Hi.
You may just be right,but…, I drove a Bristol,and an AEC Park Royal cab, tractor unit while at BRS Hull,the Bristol was as honest as the day was long, as regards the AEC… i bet there are some police forces still trying to catch it up ! (From the late 60’s 
). Drove a Borderer at Matlock Transport,(Came from a steel works in Rotherham), it was a nice drive and always brought me home,so there are two more in the mix.
Merry Christmas.
hulltramper
hulltramper:
Hi.
You may just be right,but…, I drove a Bristol,and an AEC Park Royal cab, tractor unit while at BRS Hull,the Bristol was as honest as the day was long, as regards the AEC… i bet there are some police forces still trying to catch it up ! (From the late 60’s
Merry Christmas.
hulltramper
Merry Christmas to you and yours my friend
Transconti- a truck before its time 
bought out a few years later with a few refinements It could have taken on and beaten the Swedes- had a terrific drive train, and the cab was akin to the revelation that the Magnum made a good few years later
Even today I reckon you could put a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (or Fuller)/Rockwell drive train under any old cab and UK operators would buy them off the shelf- unfortunately the UK market alone isn’t big enough to justify doing it
I would say it is the Sed/Atkinson Strato big ■■■■■■■■ twin splitter and the DAF space cab they got it right too late and it had better brakes than the transcon
cheers Johnnie
Rikki-UK:
Transconti- a truck before its timeEven today I reckon you could put a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (or Fuller)/Rockwell drive train under any old cab and UK operators would buy them off the shelf- unfortunately the UK market alone isn’t big enough to justify doing it
Hey yes you have a bit right,But FUEL killed them of. At the launch in Belgium I think it took about 40% of the top range of Scania around Ghent, where it had a good service back up too.
But from mid '70’s until begin '80 in an oilcrisistime they went as fast as they came.
I think AEC had been strong enough to beat the market here and many countries,if it hasn’t been killed of by Leyland.
The Belgian AEC delivered a Europ lay out chassis that we wanted and much continentelparts.
But of course a Transcon with a big cargocab and good electrics could helped much too.
Bye Eric,
It would depend on what your idea of long haul is, mine is anything East of Moscow or South of Istanbul. The closest thing would be a Transconti but as that was wasn’t built in Britain it wouldn’t count. Which would leave A Volvo that would have been built in Scotland.
Anything that had a wood framed cab skinned in fiber glass, or any fiber glass in the driver area would be a none starter, the guys that came up with that idea should have been shot.
Have a look at he fatality rates of accidents in those type of vehicle and compare them with Scandinavian trucks then tell me how good fiber glass cabs were.
Jeff…
Jelliot:
It would depend on what your idea of long haul is, mine is anything East of Moscow or South of Istanbul. The closest thing would be a Transconti but as that was wasn’t built in Britain it wouldn’t count. Which would leave A Volvo that would have been built in Scotland.Anything that had a wood framed cab skinned in fiber glass, or any fiber glass in the driver area would be a none starter, the guys that came up with that idea should have been shot.
Have a look at he fatality rates of accidents in those type of vehicle and compare them with Scandinavian trucks then tell me how good fiber glass cabs were.Jeff…
As regards accident survivability, statistics in the 60’s/70’s proved that the fibreglass cabs were actually better than steel,well in the UK anyway,I know some may disagree but it was a fact never the less.Cheers Bewick.
Ford d series with a double passenger seat.
At least you could kip in the cab 
Guy big J with a 240 Gardner 
enjoying the feedback guys , it would though seem that every driver who was privileged enough to drive an Atki all seemed to love them!!! The Ford Transcontinental although initially built in Amsterdam ( and absolutely none of the major components were made by Ford ie ■■■■■■■■ Fuller, Rockwell, Berliet ) Later models were assembled by Foden at Elworth, The Bedford TM especially with a V8 Detroit was a good tool albeit a greedy one, but the old Borderer’s production run speaks volumes does it not■■?
Bewick:
Jelliot:
It would depend on what your idea of long haul is, mine is anything East of Moscow or South of Istanbul. The closest thing would be a Transconti but as that was wasn’t built in Britain it wouldn’t count. Which would leave A Volvo that would have been built in Scotland.Anything that had a wood framed cab skinned in fiber glass, or any fiber glass in the driver area would be a none starter, the guys that came up with that idea should have been shot.
Have a look at he fatality rates of accidents in those type of vehicle and compare them with Scandinavian trucks then tell me how good fiber glass cabs were.Jeff…
As regards accident survivability, statistics in the 60’s/70’s proved that the fibreglass cabs were actually better than steel,well in the UK anyway,I know some may disagree but it was a fact never the less.Cheers Bewick.
Your right Bewick, and it’s been well documented about how good ERF’s SP cab were as far as safety was concerned, those smc panels absorbed an amazing amount of impact force and then exploded outwards releasing the energy leaving the strong steel frame to do the rest. When being put through the European crash tests, they swung a half ton weight into the windscreen pilars and never even distorted the door apartures, the doors could still be opened and shut with no problems. Do that to an F10 and it would be a different story.
Going back to the subject, ERF’s B series cab was definitley head and shoulders above anything else british at the time of launch, and i think the factory sleeper with its raised roof was far more roomy than any of the europeans at the time (except the Transcon) and the interior fit and finish was a massive improvement over earlier models. The drive-line options were seemingly endless, and all largely reliable being capable of very high mileages before needing work, so i’d go for the B Series to award this acholade to, with either the 240 Gardner or 14 litre ■■■■■■■ with a Fuller Roadranger driving through a Kirkstall D85 or a Rockwell, a match for anything european.
Chris.
Every one is entitled to their opinion and I can tell by the comments so far that the posters on this thread seems to have already made up their mind what era they prefer and the type of vehicle they consider to be better. Like wise they have their own opinion what they consider to be long haul, perhaps it should have been renamed longevity. Even if it was called longevity a friend of mind ran a ■■■■■■■ power Transconti to 640,000 km before he needed to take the heads of, and I never saw inside the its Fuller gear box at all.
I stand by what I have said and still consider a fiberglass cab to be not much farther up the evolutionary scale than a glorified Reliant Robin.
If you ever looked at the sales literature for the early F 7, 10, 12, range you would remember the photos and reference to the extensive crash testing they did to enable them to comply with the safety approval standards in Scandinavia.
I had the unfortunate experience of driving a Gardner powered Sed Atki and the only good thing I could thing I could say about it would be that if you melted it down you could probably re cast it and make a fairly good ship anchor with it.
I also spent a considerable amount of time running about in Nordic countries and can’t recall ever seeing any locally registered fiberglass cab trucks.
Jeff…
with regard to the " plastic cabs " , i probably owe my life to one . a collision at 50mph , the cab shunted back and the chassis took the main impact , i stepped out with minor bruising . the lorry was buggered but i survived . in contrast , a head on in a leyland lad cab required the fire service to cut me out .
rivits:
0So guys, what do you reckon was the best British built long haul truck ever■■? In my humble opinion it has to be none other than the Atkinson Borderer, When I was a youngster nearly every haulage company my Dad drove for had Borderers in the fleet fitted with either Gardner 180’s and David Brown 6sp 'boxes or ■■■■■■■ 220’s and Fuller Roadranger 9sp 'boxes , the latter being absolute flying machines capable of 80+ mph. This example with a 240 Gardner started off with Waugh Road Services before ending up with G&M Transport of then Salsburgh nr Airdrie who I started out working for. I wish I had a £1 for every ton of freight this machine shifted in its long life in haulage…Over to you guys…
This Atki arrived new to Waugh’s about the same time I did!! It was driven by George Beattie originally. After a few months it went to Jennings to have the sleeper pod fitted. Coincidentally, I posted the sad loss yesterday of an old friend Albert Haswell, who( I think) also drove this motor for a while. When the picture was taken it would have been driven by Steve Golden, I wonder where he is now? Steve had his own bumper painter 
young Brian, the apprentice fitter doted over this motor. It’s nice to know where it went after it was sold on. Much to young Brian’s disgust Ps young Brian grew up? ( not really) 
to be 8lxbv8brian. I’m sure he’ll pick up on this thread 
Regards Kevmac47.
I daresay everyone has their opinion on what is long haul,I am a driver with ARR CRAIB TRANSPORT and say 5-6yrs ago when the Aberdeen paper mills were very busy we were doing 2k or so miles per week in the UK. if you are driving within the law you can only do the same amount of miles in a day irregardless of whether you are running in the UK, Europe, USA or wherever. Where if your running from say to New York to Los Angeles or Aberdeen to London you will only cover a set amount of miles in one day! the difference with UK domestic haulage is you might be doing that same trip 3 times or so a week. With regard to the safety aspect, I agree in full about the strength of the ERF B Series Cab. Going back to the Atkinson Borderer, my father in 1973 was involved in a horrific smash at Northampton with an Atkinson Borderer, he lived to tell the tale and is now still tramping with a Scania 580 aged 75!!! Mind you that twin front bumpers on the Borderer looks if it could have taken some abuse!!!
Even today I reckon you could put a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ (or Fuller)/Rockwell drive train under any old cab and UK operators would buy them off the shelf- unfortunately the UK market alone isn’t big enough to justify doing it
[/quote]
Funny you should say that because some of the tipper men seem to pine the passing of Foden and ERF with such drivelines. For the last 13yrs I have mostly driven DAF and MAN vehicles but in my last job I had a plastic pig ie a Foden 3380 which was fitted with a 380 CAT and an 13sp Eaton 'Box and it was a beast!!! It was an 8x4 insulated tipper. Not only could it get 22 tonne payload on but it was a flying machine. Not exactly a comfortable or classy truck but it was a very capable one. The company at one point hired me in an artic Foden Alpha with a 440 ■■■■■■■ and that could only be described as a brilliant truck. It easily out pulled the 430 DAF CF I drove with ARR Craib and as a bonus of having that excellent DAF CF cab, IT WAS A FODEN THAT DIDN’T LEAK WHEN IT RAINED!!! 
rivits:
I daresay everyone has their opinion on what is long haul,I am a driver with ARR CRAIB TRANSPORT and say 5-6yrs ago when the Aberdeen paper mills were very busy we were doing 2k or so miles per week in the UK. if you are driving within the law you can only do the same amount of miles in a day irregardless of whether you are running in the UK, Europe, USA or wherever. Where if your running from say to New York to Los Angeles or Aberdeen to London you will only cover a set amount of miles in one day! the difference with UK domestic haulage is you might be doing that same trip 3 times or so a week. With regard to the safety aspect, I agree in full about the strength of the ERF B Series Cab. Going back to the Atkinson Borderer, my father in 1973 was involved in a horrific smash at Northampton with an Atkinson Borderer, he lived to tell the tale and is now still tramping with a Scania 580 aged 75!!! Mind you that twin front bumpers on the Borderer looks if it could have taken some abuse!!!
Your correct about surviving a bad smash in a fibreglass cab rivets. Waugh’s had an Atki turned over at Milnrow on the M62, the cab was matchsticks!! but the driver was thrown into the passenger side footwell and although badly hurt, the driver survived. I think the engine hump protected him. Regards Kevmac47.
rivits:
I daresay everyone has their opinion on what is long haul,I am a driver with ARR CRAIB TRANSPORT and say 5-6yrs ago when the Aberdeen paper mills were very busy we were doing 2k or so miles per week in the UK. if you are driving within the law you can only do the same amount of miles in a day irregardless of whether you are running in the UK, Europe, USA or wherever. Where if your running from say to New York to Los Angeles or Aberdeen to London you will only cover a set amount of miles in one day! the difference with UK domestic haulage is you might be doing that same trip 3 times or so a week. With regard to the safety aspect, I agree in full about the strength of the ERF B Series Cab. Going back to the Atkinson Borderer, my father in 1973 was involved in a horrific smash at Northampton with an Atkinson Borderer, he lived to tell the tale and is now still tramping with a Scania 580 aged 75!!! Mind you that twin front bumpers on the Borderer looks if it could have taken some abuse!!!
When I was in Britain in the 80’s 90’s I was doing the best part of 3000 per week, that was before speed limiters and it was legal to drive at 60mph. I was own account and the loading a tipping was quick, as well as the loads being fairly light.
When I went to the US I was classed as an Over the Road Driver and the pay sale was totally alien to me being paid per mile. It worked out pretty well as I was in a K1 Areodyne on fridge work. 10, 11 hours driving per day and most states were at 70 mph, and the speed wasn’t enforced like it is today so the best part of 750 miles a day was fairly regular and a good transport manager managed to keep me traveling 5 1/2 days.
In Australia where I am now I was on for a company that also payed by the K and a good shift was 800k’s per 11 hour shift. Some of the work was out of the Sydney depot and in the first 18 months. The trucks were run 12 shifts per week, which isn’t unusual. After 18 months the running gear was overhauled then the tuck went on to long haul ( inter-state ) with a single driver.
Jeff…