Warning. Trucks not aviation

[jackc]

20 hours ago, turboplanner said:

I know Ron Finemore and his people well, so I initially put this down to road damage and driving it up onto some concrete. The general population and millenial "Managers" were all referring to driver's who'd never driven a truck coming out of third world countries. People have sent the video to NHVR, NSW Police have appealed for any photos, driver identity etc. I hadn't seen the video until now…….

 

 

I worked there in the middle ‘70s, drove the oldest of 104 trucks in the fleet, an AB184 Inter with a 160 Cummins in it.

Training? What was that? Care? What was that?  Stan, Ron’s father was a gentleman.  I sadly had some horror stories of that place.  Best days were crawling on the roads, loaded and as far away as possible from the yard 🙂 

[turboplanner]

1 hour ago, BrendAn said:

. . Spill it. making comments while saying you are with holding the whole story is annoying.  

What you said about Finemores is beyond annjoying, particularly the driver indiction process so the story can unfold by itself with Australia's own experts and movie editors.

[BrendAn]

19 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

What you said about Finemores is beyond annjoying, particularly the driver indiction process so the story can unfold by itself with Australia's own experts and movie editors.

You can fly in from India go and spend 2000 at a driving school and jump in a bdouble and head to Sydney or Brisbane a week later. It happens all the time. Remember when Linfox got caught out buying mc licences a few years back . The VicRoads person went to jail over it.

So yes there is no care. Just keep them wheels turning.

 

[jackc]

Sadly, some drivers are little better than steering wheel attendants.  But also there many who are very good at their work but are subject to all sorts of policies, company regulations etc.  A certain bus company has little pigeon hole mailboxes for each driver. at their depots,  Driver returns from trip to check his ‘mailbox’ to a pile of infringement notices……your Coach  idled here for more than 5 minutes, 3 notices. You were overspeed for more than 30 seconds, 3 notices with location. You were ‘off route’ in 4 places at these places (Camera does not take pics of roadworks detours etc’  Drivers camera?  27 times picking your nose?
I would walk into the bosse’s office, with my fist full of infringements an tell him to wipe his rearmost facing orifice with them, drop the Coach keys on his table and tell him I am a driver, not a robot.  Suggest you hire my replacement from the Robot Employment Service…..I am outta here 🙂 

[facthunter]

Then they may try to have you blacklisted. This is the  sort of thing that BIG companies do to ships Captains who won't go to SEA with unserviceable Emergency Power etc.   Nev

[onetrack]

Quote

I worked there in the middle ‘70s, drove the oldest of 104 trucks in the fleet, an AB184 Inter with a 160 Cummins in it.

That was nearly 50 years ago, things have changed a bit since then, and every single area, from road upgrades to truck handling, braking, power, speeds and comfort - right through to heavy vehicle legislation and regulations and driving hours, have been revisited and upgraded.

In the era you're reminiscing over, all trucks were limited to 80kmh maximum speed because most were outright dangerous over that speed. Truck drivers drove 24 hrs non-stop, and the truck accident levels were major.

By far the greatest advance since that era, was mandating an 8M highway seal width for all national highways. So many highways in that era were 6M width, or sometimes even less, with "one-and-half lane" highway seals meaning that oncoming vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder to pass, or overtaking meant both vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder.

In that era, road trains were non-existent, and were even completely banned, in all but the most remote regions - nowadays, we have roadtrains operating on city arterial routes and mixing it with cars.

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by onetrack

[jackc]

A company I drove for for a number of years in car carrying, the man who owned the place was a gentleman and a good friend, too.  His son took over the business and they got a short contract hauling military vehicles to Shoalwater Bay from Gladstone Port and back, for an exercise. I was given precise instructions to have a load of beach buggy machines delivered at 6am to Samual Hill camp. I gets to the boundary gates in time to do the delivery and they are locked……I wait, no diligent diggers turn up to let me in. So me being a professional steering wheel attendant, breaks out the rigs tool box and dismantles the gates off the steel fence, drives through the the fence, stops and reassemble the gates and on my way (just remember here I have broken into an Army facility)  On up to the camp to be greeted by a man in green.  I will call him Major Malfunction 🙂. He questions how I got in so I told him what I did to make ‘his’ delivery on time……..I was immediately shredded for my effort.  I said ‘son’ don’t ever set me a deadline and make it hard for me to deliver……because I WILL deliver, what ever it takes!!  On the way out, the Army Engineers are welding gate hinges reinforcing post etc.   I stop and one smarty pants say you won’t get in as easy next time……I say yes I will, bring an Oxy Set next trip. 🙂  I was fired as soon as I got to the Depot, no more job for me.

The young son was never a patch on his old man…..   

In my later years I never did quite fit with the Transport Industry and that is one reason many fleets are closing up and drivers giving the road away. They have all had enough and it’s very hard to find good replacements…….

[jackc]

7 minutes ago, onetrack said:

That was nearly 50 years ago, things have changed a bit since then, and every single area, from road upgrades to truck handling, braking, power, speeds and comfort - right through to heavy vehicle legislation and regulations and driving hours, have been revisited and upgraded.

In the era you're reminiscing over, all trucks were limited to 80kmh maximum speed because most were outright dangerous over that speed. Truck drivers drove 24 hrs non-stop, and the truck accident levels were major.

By far the greatest advance since that era, was mandating an 8M highway seal width for all national highways. So many highways in that era were 6M width, or sometimes even less, with "one-and-half lane" highway seals meaning that oncoming vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder to pass, or overtaking meant both vehicles had to drop onto the shoulder.

In that era, road trains were non-existent, and were even completely banned, in all but the most remote regions - nowadays, we have roadtrains operating on city arterial routes and mixing it with cars.

 

Those were the golden days for me, in the Military as an ECN367 Specialist Vehicle Operator on pay level 6.  NO log books, NO scales, No Cops. Nice big ‘Green’ Diamond REO rigs with Cummins NTC 335 power in ‘73 and ‘74 doing Melbourne to Northam near Perth with Explosives across the Nullarbor, some of it dirt.  My guard had his F1 sub machine gun. (damn it NO ammo) 

Best job I ever had 🙂   $17.90 a day travel allowance on top of Army pay.   Then Gough Whitlam stuffed the whole show 😞 

 

[facthunter]

You showed too much initiative.  Nev

[onetrack]

You were King of the Road with those old Diamond Reos in those days, especially with a massive 335HP, single trailer, and an Allison auto to boot!

I can remember them arriving brand new in early 1970, parked up at the warehouse just prior to allocation, in Moorebank Ave, just out of Liverpool, when I was stationed at the School of Military Engineering in Casula.

 

I owned a tandem tipper Perkins-powered 1968 "Butterbox" ACCO (DF1840 model) from 1972, an ex-council truck. She was good old rig, and I hauled 30,000 tonnes of sand with her, to backfill the Redross Nickel Mine just out of Widgiemooltha.

In between times, I hauled 13,000 tonnes of gold-bearing ore from my gold mine at Higginsville, to the Norseman State Battery (crusher), between 1972 and 1980 - about a third of that tonnage with the old ACCO.

 

However, I got sick of being blown away on the highway by the 450HP Cat 3408 (V8) powered "Mack-Munchers", the Kenworths of Cleveland Freight Lines, from about 1974 - and they pulled two trailers, and sat on 110kmh!

So I invested in a good used F-785 cabover Mack and a tandem semi-tipper, so I didn't hold up the Mack-Munchers any more than necessary on the highway!

 

The old Mack was a real mans truck, too - no power steering, a 237HP Maxidyne with a 6 speed overdrive gearbox, and enough torque to pull the back out of a locomotive!

The best part was when the authorities raised the open-road truck speed limit to 100kmh in 1976. The Mack did 100kmh, but I spent all my time watching for the lawmen, until they raised the truck speed limit!

 

The old Mack hauled my dozers around until I got a secondhand 500HP V8 Mack Valueliner with a new 100-tonne Drake widening float in 1993. Now, that was a nice rig! She could gross 132 tonnes, that weight sure made that V8 bark!

[facthunter]

I have no idea how you could steer them without Power steering.   Nev

[onetrack]

Nev - On straight ahead driving and average corners, the steering wasn't that heavy. It was when you pulled up on the road and had to do a 90° tight turn into a farmers paddock, through a 10 foot gate, that things got "interesting"!

I can recall many a time having to put a foot on the (steel) dashboard to assist with getting the old Mack onto full lock to get through those tight gates! Being a sleeper cab, made it even worse!

 

I put up with it until about 1978, when I had some spare coin and Malcolm Moore (the Mack agents) offered a new Sheppard Power Steering box special deal, which I grabbed!

We fitted the power steering box and pump (easy enough to do), and she was like a completely different truck!

 

Another thing I did, was cut the cab support cross-member under the cabin of the Mack, and installed two rubber vibration isolator pads out of a Pacific-Ace vibratory roller - to reduce the kickback to the cabin from the 55,000lb rear tandems!

 

This made the ride in the Mack cabin so much better, it was like a European truck! I had to mount the 8" square rubber pads at 45° in the cross-member, so they cleared the cabin floor.

Couldn't do it today, you'd need a major engineering report, signed off by a qualified transport engineer, and plated and recorded as a major modification to the vehicle! I believe my old Mack is still running around Qld somewhere.

[jackc]

I was based at 85Tpt Pl in Moorebank Ave with about 15 rigs,  Only 1 had the Road Ranger RTO 913 13sp gearbox. The rest had the Allison HT75 auto. Fruehoff  trailers. 

[turboplanner]

17 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Nev - On straight ahead driving and average corners, the steering wasn't that heavy. It was when you pulled up on the road and had to do a 90° tight turn into a farmers paddock, through a 10 foot gate, that things got "interesting"!

I can recall many a time having to put a foot on the (steel) dashboard to assist with getting the old Mack onto full lock to get through those tight gates! Being a sleeper cab, made it even worse!

 

I put up with it until about 1978, when I had some spare coin and Malcolm Moore (the Mack agents) offered a new Sheppard Power Steering box special deal, which I grabbed!

We fitted the power steering box and pump (easy enough to do), and she was like a completely different truck!

 

Another thing I did, was cut the cab support cross-member under the cabin of the Mack, and installed two rubber vibration isolator pads out of a Pacific-Ace vibratory roller - to reduce the kickback to the cabin from the 55,000lb rear tandems!

 

This made the ride in the Mack cabin so much better, it was like a European truck! I had to mount the 8" square rubber pads at 45° in the cross-member, so they cleared the cabin floor.

Couldn't do it today, you'd need a major engineering report, signed off by a qualified transport engineer, and plated and recorded as a major modification to the vehicle! I believe my old Mack is still running around Qld somewhere.

You can still do it, just need the signatory to check your caculations and sign it off, but they have more complication getting their credentials and its a hot potato at present;  I see a lot of messages signed  "Xxxxx Xxxxxxx"  P.E. for Pofessional Engineer.

[KRviator]

It's interesting to note the following commentary on Bigrigs.com.au

Quote

Finemores are conducting an investigation on the incident....It appears the super single tyre on the centre axle failed.....The driver identified that and due to the fact he wasn’t in a safe area to pull over also given the recent wet weather he was reluctant to move off the road, a decision I can understand, he decided to continue until he had good phone service and a safe stopping place....In the process of doing that he unfortunately had another tyre fail. The driver did also identify that. He contacted his operations staff and reported the issues...

Note that there's no mention of the third tyre, eh? Having three tyres fail in the 120km from Goondiwindi (Southbound) or 20km from Gurley (Northbound) is beyond unlucky - and I call bullshit. But that also implies there's no truck bays between Goondi & Moree, and I'm sure there's at least two from the last time I drove that section...But anyway speaking of luck, there's also this pearler

Quote

I feel, the driver has made a series of decisions that individually all make sense. His options are limited and he’s done what we’ve all done at one time or another, he’s pushed his luck. Unfortunately for him he hasn’t won. If he’d managed to get in with one blown tyre we wouldn’t even be talking about it.

You're in control of a what? 50-tonne B-double. You don't have the luxury of trusting in "luck" to operate safely. I'm privileged enough to operate some of the biggest trains on the planet but I don't rely on 'luck' to make sure I stop at a red signal or pull a coupler in half trying to lift the train from a standing start. I'm getting the brakes on early, or I'm mentally calculating the coupler forces based on traction HP & speed. I'm not relying on luck to do my job safely...🤬

 

Me getting lucky is making a smooth landing when there's someone watching...