Betty and Me!

As a lad I remember when my father was building our house I used to see many trucks carrying loads of Cement, Sand and stones and I often wondered how those huge heavy lorry’s used to work . Off course I was very young and small to even get into the Lorries since they were pretty high apart. This is where my fascination for Lorries began. 

One day while on my way to Samsung India software Operations I distinctly remember seeing a driving school and right outside the very same school was a huge truck. Seeing this, my sudden lost obsession for lorries just sprang out of me and I decided that I had to get my license to drive it.

I know it sounds like a very bad Idea, why would anyone want to have a license to Drive a truck? What do I do with it? But that fact that I was so eager to driven a beautiful monster just shadowed all the negative thoughts and I decided to enroll to the training..

The very same day I remember meeting a couple of my friends for dinner and I explained about my newly found lost hobby~ and yes right.. you guessed it! They too laughed at me J.

Let me tell you more about the truck I am driving. It’s a 1968 Tata Mercedes 312 Model Diesel Truck. These truck are pretty rare to find and one of the most difficult trucks to drive?

The First Tata Mercedes rolls out

You might often thing that if you know how to drive a car a truck seems the same and easier, But let me correct you.. it’s NOT. I being able to drive a car did not help me even a little bit when I got my hands on this beautiful beast.

Tata Motors (which was TELCO those days) collaborated with Daimler-Benz to manufacture trucks in India, and the first truck (shown in the pic) was rolled out within 6 months. The deal was for 15 years during which Tata could use Benz engine and had to put the Benz logo in front grill. It was popularly called the “Tata-Mercedes-Benz” truck (TMB) and was considered to be of superior quality by the industry.
I was pretty eager and nervous the first day. I was eager to get my hands on the wonderful beast and nervous because I was pretty scared for some obvious reasons.

è I am tall and ‘slightly’ on the heavier side so when I sit in the truck the steering wheel presses against my stomach J

è  The Accelerator , Brake and the clutch are at least 10 Inches apart from each other

è The Worst part it that is not power steering.

Let me emphasize more on what happens when a truck does not have power steering.

Every time you are trying to negotiate a turn it like you are turning a big valve when is already tightened and you are maxing the threads on it. It’s a very difficult feat. The first few times I had my trainer Mr Upendra who had to stand up and pull the steering from the other side. Yes it’s a two man effort to turn when there is no power steering.

As I was saying the truck I was driving is a Tata Merc 312 Model and was fondly named Betty by the trainer.

The best thing about a truck apart from driving it is to Start it. Starting Betty up to her full glory was in itself a monstrous task.

Betty and Me

It’s just not simple as starting a car. Betty being a diesel engine had to be pumped every time you start it. Which mean that every time you start it you have to open the front bonnet cover unscrews the pump and start pumping for around 5 Minutes. After the pumping is completed you have to press the heater button to increase the diesel temperature. Only after these two important procedures are complete you can proceed to press the button to start it. Also we have to make sure that when the start button is pushed the accelerator pedal must be to the full press so that diesel flow is even. After some time you see the beast come alive with a great big roar and lots of smoke. When this happens you feel a sense of accomplishment because just to start an Engine you have to go thru so much of procedures. 

The Reversing - Ignore the smile, Inside i'm crying~

My Trainer - Upendra to the right

Notice the Yenkay and Tata Mercedes Odometer

Well, next stage is the engaging of the Gear.. Trucks specially old ones have extremely haphazard gear system, They are very cunning.  The best part is that the gear rod could be so flimsy that if can go from one end of the truck to the other end and to engage it to gear you have to do this left to right and vice versa operation.  Below shows a schematic diagram of gears in a normal tata truck.

Load  1 – First Gear when there is Heavy Load

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Normal Forward Gears

R – Reverse Gear.

Line In-between shows the neutral axis.

Clutch System in a Truck(old type)

In Old truck to make sure that the gear falls in its right place we use a technique called the ‘Double Clutch’. This process is very important and makes sure that your engine and gear box are Synced well and engaged properly.

The Process involves the following procedure(Considering change from Gear 1 to Gear 2)

1: Engage gear one and make sure you move it the required RPM to change it to Gear 2, now Press the Clutch and get the Gear to Neutral and release the clutch. Now again press the clutch and engage it to second gear. This process is called the double clutch and is a good method to be employed while changing the gears.

 Well, in the end of my training the test from the RTO went well though i was a nervous wreck it worked out ok. I Passed the Test and it feels pretty nice to say that i am a Authorised Bus driver ;)

Here are some more Tata Mercedes I found off the internet.