Truck drivers and motorhomes

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TJ-RV

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Almost all the British class A motorhome owners or potential owners I've talked with drive (or have driven) large trucks for a living. Is there some connection? Do you need the same licence to drive a motorhome as you do to drive a truck or articulated lorry in the UK? Just curious.

TIA.
 
Hi Tom

Yes you do need a truck licence to drive any RV with a gross weight over 7500kgs in the UK infact I believe in the whole of Europe despite what some people say as there are some who are still driving big rigs on just a car licence! I'm sure that in the event of an accident the insurance company would use this to wriggle out of any claim.

Also from the age of 45 you need a medical every 5years and I think (not there yet) after 65 years old you need a medical every year.

Regards Pat
 
Tom
in the UK if you passed your driving test after 1997 your licence covers vehicles upto 3.5 tons ( category c) for over 3.5 tons upto 7.5 tons (cat c+1e) over 7.5 tons
you need to pass a test for lgv ( Heavey Goods Vehicle in old money)

Those truck drivers that own motorhomes just can't seem to get enough of traveling that being said it's totaly different from driving for a living no clock to watch no mobile phones to check if your running on time or where you are much more relaxed driving
 
Thanks Pat and Tony.

Driving an RV must be like a busman's holiday for a truck driver though, surely?

BTW do you still call them lorries, artics and juggernauts, or are you now Americanised and call them all trucks?
 
All of the above Tom
to the younger generation Trucks
Oh BTW you forgot wagons

I wonder where the word LORRY came from don't like that one

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Thanks Tony. They were called lorries when I was a kid, and the large ones were called big lorries. Or, as Max Boyce would say, "big, huge and Duw Duw". (Duw is the Welsh word for God.)

I didn't hear the abbreviated term 'artic' until a school buddy of mine quit his apprenticeship as a truck mechanic to drive them for a lot more money.

Just Googled and found this WiKi article.
 
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Tom good link
now i put everyone straight :thumb:
Incidently I had a Kenworth for a little while over here tractor unit fantastic sleeping quarters but **** driving position. couple of company's used Macks on middle east runs mid 70's to early 80 but i think the terrain was to much for them the unsprung cabs shook apart
American trucks never seemed to take off in the UK
 
This made my RV look like a Reliant Robin

My bus is next to it on the other side believe it or not



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There were some "Whites" here back in the early eighties they were light but brakes wern't too good! Friend of mine had to put one into the side of the Mont Blanc to stop it!

Trucks are also referred to as Artics, Units, Tractors, Rigids, Sheds, Outfits, Rigs, 2axel, 3 axle, twin steer, tag axle.

Trailers as: flats stepframes tilts tautliners curtainsiders lowloaders fridges reefers frigos boxes skellies psk's tippers tankers plus others

Regards Pat
 
White Road Commanders I think 1 and 2

No not many and the early ones didn't have an exhaust brake Whites said they didn't need one!!! Hence they replaced my friends truck and fitted an exhaust or "jake brake" to it.

They were very light though but I believe the back axles had those double nuts several were converted into 6X2s when 38ton came in by fitting volvo tag backends

I drove a Kenworth on a test drive god it was noisey had dentists mirrors and the steering though manual was so low geared took for ever lock to lock.

Ahhhh the good old days

Regards Pat
 
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Hi I didn't drive them, I fixed them, after the drivers wacked something. Been out of the game 19 years now, never missed all the grease and **** for a minute.

Did miss the laughs though, once I got the boy to go up in the cherry picker under a transtainer, then turned the motor off, filled a bucket with water, climbed up the ladder (I was young and fit then) walked out over the beam and emptied the bucket over his head. Magic, nearly fell of laughing. :BigGrin::BigGrin:

Olley

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Hey Tony

A proper Truck/Lorry/Atric

A 1988 Scania R143 6X4 double drive 450bhp 80 tonner old but still earning it's keep!!


Regards Pat
 

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winniebagotony said:
All of the above Tom
to the younger generation Trucks
Oh BTW you forgot wagons

I wonder where the word LORRY came from don't like that one
Click to expand...

Lorry & Drag doesn't sound right either

Then we had:

Chinese Sixes
Eight leggers.
Pantechicans

Never drove any of them, but as a young school lad I spent the school holidays with dad in his waggon and I could rope and sheet with the best knew all the best cafes and digs ( no sleepercabs in them days ).

Boy are the memories flooding back... Observers Book of British Road Services.
 
The memories of some trucks come flooding back. Changing gear on a Albion CD21 when you hit your funny bone on the back of the cab, or had to make a decision 1000 yds from traffic lights if you wanted to stop. The whine of a Foden 2 stroke in the distance, or backing off in a Thames Trader on a hill so that the vacuum wiper would clear some snow. :Sad:

David
 
Memories memories memories here are some!:RollEyes:

Trying to sleep in an old AEC Mercury 16ton flat 4 wheeler on 2 bits of ply each resting one end on the door window ledges the other on the engine bonnet in the middle, you had to be careful to lock both doors though coz if someone opened one of them you would slide out!!!:cry:

Worse still trying to sleep across the parcel shelf of an old TK Bedford, ( about 5' 6" wide when I'm 6'):Sad:

Also lighting a fire in a can under the sump to warm the oil so the engine would turn more quickly so as to start, aswell as holding a burning diesel soaked rag over the air intake to help start an old diesel engine (no preheat in them days!)

Changing the clutch on a Scania 110 in Milan in Italy (in about 1979) in a quiet back street using a block and tackle slung from a bridge to remove the gearbox! The Italians thought we were mad!!!

Ahh the good old days, still moading at the cost of deisel when it was around 50p a GALLON!!!

Regards Pat
 
Do's any one remember the Commer TS3. A 3 cyl ,6 piston ,supercharged 2 stroke.
A loverly quiet economical mill. The big problem with the ealy ones, you would stop, waiting for T lights to chasnge, the engine would miss a beat and start running backwards. 6 reverse gears and only 1 forward. Onthe very eary ones the superchargers were known to fill with engine oil and then start spraying oil strait into the inlet manefold. When this happed you could not not shut the mill down and it woud rev flat out till it blow up. Happy days.
Pudsey keith :Rofl1:

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This is a real truck (seen in florida)


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John,

You're going to give folks an inferiority complex posting photos like that.

FWIW they're called 'Tractor-trailers' here, sometimes '18 wheelers', and sometimes just 'big rigs'.

If/when you get out on the freeways, stop in at one of the truck stops and check out the big rigs. We usually fuel up the coach at truck stops - much easier access and faster pumps.
 
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pudseykeith said:
Do's any one remember the Commer TS3. A 3 cyl ,6 piston ,supercharged 2 stroke.
A loverly quiet economical mill. The big problem with the ealy ones, you would stop, waiting for T lights to chasnge, the engine would miss a beat and start running backwards. 6 reverse gears and only 1 forward. Onthe very eary ones the superchargers were known to fill with engine oil and then start spraying oil strait into the inlet manefold. When this happed you could not not shut the mill down and it woud rev flat out till it blow up. Happy days.
Pudsey keith :Rofl1:
Click to expand...

Pudsey Keith,

TS3 also had a nice sound to them, but never drove one. You could also make Fordson Major Tractors run backwards stalling on a hill with clouds of smoke from the Air Cleaner plus oil from the oil bath. Remember burning paper sacks to thaw outlet on Diesel tank and pipelines in icy conditions on wagons. Also sticking Wellies on exhaust pipe to warm them up.

David
 
TJ-RV said:
John,

You're going to give folks an inferiority complex posting photos like that.

FWIW they're called 'Tractor-trailers' here, sometimes '18 wheelers', and sometimes just 'big rigs'.

If/when you get out on the freeways, stop in at one of the truck stops and check out the big rigs. We usually fuel up the coach at truck stops - much easier access and faster pumps.
Click to expand...


Biggest downside to owning a petrol/gas RV here is the fuelling issue with station only having large diesel areas where petrol RVs has to use the car pumps:Doh::RollEyes:
 
That's the same issue for gas/petrol rigs here John. The truck islands only have diesel pumps, so I'm glad we have a diesel coach. Many of those car islands are tough to get into. OTOH when we get home from a trip, our nearest fuel station is the local Safeway. They're cheaper than any other stations near here and, since my wife shops there, we get an additional fuel discount of anywhere from $0.10 to $0.25/gallon. So, we wait for a quiet time of day and fill up the coach at Safeway ready for the next trip.

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My RV is in at present being converted to LPG (Liquid gas) which is about half the price of petrol but very few station stock it.

Will take me 2 years to get the benefit of the fitting though or 12000 miles whichever is first.
 
At least you'll feel better every time you fill up with LPG instead of petrol :BigGrin:
 
Hi Fellas
not long home from work and catching up on the posts
thought i would put a couple of pics on of my big rigs
the Scania 141 was the first truck i bought and the toughist couldn't kill it and would pull a house down
Ran it with a straight through 4inch exhaust no silencer it was music to hear
 

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Hi Tony. Impressive rigs. You obviously fill 'em up at the big boys pumps.
 
I did Tom in the past tense don't own trucks anymore
got fed up of chasing money due plenty of work getting paid was another story
had to collect one time with a lump hammer in my hand, not that i'm bad lad normaly .
now i drive for a company let someone else worry about the money
any way too old for the rough stuff these days :Laughing:

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