Back in June of last year I was idly surfing the pages of eBay whilst on one of the many conference calls I have with my colleagues in the USA when this caught my eye.
Was half looking for a C10 as had sold my previous toys a few years back due that strange thing called, life…
A call to the vendor and a number of photographs later a deal was done! Huzzah!
And that’s where that funny thing called life came around and knocked on my front door again, the week after the deal was done I was made redundant!
Luckily for me the gentlemen I had arranged to collect the truck and ship to the UK agreed to hold onto it until I decided what I wanted to do, sell in the USA or bring it back to the Motherland…
Fast forward a month or so and I was back in employment, looked like the truck was coming home, well that is right up until life decided that I needed another reminder of who was actually in charge of my destiny as my father was taken suddenly ill and had to have a fairly major operation! Thankfully he is a tough old boot and has made a full recovery so will be annoying my Mother for a fair few years yet.
So…. Approximately 6 months after purchasing the C10 I arrived at Southampton docs to be greeted by this:-
What is the old adage, expect the worse and hope for the best? Well on first acquaintance the old girl seems to be in a lot better nick than I could have hoped for!
And a long distance hitch hiker
I was quite specific in what I wanted from a truck. Original, unrestored, honest and it would appear that is what I have purchased.
And too show I was in a rather good mood, pictorial evidence of actual physical contact between the ‘evil middle child and I’…
After a quick walk around to check lights, tyres etc, moving a number of boxes that were shipped with the truck into my wife’s car to allow a little suspension travel, throwing 5 gallons of fresh juice into the tank and attaching my faithful jump leads a crank of the key failed in creating any vroom vroom from the engine… Sausages…
Off with the air cleaner and a little go juice down the carb and……
Success!!!!!
Well, sort of as it popped and banged, farted and banged some more until the engine pulled through the new fuel and settled down into a rather noisy tick over. Let the engine warm up, checked all the lights were working and hit the road for the 137mile journey home!
Now I had originally intended to have the truck collected and delivered to me in deepest darkest Essex but after getting a number of quotes I decided that, as it had been driving before it left California, I would collect it and drive home myself! Insured the truck on the chassis number and booked it into the MOT (annual roadworthiness test) for the afternoon.
For whatever reason, I was expecting the California plates to still be on the truck but, as you can see by the pictures, they were missing, so my journey started with me calling a friend to find out what the legal ramifications of driving a vehicle with no number plates on. Turns out that if you have a misrepresented or obscured number plate you will enjoy a £1000 fine and 3 points on your licence. However…if you have no number plate at all it is a £30 fixed penalty ticket and no points on your licence…
So, without further ado…I was off!
Stopped to throw a further 10 gallons of Shells finest in the tank ( yes I know the fuel cap is missing in earlier pictures, one of 2 things that didn’t make the trip)
All looked good on the gauges, if running a little cool, and with every passing mile the truck got happier and happier settling down into a 60mph cruise.
Having driven LHD cars in a RHD world for the best part of 35 years I don’t have a problem with motorways etc but due to ‘the box’ (more of which later) overtaking lorries on the journey home was…challenging… What do you think?
Traffic was very light on the M25 and we made good time but as I approached the Dartford crossing (a toll tunnel under/over the River Thames) I started to feel a little… uncomfortable…
Why, I hear you ask? Well let me tell you… I was sort of operating in that well know ‘grey area’ of legality on my drive home. Technically, you are not allowed to operate a vehicle on her Majesty’s Highway without an MOT.
However, you are allowed to drive a vehicle TOO an MOT station if the ticket has expired…remember me booking it in for its MOT earlier… Also, one of the headlamps had been smashed in transit and there was the small issue of the lack of number plates… So, after 107miles way was I now getting nervous?
To ease congestion at the Thames crossing automated barriers had been put in place, taking a picture of the driver and number plate and charging it against your registered account… So…what happens when you don’t have a number plate? I had visions of the barriers failing to open and the police arriving ‘En Mass’ escorting me off to a cold cell in Kent to be questioned about my ‘terrorist activities’… why, oh why had I not taken the other route home?
Remarkably, the new installation seemed to be doing its job as traffic was flowing freely as I approached the barrier…. Bugger, bugger. Bugger… only one car if front of me, already practicing what I was going to say to the constabulary…me next and……. The barriers opened and I was FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
HUZZAH!!!!!
Only another 30 miles to go, “what could possibly go wrong” thought I as the unmistakable ‘running out of petrol first surge’ occurred as I entered the one mile tunnel under the Thames…. Guess the fuel gauges is inaccurate then….
Thankfully I managed to get through the tunnel and over to the hard shoulder where I put a further 5 gallons of juice in the tank, looks as if the fuel consumption is slightly higher than I would have hoped…
With the end of the journey in sight my wife left me to collect the 2 younger children from my parents as I made the final leg of the trip alone… Which meant I could act like a hooligan without her telling me off!
Have to say that the old girl can show a clean pair of heals to the unsuspecting ‘Yoof’ of Essex… but more of that later!
Tired and happy I tucked the truck in it new home and retired to my siting room, still smiling and feeling very much as if all was right with the world….
First job is to get the truck MOT’d where I will pick up my tale again but, until then, here are a few, poor, poor pictures of what I have actually purchased.
So until next time….
P.
