Carryfast your place on the boat was doubled booked and that means you will have to swim!
LB76:
Carryfast your place on the boat was doubled booked and that means you will have to swim!
I wonder if CF can water ski ? It was only 22 miles from Dunkirk !! Cheers Dennis.
Carryfast:
Sir +:
BUT- did anyone actually purchase and operate one,and were any actually manufactured? : Sorry!
I wouldn’t give up my place in the boat on the basis that given the choice between the ■■■■■■■ or the Gardner that the British operators at the time would have chosen the ■■■■■■■ option instead of the Gardner.
You couldn’t get more British than British road services and first choice for general haulage was ■■■■■■■ 
Start swimming Carryfast 
I never,ever, said that there was no such Guy Big (with the 8LXB) I only asked for a photograph of one.So when a photo failed to materialise,well it was then “open season” on those that had “guaranteed” that a photo would,in the fullness of time,be emblazened across the thread and the “non-believers” would be required to each consume suitable sized portions of “humble pie”.Well its a good job they weren’t starving isn’t it !!Apparently,one chap who said he would post a shot of “The Beast” did a runner to Canada and has never returned,well not onto this thread at least.Cheers Dennis.
Trev_H:
Carryfast:
Sir +:
BUT- did anyone actually purchase and operate one,and were any actually manufactured? : Sorry!I wouldn’t give up my place in the boat on the basis that given the choice between the ■■■■■■■ or the Gardner that the British operators at the time would have chosen the ■■■■■■■ option instead of the Gardner.
You couldn’t get more British than British road services and first choice for general haulage was ■■■■■■■
Start swimming Carryfast
CF must be at a loss to find any “Aggro” on other threads to-night Trev,because lets face it,the heading and content of this thread is not his natural habitat,is it ? Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
LB76:
Carryfast your place on the boat was doubled booked and that means you will have to swim!I wonder if CF can water ski ? It was only 22 miles from Dunkirk !! Cheers Dennis.
I have a 23 mile rope, if you want to hire it. I am accepting public bids as of now.
I have a very hazy memory of an operator forcing BL to built a certain variant, (possibly) by threatening to shop elsewhere. This may be the confirmation the doubters need.
I think that the Bristol would be the last make which B R S bought with a Patricroft smoker in but not certain.
cheers Johnnie 
If any fleet ran 8LXB Big J’s it was Smith of Maddiston,and I just bet there will still be some ex SOM employees round Falkirk who could yet turn up the “goods”.But as I have argued on earlier posts,the Big J/8LXB would have been a very rare motor as Guy’s were right at the bottom of the Leyland Group “pecking order” and were lucky to survive as long as they did.However,survive they did until the late '70’s because they produced a very simple,tough and very competitively priced tractor unit,as well as rigids of course.IIRC the last new 180LXB Big J I bought at Bewick Transport which went on the road in Jan '77 cost me £9500 + VAT, a new F88 and a new 8LXB Sed/Atk at the same time set me back £15000 each + VAT.With the varied type of traffic we hauled the Big J could hold it’s own in the fleet no problem at all.Cheers Bewick.
Guy Big J Gardner 8LXB 240-250 Tractive Units.
According to written and photographic evidence Guy Big J Gardner 8LXB 240-250 Tractive Units were
built,sold to,and operated by,lorry operators,and here are some photographs of some of above lorries
that have been published on this TruckNetUK Forum!:-
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 0,s:0,i:73
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 3,s:0,i:82
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 4,s:0,i:85
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 5,s:0,i:89
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 6,s:0,i:92
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 7,s:0,i:95
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … 8,s:0,i:98
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … ,s:0,i:111
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … ,s:0,i:114
google.com/imgres?q=GUY+BIG+ … s:15,i:151
GOOGLE SEARCH:-
Commercialmotor.com - More ‘My Guy’ memories on Biglorryblog …
commercialmotor.com › News and Blogs › Big Lorry Blog
11 Feb 2011 — More ‘My Guy’ memories on Biglorryblog…can an anorak army have too … Smith did run quite a few Gardner 8LXB engines in their Guy Big J …
VALKYRIE.
sammyopisite:
I think that the Bristol would be the last make which B R S bought with a Patricroft smoker in but not certain.
cheers Johnnie
Johnnie, we did have a lot of j’s with 180’s but they went mainly on contracts where gross weight wasn’t important, I think we ran 18 on Goodyear tyres, they all started about 6 am, it took a good half hour for the smog to lift over Wolverhampton.
This is just the kind of shot we’re looking for of a Big J 8LXB,simples !!
This is a January '77 shot of the last of 6 Big J’s we ran at Bewick Transport the first 2 were a '73 and '74 which I bought secondhand for £3750 and £4250 in early '75 and they were both cracking motors which is why I bought new ones in '76 !!All had the 180LXB engine and one even had Power Steering !!!
Well we are up to 77 pages now and still no sightings of even one of the (alleged) many produced! 
Does seem strange that nothing has reared its head yet, maybe it is waiting patiently like the Loch Ness monster to put an appearance in when we least expect it?
Pete.
windrush:
Well we are up to 77 pages now and still no sightings of even one of the (alleged) many produced!Pete.
Finding Rocking horse ■■■■ springs to mind as well Pete !! Dennis.
Bewick:
This is just the kind of shot we’re looking for of a Big J 8LXB,simples !!
I notice on this photo the ERF has only the one air intake if i remember
the 8lxb day cab came with two long intakes and filters any reason why its only got the
one Dennis.
Bewick:
loader8:
I,ve got to say,some of you old duffers take some convincing about these old guys.
All i can say,apart from what i,ve already told you is that the guy with the 240 gardner was a flying machine and maddiston was full of them.
At 21 years old I had one on trunk for long enough and still know every bit of the m6 etc where i had to drop a gear with the 240,even after all these years.
Can still remember doing maddiston to tebay in 2hours 20 mins,and that was when the motorway started at carlisle.
As far as different chassis lengths for the guy with the 240,i don,t think so.they were all the same length i believe, the back cylinder of the 240 stuck out but not enough to reach the trailer.
Jeez you old guys think up some corkers.Looks like we’ve got another “solvent abuser” on the thread again lads!!! (Easy Start user that is!!) Where’s the photo’s then? It’s all well and good imagening your Big J had an 8LXB in it but the ■■■■■■■ 220 would perform every bit as well as a 240 and I quite believe that Maddiston would be crawling with that spec of Big J (■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ the “Easy Start” wey hey!!! Cheers Bewick.
Dont worry Bewick I note that loader 8 is from a town called Armadale , his mind is probably blown by the local brew , a substance named Buckfast , about 4 times as powerful as Easy Start .
I am surprised that no one has remembered that S of M had a large amount of Seddons fitted with de`rated 8 lx Gardner engines .
8LXBV8BRIAN:
Bewick:
This is just the kind of shot we’re looking for of a Big J 8LXB,simples !!I notice on this photo the ERF has only the one air intake if i remember
the 8lxb day cab came with two long intakes and filters any reason why its only got the
one Dennis.
I know this is not a "back of cab"shot Bri but it is one of the older of the two day cab B series we ran in the late '70’s and this one had the twin filter stack pipes,you can just make out the top of the N/s one.I thought that reverting to a single larger filter was an improvement plus it was the same filter as the Big j’s,Seddons,Atkis etc.so we didn’t need to stock the smaller filters for the the only motor on the fleet that used them ! Cheers Bewick.
This was the shot I was looking for to show the two different air cleaner arrangements on the B series 8LXB,the older one nearest was a '77 on the “S” and the other one was a '79 on the “V”,otherwise they were identical specs both having the Fuller 9509 box and the Eaton single speed axle.
.
