Vladislav

Hippy, to me it seems like those triangles are just one kind of reflectors. Overall Iranians like to add multiple different items on their trucks. And also looks the regulations aren't hard on that. I saw purple tail lights in the traffic, saw them blinking/flashing when brakes are applied, saw red/green/blue marker lights at the front side of a vehicle. So looks those triangles just ocassioned handy when the guy was furbishing his truck. Another interesting detail is head light sorrounding plates. They are custom/home made of stainless steel. But the ribs are made by hitting a chiesel or other specially shaped tool. Actually the same approach old Eastern cooper plates and pans were made. And right now I noted the mirrors have Huskies not Bulldogs attached. Wonder were there original Brockway mirrors of that style? Or just one more custom trick? Hope your wife will enjoy reading. Maybe after she's done with that she would be able to explain to me what I actually were doing there?? 😀😀

Ok, further we go. Saw very well cared Iran-Kaveh R-model at a gas station.

Same city, Shiras. A mausoleum of some holy person of Islamic religion. Actually there were two of them in neighbouring buildings. They are actually mosques too. The interior is covered by millions of pieces of mirror which were cut into a certain shape (triangle, square) and fitted by certain angles. The amount of job is unbelivable. And the look is out of any comments.

Not sure on the wine Paul. There's interesting point about alcohol in Iran BTW. Officially alcohol is prohibited in the country. You can not buy it in a food store or order in a restaurant. And when you enter the country custom officers ask you on any alcohol being imported what is out of law. At the same time I was offered to drink by locals many times. And had to use my excuse being by bike. As I was told people make home made wine, usually of grapes, and some distillate hard drinks too.

Went to a city of Shiraz from Bushehr. That was also a capital of Persia at a certain time. The center is very historical with ancient citadelle. Unfortunately saw no Mack trucks on the way.

Every 5 years plenty of people come to Normandy for selebration. Mostly WW2 enthusiasts and sure the veterans. I doubt many if any participate the event this year though. I saw a few 5 years ago but they were very old people already.

Worth to poing out I only saw one Mack truck in that area. I mean I drove 300km from Isfahan to Bushehr and than 300 more from Bushehr to Shiras. And saw NO Mack trucks both ways. This red R-model was seen parked in the street in Bushehr. And that was the only Mack I saw in three days.

Reached Bushehr in the night, load myself down in a hotel and took the next day "off". Rest luggage in the hotel and drove the bike over the city and than to some park area aside of it, nearly 10km off. There was a nice place for public rest with a beach, walk paths, benches, trees, grass etc. Nearly 1km long along the sea coast. And with about no people there. I took my clothes off and went to the sea. The air temp was nearly 37-38 Celsias and the water I guess was 30-32C. Like milk right from a cow as we call that. Swam in the sea for about half an hour before a couple other people showed up in a hundred steps from me. Saw some remarkable monument on a ring in the city. Those figures were definitely firefighters. The square was named by them too. And I also found a fire station right over the street. But it didn't look interesting. Just a pick up truck painted red parked in a garage.

My way from Isfahan was laid to Persian gulf. I didn't go to Bandar-Abbas where you can take a ferry to Dubai or visit isle of Keshm. That was too far to South which meant hot. So I drove to a city of Bushehr. It's also on the gulf coast but nearly 500 km Norther. And nearly 700km less to drive. Large portion of the road was serpantine with very steep turns and elevations. Two lanes for the most of the rocky stretch. I stopped a couple of times at view points and the scenaries were amazing. In the evening the environment looked like a moon surface. Bad thing I had to cruise a good lot of km of that serpantine in the dark. And local driving style is absolutely crazy. It turned out Ok though. Saw the MH and RD concrete mixer. MH was 633 with Cummins engine and Reyco rear suspension. The mixer unit looked more like Russian made off a KamAZ truck. I saw many KamAZ in Iran too.

Good! That's not a part you see for sale every day.

Your welcome Tom! All these pics were taken with a phone. Chinese Xiaomi I bought a year or so back. Actually the cheapest one I could find regarding my requirements. They were simple though - two SIM slots and removable memory card. It cost me $200 - something I belive. I still have my camera on this trip but use it very seldom. It's old now, doesn't make good pics in motion and when it's getting dark. And phone is always handy what's the most important for quick ocassional shots. This particular one makes pics of a quality which seem suitable for me. The only thing I miss is optical zoom. But resolution allows to zoom by crop to 1,5-2 times without notable loose of sharpness. Also very handy I can immediately send pics to friends by Whatsapp. And posting here is also posible without computer. Which would mean removing the card, downloading pics from etc. You know that.

Paul, it's very different by itself too. I will tell about a desert also. Just a bit later. And you sure are very welcome to the party!

My way from Tabriz to Isfahan was reach on Mack catches too. Could see this long straight B-model and what really surprized me a RS600 made in Hayward in 1975. Unfortunetely VIN tag was lost during years of hard service but driver stated me that. Sure I checked frame rails and they were of a straight style such were used in West coast R's. The chassis was steel but the driver noted there were also a few Mack with aluminium rails in Iran. Forgot to mention he spoke English almost perfect. Said he studied it for a while and even got a sertificate on that. The owner of the B spoke Farsi. So I couldn't learn really much. The truck was produced in 65 or 66 (I honestly forgot the particular figure) but he swapped engine and transmision from Kaveh R-model (so now it' 237 or 250 turbo Maxidyne with no intercooler and 10 speed Maxitirque TRD-720-?) Also he stated he could load it up to 16 metric ton. Saw many Iran-Kaveh R-models either and that really long and heavy Mercedes truck with a sleeper cab.

Walking shops in the market you could see really artificial examples of Persian hand crafted goods.

Ok, further we go. After Tabriz I took my way to Isfahan - one of ancient capitals of Persia. My journey was focused not on trucks only, some "cultural program" was also on the list. At the time German motorcyclist messaged me that he was already there, so I figured that would be cool to meet again and have a conversation. One of the most well known attractions of Isfahan is an old bridge. Its name is Si-o-si pol. If you translate that from Farsi the meaning is Thirty three bridges. The picture explains the reason. There's also a huge square built by some shakh 200 or 300 (or 400?) years back which is sorrounded by gallerys used as market and two big mosques at the ends. Very impressive when you're there in person but pics represent the look not bad either.

Mark, As Barry once typed in an answer to my letter, Glad to be of service!

A few other catches of the day. That B-model seemed transporting ready cement from the plant to local construction yards. Saw the driver but he didn't have time. Also a couple of MH's I catched ocasionally and Kaveh R's with dry cement trailers.

Brocky, you just was looking at water! Or had a christall ball. Today I went to Safien Cement Plant, it's near the city of Tabriz. Actually not to the plant since nobody would allow me to go into. But to the sorrounding area where trucks go to/off the plant, do scales etc. It was the 2nd time I went there. There were many trucks but people seemed busy being at a job. So no good conversations overethere. But a few things to look at. Today I saw there Brockway definitely. It was in the yard I couldn't go into. So made a pic through the fence. A shame was right at the moment I put my phone in a pocket a similar truck came in to the scene. And disapperaed in the gates sure before I was ready to make a pic. It was of the same model, a tandem dump truck. Also red color. But with a difference it had integral sleeper cab. The same style yellow R-model in the posts above had. As old saying tells, the biggest fish was the one which went off the hook...

And that was not the end of the day. Speaking to each driver I met I was explaining my interest seeing "a chicken's egg" (B-model on the local slang) and Jungee (a kind of a L-model produced or assembled or-? in Iran). And those folks in that company (actually that was a company selling used trucks) put me in a car and drove nearly 10 km to a yard where a B-model was parked! It was not a truck used for work anymore, more for fun of the owner as I figured. Unfortunately my new friends didn't have much time so I couldn't speak (drink tea) with the owner. But there was enough time for look and pictures😀

The cabs of the R's worth some attention. Red truck has American cab. Blue one is Kaveh cab with a sleeper (short version of the similar style also exists) And the yellow cab is a kind of a mistery. Or mire correctly a question I don't have an answer for yet. That's basically American cab with normal doors. To which some factory made panels are added making it an integral sleeper. That's not a home made product since I saw similar trucks multiple times. So seems like an Iranian built version with side panels off a F-model or specially made panels. The roof seems similar to what was used in the blue cab. Don't know is it the same of only appear so.

Ok, enough of typing at the moment. Or better to say, back closer to my activities. The next day I'm going to tell about was quite eventful. I rode over the big bypass road in Tebris and saw a yard with three R-models parked in line. Went in, explained who I am, was invited to office and after general talks was allowed to crawl over and under the trucks, take pictures etc. Than the guys called to some one by phone and gave the phone to me. That man was speaking Russian very well! He showed up in person in 20 minutes. Turned out he was one of the drivers of the company who used to work in Russia alot. So we had very warm communications with tea drinking after which I was allowed to drive blue truck in the yard!

That's one interesting point you mentioned. No, orange F-models were not from the same fleet. But were assembled at the same factory, called Iran-Kaveh (ایران کاوه) Along with R-models. For some reason the most of trucks were painted that color. But also red, dark green and dark blue. And yellow sometimes if I'm not wrong. R-models (I don't know if all of them or the majority of) were equipped with Iranian made cabins. But F's had American cabs. I also don't know if the cabs were imported complete or were welded of panels in Iran. There were also F's with cabs made locally. I once was shown a pic on the net with some ugly cracker box. But saw none of those in person. So far. Worth to point out there are Macks of different origins in Iran. Many (looks like really many) were assembled at Iran-Kaveh. Some were imported from the US. Than after the US put sanctions trucks were purchased from Canada. Than after Canada put sanctions too all good Macks were bought out from Europe. Yesterday I was explained of how to determine what is what. Kaveh trucks all have 44000# heavy rears. With 6 bolt axle flanges. With sharp edge in the most (or all?) cases. And the trucks which have 38000# (8 bolt flat flange) are generally from the US. Also worth to point out the most Macks here ride on 12.00R24 tube tyres. Along with 90% of other trucks, including European production. And only some newer European or Chinese tractors (there's plenty of the latter ones BTW) have tubless 22.5. Sometimes you can also see 12.00R20 but that's relatively rare case.

That's one good point you asked about. I mentioned the answer in the posts above but would like to tell more detailingly. Yes, I've learned Farsy to some grade. I had interest travelling Iran for a long while and well understood that seating in a bus and looking through the window was not my cap of tea. And as long as I expected speaking with drivers, garage workers and other common people in that country hopes on using English were really poor. So I figured I should bite the bullet. At the Covid time I had to spend a couple of weeks at home so figured I would use a few days for the study. Easily found on-line coursus and in a few days I learned the most basic things such as "I am - you are - my mother is - we are here - I have two brothers and a sister" and so on. The coursus consisted of lessons of 12-15 phrases each. Each phrase was written in Farsi, than duplicated by Lathinik for prononsation, and also spoken by voice. A man's voice than a woman's voice. That way you could just click a button on your phone and hear a certain phrase. After the lockdown I successfully continued with that coursus hearing the sentances while being stuck in a traffic jam. That continued for 3 or 4 months and than I figured the coursus had some imperfection or even mistakes and also got a trouble with reading/typing since could not identify letters. There was something infigurable in them definitely. So I lost interest and abandoned the story for nearly half a year. Than later I ocassionally found a teacher on the net who was a Russian girl lived in Iran for well amount of years and was providing on-line lessons. I started taking lessons from her. Not much though since time is always an issue. But we communicate with her by Skype once in a week for one hour. I see it requires more for achieving good skills but what I did also worked out. It's a kind of hobby to me and I do that as long as I enjoy that. But try to do no interruptions. Since it's usually difficult to get back to a not the most needed affair after you got off the line. For the moment nearly 1.5 years passed since I started regular lessons and now I'm able to tell where I'm from, what's my job, my family, what I'm intersted in (old trucks), also if I want or need something (a room in a hotel, food, gasoline, a way to a certain point). Actually I feel I need 3 or 4 times more word reserve to feel comfortable but what I have at the moment allows to describe people that I have interest in trucks and so on. Than after showing pics of my own stuff on a phone the most everybody I communicated with was eager to represent their trucks for pics, open doors or a hood, than also (especiality of this part of the world) offers drinking tee and staying in his home overnight as a guest. In some cases you even have to decline the offer 4 or 5 times. Sure in a kind manner.

Interesting story, thanks for sharing. Unfortunalely I'm not familiar with Georgian language. Excepting two or three words. So difficult to judge.

Yup, those air filters are of oil bath style. I once saw an ad on a certain Iranian site offering such ones new for sale. Don't know if they were made locally (the most probably) or that's some older style American part. Seems Iranian install those filters on trucks which originally had dry element canisters too. Speaking the cab that's not rear corners only. But a complete cab including floor, firewall, windscreens of different shape and the roof. And there were multiple styles of local cabs. I will mention them in further posts.