Spot-on there with your comment on the angle of the gearstick in 1st / 6th on the range-change fitted to the V8s. I drove both RHD and LHD 142s and 143s and in the LHD units the whole feel of the gearshift was vastly different and much better. I think it was because not only was the angle set up for LHD, but also you were pulling the lever towards you to dog-leg rather than pushing it away.
We have a 2011 Daf CF 8 wheel grab lorry that weāve owned from new and itās just used in the yard now,but the 8 speed manual is fantastic to use -I drove this lorry for about six years, itās actually very easy to drive without the clutch despite being obviously a synchro box-the two euro six CFās we have are not in the same league gearshift wise as they have cable linkages
I now have a new Scania with an auto box and despite kicking up a fuss to have a manual 12 speed because I wanted a proper gearbox itās actually very very good-far better than Iād hoped for even off road-I doubt Iād pick a manual version now if I had the choice
I never thought Iād say that!!
I drove a P cabbed Scania 112 many years ago with a 10 speed splitter which worked like any other splitter until you reached the top 2 gears .You had to move the gear stick into top gear with the split in low then back down and split up then back up with the split in high ā¦ very strange until you got used to it
I drove a P reg TK unit and the gear sequence was exactly the same thoā that was with the 2 speed back axle.
But was it a day or sleeper cab?
āDifficultā doesnāt touch the sides. I started off with 7.5 tonners in 1979 - TKs with the 4-sp box (like stirring semi-dried concrete with a spork), Armstrong steering that got very interesting with worn king-pins and a cramped, noisy, draughty cab. But it was my first lorry and I was proud (I know, I know) when I mastered it. Then an L-reg D0710 that was very second-hand in 1980 with the 4-sp: brakes, what brakes. What sort of sadist puts windscreen washers on the floor? And the Herculean effort to move the clutch pedal. And the waggly mirrors. But again, you master the thing, I even did clutchless changes when my left kneecap felt like it was about to pop.
I was given a Bedford TK 16-tonner luton with no power steering for a week. I had to stand up and f art to get it round the roundabouts. Though to be fair, driving without power steering is more about technique than brawn, unless youāre manoevering in a tight space. I had no trouble driving Leyland Titan PD2s and 3s with armstrong steering. It helps āyou plan your driveā by looking ahead, rather like constant-mesh 'boxes do! I once brought a F8 MAN drawbar outfit back from the Continent with a packed in power-steering.
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Indeed - although these days I drive modern stuff (if you can call an Isuzu āmodernā) Iāve never forgotten the lessons I learnt a year or 30 ago - look well ahead and plot.
Youāve just brought back some (not so good) memories there mate.
The TK and the D series 4 wheelers, were what I first droveā¦after tramping for 6 months on a Ford Transit pick up, they were an actual improvement.
I then got a 190/30 Fiat, a bit more ārefinedā, but with a ratchet handbrake,ā¦ the thing jammed on at the entrance to āThe Rampā truckpark at Bishopgate (long gone) with a massive queue building up behind me while waiting for a callout, I was only a young lad,.and I got a lot of (friendly) stick off the queing driversā¦and a massive cheer when I walked in the pub afterwards..
Other than that I loved that truckā¦it wasnt a sleeper cab as such, but there was room behind the seats for a camping mattresā¦only problem was the back part of the cab was metal, so my sleeping bag got wet off the condensation.
But Iād spent the previous year sleeeping (or trying to) across the seats in a Transit pick up,.Ford D series,.and the dreaded narrow parcel shelf of the TK.
Young lads today would not put up with all thatā¦and rightly so, but it was normal back then,.we knew nothing else,.and the only alternative were transport digs, that ranged from grotty to minging.
First night out in a proper sleeper (that I was driving myself) was a Merc, the narrow version, but it still had 2 bunks.
First artic sleeper I drove was a Magirus Deutz 410, for a o/d mate on holiday relief, (it actually had a night heater even in those days) then a 2800 DAF on holiday relief agsin for another owner driver mate.
Luxury did not begin to describe them both in comparison to cabbing it in a day cab.
Then my first artic full time job was back to a day cab, ERF B Seriesā¦kipping across the engine cover on a ābedā base made out of an old wooden door.
Crap conditions but a much better job in those days, compared with all the ag and b/s we have to put up with in todays cluster ā ā ā ā of an industry.
Iād apologise but Iām too long in the tooth and too cussed for that 
I used to (try) to kip across the seats in the TK (and the TLs that followed), but given that the mob I worked for did a lot of removals as well as general, most of them had a luton and some ties and some furniture blankets. Anyway, one night I was parked for the night on a layby somewhere and a bright idea wandered into my head. The TL had side door and a vacant luton and I thinks to myself āif I rig this up right, I could get some decent sleepā and I was just merry enough (Iād usually park near a town with a pub and a chippy) to give it a bash - climb over the general freight, drag some furniture blankets up into the luton, sleeping bag on top, wind-up alarm clock, secure the side door with tiesā¦ jobās a good 'un. I even rigged up the same thing at Penrith truck stop and other similar places in the middle of winter and it never occurred to me that some ar$ehol3 could trap me inside the back of the wagon. I still remember one winterās night somewhere in the Welsh Borders in a TK (XMH 935T): Iād tried to sleep across the seats and I suppose I dozed for a bitā¦ when the alarm went off, I knew it had been a cold night so I got myself dressed, got out of the wagon and began scraping the ice off the windscreen. Got back in the cab, still couldnāt see nothing. Why? Because the windscreen was iced up on the inside.
Donāt start me on ratchet handbrakes - MYJ 475J, a Bedford KG down-rated to 7.5T with a ratchet handbrake next to the driverās door that āoperatedā a drum brake on the prop-shaft. The aforementioned 0710 D-series with a fly-off ratchet brake under the metal ādashā.
When I got my DAF (a lowly 2100), I was proper made up - twin bunks, a proper stereo/ cassette unit, a passenger-side electric window if you please and heated mirrors AND illuminated switches. These days, all that is taken for granted but, as you say, the BS multiplies every third day.
Weeeell, it had āspaceā behind the āseatsā and I tried it once. Woke up with cold feet ācos I must have stretched out in my sleep and pushed the side window out! Luckily it was still hanging out in the rubber seal so managed to put it back in in the morning! Never again, across the seats after that thoā that wasnāt much better. 
^^^^^
As I said, the conditions and sh that we all once put up with eh? 
Yeah, but we had some fun 
Aye we certainly had a social life within the job thenā¦
Tbf I still do try to, but up to a point, and nowhere near the wild nights out I had as a young ladā¦Jeez no.
I think our generation had the best days in the tramping job,.despite the crap trucks and conditions, we certainly didnt park in kin lay bys waiting for 9 hours to clock up as many do today anyway.
Here endeth the lesson
Not quite Mr Suede.
There are a couple of Seddon photos here, could be the 50ās/60ās and as itās a left hand drive, I wonder if it ended up in Belgium.
At least the old fellers had a reliable night heater.
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Life must have been tough for the driver of the first two pictured motors with no seats in ā¦ joking aside i think the comments about poor motors but best period are spot on the job is a joke now and unfortunately anyone can drive a lorry now and the sad thing is they do, our industry is gone
The seats are there Ramone, I can definitely see the plywood on the floor in the first pic