With
only a couple of days before I leave for Algeria leading
a bike tour I've finally done a couple of hundred miles in
the lorry and in
a nutshell, it's easier to drive than it looks.
The whole
lorry deal can be daunting
if you've never done it before and every time I see it after
a while I've thought "cripes, I
can't drive that safely",
but then again we all thought the same about cars and bikes
once - only difference is we were young and carefree then!
Fact is, you just need to
remember it's no wider than any other bus or lorry, and about
as short as it gets, being only half-a-metre longer than
Matt's VX Tojo.
Before I left Matlock we
nipped
down to Anchor for a tarp and strung it up over the uncovered
back (mostly hidden by the tail lift), and then bolted a
couple of pegs to the tail lift platform to keep the steps
or sand plate/bike loading ramp in place. That tail lift
is going to be a real boon; I just hope it lasts as the greased
runners are exposed to dust and sand. At least if it packs
up we'll have enough of us to reload it by hand. The lift
platform has been locked out against the frame with a hinged
hasp for off-roading and is switched off in the cab to deter
messing about. In the cab is also a switch for a back floodlight
which has already proved useful for
unloading and reloading bikes until they all jammed
in with 3 inches to spare.
The auxiliary batts are new
and now running a 24-volt inverter and 4-way cig jobby with
a 12-volt dropper. Main batts are original but look OK.
The the 4-jerry rack on the fuel tank side now gives 220
litres or around 800kms. Most of what you can see
is now a shade of sandy 'blush' with matt black trimmings.
What's
all that smoke on the left? Surely the Pope isn't dead already?
No, we were just playing with the back heater and wondering
how it works other than on diesel and with a fan. A little
metre indicates it's clocked up 347 hours warming Danish
cockles over the years which makes me think the MAN has not
been as idle as it's speedo indicates.
Right now there is little
use for this heater apart from stopping the bikes catching
cold across France, but it will be handy to incorporate into
the camper body which may come later.
Driving
impressions
Coming down the M1 I kept a close count
of the vehicles I overtook topping out
at around 2: a 12-axle mega-crane being escorted by vans
with flashing lights; and a propane-powered roadsweeper that
must have got lost on the way to the tip. The MAN sat
steadily on 80 kph up all the grades and touched 90 when
I wasn't looking, but 80 seems fine. Engine is lovely and
smooth like any six, it didn't feel strained or crude or
wander the lanes and was altogether a pleasant surprise.
There are some great sound
effects besides the roar of the 5.7 being gunned:
there's a superb whistle in the middle gears as zillions
of cogs mesh about, and of course that squirrel-traumatising psssSHTTT as
the air tanks blow off every time you touch the brakes.
Steering
feels good even on those knobbly tyres. Suspension is like
any empty 4WD with the edge taken off by the suspension
seat. Cab noise is OK (Defender-ish levels - you can talk
OK although it's more rewarding if there's someone else in
the cab with you), and the cab heater could double up as
a mobile beef jerky factory. For a full-time 4WD there
virtually no drivetrain lash which
is a relief - must be the low mileage and chunky leaves.
Only the air brakes
take some getting used too - they lack the progressive feel
of hydraulics and the potentially destructive momentum of
the 4 or 5-ton brick is probably the most intimidating thing
about driving it at the moment. Although the brakes
are powerful enough to lock the tyres, all in all I'm quite
pleased it will only do 80-90 max.
Those Mich XL knobblies
are not as bad as the squishy 
and
slippery XSs they resemble. I did notice the overlanding
lorries at the Adventure Show last weekend all ran my sort
of tyres. I suppose the weight has a lot to do with it but
I would prefer normal XZY-type road tyres - and in the more
widely-used (in Africa) 14" size instead of the 12.5s
it runs now. Here, they cost hundreds of pounds each of course,
but I may be able to pick some up in Algeria. There is a
faint hope 14s may raise the gearing and so top speed a
notch, but it has to be said the gearing feels spot on right
now; you pull away in 2nd and reach the long range
of 5th asap.
All this heavyduty gearsticking,
ginger braking and clutch hauling, as well as the stress-of-the-new
and even just getting in and out of the thing is tiring of
course, so it's a relief Matt is coming with to Marseille
to share the load.
Have you ever noticed the
full array of mirrors lorries have? I thought it was just
my MAN but now I see they all have 3 or 4 on the offside
at varying angles and curvatures to see all sorts of angles,
from the white lane-indicating line right alongside the offside
front tyre (nifty in the extreme) to blind spots in all directions.
Very gratifying when things get tight.
In town the lack of speed
is not such a problem (in fact it isn't anywhere) but besides
all the rest, you also suddenly start paying attention to
bridge heights, other lorry mirrors, too far out lamp posts
and the like, as well as those red roadsigns with max permitted
lorry weights. Luckily the 8136 is a 'normal' 7.5 ton size
which gets into most streets while bringing with it a certain
'Moses parting the Red Sea' effect on traffic. All very nice
while it lasts. And when you get it wrong the shortness is
very handy and saves a lot of crushed walls.
And
here's some more breaking
MAN
news just in from the world of rally racing: they finally
got round to winning the Dakar Rally after many years of
Kamaz victories. As you can see on the right, Dutch lorry
bloke Stacey and chums - number 501 - also scooped up the
Considerate Truck Driver Award. It makes you proud.
Next: my impressions
of the MAN after 10,000km in the Sahara.
You
can read my saga of getting a number plate for the MAN right here.
