Thread: Police target truckies in Australia wide blitz

"plus cracks around the rivets,"

The better class of truck have high tensile bolts, Nyloc nuts, hardened washers in reamed holes. Cheap and nasty trucks have rivets.

Originally Posted by Eevo

A truck driver returned a positive drug test after two trucks crashed in the Adelaide Hills overnight.


Just after 4am, police were called to the South Eastern Freeway at St Ives after a prime mover crashed into the back of a b-double.


Both drivers were tested for drugs and alcohol, and the driver of the b-double tested positive to methamphetamine.

Sounds like it was the driver who WASN'T on drugs who ran up the arse of the other one ............ does that tell you anything ???

Originally Posted by BMKal

Sounds like it was the driver who WASN'T on drugs who ran up the arse of the other one ............ does that tell you anything ???

2 truckies doing the wrong thing, lets get both off the road

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

"plus cracks around the rivets,"

The better class of truck have high tensile bolts, Nyloc nuts, hardened washers in reamed holes. Cheap and nasty trucks have rivets.

Most of the old trucks came out rivetted... Rivets can be quite strong if applied correctly, but time and movement causes the issues and then bolted when split and remounted...

Bolted chassis's where mostly for convenience in the old trucks as rivveting was a slow expensive process...

Considering our technology now, bolts are a lot stronger than before...

The other thing to consider is the Chassis rails, they are a lot stronger and lighter too... My old R series Mack had more twists and turns in the chassis than most of the winding roads in the Sth West... But alas, she was built in 1970 and worked the Darwin run, on the dirt for a long time before I got her...

Originally Posted by Wraithe

Most of the old trucks came out rivetted... Rivets can be quite strong if applied correctly, but time and movement causes the issues and then bolted when split and remounted...

Bolted chassis's where mostly for convenience in the old trucks as rivveting was a slow expensive process...

Considering our technology now, bolts are a lot stronger than before...

The other thing to consider is the Chassis rails, they are a lot stronger and lighter too... My old R series Mack had more twists and turns in the chassis than most of the winding roads in the Sth West... But alas, she was built in 1970 and worked the Darwin run, on the dirt for a long time before I got her...

Cheap mass produced trucks and light duty trucks were and are riveted. They also punch the rivet holes. They don't drill and ream them. The USA custom builders (White, Western Star, Autocar, KW, Peterbilt, Freightliner, Brockway, Marmon, Oshkosh etc) have used HT bolts for at least 50 years to my sure knowledge. Also they all have been using heat treated high tensile rails of chrome moly manganese steel for ever. Dana make everybody's rails. The whole idea of using HT rails is that they are not only lighter but withstand a lot of flexing. Rigid bridge girder type chassis of low quality steel were favoured by the euro manufacturers until quite recent times. These do not like to flex and will crack and break. The days of triple channel rails with an outside flitch like Leyland Super Hippo and Albion Buffalo are long gone.

Edit - some of these makes were certainly using HT bolts and reamed holes in WW2. I have seen propaganda films of the period.

"R Model Mack"..Maxidyne or Themodyne, gold dog or silver dog?....I've sold a few of them,...absolutely a legend truck, still a market for them today.
Anyway, IMHO, "Truckies" these days are IMHO, amongst the best category of drivers on the road. I've never driven a truck, never owned one, but I've dealt with thousands of owner drivers ,.....hardest working people I've ever met.
I love my driving, love long drives/trips, & I tell you what, my issues ain't with truckies,...very rarely see any bad stuff from a truckie these days,.......can I say the same about car drivers,...NOPE,....I cannot,....unlike truckies, their driving standards/ABILITY are considerably worse, and getting even more WORSE.
Ya'll hear nothing against ya hard working truckie from me.
And as far as "blitzes" RWC roadside checks on trucks etc, it's been said many times, if ya want to be "picky" enough almost any car on the road could be knocked off for RWC issues.
Leave the truckies alone I say.
Pickles.

I agree. I rarely see a trucker doing anything that concerns me, but almost every day I see muppets in cars.

so i spoke to the local sarge tonight about your thoughts about easy targets cause you live interstate.
he didnt mince his words:
dont come into our state and break the law.

he also said this year truckies had been very good compared to previous years.