First truck Drive..

G'day 903, I think it was more a case of reflecting what the topic was all about. It's obviously a popular topic, so well done for kicking it off.

My first drive like many was on Grandad's farm chasing the hay bales into the loader, but the big excitement was graduating into big brother's Atkinson on the return leg of a trip to Ballarat. We changed seats on the move and he did all the gear changing I just steered. It was dark and raining, I couldn't see the road very well, so I just did exactly what I was told and hoped like hell I wasn't going to hit anything.

Gday all,

My first drive of a truck was when i was about 13 (not so long ago lol) in a TK Beddy. I remember my old man pulling the big girl up and getting out saying "your turn, charlie!" I managed to find a gear and we were away, all was well untill i put my foot on the brake and nearly launched dad through the windscreen (air over hydraulic brakes needed a soft touch i was soon to learn).
The first Semi i was let loose in was a Volvo F12 and short tipper used for carting sand.

Cheers,
Slim

A 1942 Chev Blitz in the highlands of New Guinea,where my old man and i were gold mining .I was about 12 and a bit, when he said one day "

Okay, but first off a bit of history.
Darwin, mid 1970's.
I had a good motorcycle licence but wanted to upgrade it to car. I rocked up for the drivers test with a friend in a rented Coaster bus 8-)but was told it was to big for a car test. :'( The inspector then kindly scratched out car and substituted truck . We drove the Coaster around for about 20 minutes and thats how I got my "C Class" . I was then licenced to drive anything on wheels . (This is why we now have proper graded licences methinks. :-X)
So, except for a short stint in 1979 with Thiess Brothers as a storeman in a 2.5t tipper parts chaser and a few weeks of school bus :odriveing for Keetleys, that was my driving history until about 2005.

My first real drive? Me, Adelaide, a 50+ year old work shy unemployed goof off and the jobshop guy sent me around to Bobs yard for a job. ("C Class" over the years had become an HR licence through administrative slide of hand).

Saturday morning, I rocked up to Bobs Yard dressed in my best job interview clothes (as you would) and there was Bob. Banging away (or was it a gas axe?) at some decrepit piece of transport equipment. (I was latter to learn that this is called fleet maintainance.)
He pointed me over to the Hino (see photo) and told me to take it out and see if I wanted to drive it.

Wanted? Crikey, I didn't know if i could! So off I went in this Monster Truck (all by myself) to see if I could pilot it around the district without crashing into anything. I came back after about 20 minutes and asked for another go. Bob looked up from the middle of his maintainance progamme and gave me the nod.

So, off I went for another half hour of "teaching myself to drive lessons". I came back and said something to the effect of yes I could and he said "good, ya start Monday".

And so began 2 1/2 years of life on the road. My first three months were an absolute terror of learning to drive and making all the mistakes a local taxi truck driver could make. Don't hit things, count the boxes, tie wobbly things down with the rope (even learned a real tuckies knot), get the signatures, don't drive over pointy things (again), keep you opinions to yourself when talking to HIS customers and to DO WHAT YOUR BLOODY TOLD.

He wasn't always a very nice man to work for (by modern standards) >:(and he didn't pay much :-[, but he gave me lots of hours . The money he didnt pay sort of made up for my otherwise free driveing lessons and eventually, I must have been making him enough money to cover his costs.

Eventually my daily stuff ups became weekly and then sometimes it wasn't even really my fault. He sacked me twice, but I suppose my trying not to make the same mistake twice made up for my underlying stupidity.

I learned a lot on that job. Both on the road and off the road stuff. I learned a few choice words that I still can't find in the Bible and a few of lifes simple concepts that still serve me well. It's made me a better road user and I now understand that roads are (or should be) for trucks and that maybe everybody else should just learn to stay out of the way?

Bob's dead now, :'(but some of his words and ideas live on. (Thanks Bob.)
-b

Bosboy, thats a great story. It's one thing to learn a new job when you are young and 'invincible', different trick altogether when you've been through enough of life to think you know all you need to. Well done.

1964 AT4 3 series with 313 saw tooth, still love the way they sound, then 1965 F350, got a couple of Dodges now and an F truck or two but if I can convince the boss I might be able get a KW with a GM and a trailer or two.

I'm glad I got mine when I did and the fact that I can actually tie a rope which is illegal now days. ooo the good days.
Robert[/quote]

I have been out of the industry for a few years and found this bit of info today.
So how do they tie things down these days?
load binders?

next thing you will be telling me that they don't use tarps anymore..........

My first truck experience was on our farm just outside of Allora.

I was about ten, and Dad was on one side of the farm with one of himself and two vehicles to drive back to the sheds, so I was given the admirable job of piloting the '42 Chev back to base.

All is going well, plodding along in top gear (I could double clutch up, but not down, so I'd have to slow her till almost a stall in fourth, then jam the clutch in to stop), I hit a bump and all of a sudden the old truck starts to howl like a banshee. Of course, I've promptly scared the living daylights out of myself, pulled the truck up as fast as I could and jumped out, with the old man right behind me. He jumped out in a hurry asking what was wrong, and through the fear of a solid boot in the backside for breaking the truck, I eventually I explained the noise that the old truck started to make.

Dad bends down, looks at the muffler half hanging off the exhaust, explains to me what just happened, fixed it, and off we went.

I've also got other fond memories from around the same age of toddling around in Dad's C18something butterbox and having to use two feet on the clutch, sit right forward to get it to the floor, two hands on the gearstick to pull the old girl into first, and from there an impressive balancing act to disengage the clutch and start steering.

I'm glad I got mine when I did and the fact that I can actually tie a rope which is illegal now days. ooo the good days.
Robert

I have been out of the industry for a few years and found this bit of info today.
So how do they tie things down these days?
load binders?[/quote]
dunno what they do but I still use ropes sometimes straps but not often to slow and dont hold as well as rope and chains with the lever type of dog not ratchet types never had no problems with any law enforcment type of people just lucky perhaps :-X