That Marathon might even have been a pre-production model. Here’s a prototype they sent down to the Gulf with an Astran trailer. You can see the step forward of the wheel.
And to compare cab height with contemporaries, these pics give a rough guide.
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Would that be the Destination Doha Marathon? .I think it had a big Cummins in if it was. They were a design that was rushed through with many short comings when launched just like the ill fated V8. The excuse from Leyland was that it was a stop gap while the T45 was being developed but it was in production for 8 years and it took 6 years before the Marathon 2 was launched with many of the minor faults ironed out which could have been cured much earlier. Then the T45 Roadtrain was launched with a “rest cab” instead of a full sleeper and a Spicer box instead of a Fuller . A question i asked a few years back … Why did British Leyland fail? 
This was some years earlier. As I say it was a prototype and had a Cummins 335, which production models didn’t have (though it was offered as an option). I think the Destination Doha one had the TL12 in it. It was in their ochre & white livery and in any case was a 4x2. Both those ‘Astran’ Marathons had a few problems down the road.
Regarding the T45, like you, I couldn’t understand why UK buyers were supplied with the Leyland lump with a Spicer, when the standard LHD French Roadtrain had Rolls Royce 350 with Fuller. Crazy…
Hey Dennis,
So nice to see you around here albeit with a new name just like me!! 
Reading the offerings here for the last few days are indeed a little remisent of the old days!! (Geoffrey steam rolling his beleif’s) nothing much has changed 
Anyway it’s nice to see that your still here, and i trust that both you & Anne are keeping well?
Take Care
E.W.
dITTO WELCOME BACK DENNIS!!
The site certainly does not meet with my approval either , but seeing you here again has brightened up my evening, i did p.m. Andrew Cooper when i 1st managed to get back on here and he was so disollusioned that i think he threw the towel in!! 
as he stated more than a decade of effort and information gone!
Hope you decide to look in now and again as i miss your knowledgable input, and who knows this may be the decade that the mystery of the 8 LXB Guy Big J gets sorted!!
take care.
E.W.
It was obviously an optical illusion then given that the overall heights look the same. Was there more headroom in the SA’s/ERF’s? My memory of the Marathon was of a cramped cab with a steering wheel that had been designed for a mini.
That Marathon was the 1st produced & left ■■■■■■, i’m quite sure that i have read on the old truck net site years ago, it also spent a part of it’s life as a heavy haul unit for south Wales operator Tony Morgan Bridgend, again there was much reference to it on the old forum under Old South Wales Hauliers!
This was one of my rental trucks and I sat behind the wheel often. We used to hire it out to the local Albion factory (I think that was why we had this and its sister truck DDS11T in the fleet to be honest) and as I was the only person in the truck rental side that had a Class One licence I would use it to collect trailers from TIP for them. It just seemed so much higher than the other tractor units we had.
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I remember a very detailed document on here from years ago (I don’t know how to find it but posters more tech savvy might be able to) from a poster (Gingerfold??) regarding the Marathon. If anyone knows how to find it I’d be interested to read it again.
That was exactly my experience of the Marathon hated the steering wheel and that awful short sleeper was no fun for nights out.
Don’t mention the brakes hauling Dutch loaded unaccompanied trailers on traction work out of Felixstowe.
Crazy or Conspiracy ?.The DAF tie up was a done deal and DAF didn’t want any inconvenient competition with the 2800/3300 but the banks also didn’t want to be left out of pocket.So just enough of the ‘right’ T45 made and sold, in a fringe market, no threat to DAF sales, to get their money back it had to be.
Exactly the same thing happened with Bedford ( GMC ) v Volvo and Paccar ( KW ) v Foden .
I think about the same height. I never sat in one so I can’t testify as to the driver’s space, but the ERFs and SA of that time were definitely not cramped, and had proper steering wheels!
It’s very good, but about a dozen pages long. I may have a scan of it but not sure if it’ll be readable on here.
Couple of Crusaders
Have a close look at the driver, do you think he had a very early mobile phone■■? 
Gentleman in this photo is Mr “Jakey” Adams founder of JR Adams.
He probably lost count of the number of Scammels he bought over the years
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Re the Crusader picture, I think he is more likely to have a poorly or itchy ear. I think that reg. no. is ‘72 isnt’ it.? My brother and I had a small haulage firm in those days and we had a mobile phone in one vehicle. With its battery it was about the same size as 2 house bricks so if our friend had actually banged it to his ear it really would be poorly.
The other thing was you had to be close to a fairly rare radio mast to make a contact. I once pulled into a lay-by on a lonely Yorkshire moor and my wheels promptly sank into the soft surface. No problem, right alongside the lay-by was a bloody great mast. 
We soon got rid of it and instead went for little radio that connected to Securicor all up and down main roads and motorways. You couldn’t talk direct to the office, they passed messages back and forth, but it was a great improvement on the housebrick. 
Is the topic still on here or has it disappeared. Even a link to it if it still exists would suffice.
If you click on Old Timers and scroll down ad nauseam, you’ll find all those old threads pertaining to Leyland’s demise. I’ve just had a quick look and found this one:
I still have my “1988 Panasonic two brick with seperate hand set” mobile, complete with leather case. I was one of the first ones in the NE to have “hands free”
In the early seventies we used to work with a small plant hire company. The foreman would be looking after a few sites on a daily basis. He had an early mobile system fitted in his van and to contact him meant a landline call to the BT operator and ask for “Tyne Wear Radio Phone” once through to their operator they would transfer the call to the mobile. However only a one way conversation was possible.