole city, max you could buy was 50Ltrs,
I looked at map and figured Syrian border was no more than 50 miles away, till Tonka driver (spoke French) told me i needed Full tanks to reach border, Beirut surrounded by mountains, Tonka man pointed up at top of nearest mountain and said thats where road go’s, 10 Hrs minimum, about 10 miles away on map,
I scraped up about 400Ltrs from here there and everywhere and set off, sure enough it was 10hrs of low range hairpin after hairpin to top.
At top of range i came across loads of British Squaddies dug in both sides of road looking down on city, got a cuppa from them but no way could i have any diesel, what they were doing there is beyond me, very very covert methinks,
Rolled into the most shambolic customs i have ever seen, on fumes, park anywhere you want, no barriers, one bloke for each side if you could find them and their magic stamps, if only all ME borders were like this! Tonka Tanker parked on side of road more than happy to fill tanks for US Dollars.
2 or 3 hrs later into Damascus and back to reality,
A month and a bit and i hadnt yet reached my tip in Amman,
Just read one of my old posts,
Jeez that brings back memories, WTF was i doing? but back then it was just Make Do, and get job done,
Memory is fuzzy nowdays, but just how the heck did i do that without a mobile phone, no real contact with base, CMR/Trypiches all totally out of order, How did i organise ferry payment?
I have No recollection of how i got half the load off and onto a local Tonka in Beiruit docks,
And as to how i wandered around in a war zone like a stupid tourist and got back to truck in one piece is beyond me,
I just think you had to pull every stunt you could, and pull the wool over the eyes of anyone in a uniform whenever possible,
I still cannot explain just how i managed to get through totally different borders than i was supposed to do, but i know i did,
Wild West to say the least