Anyone else got an old but faithful lorry?

slumdog

slumdog

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Is it just me who has the lorry that you're ashamed to be seen in at a show?
Betsy is a 1988 LT35, mechanically she's fantastic, flew through her MOT, drove from Devon to Leicester and has never let us down. Great floor, great ramp.

Unfortunately to look at she's certainly an ugly duckling! Someone's painted her with some kind of household paint which is now flaking off, so she's blue with red patches, she's also been driven into a post at some point so her front wing is bashed in. I keep promising her a new coat of paint but I've not got round to it yet!

So anyone else got a lorry that's a bit rough around the edges? I go to shows and look at all the nice new shiny lorry with envy!
 
Well I used to get a lift (very gratefully!) in a cattle truck with slightly patchy paint job, big cob got used to turning his head sideways so he could see out of the slats!! Turning up at big equestrian centres was funny but it was great and is still used regularly. I now have a old but still reasonably decent green daf but it does have a white line painted each side to show me where my back wheels are for turning so I still wouldn't say we are smart exactly but I love it (and he does have a proper window to see out of!). :)
 
I have a betsy too!!! She's amazing a 1986 lorry. She's great gets daughter out every weekend and to pony club and every other day in the holidays. I probably wouldn't go more than an hour and half away and she doesn't like hills very much.
I did paint her as she got very green before I had her I got paint from a car shop and it did an amazing job and only took me 2 afternoons!!
Best £750 I ever spent was on her!!
 
We bought a lorry last year to do up, she's certainly old but mechanically sound and was probably faithful once but at the moment she's stripped bare and is just a metal frame waiting to be painted.
 
We have an old 1986/7 3.5ton Iveco racemaster that has never let us down. Does PC camp, Byrds camps and local shows every week and have driven her the 200 miles to Keysoe for events without any problems. She became a removal lorry when we cleared out my father's house, has been the accommodation for camps and has been to collect hay. I wouldn't be without her, best money we ever spent.

In fact plating over the last 6 years has cost about 1/6th of the MOT costs for my Disco...
 
We just bought a little 3.5 tonne one called Matilda :D

I think she's a 1990 or thereabouts... previous owner hubby was a mechanic so mechanically sound. She has just come over from Ireland, after doing hardly anything for 7 months she went an hour to the port came over on the ferry and drove us 6 hours home..then started the next day! :P Doesn't like hills but hopefully will keep going strong for a while !
 
Elsie is a 1990 Leyland DAF Roadrunner. Cheap as chips to run, mechanically sound as a bell. Wooden body (that I transferred over from my even older Ford Cargo) painted by us.

The cab paintwork is awful but at £500 to repaint not worth doing imo.

If she dies I will buy a newer one but can't really see the point of spending £20k+ just for the sake of it.

People with flash lorries may turn their noses up at her; those without transport would love to have her ;)
 
When I sold my 1981 Merc 813, I assumed because she'd been stood for a year (I just wasn't using her) she'd have to be towed.

Started first turn of the key on a jump pack. :)
 
My much-loved Delilah d'Lorry was a 1978 Leyland Terrier bought to see if we could cope with a 7.5 tonner. She was cheaper to buy than a tow car or trailer (note that's not "and") with a year's tax and test. She looked appalling painted in red and blue Dulux gloss some 5 years before we bought her and she had no living but she'd had an Oakley style herringbone fitout with full H partitions on aluminium planked floor and was a very safe construction. She kept getting through her annual test so we kept running her, although I learnt far more about lorry engineering than I really wanted to know as she was so old that not many people wanted to work on her, so we had to source the parts (not easy!) and do it ourselves. I finally sold her after having her for three and a half years after she dumped me, my daughter and the horse in -4 one day. We were within riding distance of home so my daughter rode the horse back and I froze my bits off waiting for a tow. It was the fourth time in five journeys she'd dumped me! I sold her for what she cost me, and kept back the useful bits, which I either used elsewhere or sold and I reckon that made or saved me as much again - there was a nearly new cassette loo, five saddle racks, enough rubber matting to do a whole stable, a fairly fancy inverter and some other kit that had been left in her by the people we bought her from.


Disturbingly, my "new" lorry is only a couple of years newer than some mentioned here as old!
 
Dolly - 1990 Daf, red paint is flaking off to reveal silver underneath, door locks a bit flakey and sometime have to open the passenger door by opening the window and using the handle, gap between the cab and the body where cold air comes in the cut thru, heating doesn't work anyway ....

but starts every time, even when left in the snow for a month so we are halfway to an event where other people are waiting for jump leads for their smart new lorries. Goes through MOT with minimal work and before they changed the rules again in january emissions were good enough to get us in the LEZ.
 
I sold my lovely 2000 reg as I wasnt using it as much as I should and it was a lot of money stood doing not a lot and bought a 1989 Merc 813. Hes not pretty, could do with a respray, has took some getting used to driving, doesnt like hills but Im getting to quite like him :D I dont worry about him getting scratched etc like I used to with my other one, we are yet to get through our first plate :eek: and Im hoping he proves as faithful as those already mentioned :)
 
My 1994 transit has just failed its MOT, :(, Too expensive to do up so I am having the box moved on to a LDV, a 1998 model, :). Can not wait to have my lorry back, my horse thinks he has retired, should be done by the end of the week!!
 
I've just scrapped a 1971 Bedford TK - it was amazing although had been off the road for the passed 2 years. I took it up and down to Devon, and over to Jersey on the ferry and she never let me down, although I had a hairy moment once when the brakes failed. Even after 2 years of non running the engine started up first go with a new battery - and it got £650 from the scrappy! Hoping my new X reg Iveco will be as reliable...
 
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