Hey, to all .
I have been tryed to start up a new topic about the likes,dislikes,faults and discomforts of marques of pre '80’s.
If you have experience with or good informed about it,not only from hearsay,you can give it a try.
I am thinking this topic can maybe useful,because you see in several topics the words yes,no,oh yes,oh no.Or will it be doomed to fail or pine away because of the ran down of fanatics of marques. Who only praise the liked and slam the disliked.
As a mecanic of some marques I tell you in honour faults and discomforts of beloved marques, but likewise the goods of a disliked.
Cheers Eric,
Hi Eric. Have you ever tipped the cab on a Leyland Buffalo? The Marathon was bad enough.
This thread should draw fitters like flies. Cheers Jim.
jmc jnr:
Hi Eric. Have you ever tipped the cab on a Leyland Buffalo? The Marathon was bad enough.
This thread should draw fitters like flies. Cheers Jim.
Hey Jmc, I as a Volvo fan,I can tell you the same about the F88/89 however I like them. the they were a disaster an very hard labour to tip the cab if it hadn’t a hydraulic tipping pomp. If you had a breakdown along the way you were powerless to tip it,but I had a trick to do it. Only my father was able to do alone,he was an unbeatable person even as he was over 50 old and I only about 30 I couldn’t conquer him. The old ones were hardened by driving without powersteering and heating and over and over again changing tyres alone the road 
Cheers Eric,
I was never a fan of those parking brake handles on the D1000. terrible design. Thames Trader, you needed a bale of straw in the winter to keep your feet warm, and the Commer TS3 had a habit of throwing the throttle linkage off at very inconvenient times, (well mine did), and as only a young lad the bloody thing frightened me the first time it de-coked itself when struggling up the Brecon Beacons on a cold dark snowy winters night. 
what about the gear lever on a lad cabbed albion ( ooh me elbow ) the hair-trigger ratchet handbrake on a mk1 atki that you had to clamber over .the stupid transmission handbrake on a tk or the mirrors on the early ergo that flapped about like a pair of drawers on a washing line . cheers , dave
Agree about the LAD gear lever but being tall those cabs gave me terrible backache as you had to crouch over the wheel to see out of the windscreen.
Also hated the lack of steps on the crusader, stepping on the narrow wheel step ring with muddy or wet boots could remove serious amounts of skin from your shinbone if your foot slipped.
The trader yes could be draughty on your feet but I personally thought it had a comfortable driving position.
The Guy big j probably got more complaints from drivers than most motors, everything seemed to be placed where it could be fitted in, the wheel/ pedals were offset, you had to move your hand from the wheel to see the speedo, with the fuller box in top gear it was more comfortable with the gear lever between your legs, the indicator switch was an afterthought on the end of the dash, non self cancelling and the warning light couldn’t be seen. Many drivers complained of backache, with a Gardner motor fitted the accelerator would test an athletes calf muscle and they had a heater that only ever blew cold air.
Everything was so wrong with the big j but with all it’s quirky faults and non existent ergonomics I loved driving them !
The same as you Trev,I didn’t like the LAD cab for the same reason.They were OK for someone short,but no good for taller blokes,no leg room at all. One of the worst lorries I drove was the Seddon 13/4 with its offset steering wheel and the Perkins 6354 engine they felt a jerky flat motor.It had dials everywhere,but thats about all. I only drove a Thames Trader a few times,but thought they were OK. I liked the Commer Maxiload and Leyland Comet wit the Ergo cab,also the Bedford KM and Ford D series.Wasn’t fussed on the Bedford TK .I liked the BMC FHK 140 which I drove for quite a while,but wasn’t fussed on the Dodge K series which I had after it.
Given the chance I would go back and drive any of them.
Cheers Dave.
What’s all this about the Albion/LAD gearstick, then? Obviously we’ve forgotten the Thorneycroft Sturdy with it’s coachbuilt timber & aluminium cab: some idiot had designed the thing so that the selection of second or fourth gear placed the driver’s elbow in violent contact with a strategically placed horizontal length of 2 X 2 ash whose corners were in competition for sharpness with the products of the Gillette Razor Company.
But it was rather a long time ago so maybe it wasn’t so bad after all!
And tilting the F88 torsion bar-equipped cab with a length of rope and the corner post of a dutch barn has been described in another thread.
how many times did you trap your finger on a big j dash when selecting 1st gear before you learnt better trev ?
rigsby:
how many times did you trap your finger on a big j dash when selecting 1st gear before you learnt better trev ?
That may have been the 6 speed box, ours had the Fuller 9509 with the short stick. I saw drivers that hooked a rubber band on those 6 speed gearsticks to hold them in gear as apparently they had a habit of jumping out of top !
I think it was a Dodge k series I once had that skinned your knuckles on the handbrake valve if you weren’t careful.
rigsby:
how many times did you trap your finger on a big j dash when selecting 1st gear before you learnt better trev ?
I’d forgotten that. And the scars have long since healed!
what about when you were in an old foden on a long uphill drag and the cab started to fill with smoke when the rugs/sacks over the engine cover were smouldering with the heat off the manifold . used to carry a drop of water in case , cheers , dave
agree with lad cabbed leyland i had bad neck with trying to look out of windscreen pleased it was only recovery truck and not used often
trying to tip f86 cab if torsion bars werent set up right but comfortable and nice to drive
column change on MAN 232 used to take skin off knuckles off dash when linkage was worn
foden 6x4 tractor unit with hendrickson rear bogie used to hop round corners
cheers
mick
Guy Invincible air cleaner mounted at the side of your left ear in the cab, accelerator pedal the size of fifty pence piece that drilled a hole in the sole of your boot, gearlever that the top of was higher than your shoulder and the dashboard that had a mind of its own and shook and vibrated so much you couldn’t read any of the gauges.
Driver’s seat in a “modern” Renault Premium that used to send me home with backache every single night.
And the handbrake lever on a BMC FHK which used to insert itself up the left leg of my overalls just at the moment that I leapt from the cab.
Hi, Norfolk
And don’t forget the fuses that shook out and slid down the passenger side of the bonnet and your wondering why you’ve no flashers or stop lights.
And how many times did you hit the hooter button when you was winding the wheel round.
No character these modern trucks!
Cheers Bassman
AEC MM MK3’s with the floor lifting when out of cog and the cabs shaking like mad, best motors though. Fodens with their own 12 spd or 8 spd where the gears were never in the same place twice and worrying about stalling and losing the brakes on the engine powered versions. Leyland Octo’s and Beavers with very heavy clutch’s and if fitted with the low geared diffs you were looking at 28 mph (on the BRS I was paid 30 mph rate). early Atky Mk1 Tractors could start to bounce up and down on the front suspension getting undrivable on a badly corrugated road like the Winchester bypass for example although this was soon fixed and sometimes having an old BMC unit with a tandem Trailer and trying to pull away from the lights in Essex Rd in London for example and all it will do is bounce up down, not moving, and you wondered would you would Knock yourself out on the ceiling first or the half shaft would go. Bristols with the luxury of a heater which was fitted up on the top of the dash so that the hot water had trouble getting to the matrex so were a big disapointment, but another good motor…Tony.
Crawler on a Scania 110 RHD. Two hands if you broke the nob, one to hold the switch, the other to select High/Low. Jim.
Gardner 180’s…after driving a hire Volvo F.10,then going back to my ERF,with it’s awful ‘heater’,2 speed axle,and crawling up hills etc.etc. 