Recently in African trucks Category

Here's a bit of a 'rare beast'....it's from John Pugh who says: "Hi Brian, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park (in your back yard?) has a fleet of ex military 4x4 trucks, fitted out with seats, to operate their "African Experience" tours around the park. Most of them are British Bedford M-Types, but there are at least two of these French Renaults (at least that's what I presume they are - you can just see where the Renault badge used to be on the grille). I think there might be a Volvo in the fleet too." Now click through here for more...

Many of you have no doubt been wondering where Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' Jerry Burley has been lately. Well so have I...and he tells me he's been busier than a one-armed paper hanger in a thunderstorm...To prove it here's a picture he's just sent me of some of his trucks in action (or should that be 'inaction' as they're parked up). Alternatively he describes it thus:" Oshkosh meets slimline Tata tipper (one someone under it) meets Foden Multidrive meets Chinooks - the Mad Hatters teaparty! With a Bedford TM 6x6 plus telehandler on it just out of shot. We need to teach the Yanks a thing or two periodically!" And what they are all doing there I have absolutely no idea. You'll just have to wait for his next 'Only in Africa' communique!

This is from today in South Africa and when you need some really heavy hauling in the Southern Hemisphere then naturally you call for Dennis Child and his merry men from ROTRAN. Dennis says: " This is 4 x 1000hp 8x8's with a 317-ton transformer..."

"Push! Push!..." "Never mind me pushing - When are you lot going to start pulling?!" Yes Dennis Child, the man with the best toy set in the world has been out on the road in South Africa shifting heavy things with his ROTRAN babies again...

And here they are, three Tractomas 8x8s and tucked in the middle one of Dennis's venerable (and beautifully re-conditioned) 6x6 'Ultra Pacifics! Now click through for one more...

"Dear Editor of Biglorryblog," says Jeff Lee from the Shanghai Fulangjie company."I'm one of your fans for your fantastic blog and thanks for showing us so many big lorries with great stories and technology from around the world.I'm just back from Sudan last week after finishing a tough mission with 2x10lines of hydraulic-modular trailers which are produced by our group Tiandi Heavy Industries(THI)."

Jeff continues: "During this transport mission, the fleet had to pass through the coastal region of the Red Sea hills area - mainly desert (with lots of bad sand and rain storms!) and difficult off-road conditions. I've taken some pictures during my work and think this Africa heavy haulage story may be interesting for you." To which BLB replies yer darn tootin Jeff! great stuff. And click through here to see just how 'demanding' the conditions were... And how you can see more of Jeff''s pictures...

Big fish in a small pond? Well that's no way to talk about Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' who once again sends me one of his delightfully idiosyncratic stories from 'The Dark Contrinent' starting off with his usual nature notes first: "Thats an 84kg Nile Perch that's just caught Volrath - who weighs about the same but is at least 6" shorter than this 6ft chap. He won our Murchison tournament with this fish a couple of years back, though it's by no means the biggest to come out of the Nile here under non-Tournament conditions (120kg was caught just last week). Not bad for a fresh water fish in a relatively small river. There were a couple of crocs and a hippo not far away from where this shot was taken, but unfortunately they don't like Volrath...."

JB continues: "While toddling over town this morning to inspect this Harley to measure a crate up for it, for a mate to export (I am hoping I can get that '#&%$ Shenzi dog in the same crate too), I stumbled across this old girl again. I've seen it a few times around town but it always gets away from me in traffic or I don't have my camera...

"Well, it couldn't escape today as it was broken down on the side of the road and I had my camera....!" And click through here for more...

Admit it... You've been missing those madcap tales of mechanical mayhem from Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa'. Well chin-up old sausage, 'cos Jerry Burley is back with more unlikely stories of japes and scrapes from 'The Dark Continent'... And he says: "BLB, we are slowly recovering from another OB moment. You may remember he banished himself from the continent recently, following a small incident across a main road with a stuck CAT D400 artic dumper. Well, shudderingly, I can advise you that he's back. 'Smoke and mirrors' they say. A way to put a twist on an otherwise uncontroversial act, designed to deceive the mind. Well, OB broke the mirror before he could use it (by hitting a low-flying marabou stork, which seemed to survive the experience) but certainly made up for its loss with extra smoke... As you can see above..and will learn all about in a short while."

"More of that just now as we don our green wellies, grow our beards and take a walk on the wild side. Rather than show you yet more pix of animal/vehicle interactions, it's only right and proper we share with you some accurate and pertinent road warning signs to help avoid potential carnage with said fauna. This particular one above is very useful as it can be used in both northern and southern hemispheres, thus reducing the number of signs needed to be held in stock. Clever stuff." Now click through here for more of Smokey Jerry's tale...

I'm delighted to see that Bruce Elston has returned to Biglorryblog with more 'Out of Africa' tales. And it's linked to the current blogstream on Kaywhoppas. Bruce says: "Please Sir, They crop up in Africa too! Running from Dar-es-Salaam to Luanshya, Zambia about 1976.Bruce." And for a pie what's the model...

Lookin' at the world through a windshield... And which band had a hit with that song? And I wonder if that road is in such good condition now...? Now click through here for some local fauna and flora... So did you take the picture Bruce (I'm assuming it was you driving?).

Biglorryblog has been communicating with his 'Good man in Africa' Jerry Burley who tells me he's been out buying some new (well second hand) toys which he describes thus... "For instance this Foden 4380 Multidrive fuel tanker and a 5-tonne Kinglift RT forklift, a massive bit of kit for its rating in true milspec fashion, we've just picked up, seen here being loaded at Withams ready for export."

He goes on to say: "The Foden - this is our second unit - is an interesting vehicle. The rear bogie under the trailer is also 4x4 shaft driven (you can see the reduction hubs) by a long propshaft that exits from a PTO under the tractor 5^th wheel and runs under the chassis of the tanker. These are difficult things to get stuck [Oh I don't know Jerry... You guys seem to have no trouble in that area...! BLB]. The bogie is also fitted on its own turntable, with a big articulated linkage fitted between tractor and trailer, so when the tractor turns left, the trailer bogie turns to the right. Its turning circle is therefore half that of a conventional artic - it's a queer old thing to watch turning, as it looks all wrong. Which is probably why we've got it..." Now click through here for more...

In March Renault Trucks set out on an 18,600 mile journey from the North Cape in Norway to Cape Town, South Africa.
The Cape to Cape expedition would take the convoy of six Kerax trucks and six Sherpa 4x4s through no less than 17 countries. Conditions would be tough, including the harsh winter of northern Europe and the arid deserts of Africa.
During the 80 days it took to complete the journey, the self-contained convoy would consume 21,585 gallons of diesel, which to put into perspective, is enough to fly a fully-loaded Boeing 747 from London to New York. It would munch its way though 1200 croissants, drink 18 barrels of beer and consume 3800 litres of AdBlue. But for a pie, how many tyres do you think they got through? I'll give you a clue - they took 60 spares with them.

There will no doubt be some people who describe the Cape to Cape extravaganza as wasteful, but Renault Trucks argues that it had a very real purpose and was far more than just a PR exercise. Event organiser Pierre-Alain Brendel explains that one of the primary purposes of the event was to prove that AdBlue can be used in a variety of conditions, temperatures and altitudes - which it did in style. It was also the perfect chance to test the reliably of the new Sherpa 2 (France's answer to the Humvee, and definitely not to be confused with the British Leyland Sherpa!).
T&D joined the convoy on what were arguably the two most interesting legs. Photographer Tom Cunningham saw the deserts of Jordan and Syria, while I spent four days in the sand dunes of Namibia. Look out for our diary in the November issue of T&D (out early October). In the meantime, here's some photos from Namibia.  

THE ROUTE
From the North Cape the convoy headed south to Russia, where is passed through Moscow and St Petersburg. Next stop was the Ukraine, but only after a 36-hour wait at the border crossing. On its passage through Eastern Europe it travelled through Romania and Bulgaria, and then on to Turkey. The temperature began to climb as the convoy headed through Syria, Jordan, and then into Egypt. The original plan was to travel through Sudan, but the French government advised against it. Instead the trucks boarded a boat and floated down to Ethiopia on the Red Sea.
Next on the trail were Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, where it took in the Victoria Falls. Avoiding Zimbabwe it crossed into Botswana, Namibia and finally down to South Africa and Cape Town.

 
Click below for more Cape to Cape 

Here's one for all you old African hands and especially Jerry Burley. It's from Bruce Elston who e-mails me to say: "I've been dipping into BLB over the last few months and notice that you have some definite preferences within the subject of trucks. Prominent are:
'Vintage trucks', 'Recovery Vehicles', 'American trucks' and recently a bit on
the GM-Detroit Diesel's emergency stop device..." (Guilty as charged on all counts Bruce-BLB.) Anyway he goes: "In order to preserve your, no-doubt precious, band-width I'm attaching a one size fits all snap covering all four of those categories! Taken at Ndola, Zambia mid-1970's. First three topics are pretty obvious, as for the fourth, 'Sunshine' behind the
wheel had got himself into a bit of a pickle on a long down-hill stretch of gravel
road and had resorted to the big red button!! Anyway, after he finally came in
to land (it was only the banks on either side that had kept him roughly within
the vicinity of the road), he had somehow managed to work out how to re-set
the stop flap valve. So he set off once more on his merry way..for a while,
that is, until a paucity of lubricant in the workings slowed him down again
which is how I came to be involved!" And click through here for rest of Bruce's story and another shot of that African half-cab wrecker!

Hi hoy Nanny...away...! Yes we'll have more on that story in just a minute. It's Saturday, the sun has gone down in Uganda..and Biglorryblog's 'Good man in Africa' has a beer in his hand, his solar topee on his head and a keyboard in front of him so naturally he's e-mailed me more lurid tales from the Dark Continent featuring weird trucks, occasional goats...and the Jerry Burley formation construction project and heavy haulage dance team...

He takes up the story in his usual 'gather round chaps' style: "We were bimbling around in a Customs Bond yeserday having a look at an MAN "plant truck" with crane (I am fairly certain this was originally a long chassis, heavy haul tractor unit that someone has bodged an amateurish flat deck body onto)..."

....when with only a phone camera to hand - I seem to have got out of the habit of lugging the Nikon around - I bumped into a couple of other 'interesting' units."...

.

Parked up next to the LHD ex-Dutchland (as opposed to Deutschland) MAN was this Lloyd Maunder Seddon. Weren't/aren't this crowd based in the West Country of mud island? Well, their treasured, flagship tractor, pusher axle,si no use to us (and possibly last seen at a Sainsburys unloading bay in early 1997) has floated into Africa in a bottle and is now languishing in a storage yard looking for a 'good' home. Meanwhile, In the second from top photo you can clearly see that's Allard. Though what he's doing looking under the hood of that Land Cruiser I have no idea..."

JB adds: "And in the corner of the same yard was this interesting (to people who are interested of course, that is) Ashok Leyland 6x6 drilling rig. Looked brand new to me, though it was already sign-written in the name of its new owner. That afterthought-ish Leyland Comet (was it?) cab glued on top," [Actually I think you'll find that's a Cargo cab--BLB..but carry on]  

"It makes it look very high clearance, though on examination underneath it wasn't much different to any other quasi-military, all-wheel-drive chassis. Presumably a pre-ordered vehicle?  All fine except you need a cherry picker to be able to get into it."

"And that, says JB, "was our exciting morning spent in the bond. The glamour of it all, I tell you. And I got sunburned. Plus the bar was shut..." Never mind that click through here for an exciting new African fast food delivery service...

Now that's what you call a BIG load... More pictures from Dennis Child and his team at ROTRAN in South Africa under the e-mail heading of "SASOL LOADS" - this is the operation in which Dennis says: "ROTRAN has Tractomas D75 (709kW) 8x8 - four off in lead 235ton reactor 9m in diameter Nicolas 18 axle with spreader + Tractomas D75 8x8 at the rear. MAMMOET has MAN 48.700 x 4 in front reactor 419ton 9m in diameter Nicolas 24 file 6.3m wide module and MB 3850 at the rear."

Genlemen - start your engines! And click through here for the latest update on how things went...

Time for today's heavy hitter pitcture, and it's from Dennis Child, Biglorryblog's man  in South Africa. he tels me: "Recator 165ton x 30.9m x 5m SAPREF Durban." Which should be enough information for anyone...Nice old MAN doing al the hard work.

Fuel theft in Zambia is a major problem - and the average haulier loses 20% of his diesel. The problem stems from a mutual disrespect between the drivers (predominantly black) and the haulage bosses (mostly white or Asian). The drivers are treated as nothing more than a commodity, and in return the drivers see the diesel tank as a petty cash box. 'They dip into it whenever they need to eat or whenever they see a woman they want', explained one Zambian haulage boss.

When you drive along the main highways, every so often you see a fuel tank and a truck tyre by the roadside. This is a sign that there's a guy hiding in the bush nearby who wants to buy some illegal diesel. The truck driver pulls over, and within minutes 75 litres have been syphoned off.

But the drivers aren't always in on the scam - like the driver of this BP tanker. As soon as he pulled-up at the refinery to load, these two guys immediately started draining the dregs out of the empty tanker. This scene took place just yards away from a police road block.

And here are a few more waiting for the next tanker to arrive.

Yes it's time again for Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' to file his usual wacky tales from the Dark Continent... And he says: "Brian, the wildlife pix today come from our shy and retiring cousins across the continent in Nigeria, West Africa, and demonstrate how wild and vicious animals can become loving house pets, whilst still being used to extort cash from terrified passers-by."

Jerry adds: "This is a real 'OIA' - I think in UK you would be dressed up in one of those gimping, back-to-front white dinner jackets and sectioned for life for trying this. Take it from one who knows a hyena is not a lovely creature at the best of times (and one of these two clearly nips a bit too, as its heavily muzzled), but a baboon as a pet?! God, why would you? Have you ever seen, or smelled, what they leave behind at regular intervals? Different folks, different strokes..." Anyway click through here to find out the REAL reason why Jerry B has e-mailed me and it involves that popular 4x4 from Solihull...