British trucks in Australia

[ramone]

This is from the latest AEC Gazette

[star_down_under]

ramone:
This is from the latest AEC Gazette

Note the tropical or C cab, no doors or windows. This was a common style of locally produced cab, into the early 60s.

[andrew_s]

ChrisArbon:
Not Australia but just across the ditch in New Zealand. The milk tanker fleet is now all Scanias and Volvos. any body know what happened to the Alphas?210

Some poor ■■■■■■■ has a Hino to drive.terrible things

[ramone]

How did the Ergos cope in Australia. The Leyland and AECs had a reputation for overheating here did they solve the problem over there i have read how innovative the Australian engineers were in modifying the British lorries to make them more practical

[andrew_s]

Seen lots of pics of very nice Bedford KM’s with two stroke Detroits in Australia -I’d bloody love one.!!

[star_down_under]

ramone:
How did the Ergos cope in Australia. The Leyland and AECs had a reputation for overheating here did they solve the problem over there i have read how innovative the Australian engineers were in modifying the British lorries to make them more practical

I don’t recall seeing any, except for the one owned by Mayne Nicklass, laying in the junk yard. That would have been late 70s/early 80s.

[star_down_under]

andrew.s:
Seen lots of pics of very nice Bedford KM’s with two stroke Detroits in Australia -I’d bloody love one.!!

They only had bird scarers (6-53s) in them.

[andrew_s]

Star down under.:

andrew.s:
Seen lots of pics of very nice Bedford KM’s with two stroke Detroits in Australia -I’d bloody love one.!!

They only had bird scarers (6-53s) in them.

I bet they were still a step up from the Bedford 466 engine that my fathers KM artics had -having said that the 466 game us excellent service, even at 24 tons gross weight

[deanb]

Graham Edge started a good thread about UK trucks in Australia which is well worth a look.

[dig]

ramone:
How did the Ergos cope in Australia. The Leyland and AECs had a reputation for overheating here did they solve the problem over there i have read how innovative the Australian engineers were in modifying the British lorries to make them more practical

When I worked for British Leyland in 1970 Ramone they had come into possession a 8 wheel Octopus Ergo cab I believe it was a repo anyhow as the crank mounted fans on all the Ergo models were totally hopeless as soon as it warmed up so the hiracy at Perth decided to alter the cab to accomodate a larger rad and a fan mounted on the water pump drive pulley it was a success but Leyland Uk refused to pay for the mod so that was as far as it went it could be fitted to prospective new buyers at their expense but i don’t recall any happy with that.
When I moved to the Kimberly to work we needed a body truck for some cattle carting and general freight services to remote areas I found out the modified unit was still at the Perth depot so we obtained it had a body for it made and it spent the rest of its working life in the West Kimberly.
The mod worked well we had no overheating problems other than days when it was 40plus and that temp affected every thing that moved .

Dig

[star_down_under]

Detroit two stroke powered.

[ramone]

DIG:

ramone:
How did the Ergos cope in Australia. The Leyland and AECs had a reputation for overheating here did they solve the problem over there i have read how innovative the Australian engineers were in modifying the British lorries to make them more practical

When I worked for British Leyland in 1970 Ramone they had come into possession a 8 wheel Octopus Ergo cab I believe it was a repo anyhow as the crank mounted fans on all the Ergo models were totally hopeless as soon as it warmed up so the hiracy at Perth decided to alter the cab to accomodate a larger rad and a fan mounted on the water pump drive pulley it was a success but Leyland Uk refused to pay for the mod so that was as far as it went it could be fitted to prospective new buyers at their expense but i don’t recall any happy with that.
When I moved to the Kimberly to work we needed a body truck for some cattle carting and general freight services to remote areas I found out the modified unit was still at the Perth depot so we obtained it had a body for it made and it spent the rest of its working life in the West Kimberly.
The mod worked well we had no overheating problems other than days when it was 40plus and that temp affected every thing that moved .

Dig

Thanks for the reply Dig , i know the Mandators were prone to overheating here due apparently to the shape of the cab but a little ingenuity is all it would have taken .They did fit a header tank at the rear of the cab on later models .An old haulier from near me put a makeshift header tank on one of his Mandators well before AEC did

[oiltreader]

AEC at Avon Downs Barkly NT.
Oily

[oiltreader]

Varied all in OZ.
Oily

[oiltreader]

Off FB.
Oily

[acd1202]

Star down under.:
2
Detroit two stroke powered.

1
0

Here you go SDU, the HD, aka Guy with a Detroit, has one of the six speed ZF constant mesh boxes which Carryfast was waxing lyrical about a couple of weeks ago.

[bewick]

acd1202:

Star down under.:
2
Detroit two stroke powered.

1
0

Here you go SDU, the HD, aka Guy with a Detroit, has one of the six speed ZF constant mesh boxes which Carryfast was waxing lyrical about a couple of weeks ago.

An interesting read about the Guy with the DD engine that SDU posted ! I reckon that Invincible would have been rarer than an 8LXB Big J
So I wonder if it was a new Invincible chassis imported for the job or maybe a used chassis ? And was that the only one produced as I noted that the tanker firm was also the Guy agent so it maybe was just an experimental one off . No doubt CF will shortly be piling in with a load of bollox as to why Guy Motors didn’t see the light and manufacture that spec in the UK it may have saved them from going out of business Cheers Dennis.

[ew_car_truck_amp_bus]

Oh Dennis what have you done the worm is about to be taken for sure now
E.W.

[star_down_under]

acd1202:

Star down under.:
2
Detroit two stroke powered.

1
0

Here you go SDU, the HD, aka Guy with a Detroit, has one of the six speed ZF constant mesh boxes which Carryfast was waxing lyrical about a couple of weeks ago.

It didn’t go unnoticed, acd. FFS, that article and so gearbox is sixty years old. Next CF will be skiting about how good he is with four in hand. That’ll be one up on Bewick, who to the best of my knowledge only operated one in hand.

[star_down_under]

Bewick:

acd1202:

Star down under.:
2
Detroit two stroke powered.

1
0

Here you go SDU, the HD, aka Guy with a Detroit, has one of the six speed ZF constant mesh boxes which Carryfast was waxing lyrical about a couple of weeks ago.

An interesting read about the Guy with the DD engine that SDU posted ! I reckon that Invincible would have been rarer than an 8LXB Big J
So I wonder if it was a new Invincible chassis imported for the job or maybe a used chassis ? And was that the only one produced as I noted that the tanker firm was also the Guy agent so it maybe was just an experimental one off . No doubt CF will shortly be piling in with a load of bollox as to why Guy Motors didn’t see the light and manufacture that spec in the UK it may have saved them from going out of business Cheers Dennis.

Dennis, perhaps the rarity of the 8LXB was created by HD replacing the Percy with the Detroit.
I believe HD imported a number of engineless chassis, specifically to fit the two stroke. Liquid Cartage, the transport arm of HD, were big users of Detroit, converting the bulk of the fleet. They operated multiple DD powered Invincibles, but I don’t know how many, or if they sold any outside of their own operation. Cheers, SDU.