truckfing:
David,I notoice that the older ERF bears a Westmorland Reg No. “JM” ,I wonder what the conection was,could it have been Shap Granite Co ?Have you got any shots of Syd’s Chinese Six Commers ? Cheers Dennis.
Sadly not Dennis. I was at a slide show with a mate last Saturday and he commented on the fact that there seem to be no pictures anywhere of any of Syd’s motors even though he was operating so many for so long and covered great distances with them.
The first artic i owned was a chinese six configeration,it was an AEC Mammoth Minor with AV760 engine,the problem with it was that i did round timber with it and the minute you got off terra firma you would lose all traction,in the end i took the second steer axle out and had a long wheelbase 4 x 2 unit which worked very well,it was a 1971 vintage but sadley no picture,cheers Buzzer.
Buzzer:
The first artic i owned was a chinese six configeration,it was an AEC Mammoth Minor with AV760 engine,the problem with it was that i did round timber with it and the minute you got off terra firma you would lose all traction,in the end i took the second steer axle out and had a long wheelbase 4 x 2 unit which worked very well,it was a 1971 vintage but sadley no picture,cheers Buzzer.
How was the MM’s reliability enginewise ? When I was a trailer mate at Brady’s in the mid/late 60’s they got one of the first Mandators and in advance of the C&U regs changing they had on order 6 MM’s,but the lone Mandator caused so much grief with overheating problems they cancelled the order and replaced them with an order for six,6x2 Atky MK1’s with the Gardner 180LXB engine.Cheers Bewick.
When AEC got rid of the silly plastic header tank over top of the rad under the bonnet of the “Ergo” cab there were no problems with overheating/water circulation it was repositioned at the rear of the cab and worked as a header tank should!,IIRC" Ergo" cab Beavers & Octo’s had a metal header tank top of engine/rad area but did’nt seem to suffer from the same problem but they too ended up with a rear of cab header tank(at the time all the engineering bods seemed to be in denial that to get circulation and take avantage of the thermo syphon effect a decent head of coolant was needed)
If you want “Chinese 6’s” have a look at “pegasoesmicamion” website or youtube an education if you think “Chinese 6’s” & “8 wheelers” are a Brit thing!BTW there are many Spanish enthusiasts who feel the same way about the demise of Pegaso as we do about ERF, Foden ,Leyland,AEC etc
Chinese Six In America In 1923?
Could this be a twin steer motor vehicle,with such a long wheelbase I would say almost certainly yes 
:-
It was operated by a woman in Jersey,New Jersey,USA,as a mobile advertising motor vehicle in 1923,and was
described as an Elongated Auto.
VALKYRIE
VALKYRIE:
Chinese Six In America In 1923?Could this be a twin steer motor vehicle,with such a long wheelbase I would say almost certainly yes
It was operated by a woman in Jersey,New Jersey,USA,as a mobile advertising motor vehicle in 1923,and was
described as an Elongated Auto.VALKYRIE
Being an American it’s probably just single steer. They like stupid, tyre destroying, things like that.
Hiya i spotted this in spain a couple of months ago…it was parked up at the side of the road no batteries
and looked like it had been parked up for a while.
John
Hi , Mr Bewick ,The photo of the twin steer ERF ,is a real belter ,we had an 8 wheeler with the same cab ,a good photo ,Cheers Barry
b.waddy:
Hi , Mr Bewick ,The photo of the twin steer ERF ,is a real belter ,we had an 8 wheeler with the same cab ,a good photo ,Cheers Barry
Hiya Baz,I didn’t put the shot on of the ERF steer,I only commented on the reg no. which was an old Westmorland reg,and not being a very big county it would have been a Shap Granite motor,almost certain.When I was still living at home on Shap Rd. in Kendal in the late 60’s there was an old lad (probably nearing retirement) who lived in the street behind us,Jack Ridley was his name,and he drove an LAD Dodge six wheeler dropside for Shap Granite Co.His main loads were large diameter concrete pipes and concrete flags.He more-or-less did a load per day down into Lancs,I’m not sure if the Dodge had the Leyland or the Perkins engine but I think it was a trailing axle job.From memory it was a C reg and would have been fairly new at the time.Many years later we did quite a few regular loads of concrete drainage pipes from Shap Granite down to Cambrigeshire.Shap had always been a “closed shop” over many years as regards haulage,but the Company belonged to Thomas Ward of Sheffield and I got to know the new Sales Manager from Sheffield and who went in the same Club for a pint as me,so as he was new on the job,at the time, he gave us the the pipe traffic for the South,it sure didn’t go down very well with the contractors out of Shap,but they only did mainly short locals in the North and this new pipe traffic wasn’t much good to them anyway whereas we had plenty of back traffic.The rates weren’t particularly good but it filled a few gaps and only cost me a few pints occasionally and a bottle of Scotch at Christmas !! Happy days Mr. Bewick.
During the 60s the Dodge tipper seemed to be a popular lorry to be converted to the chinese six configuration.The company I served my time with had two on there fleet one had the perkins 6.354 engine and the other was fitted with a Leyland 350 engine.The 1st picture was one of James Bacons fleet who were based in the Manchester area.
Other marques that also used the chinese six configuration A Fletcher & Co Ibstock- GUY-
Hiya Stanfield…do you remember the TRUMIX (cream/red Chassis) Thames Traders and for D1000 fords that
run into Manchester with sand/gravel in the 60’s from Cheadle (Staffs)sorry no photo’s but i remember one
No plate CVT180C on a D 1000 (how sad is that)
John
as john says trumix running fro cheadle to stockport daily, i think 6 or 7 of them on the job. the earliest were thames traders some 4 wheel some 6. when i was a kid of about 11 one of the traders ran out of brakes at the top of cheddleton bank. he was a young married bloke of 22 with 2 young kids. he held on to it right through the village, got over the canal bridge, but as he tried to get it round the last bend, he couldnt hold it. it carried on straight down into mrs james garden and he tried to jump, for his trouble of saving lives, he ripped his right arm off right leg and loads of other injuries i know because a relative of ours was the ambulance driver who was at the scene. they found his arm half way down the garden, but in them days i don,t suppose the could have done much with it. the traders were notorious for the lack of brakes but one of their other drivers said he was like one of the hell drivers,.
bad news for any family, but there are a lot worse accidents nowadays due to traffic volumes. sorry if i went off the theme, regards terry
W.H. Phillips of Wirksworth had some Dodges with Primrose second steers added, Primrose used one in their advert in CM magazine.
Back in the sixties I used to work on a BMC FHK chinese six coal tipper which had a Primrose axle, it had its own seperate brake master cylinder fitted to operate the extra axle and the linkage had to be kept adjusted or the axle was brakeless. The 1968 MOT regs put an end to that vehicle!
Pete.
Hiya …Pete who was the chap who run around the Ashbourne area with a brown and red ERF b series chinese six
was ot pete o donnel or simular
John
Hi 3300John I remember Trumix but unable to remember the lorries you mention but maybe Tipit doe’s I will ask him next time I email him.
Cheers John (Stanfield)
that sounds like pete o’leary john . he was mechanic for turner bros when i worked for them . top notch bloke , set up on hie own about the time turners packed up . i think he came from alstonfield or thereabouts , cheers , dave
rigsby:
that sounds like pete o’leary john . he was mechanic for turner bros when i worked for them . top notch bloke , set up on hie own about the time turners packed up . i think he came from alstonfield or thereabouts , cheers , dave
Hiya Dave…i knew he was a mechanic. yes top bloke i,ve been trying to remember his name for the site but had to give in and ask.
thanks Dave
John
jeh:
Derf:
OK, I get the weight thing with trucks, but what was the point of a chinese 6 coach chassis such as the Bedford VAL?to many coaches at that time were having front wheel blow outs jeh
I thought it has something to do with length of body, my parents had coaches and we had 41 or 45 seater Duple’s and the only 52 seaters then where the VAL’s - we had both Duple and the later Plaxton VAL’s which where definitely longer.