50 ton payload.
1 Like
I remember sitting at the wheel of one of those impressive Scammells at the CV motor show in the early very early '70s. I was disappointed to find no gear-lever, just an Allison auto box. Funny how my mindset hasn’t changed on that issue! 
1 Like
Weather is crap more wind and rain storms coming so glad I am not on the road every day fighting the elements. A couple shots today from back when the job was harder but the men just got on with the everyday work, Buzzer
nmp’s
3 Likes
Here’s an oddity I spotted online: a Yank mag called Double Clutch. I’ve recently seen other references to double clutch(ing) on Us literature.
Is this just a another lazy Americanism? We’ve always used the verb to declutch, meaning to disengage the clutch using the pedal; doing so twice during a constant-mesh gearchange being double-declutching. I wonder for how long they’ve had this usage 
, as I’ve not come across it till very recently.
1 Like
I have no idea, but I wonder about that picture, do you think it is an early sleeper cab? A bit cramped but then so was my Mk.2 Atki at Econofreight. 
It might be a crew cab 
The Heybrook garage picture brought back some memories.
To be fair it’s also a double engagement of the clutch firstly through neutral then re engagement after selecting the gear.
Bearing in mind that it’s the engagement of the clutch in neutral that actually matches the speeds of the required gear trains and gearsets.
While at least both sides of the Atlantic agree it’s the correct way to drive, not floating gears by not using the clutch at all.
At the time, I had the knack of using a Fuller box twin split, right through the box, splitting every gear, without a clutch, down to a fine art…which I found better for keeping up the monentum.
(On other hand, I must admit I found timing the revs right on a Spicer Box quite difficult in comparison. but did eventually master it…on a Leyland Roadtrain I think it was )
So why is using it ‘the correct way’ as you term it, any better?
We had a few of those T45 British Leyland units with the Rolls-Royce engine in them, They were single cab units & they tried to get drivers to use them on night outs,
The best unit I ever had was the DAF 2800 with the ZF gearbox with eight speed range-change & splitter,
I had that for a long time & gave up the chance of a new Iveco Turbo Star thing, Bloody 'orrible tiny pedal box in it & a plastic dash that made a hell of a noise when driving on anything but a smooth surface.
To be fair I had already said all that in fewer words than you’ve used. My comment was entirely linguistic, not mechanical. Why re-state the obvious?
but the 13-speed Fuller installation in the TurboStar was supposed to be legendary! As indeed was the Twin-splitter installation in the EuroStar , though not as good as in the MAN F90.
I didn’t get to try it out fully, just a trip around the industrial estate because it was going out on night trunk, I have big feet & would have needed ballet shoes to press those pedals individually lol.
Typical of the waffle espoused by someone who has read all about it, but has no real experience.
Talking to blokes who rebuild these 'boxes for a living, clutchless changing does create slightly more wear, but not enough to cause premature failure. The extra wear is to parts that are cheap and replaced as a matter of course, during any rebuild.
Well I’ve actually got ballet shoes and could easily drive an '70s ERF in them but perhaps it doesn’t work the other way round, as you found out 
1 Like
Clutchless changes in a sychro box of course does cause wear - mostly on the synchro cones, I believe (but don’t KNOW ). I still occasionally do it in my Beamer just to keep my hand in (foot in) so to speak. 
1 Like
You mentioned nights out in the first T45s …those first Roadtrains came with a fold down bunk as far as I remember, which was deffo an improvement on sleeping across front seats and an engine hump as most did in those days.
Then the later ones, TL12s? had the twin bunk sleeper.
I remember going to Malcolm Harrisons looking at 2nd hand trucks.
There were 6 Roadtrains, all top spec, same year of reg, from same co, all identical.
One was over 5k cheaper than the others, when I asked why, he told me it had the Leyland TL engine, where as the others had 290E Cummins in them, which kinda said it all.
The one’s we had didn’t have a fold down bunk, just a plain day cab, The engines were strong & used continually on day & night trunk duties. The drivers that were asked to do night outs in them said book us into a premier inn then, they soon dropped that idea.
Correct, I thought the conversation was about constant mesh transmissions, particularly Eaton Fuller Road Ranger.