Sorry if this has been covered before - when was the Buffalo offered with the L12 engine? I’m familiar with the 500 series, then the TL11 as fitted to the Buffalo 2, but ignorant of any other options.
My dad’s R-reg Buffalo had (I assume) the 500 series engine, an under-bumper exhaust, and a Fuller 4 over 4 'box, which I think was the ‘round the corner’ pattern, i.e;
1/5 4/8
2/6 3/7
Buffalo’s had the L12 option from 78 on, usually with a front mounted exhaust and the slow wide spaced 6 speed box. The TL11 engine was still available at the same time with the superb fuller box and to be fair went really well with 20t on it’s back. The L12 was a good puller too but the 6 speed was slow changing and with wide ratio’s hindered it. All the L12’s we had were S & T regs and were a very reliable cheap lightweight 32 tonner, if it had been offered with the 9 speed fuller it could have been even better.
The L12 Buffalo was a popular choice with the petroleum and oil companies as a replacement for the AEC Mandator which was discontinued in mid-1977 and the Mandator had always been a favourite with the oil companies.
gingerfold:
The L12 Buffalo was a popular choice with the petroleum and oil companies as a replacement for the AEC Mandator which was discontinued in mid-1977 and the Mandator had always been a favourite with the oil companies.
that would make sense as at the time I often heard them called buffadator’s , the big let down with them was the cab which was old fashioned compared with the likes of the Volvo F7 , scania 81 & daf 2300 which were in the same sort of class , a bad fault was if the cab hinges weren’t greased regular they would seize and snap & the door would fall off!!! 
Strictly off topic, but since the Scammell Routeman thread features so many Handymen, Trunkers and even Constructors and also since this thread has seen several mentions of L12 engines and the AEC D203 gearbox, I hope to be forgiven.
Returning to the Malta L12 8 legger briefly, about which there has been speculation over the rear axles and springs, a repeat viewing of the clip has made me wonder whether even more surgery has been carried out on this AEC, beyond the engine transplant.
At 1.06 approximately the driver drops another cog - and remarkably quickly too, it seems quicker than i reckon I could hook 1st especially, or even 2nd in the six speed AEC box (and I regularly drive a vehicle with the smaller AEC D197 box which normally went in the Mercury and Marshall) , so given the Maltese’ known partiality for modifications, does this lorry have the quick changing fuller box that has been suggested as the improvement the L12 needed?
Just looking at the clip again you could be correct about the gearbox CAV. I think that the springs are ok and are AEC suspension, the four spring arrangement always had a wider axle spread than the 2-spring fully articulated bogie. Still can’t decide about the axle hubs, maybe axles from a Scammell Routeman 8-wheeler■■? 
Well it was certainly nailed down ,looked well heavy what was the difference between the AV760 and the L12 ?
ramone:
Well it was certainly nailed down ,looked well heavy what was the difference between the AV760 and the L12 ?
Long time ago but visually: fancy finned rocker covers, Bosch pump, twin oil filters and the compressor mounted vertically rather than at an angle as had been normal AEC practice. Can’t recall whether the L12 had the toothed drive belt or not.
Going back to the Maltese lorry briefly: I can’t see why they would fit Routeman axles but retain the 4 spring suspension. The fairground guys loved the Routeman rear end because of it off road traction and would cut the complete rear section of chassis out and graft it onto whatever convenient 6 or 8 wheeler they were playing with at the time. They certainly would not have entertained just fitting the axles, so I assume the same knowledge would exist in Malta.
I once worked with an ex fitter from Marley Tiles who was just a tad critical of the 500 series engine, of which they had ‘a few’. On more than one occasion they had had to investigate an oil leak on vehicles which had only just been delivered. It turned out that the leak was coming from in between the engine block and the crankcase, which were doing a little dance together because the securing nuts were loose.
Just seen a photo on Bubbs’ scrapbook thread showing a Buffalo mk111 on an N reg… anyone know when/what the changeover from mk1 to mk11 was?
I know this isn’t strictly to this topic,but i can never understand Leylands policy
with the 500 series engine. It seems that that kept trying and trying and trying,forcing customers to have the engine,be it in the trucks or the National
bus,and they let the customers put up with the grief of development!
Until modern day oils came out,the national with the 500 was not very good,but
was transformed when they finally gave in and fitted the 680/L11/TL11,and it seems
the trucks were the same.
it just seems to me,and i may be a bit nieve,that leyland were quite arrogant?
Kev73:
I know this isn’t strictly to this topic,but i can never understand Leylands policy
with the 500 series engine. It seems that that kept trying and trying and trying,forcing customers to have the engine,be it in the trucks or the National
bus,and they let the customers put up with the grief of development!Until modern day oils came out,the national with the 500 was not very good,but
was transformed when they finally gave in and fitted the 680/L11/TL11,and it seems
the trucks were the same.it just seems to me,and i may be a bit nieve,that leyland were quite arrogant?
You’re right Leyland were arrogant and traded off the good name they had made many years before, Leyland sales people that called on us even insisted on the spec’s of lorries we had from them even after we had asked for something else i.e. axle ratio’s gearbox type etc.
Some of our fleet engineers just rolled over and accepted what ever they sent which for us at the sharp end was sometimes a headache.
cav551:
ramone:
Well it was certainly nailed down ,looked well heavy what was the difference between the AV760 and the L12 ?Long time ago but visually: fancy finned rocker covers, Bosch pump, twin oil filters and the compressor mounted vertically rather than at an angle as had been normal AEC practice. Can’t recall whether the L12 had the toothed drive belt or not.
Going back to the Maltese lorry briefly: I can’t see why they would fit Routeman axles but retain the 4 spring suspension. The fairground guys loved the Routeman rear end because of it off road traction and would cut the complete rear section of chassis out and graft it onto whatever convenient 6 or 8 wheeler they were playing with at the time. They certainly would not have entertained just fitting the axles, so I assume the same knowledge would exist in Malta.
Did they perform better than the AV760?
Sadly my only experience of the L12 was of one solitary vehicle, which was a very, very tired Tarmac Octopus which had come from another plant. This was an owner driver’s wagon and he didn’t like spending money on it. I never did much to it - only those jobs he didn’t feel like doing. I’ve still got the old combined oil pressure/coolant temperature gauge he got me to fit (lovely job!). It didn’t make any difference to the low oil pressure. This was at the time when the company vehicles were TL 11 Constructor sixes and Rolls 265 eights. Most of the O/Ds ran Reivers, with the odd 6LXB 8 leg Foden or ERF and, I think, a couple of 500 series Bisons (which I never touched) and one Maggie, or Humbolts (Klockner-Humboldt- Deutz) as they were referred to by other fitters I knew. The L12 man wasn’t too impressed because he ran with the Constructor 8s which left him behind, though of course he left the Gardners standing. I followed it a couple of times and it seemed to be going alright, but by '86 there were’nt that many MM8s about to compare it with mentally. I would say it would be about the same. It didn’t sound much different - perhaps a bit higher pitched.
What happened to it I don’t know, since I left for half as much money again, a nice new fully equipped Transit van to take home and no more 6am starts 20 miles from home.
Generally the L12 was thought to be “less lively” than an AV760 because the L12 was designed for turbo-charging but it was naturally aspirated. The Bosch fuel pump was a bonus though. AV760’s with Bosch fuel pumps were always much livelier engines than AV760s with CAV or Simms fuel pumps, although at the expense of using more fuel.
Our shop steward’s AV760 with “fettled” Bosch pump used to spit flames from the exhaust (looked spectacular at night!) and couldn’t be caught by the new ERFs with ■■■■■■■ 205 empty or loaded.
Yes, the Bosch pump could be “fettled” very nicely to give improved performance. There are many recorded instances of buyers of second hand Mandators replacing CAV or Simms pumps with Bosch pumps. Spiers of Melksham being one such operator.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Our shop steward’s AV760 with “fettled” Bosch pump used to spit flames from the exhaust (looked spectacular at night!) and couldn’t be caught by the new ERFs with ■■■■■■■ 205 empty or loaded.
Hiya did’nt the 205 ■■■■■■■ have the 10speed fuller that only give 54mph the 9 speed come later that was faster.
most of the AEC’s was flying machines. bird,s eye frozen foods had 80mph machines. theirs a write up in a classic
commercial About the fast mk5 AEC,s that Adams butter had.My AEC was low speed diff,s but now she has 60 mph plus.
i don’t use the speed its just less revs at 50mph.
John
Slightly off topic but the Adams Mandator Mk.Vs were built to Adams’ specification to include a high speed diff. AEC always listened to customer’s ideas and built what they wanted provided it wasn’t too outlandish. The BCVM Archives at Leyland contains thousands of non-standard chassis build sheets for AECs, all with customer modifications.
Deiseldog 66 were u at Banbury buildings when they had Leyland comets.