As a rule I don't work weekends but at the moment the extra cash is handy, as is the chance to gain some experience on the lowloader. What's more they game me a machine driver to lend a hand so all I really need to do is get to and from the site.
I meet the driver at 0630 at the yard and collect the keys from the office, it's all loaded and ready to go and the very first movement is a reverse out of the yard. There's an awkwardly parked car but it's not really in the way and we're soon off and on our way down the A12 and on to the M25 Kent bound. We're loaded with a Hyundai 14 tonner, enough weight to make a difference and I'm getting caught out often with the splitter. Because my 6 wheeler has the same engine and gearbox set up I rarely bother with half splits as 420hp is more that adequate for me, however on the hills I find that I really need to be splitting the gears.
Next part of the learning curve comes at the toll booths, they're not all that wide. Although the 140 is only marginally wider than the trailer the chains and dogs make it a squeeze through the booth and I have to keep a close eye on the machines mirrors. A lesson to be learnt here is to fold the mirrors and also to use booth 1which is the designated wide load bay when pulling anything this wide.
After successfully getting through the tolls and the roadworks we leave the M25 at J4 and follow the A21 through to Bromley where we pull onto a residential area. There are some nice wide roads along here and it's once of these we need, they are doing pipeline work in the road and there are sections of the street fenced off. I reverse in a snake like fashion down the round to the compound where we are able to unload the 140.
With the other driver helping with chaining on and driving the machine there's not tons for me to do.
Once he's secured the machine in the compound we go back to the A21 and head around the corner to the main site compound to load up. There's a bit of a moment when the trailer is in danger of demolishing a keep left bollard after an awkward right turn, but a quick reverse shunt gets us past without incident.
I sort the wagon out whilst my co driver nips into the compound to grab the machine.
We're loading a wheeled excavator or duck as they are known, it's our little Atlas 13 tonner.Another new experience for me chaining these on, we've got 4 in total, all different sizes and make but they are too big to be moved on the 6 wheeler. Occasionally I move them in the yard but otherwise I don't have too much to do with them.
Once we're loaded up we have a quick look at the map to plot a route back to the A21, it's simple enough on paper but when we turn the corner we discover that it's a 20 mph zone, narrow, speed bumps and a bus route. And there's a bus coming the other way, I'm speechless when the bus pulls half on the pavement to allow me to pass. We're back at the A21 without further incident and this time need to make a left turn before the keep left bollard, there's no way it'll go round I'm sure so I keep right of the keep left bollard and get the unit across the pavement opposite to get round the island. All safe we head back to the M25 and through the tunnel into Essex.
It's out along the A13 to Pitsea, the site compound is by the railway station and it's impossibly small even with the 6 wheeler so we unload the machine in the station approach.
Outside the station entrance is a bus turning circle, and it's a handy place to spin around before leaving empty for a run back to the yard.
Back at the yard we have a 20 tonner to load on, so there's a bit more work to do, the outriggers are extended on the trailer and the ramps adjusted for the wider track of the machine. Once the machine is loaded we cannot get one of the ramps to return from it's wide position. Something is jamming it and after about 20 minutes of mssing about we finally get it back in position although it still grates at a certain point. Finally finished at 1130
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