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Well I had two assessment drives today to decide what place todo my class 2 with ,one local with j Coates at 07:00 and the other with PSTT in Mansfield 13:30.

J Coates is only up the road from my mums (pop in mums for breakfast after) so I get to there site 10 minutes early as it's on an industrial estate but couldn't find there office . Then two trucks pull up and park next to a very small sign with the Company logo on it !.
I walked up to the driver and introduced myself .

The drive in a 14ton Mercedes early this morning in darkness and fog was hard but fun ,it was harder than I thought if I'm honest due to the size and air brakes and real lack of any feel from the truck .
I thought it was me at fault as I drive a lot by feel just like the way you do on a bike .
The air seat didn't help either as it made me feel sea sick .
The instructor was a nice chap but I felt his directions late and lacking planning so every junction was rushed !.
Having nothing to compare his tuition or the truck to I walked away feeling a little overwhelmed and not looking forward to the next one after lunch .

I got to the next one half hour early just to see how they go about there Business (looked much better and professional lots of trucks and buses and a dedicated manoeuvre area.

I went into the office met the receptionist (young man !) he pointed me to the free vend coffee machine and took my license details and said the instructor I will be back in 10 minutes so I grabbed some Reading material leaflets about the business and training courses that I do.
The Instructor comes in introducing himself to me and we went outside to look around the Iveco Truck was much cleaner .
Anyway got in and went for a drive wow what a difference this Truck is much better than the Mercedes and great to drive .
Nice smooth seat action and nice smooth air brakes ,steering felt positive and everything felt connected .
The instruction came in early and fantastic drive and experience

Got one more assessment drive next Wednesday at data in Leicestershire driving a DAF and see how it goes .
It just go to show that shopping around and trying before you spend close to 2k really does pay because is no way I would pay to go back to the first place again no way.
Better to pay £30+ on tester drives than waste 2k on a crap school

Real excited now :-)

Well done Lloydie. I took delivery today of 3 x New 6x4 Rear steer RCV,s at £178k each. Dennis on Merc Chassis Fully Auto and Terberg Lifts. The best Trucks for the job. Who thought dustcarts were so technical eh!

27 more to come !!!

bigtwinthing wrote:Well done Lloydie. I took delivery today of 3 x New 6x4 Rear steer RCV,s at £178k each. Dennis on Merc Chassis Fully Auto and Terberg Lifts. The best Trucks for the job. Who thought dustcarts were so technical eh!

27 more to come !!!

I used to paint Dennis dustcarts :-)

thats probably why they were overweight all the time. The paint Runs were shocking on the old ones

Good luck with the LGV test.

Oi I have you know my paint never ran much lol
Thank you

What's cheered me up today is finally getting the tools I ordered now time to play

Whats cheered me up is starting to get bodywork gathered up here. and getting the yellow girl ready for the spring

lloydie wrote:Well I had two assessment drives today....Got one more assessment drive next Wednesday...Real excited now :-)

Superb. Yer getting closer each time, and I wish you the best of luck with everything. Sending good Mojo your way!

Looking forward to you trunking up North. Then I will know someone with a wagon that can deliver bikes to me at ''mates rates'' and on the QT!

Yeah, I can just see a bike jammed in between a million lettuces via TESCO. Just make sure you get a wagon with a fork lift on the back, or at minimum, a tail lift.

go Lloydie

Got a good deal from the PSTT place ! They knocked off £390 so I booked it :-)
Not till march tho .
I'll rearrange the other test drive for the week before I start this course just to get an hour in the driving seat ! :-)

It's about half way through winter, so to cheer myself up I had a sunbed session, to see if it would fix the SAD that I might have, possibly.

It didn't, really, so I came home and ordered a £700 Sigma slipper clutch for the Sp2. That cheered me up.

I could have saved the sunbed money, so now I'm depresssed again.

Still, less than a week before the license is back

tony.mon wrote:It's about half way through winter, so to cheer myself up I had a sunbed session, to see if it would fix the SAD that I might have, possibly.

It didn't, really, so I came home and ordered a £700 Sigma slipper clutch for the Sp2. That cheered me up.

I could have saved the sunbed money, so now I'm depresssed again.

Still, less than a week before the license is back

Wow Tony thats seems to have gone quick, has it for you though!, think of all the shite salt you've not had to wash off!

It's been quite painless, really.
A couple of months on the train as opposed to a couple of months in the rain..
I haven't missed defrosting my fingers under the hot air hand dryer at work after my one hour commute at all!
The 2 wouldn't have been out of the garage anyway and I've had the chance to strip the calipers off the 600 and let Jonesy have his way with them, so the brakes should work properly again.
If it's not raining next weekend I'll rebuild that. Might even throw a bucket of water over it.

License restarts on Thursday 2nd but I might as well finish up the monthly train ticket which is valid until the 8th Feb.
Unless the lazy and greedy feckers are on strike again, of course.

just woke up with the biggest hangover in years never ever again

fabiostar wrote:just woke up with the biggest hangover in years never ever again

I know two good cures for hangovers...

1...Don't feckin get rat arsed in the first place...

2... A cup of warm lard with a whelk in it...