Tipper Driving

[windrush]

wirksworth rod:

Dan Punchard:
Yates ,Allsop ,mountains ,mellors,and more I can’t remember now all had drivers that stood up at wheel

did saterday work for trimmer pichmastick blocks from corder to nene barje p boro he hand balled them on i hand balled em of got back bout 11 o clock he sed next one loaded off you go 25 pound a load only wonted to drive his new volvo f7 go old days

Trimmer would have let you drive it for now’t if you had asked him nicely Rod, no need for you to take all that money from the poor chap then!

Pete.

[wirksworth_rod]

windrush:

wirksworth rod:

Dan Punchard:
Yates ,Allsop ,mountains ,mellors,and more I can’t remember now all had drivers that stood up at wheel

did saterday work for trimmer pichmastick blocks from corder to nene barje p boro he hand balled them on i hand balled em of got back bout 11 o clock he sed next one loaded off you go 25 pound a load only wonted to drive his new volvo f7 go old days

Trimmer would have let you drive it for now’t if you had asked him nicely Rod, no need for you to take all that money from the poor chap then!

Pete.

ha ha ha all that work just to go play in a new f7 give him his do pete he wood out work us yung un.s me and wad c brough moony his faverat word wes you virmin

[windrush]

Well Rod most of those hauliers could graft with the best. Billy Mountain was one never afraid of hard work, Bill Wood was another. If their driver’s did the same then all was well, no shirkers allowed at those places! They are long gone now and things have changed.

Pete.

[windrush]

Re-awakening this old thread as I mentioned on Bewicks about repairs done on the road to get you, and the gaffer, out of lumber and it started me thinking about the camaraderie that tipper drivers had, despite what other truckers think!

One example, I was driving a Foden six wheeler for a local two lorry firm and left Ballidon quarry with a load of tarmac bound for Church Broughton about twenty miles away. Another OD, Maurice Wheeldon, was following me but he was going further afield. Anyway as we approached Ashbourne Maurice said over the CB " I think I have a brake binding as I can smell it, I will sort it when I get to the job" and on we went chatting away. Across Darley Moor he reckoned the smell was getting worse, I couldn’t detect anything though so on we went. Dropping into Cubley Stoop at the old Howard Arms PH (where Roy Wood from The Move and Wizzard lives) my steering started wobbling violently, it was MY brake Maurice was smelling! I pulled into the long layby there and Maurice followed me in, my nearside front brake was red hot. Now, what to do? I had a few old bed spanners that were in the truck when I got it and I did have a wheelbrace. Maurice said; “Stevie Dunn (RIP Stevie mate) isn’t far behind, I will shout him on the CB as he has a jack” and Stevie arrived a few minutes later and left us his jack. He went, we jacked the axle up and the wheel bearing was totally knackered. I told Maurice to go, he couldn’t do anymore, but he insisted on staying. We managed to get the wheel and hub off, I phoned my gaffer who was in the area on his way back empty and he arrived. Still Maurice stayed until I insisted he went, several trucks had got in front of him already, and he grudgingly left. Eric (my gaffer) spotted Bob King, one of Dales Transport of Parwich’s drivers who had an all Foden fleet, heading back to the quarry and shouted Bob on the CB to call at their yard and bring some bearings, seal, linings and grease out to us and an hour or so later the parts arrived along with rag and hand cleaner. Everything was replaced and on I went, only one truck got in front of me in the queue so no loads lost!

Another time I was first in the queue tipping stone at the Coleshill end of the M6 toll road, several trucks behind me. Dozer driver arrives; “Tip yours over here driver, it’s a soft spot, I will watch you” and he watched me reverse and he watched the lorry sink!! Great, all those behind me he tipped elsewhere and then started levelling their loads, ignoring me. Then they all went, nothing they could do anyway. Then along comes Maurice Wheeldon (yes, him again!) and says did I want a pull. Well he tried but to no avail, I was stuck fast so I told him to go. “No way, I’m staying with you until you are free” he said. After half an hour the dozer driver came and pulled me out and I told Maurice to get gone while I cleaned the ■■■■ from the wheels. Again he stayed, and followed me all the way back incase any unseen damage had occoured.

So not all tipper drivers are the ‘scum of the highway’ portrayed in the press and in the so called ‘Professional’ section of this forum, there must still be some decent lads around and I was lucky enough to work with many in the past.

Pete.

[punchy_dan]

Was it a second hand wheel bearing ,did you have to get him one back

[rigsby]

It was a given in those far off days , if you were broken down and another of our drivers went past without stopping , gaffer would have sacked him on the spot . If it was a dropped valve or something else terminal at least we would get the driver back to the yard and the fitters could go out with the wrecker . Dave

[stanfield]

These lads didn’t stop for anything

[chris_webb]

rigsby:
It was a given in those far off days , if you were broken down and another of our drivers went past without stopping , gaffer would have sacked him on the spot . If it was a dropped valve or something else terminal at least we would get the driver back to the yard and the fitters could go out with the wrecker . Dave

Dave,I never drove a tipper in all my driving career in spite of being brought up int Peak District and later living in Sheffield.
There will be one or two Derbyshire tipper drivers who have used this road from Calver Sough to Sheffield via Froggatt Edge where I were brought up.Photo taken in 1947 about half mile below Grouse Inn at Longshaw.The bloke on the left in the photo is my Grandad.I’m owd enough to remember horse-drawn snow ploughs int Peak District…
The other photo is the old Calver bridge which has been clattered by somebody…not bound to be a tipper driver though. One of Hinchcliffes Albions going over.

[rigsby]

Chris Webb:

rigsby:
It was a given in those far off days , if you were broken down and another of our drivers went past without stopping , gaffer would have sacked him on the spot . If it was a dropped valve or something else terminal at least we would get the driver back to the yard and the fitters could go out with the wrecker . Dave

Dave,I never drove a tipper in all my driving career in spite of being brought up int Peak District and later living in Sheffield.
There will be one or two Derbyshire tipper drivers who have used this road from Calver Sough to Sheffield via Froggatt Edge where I were brought up.Photo taken in 1947 about half mile below Grouse Inn at Longshaw.The bloke on the left in the photo is my Grandad.I’m owd enough to remember horse-drawn snow ploughs int Peak District…
The other photo is the old Calver bridge which has been clattered by somebody…not bound to be a tipper driver though. One of Hinchcliffes Albions going over.

The one with grandad looks like topside of Rock Corner , I went up there every morning for over a year , winter and summer taking lime to Aldarke steel works for 6am . we always gave a shout on the cb in case anyone was coming up loaded, it was a bit tight there . Dave

[chris_webb]

rigsby:

Chris Webb:

rigsby:
It was a given in those far off days , if you were broken down and another of our drivers went past without stopping , gaffer would have sacked him on the spot . If it was a dropped valve or something else terminal at least we would get the driver back to the yard and the fitters could go out with the wrecker . Dave

Dave,I never drove a tipper in all my driving career in spite of being brought up int Peak District and later living in Sheffield.
There will be one or two Derbyshire tipper drivers who have used this road from Calver Sough to Sheffield via Froggatt Edge where I were brought up.Photo taken in 1947 about half mile below Grouse Inn at Longshaw.The bloke on the left in the photo is my Grandad.I’m owd enough to remember horse-drawn snow ploughs int Peak District…
The other photo is the old Calver bridge which has been clattered by somebody…not bound to be a tipper driver though. One of Hinchcliffes Albions going over.

The one with grandad looks like topside of Rock Corner , I went up there every morning for over a year , winter and summer taking lime to Aldarke steel works for 6am . we always gave a shout on the cb in case anyone was coming up loaded, it was a bit tight there . Dave

Aye you are spot on Dave,it was very tight. When I were a kid I used to help out at Grouse Inn at weekends and holidays when off school.I’d shove bike up Moorlands Lane,it was 1 in 4 in parts,and wait for a convenient tipper grinding up Froggatt Edge and hang ont back for a free but chokey ride,usually Hughes Brothers or Hinchcliffes.You couldn’t do that now,they fly up there.

[coomsey]

I were on scrap/coal in the 70s many flats of course n most drivers would pull up,even from other firms, whether they actually helped you was not so certain some stopped for moral support only. I always pulled up but some times I really didn’t want to especially if I was cutting it fine for closing time. I only had one breakdown, Foden overheated diff which time sorted, but did we not lean a shovel up the back wheel to let drivers know we were sorted?

[windrush]

Punchy Dan:
Was it a second hand wheel bearing ,did you have to get him one back

Didn’t Foden always supply them already well greased up then Dan? Joking apart it was handy running Fodens as parts were readily available and Stephen Dale usually held a good stock of the main items needed.

Going away from topic slightly another little tale regarding needing spare parts quickly, Dan will like this! When I worked for Eric and Frank Gough I usually prepared my own truck for the mot test and I had gone through it as much as possible but decided to have a last look around over the pit on the morning of test day. Lo and behold one of the steering lock stops was missing, a failure point for certain! I sent Frank over to Dales to get a stop out of a scrap axle while I tried to repair the threads in the stub axle which were damaged when the stop came out. Frank returned with a stop but no way would it fit, time was getting on so I sent him to Twiggs (a local steel stockist and engineering supplier) to get a metric thread tap. That sorted it but Frank kept muttering about it costing £18 and probably never needing it again (he wasn’t known for flashing cash around, he must have been in his late 70’s by this time and had built the firm up with Eric over many years but I loved working for him and Eric, his nephew) but I told him it had done the job and better that than a failure and retest. Anyway we ‘borrowed’ a load of stone from the now defunct Crich quarry and set off to Watnall Test Station near Nottingham and it passed. On the way back, after tipping the stone back at the quarry (“We didn’t expect to see THAT again” Kevin in the weighbridge said! ) Frank said “Call round at Twiggs and I will take the tap back” and I said Frank you can’t, its all swarfed up with grease, but the old lad was very persuasive! “Mr Gough, we are not a tool hire company you know” the chap at the counter said but Frank wouldn’t give in and they eventually took it back, grease and all! :lol Quite a character was Frank, one of the ‘old school’ but has been gone for a few years now though. He never went home until he knew I was OK and always made me a brew; “If you don’t take sugar then don’t stir it” and half way down the mug was a mountain of the stuff!

Pete.

[windrush]

rigsby:
It was a given in those far off days , if you were broken down and another of our drivers went past without stopping , gaffer would have sacked him on the spot . If it was a dropped valve or something else terminal at least we would get the driver back to the yard and the fitters could go out with the wrecker . Dave

Must admit Dave that there were one or two drivers I knew who, if you were laying injured in the road, would have to run over you if it was stopping them getting another load! They would apologise as they flattened you into the tarmac though!

Pete.

[punchy_dan]

I’d have just welded it in Pete

[windrush]

Punchy Dan:
I’d have just welded it in Pete

BODGER!!

Pete.

[jimbo47]

noticed loading sand on the beach…an old neighbour had worked for years for the company that hauled of Blackpool beach and the stories he told were eye openers,he also worked one of the companies quarries stockpiling ,just him and his wife all I can mind they ran reivers out of the quarries and large plant with no brakes in the sea. any pictures? He told me late one Saturday in the 60san urgent load of sand was needed, the holiday traffic was bad so brian went the back roads ,his eldest boy was with him …well a car was toddling along and brian says to the boy …“if he doesn’t geta move on ill push him out the way!!” well the old boy in the car makes a emergency stop for (what brian says was a bloody seagull) well the reiver stopped ok using the car as a brake …Brian gets out and his his eldest boy says wow dad you actually did it. Brian says he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

[scamm73]

L D GRIFFITHS LTD

[nyk473l]

Specially built trailer for the delivery of burnt sand for roof tiles for Marley. Had to load under a low hopper and tip in a high bin, hence the scow end.

[scamm73]

nyk473l:
Specially built trailer for the delivery of burnt sand for roof tiles for Marley. Had to load under a low hopper and tip in a high bin, hence the scow end.

Great pics is that the same trailer in both pics??

[scamm73]

LAVERS TRANSPORT LTD