Iveco's 'Nick of the Santon' has sent me this shot of yours truly and Mr Cholmondley-Warner merrily wending our way up to MIRA on the A5 for the start of the Commercial Motor roadtest of the Stralis 450 AT tractor (and that's our CM/SDC/Hill Hire test trailer on the back) "For the anorak army to prove you really can drive and are on the road...." says Nick...
Tight turning into the MIRA fuelling area by the control tower we hear a loud clunk from behind the cab. Oh oh....something's fouled the front of the trailer....but what? Lead-up ramps? Side deflector ? Landing legs? None of the above--in fact the nearside corner of the trailer had clipped the JPS fuel meter (used to determine the fuel used on each of our test route stages - which is then cross-matched with the final tank-top-to-tank-top figure) fitted by Mr C-W behind the cab and up until that point (and that particular tight turn) it had easily cleared the front bulkhead! Still no harm done and Nick and Mr C-W quickly opened the sliding fifth-wheel up a notch and all was well--and we still had a nice tight cab gap too. Funny how it only touched on that particular turn...and nowhere else. Anyroadup click through here for more....
And here we are at the end of the day at Gretna all parked up safe and sound although the weather wasn't exactly brilliant as you can see from these flags...they should be hanging limp for CM tests.
This was the cross-wind we had to put up with...fortunately Mr Cholmondley-Warner was his usual sanguine self (it I'd have beeen with 'Mr Grumpy' I'd have never have heard the last of it!) But then to quote the great Mr C-W: "With luck this will be blowing up our a**e all the way home!" Well quite....
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