seemingly for many drivers they have no idea whats going on around them and are "surprised" when they find something there.
So true, I’ve had a few incidents over the years where I’ve literally watched a car along side my trailer start to indicate, move over and then turn their head in surprise as they hear the bang of them driving into the side of the trailer! Unbelievable but it happens , I’d say at least once a day I’ll blast my horn to warn the guy who’s in my mirror view i.e. the majority of my rig is ahead of him and you’d think clearly visible yet the indicator comes on as they start moving into my lane.
Blinkered driver syndrome!
You said that the lorry is much better than it used to be... Do the trailers "get better" or develop over the years or are they pretty 'dumb' and just a long lump of metal with some wheels at the end? Like you say the handling is much improved etc do trailers get better?
Also how is it / lorries in general in the snow? I would have thought not great as so much tyre is in contact with the ground it would snow-plane?
The trailers have improved massively too over the years, I notice the difference because we’ve got a few old ones, circa 2003 so not ancient but old enough and a few 2018 built ones, the difference is striking.
Older ones tend to have early incarnations of ABS which won’t “talk” to the ABS computer in the tractor properly, the ABS still works but the brakes tend to snatch - especially when lightly loaded or empty - which gets tiresome, you can certainly feel a heavily loaded older trailer starting to get brake fade (many have drum brakes) on a hilly route.
The newer ones have ESP (Electronic stability), ABS, adjustable air suspension, disc brakes and are generally lighter in unladen weight, the electronics talk properly to the tractor and the whole combination is very much more stable, especially on bends.
As for snow, touch wood, I’m yet to get stuck out on the road, I remember one year waking up and being unable to get out of a lay-by near Inverness because a snow plough had been past during the night and blocked the exit with heaps of snow and in addition my trailer had become a large snow drift, went back to bed, the snowplough crew came back after rush hour and got me and the other trucks out by clearing the lay-by.
In terms of driving in snow, we just crack on, you still get your deliveries!
You just have to be extremely careful of jack-knifing especially on bends and under braking and the golden rule is don’t stop unless you have to, more often than not it’s car drivers blocking the road that hold you up rather than the truck itself, you can transfer more weight onto the drive axle to help with traction, we’ve got diff locks and a lot of gears to choose from which helps greatly.
My dad was a trucker and driver of ridiculously big plant, so ever since seeing his work vehicles I've always loved HGV cabins. Loads of buttons and things, like a spaceship!
Questions:
- Where's the CB radio and what's your handle? Having a truck without one just doesn't seem right!
- What extras do you have in the bunk? Do you still get a TV?
- Can I have a go in it?
Many larger ships have
emergency stopping distances of 2-3 miles, and the really big VLCCs require 5 days notice in writing!!
No CB these days alas, tbh, the last time I used a CB in a truck I found myself talking to I presume some saddo sat in his underpants in a bedroom somewhere! nothing truck related, no "Breaker 1-9" quite a dissapointment, I turned the thing off for the rest of my shift.
No T.V. but I carry a laptop (sourced , of course, from the MM here) which is full of films.
I'd love to let you have a try, you'd be surprised how easy to drive they are going forward, reversing - even after 14 years on Class 1 artics - still catches me out occasionally
The stopping distance depends a lot on what your carrying, if its something big and heavy, it can - in certain situations - be better to hit something rather than pull a full on stop and let said item come through the trailers bulkhead and crush you!
Lovely piece of kit.
My dad was a driver for many years and used to take me along whenever he could. Eventually he got his international CPC and turned to transport management. He ran a modest fleet of around 50 units and 150 trailers, but only Scania really got his juices flowing.
I remember him saying once "there's no such thing as a hill when you're driving a Scania".
Scania's have always "floated my boat" as it were, they just seem imo to have most things right, a Volvo FH has a better cab for space along with a DAF XF but from a driving perspective they imo have it nailed, they stop better, handle better and pull better but, along with Volvo, have reliability absolutely on the money, its ironic,German trucks just don't cut the mustard (wheras their cars are viewed as premium) - MAN (who like Scania are VW owned) trucks start to fall apart after a few hundred K, Mercedes do the same (albeit from new!
) the sweeds , Volvo & Scania don't yet you don't find a Volvo car viewed as "premium" and SAAB (once owners of Scania) are now defunct....
Hills are always good, I know I can usually pass another truck once we hit a bank as he'll slow but I won't - and thats with a 6 pot engine - as for the bigger engines they produce, theres a tagline "Your never late in a V8"
With no trailer weight and just the truck itself, what's performance like?
More than enough to beat Mr chav lad in his Corsa off the lights and upto the point where the limiter kicks in, the look of puzzlement never ceases to amuse.
Trailers do get better. The walls of our European Krone ones are made of some groovy honeycomb translucent polymer and our Cartwright ones are streamlined for fuel saving.
Indeed they do.
