Becoming a HGV driver?

[the-norseman]

Triple Six said:

Well done, it is a great feeling.

I was nervous as the tester approached, not as much as I was 15 years ago for car and bike tests but still nervous, but I felt a bit easier once we got the questions out of the way and within 5 minutes of driving I had eased more into a relaxed state of mind, Especially once we turned off short of the two troublesome bits of road near Luton, I looked at the clock and thought we need to start heading back to the test centre soon and were miles away from any of the other troublesome bits of road.

The other lad on test today with the same training school, went out about 40 seconds ahead of me so I could see him for most of the route, as he went the same route as well, he failed, drove along a bus lane.

[r3g]

Congrats on the pass Norseman, I was rude not to say. Now onto the REAL learning how to drive them with your first job .

[the-norseman]

I'm not gonna be doing it as a job, as I have a full time well paid job already it was more of a back up, I need to look into the WTD to see if I can slot some ad hoc work in alongside my full time role, it might be hard but I think there is a week in my 6 week roster where I might be able to do 2 days.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

My instructor/training school uses an XF. Morning of my test as we were leaving the yard to drive to the test centre the dashboard lights up like a control board of a power station. Slowly but surely as the air tanks filled up, the warnings disappeared.

A few miles from the test centre a headlamp bulb out warning comes up, and sure enough the bulb is gone. DVSA examiner wouldn't be impressed and certainly wouldn't allow the test to begin with a failed bulb so we pull over and after a few pursuasive thuds from the instructor's fist, the bulb comes back into life but will surely fail again on the test! The plan devised was to use sidelights only, and luckily it was a nice bright day.

At the other end of the scale, what are typically the most reliable / trouble free vehicles? Volvo? Mercedes? I've been driving all sorts so far with the agency work I've been doing since passing my test and not encountered any problems yet.

[Stussy]

r3g said:

I don't care how good the radio and bed is. If it comes with that God-awful ZF auto box it's staying in the yard and I'll take the knackered yard shunter FL10.

I totally agree, the gearbox is the deal breaker no question! Thankfully I only have to drive it for 2 hours on a Monday when taking it to get loaded for the night trunk

[Smint]

Koyaanisqatsi said:

At the other end of the scale, what are typically the most reliable / trouble free vehicles? Volvo? Mercedes? I've been driving all sorts so far with the agency work I've been doing since passing my test and not encountered any problems yet.

Reliable and driver proof? for trucks trhat are widely available here you struggle to beat Scania.
Where they win too is that most if not all their workshops are competent, fix the jobs that need fixing and perform some sensible preventative maintenance.

My lot had bad experiences with Volvos a few years ago, again the workshops not up to scratch, workshop failings have been the issue with all the other makes apart from Scanny.

[Glenn63]

Smint said:

Koyaanisqatsi said:

At the other end of the scale, what are typically the most reliable / trouble free vehicles? Volvo? Mercedes? I've been driving all sorts so far with the agency work I've been doing since passing my test and not encountered any problems yet.

Reliable and driver proof? for trucks trhat are widely available here you struggle to beat Scania.
Where they win too is that most if not all their workshops are competent, fix the jobs that need fixing and perform some sensible preventative maintenance.

My lot had bad experiences with Volvos a few years ago, again the workshops not up to scratch, workshop failings have been the issue with all the other makes apart from Scanny.

I would have agreed with Scania with the last gen trucks, we had 150ton heavy haulage units and they were pretty bulletproof. But my current job with the new gens have quite a few continuous issues there’s always 2/3 back at Scania at one time out of a fleet of 30-40ish.
A lot of issues with the gas engine systems or gas leaks maybe that will improve over time as I think the new gen is Scanias first gas engine from scratch.
When working though they are super quiet and comfortable and ergonomically everything is just where you’d expect it to be with solid feeling buttons and chunky door closures etc.
We have a few Iveco’s as well and they feel like a wheelie bin, feel super cheap, everything squeaks and rattles, touch a button and it falls into the dash

[WilliamWoollard]

Glenn63 said:

I would have agreed with Scania with the last gen trucks, we had 150ton heavy haulage units and they were pretty bulletproof. But my current job with the new gens have quite a few continuous issues there’s always 2/3 back at Scania at one time out of a fleet of 30-40ish.
A lot of issues with the gas engine systems or gas leaks maybe that will improve over time as I think the new gen is Scanias first gas engine from scratch.
When working though they are super quiet and comfortable and ergonomically everything is just where you’d expect it to be with solid feeling buttons and chunky door closures etc.
We have a few Iveco’s as well and they feel like a wheelie bin, feel super cheap, everything squeaks and rattles, touch a button and it falls into the dash

Iveco - I Vibrate Everything Comes Off

When did Scania do away with the stupid gearbox that needed the clutch to move off but was fully auto the rest of the time?

[Smint]

WilliamWoollard said:

Iveco - I Vibrate Everything Comes Off

When did Scania do away with the stupid gearbox that needed the clutch to move off but was fully auto the rest of the time?

Personally i liked the 3 pedal auto, still allowed the superior fine control of a manual for maneuvering, had a new one in 2006, by the time i switched jobs and started where i am now (2009 i think) all the Scanny boxes were 2 pedal.
Scania deserve credit, despite the earlier versions that could be lethargic and confused, all the auto boxes have responded wll to manual operation, which is just as well because on one of my regular runs there was a rapidly steepening hill, left in whichever auto mode the speed would drop faster than the box could keep up in auto, thankfully the box would block change in manual precisely which ensured no drama, it was something you had to practice, no good trying to perfect such things in the heat of the moment on a steep slippery hill.

Just out of interest, if you put the 3 pedal box in manuual mode but selected MH on the selector the gearchanges were noticeably faster than in either pure auto or normal M.

I know everyone hates Arstronic, understandable and Traxon isn't exactly a huge improvement, but there's no denying they are a robust long lived box, about the only issue i've found is around the 500k mark if you were on full weight operations the clutch release bearing was inclined to fail, if you notice clucth judder developing (most noticeable reversing up gentle inclines) then time to get the thing checked before it fails entirely, unlike with manual boxes you can't drive one of those with a locked on clutch...later Traxon boxes don't appear, so far, to have the same issues.

[r3g]

The 3 pedal still comes in the Scanias. 2x 21-plates at the place I last worked both had them, but you could ignore the pedal if you wanted and just drive it like a full auto. I believe they were spec'd with the pedal for independent clutch control when attempting to get up steep ice covered tracks on the farms.

[Stussy]

My favourite time of the week

[944 Man]

Are you broken down? Is it going Duh-nuh-nuh; duh-nuh-nuh; duh-nuh-nuh…?

[normalbloke]

Stussy said:

My favourite time of the week

I enjoyed driving an XG. Most comfortable truck I’ve driven in my limited experience. Only thing I didn’t like was the anti clockwise rev counter. Just wrong…

[Stussy]

I don’t care what direction the rev counter goes, I just want the dire gearbox ripping out!

[s p a c e m a n]

I still can't figure out how to work the night heater timer in a daf, I just want the thing to come on mon-fri for half an hour in the morning so that I don't have to keep de icing the windows

[r3g]

s p a c e m a n said:

I still can't figure out how to work the night heater timer in a daf, I just want the thing to come on mon-fri for half an hour in the morning so that I don't have to keep de icing the windows

Just open the door and chuck a lit match on the seat then go get yourself a coffee. This achieves 2 things :

1. your windows will quickly be de-iced
2. you won't have to drive a DAF anymore and your boss might buy you a Scania instead.

[Triple Six]

s p a c e m a n said:

I still can't figure out how to work the night heater timer in a daf, I just want the thing to come on mon-fri for half an hour in the morning so that I don't have to keep de icing the windows

There is a Youtube video that explains it, I think you can only do it with ignition on.

[The Wookie]

My mate who is a proper truckie hates Dafs with a passion but I must admit I didn't think the ones that I've driven were that bad. Yeah OK the constant faults and bonging are tedious and the Volvos and Scanias are much nicer to drive, but at least the Dafs are comfortable enough.

Worst I've driven was a 2017 Merc Actros. Horrible thing; rode like leaf sprung Land Rover with knackered dampers, awful seats and dead steering with no self centring. My back was caned after a few hours.

[r3g]

The Wookie said:

My mate who is a proper truckie hates Dafs with a passion but I must admit I didn't think the ones that I've driven were that bad. Yeah OK the constant faults and bonging are tedious and the Volvos and Scanias are much nicer to drive, but at least the Dafs are comfortable enough.

Worst I've driven was a 2017 Merc Actros. Horrible thing; rode like leaf sprung Land Rover with knackered dampers, awful seats and dead steering with no self centring. My back was caned after a few hours.

The 2 main things (imo) that decide whether you love or hate a truck are

1. the gearbox
2. the suspension

Even with economy maps, the quick changing auto boxes of the Scania, Volvo. Merc and Renault (Volvo drive train) still make for decent progress and won't leave you fearing for your life trying to pull out fully loaded onto a busy roundabout as you will in a DAF or Iveco.

As for suspension, if it's ex-supermarket or you just have a cheap boss then it'll have the cheapest crappiest Chinese steel leaf springs which will shake your teeth out every time you drive over anything larger than a small pebble. Air suspension all round means you waft over the ruts with little fanfare but it's an (expensive) option in the spec list and bosses that only care about the bottom line won't spec it.

[The Wookie]

r3g said:

1. the gearbox
2. the suspension

Even with economy maps, the quick changing auto boxes of the Scania, Volvo. Merc and Renault (Volvo drive train) still make for decent progress and won't leave you fearing for your life trying to pull out fully loaded onto a busy roundabout as you will in a DAF or Iveco.

Yeah I must admit I did my test in a CF and pulling out onto a busy roundabout was a lottery of...

1. Wait for 2 seconds then drop the clutch to proceed at walking pace for about 10 feet then take another 3 seconds to change into the next gear
2. Wait for 2 seconds then drop the clutch then hang onto the gear so your top speed was walking pace for about 50 feet until it banged into the next gear
3. Dump the clutch and kangaroo you into the roundabout then take 5 seconds to change into the next gear
4. Dump the clutch and kangaroo you into the roundabout then slam into the next gear with a bang
5. Any combination of the above

I suppose I'm spoilt the rest of the time as normally if I'm driving a truck then I'm only banging up and down motorways off hours, I don't often have to negotiate heavy traffic and RV has an Allison gearbox so it's just like driving a big automatic van.