Real-life adventures

[tikay]

Have you ever had any real-life adventures? Real adventures, not a puncture on the M1.

Mention was made in another thread of a chap named William Binnie.

"Never heard of him".

Well probably not, he was a hydraulic engineer, who was involved in reservoir & dam construction & such like. Sounds pretty boring to most.

But deep down on his Wiki page, almost as a sidenote, this little story, all matter-of-fact, suddenly emerges.....



Binnie was known for his extensive travels to see projects first hand. In 1940, at the age of 72, he travelled to Hong Kong to advise on a dam and reservoir project. During his return flight to France on a French airliner, France was overrun by German forces and the pilot diverted to Algiers to disembark the passengers. Left without any means of transport in an unfamiliar country that was soon to become hostile, Binnie was forced to work for his passage home. He signed on as an assistant to a Chinese cook aboard a collier bound for Gibraltar whose Turkish crew had mutinied and left the ship shorthanded. He eventually returned safely to Britain where he saw out the rest of the Second World War.

There's a whole book right there. He was 72 at the time.

Has anyone here ever had a real-life adventure to match that?

Karabiner once half-told his tale of being loaded onto an aeroplane as a young man & sent to Canada solo, & from that, a whole adventure unfolded.

Would love to here some tales like that, or the Binnie tale.

[RED-DOG]

I've had several punctures on the M1.

[RED-DOG]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

[tikay]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

I guess we all have a few of those, but few of them involve getting shot or taken as a POW if it goes wrong.

[RED-DOG]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

I guess we all have a few of those, but few of them involve getting shot or taken as a POW if it goes wrong.

You obviously are not familiar with the South Yorkshire Constabulary.

[Mohican]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

Are they still on your wish list?

[RED-DOG]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

Are they still on your wish list?

Well I eventually got road tax, and I found a very interesting work-around for the HGV license.

The D710 Ford lorry had a 7.5 tonne gross laden weight, and so could be driven on an ordinary license, whereas the D910 had a gross weight of 9.5 tonnes and required a HGV license.

The D910 was a far superior truck to the D710 but the license requirements made it less popular so it was cheaper to buy.

So, a better truck for less money. It was a no brainer really.

After a few weeks of driving around with my heart racing and my butt cheeks clenched tightly together every time I saw a jam sandwich in my rear view mirror, I made an amazing discovery. If you removed the helper spring brackets from the rear axle and then took your truck to a testing station, they would re classify it as 7.5 tonne gross. What's more you could legally replace the brackets afterwards. So, no HGV license needed and your 'down rated' truck increased in value by about 50%.

PS- I am aware that that was probably the boring thing I've ever written.



My D910 circa 1985

Click to see full-size image.

[Graham C]

There's a mystery note down the back of a radiator in a railway station somewhere, I'm sure that will deliver.

[Mohican]

Try having a puncture on the M1 when you're driving a seriously overloaded D910 Ford lorry and road tax and a HGV license are just items on your wish list. That's an adventure.

Are they still on your wish list?

Well I eventually got road tax, and I found a very interesting work-around for the HGV license.

The D710 Ford lorry had a 7.5 tonne gross laden weight, and so could be driven on an ordinary license, whereas the D910 had a gross weight of 9.5 tonnes and required a HGV license.

The D910 was a far superior truck to the D710 but the license requirements made it less popular so it was cheaper to buy.

So, a better truck for less money. It was a no brainer really.

After a few weeks of driving around with my heart racing and my butt cheeks clenched tightly together every time I saw a jam sandwich in my rear view mirror, I made an amazing discovery. If you removed the helper spring brackets from the rear axle and then took your truck to a testing station, they would re classify it as 7.5 tonne gross. What's more you could legally replace the brackets afterwards. So, no HGV license needed and your 'down rated' truck increased in value by about 50%.

PS- I am aware that that was probably the boring thing I've ever written.



My D910 circa 1985

Click to see full-size image.

Like it. Made I chuckle this morning. Luckily for me, HM Forces paid for my licenses so I never had that problem.