The DAF 2500 I drove went like a rocket and would hold 75mph down the motorway with no probs!
1 Like
I didnāt say there was. I was merely giving you a context.
Edit to add:
With regard to the ghastly Scania 80, its regular driver explained that the clutch arrangement involved a horizontal piston that moved when the clutch was depressed, and that sudden changes of heart like double de-clutching confused the ā ā ā ā out of it and the piston would remain in the wrong position. Trust the so-called knock-the-bollix-out-of-British-technology Swedes to come up with that one! 
Drivers often forget that ALL lorries were difficult and unreliable in the old days. For eg I loved the comfortable and capable Volvos, but I lost count of the number of fuses I used to get through driving F10s and F12s ā I seemed to spend more time in the passenger seat burrowing in the fuse box than in the driving seat!
Our two DAF 2300 ATI 16 speed rigids were very capable motors Ro.Far better than our previous 12 speed 2500ās.Just a bit challenged running heavy on the serious hills on the Scottish paper contract they were bought for and which we also put a close coupled trailer load of our own on for free.But far better geared than the our over geared 2500ās.
Thatās interesting Ro.Double de clutching has always been my default style synchro or constant mesh or even car.
Day cab Scania 93 was another of our weird exceptions ran on lease for a while.I seem to remember the gear shift of that was also a bit awkward but better shift quality than the Volvo FL10.Also predictably performed more like the Volvo F7 horrible high revving torqueless joke of an engine.Was glad when their lease ran out.
Yes, CF, like you I still ddc in my Beamer: after 55 years Iād struggle not to!
The Scania 80 super had a 10 speed splitter-and as for the comments about it couldnāt cope with double declutching like we all did back then-did drivers of the 110 suffer from this as well?
I understand about it being force of habit-still do it in a manual lorry now sometimes, but never heard a complaint from 110 drivers of the day about the clutch
Canāt shed much light on your question, as I never drove a 110. According to notes I made in my log, well over 40 years ago, the Scania 80 I drove had an 8-sp splitter box. I think the 8-ltr engine used a different 'box from the 10-litre, because the 82s and the 92s I drove had 10-sp splitter 'boxes whereas the 112s I drove had 10-sp range-change boxes unless they had P-cabs, in which case they had the splitter version IIRC.
Yes the 8 litre scanias had a different box to the 10 litre ones for sure,the bigger scanias had the ten speed range change (not my favourite box if Iām honest but they were reliable)but the LB80 super definitely had a ten speed splitter-my father bought one and he loved it but I suppose coming from a Bedford KM 24 ton unit with its 135bhp the nearly new Scania was a definite upgrade lol
Apparently the air assisted clutch was very light
I still have the tray from the engine cover in my shed all these years laterš
I donāt doubt for a moment that youāre right about the LB80 having a 10-sp splitter 'box. It was the first Scania Iād driven and probably didnāt think to look for the 1st and 6th gears in the dog-leg!
Which reminds me of a trip I did double-manning a 143:450 many years later. It was an early one with the old 5 over 5 range-change. The owner was driving it as an 8-speeder. When I took over the controls in Germany, I noticed that the gap between 4th and 5th was too wide, especially on the hills; so I tried the dog-leg position and lo and behold I found proper 6th! Later in the trip I quietly broke the news to him that he had a 10-sp box, not an 8-sp one
Brilliant 
My dads LB 80 gearbox decided to disintegrate in Kent one day in the late 70ās and he was towed to Asian Transportās depot(Astran) and his gearbox was rebuilt by them-a tenuous link to Astranš
They were very loyal Scania users. It was probably in better hands than Scantrucks 
1 Like
I drove the Scania 93 and previously a long term Ryder Rental 112 both had a 10 speed splitter not range change.
I found shift quality of both to be better than Volvo.Just a bit awkward regarding the shift selector positioning.DAF 16 speeds in the 85, 95 and 2300 ATI were the best synchro transmissions/installations that I drove.
The 16 speed in the Daf CF was excellent to use too.
IMHO the Scania 10-sp range-change was much nicer to use than the splitter version 
Somewhat surprisingly, by far and away the best synchromesh lorry 'box I ever used was a ZF 9-sp installation in a DAF CF mk2 rigid 18-tonner. It was a 'fridge and I had to make dozens of multi-drops all round London in it. I was amazed! 
Quite.
By the '70s we were starting to catch on, by which time it was too late to compete
Exactly - too little too late. By the 80s we all wanted ācontinentalā wagons (faulty as they were).
1 Like
I must admit the 1st and 6th on the ten speed range change could be challenging. The 2 and 3 series were not to bad, but the LBs were something else to get 6th. I think it was due to the angle of the gearstick on the V8s and it being designed to pull towards you in a left hand drive. Never drove a 111 but plenty of 141s, where you could get away with 3,5,7,8,9,10. If you did need a snappy 7 to 6, the pushing away and backwards could unseat you. The range change switch on the stick used to rattle no matter what you tried and the horrible clunk dropping from high to low at anything other than walking pace was embarrassing in front of a load of drivers.
T.B