Sliding in Ampthill

First of all I'd like to apologise for the photo's in this post as they're not really that interesting to look at. However, as you read on, you'll hopefully realise that I was a bit busy trying to stop a 44 tonne artic from jack knifing and/or crashing into a large skip full of waste metal, so taking photographs wasn't exactly my number 1 priority.

I had a 20' box for a customer in the Ampthill Business Park. On arrival, the customer told me that the delivery would be at their storage place, which was just around the corner; however, as they were digging up the road in the front, I'd have to go the back yard. He said he would show me the way and I was to follow him in his car. First mistake was following the customer blindly without checking the complete situation myself.

After a tricky manoeuvre through a car dealership car park and past several workshops with various types of vehicles abandoned out the front, we came to the entrance to the yard. it was pretty tight and I was just getting out of the cab to have a look when a chap on a forklift turned up and said for me to jump on and he'd show me where to position the lorry. As we ran down, with me hanging on to the side of the forklift like a man possessed, I saw that the yard was a mix between a scarp yard and builders yard. So lots of mud and old skips and things abandoned everywhere, however, there did appear to be a concrete surface that would take the weight. It was down a slight slope and then a sharp right back up the side of the units where the box would be tipped. Rather than drive up the last slope, the idea was to turn left at the bottom of the first slope and then reverse up the second. Ok, this is achievable. Second mistake was to shorten the trailer at this point, as the corners at the bottom of the yard were tight so I thought it'd be easier to turn and reverse.

After shortening the trailer, I trundled down the first slope and went to turn left. Except that the unit turned left but the trailer kept on going. I'd lost traction on the mud and the drive wheels on the tractor unit just spun up. 

Slippin' and slidin'

I came from the left of the picture, with the intention of turning left and then reversing back towards the camera position.

Lovely concrete

The idea was to reverse back up this slope with the back of the trailer roughly where the green forklift is.

Unfortunately none of this happened. I had to unhitch the unit after the first slide, bring it round and re-couple to try and reverse back up the first slope. It wasn't having any of it. Because I'd shortened the trailer, there was too much weight, which believe it or not, went against me in trying to get traction. Even the diff lock didn't work. Thankfully, the chap who gave me a lift on the forklift and his buddy, turned out to be the guys who owned the whole industrial estate and they'd been doing some work in that particular yard. They couldn't have been more helpful and understanding. As for the customer............. less said about him the better.

After about an hour, we managed to get the wagon towed out of the yard the way we'd come in, turned around and back up to come down the road at the front of the delivery unit.

More than enough room

As you can see, there was more than enough room to reverse into the front of the delivery unit in the first place. Also, the road digging on the left of the picture wasn't exactly huge. The corner of the green forklift from the previous picture can just be seen, so you get an idea of what we were trying to achieve.

Lesson learned were, don't always blindly follow your customer, they don't always know best. Check the ground before driving on it and don't shorten your trailer until the last minute.

Take care.