tonyj105:
“DEANB”I imagine all auto boxes were terrible at first. I can remember driving early auto’s in DAF’s and MAN’s and they were
bloody dangerous in my opinion.
i think CS were probably among the 1st to explore driver fatigue, we had already run comparisons of the early auto’s against our fleet trucks , which quickly led to specifying all the new tractor units with auto boxes, usually DAF CF’s in our case. but the rigids were another matter , and they were the one’s that needed it as its was all urban multi drops on days but more distance and less drops on nights. you just couldn’t get an auto rigid of any description to try, and the manufacturers were not really interested , i think we managed to get a DAF 45 7.5 tonne retro fitted with an auto to try and a 26 tonner which had also been converted.
i sat in on quite a few meetings on the subject. it was a complete leap of faith to get DAF to supply a chassis then get Allisons to fit the box, it was an enormously expensive machine to get built . got to hand it to the northampton workshop manager he really went to town to get it sorted. once we got it , i had to make it work as good as or better than the manuals. allisons did a lot of fettling with a laptop on the gearbox, i spent a day with them running it up and the A45 loaded and checking when it changed gear , then we’d go back and change the shift pattern till it was working spot on . couldn’t quite make it as good on fuel as a manual, but the thing took off from a standing start like its arse was on fire, nothing would touch it, absolute pleasure to drive
i swapped it between coventry and leicester area’s , crackin motor easy to drive , the driver could concentrate on road conditions and not stirring a ruddy 6 speeder. enough to say look where we are now auto’s on everything , its a long, long way from 2002 when nobody in truck building was listening to us.
tony
Intresting comments Tony about driver fatigue and auto boxes. 
I imagine as they were such a large company
truck manufacturers would have been keen to get there business. Personally i prefer a manual box over a auto box
even though the modern ones like the Volvo drive so well. As for fatigue i think auto boxes make you more tired,as
all you have to do is steer. At least with a manual you are having to change gear unless tramping on the motorway. 
ArcDaz:
“DEANB”Hay Dean another nice selection of pictrures of the odds & sods department Daz
Cheers Daz,glad you liked them.
acab:
CS ran a Volvo fleet from around 1968 until 1974. They started out with the F88 when Jim MCKelvie sold his demonstrator to my dad at Blairgowrie. Jim turned up in the 88 and had a colleague follow him in his car. He told my dad he was intent on selling him either the car or the truck as he’d driven up from Barrhead and wasn’t driving back without a sale of some sort. They did a deal on the truck and that started off the relationship. My dad’s fleet of AEC’s and Guys were sold off and replaced by Volvo’s. When the F86 was introduced to the UK market CS bought them for UK work and used the F88’s for continental operation in the main. The F86 became the workhorse of their general fleet due to it’s lighter weight (important for fridge work) and lower operating costs. Quite a few of the F86 units did continental work as well. They were fitted with a bed across the back of the cab. The F88 units became problematic with cylinder head failure around the 100k mile point when the ey were out of warranty becoming a regular occurence. CS contacted other Scottish operators of the F88 and found a pattern emerging of the same fault amongst them all. Jim Mckelvie tried to lobby for help from the factory but Sweden didn’t want to know. As a result CS decided to part company with Volvo and got in demonstration vehicles from DAF who were new to the UK market at that point and Mercedes who had been established here for several years by then. Mercedes won the business and an initial batch of 100 LPS 1924 units were bought. These were used for both UK general and European work.Claben were part of Christian Salvesen having been bought out by them in the early 1960’s but were operated completely separately fom Christian Salvesen Transport Ltd. They operated under Salvesen’s Fisheries division whilst CS Transport Ltd was a separate business within the Food Services division. Claben had been operating Mercedes units on their fleet for a number of years with a mix of mainly 1418 models plus some 1924 versions. The Claben fleet in Aberdeen was merged with the CS Aberdeen depot in 1976 in a bid to stem losses at both operations. This didn’t work and the depot was closed around 18 months later.
The last of the LPS models bought by CS arrived in 1975 on the P registration and the first New Generation 1626 models arrived on fleet the following year on R registrations having been launched in Germany late in 1975. The LPS 1924 was still on sale for around a year alongside the NG 1626 on the UK market as the model cross over took place. CS used the 1626 for continental work and started buying the 1619 when it was launched in 1977 to replace the F86 units that were still on fleet. All the Volvos were gone by 1978.
I have to say “acab” i have never ready anything about the early F88’s with the 260 or 235bhp motor being anything but ultra
reliable and they were renowned for it. I admit the 290 lump gave early problems as Volvo rushed it through as the competitors
were beginning to catch up.However once they had ironed out the problems again they were reliable and people like Cadwalladers
would have still bought them if Volvo had still made them.
Out of intrest do you know which engine it was that had the cylinder head issues ■■
Heres a bit about Jim McKelvie you may find intresting.
Click on page twice to read.
It was rated very highly in this early road test from 1968.
oiltreader:
Interesting read acab Ta.
Oily
Thanks for the pics Oily.
rigsby:
That comment about Volvo’s negative attitude stirred my memory . I had a new FL10 8wheeler in 1986 ,all was well for a while until I engaged Ist gear to get out of a sticky spot . Let the clutch in and bang , both prop shafts and the centre bearing bent all shapes .We got it into Volvo and they quoted silly money for repairs until I compared it to a new one on the forecourt , even though the engine was FL10 the actual chassis was an FL7 . They denied and were generally obstructive until the gaffer forced the fleet engineer to come outside while we photographed them . It was never brought up to FL10 standard . Also the legendary Peter Winterbottom the OD who was so sick of Volvo’s attitude and constant messing about that he loaded his up and drove it into the middle of the lawn at Volvo uk’s head office . I believe that got their attention .
Evening Dave, Hope you are keeping well chap.
That’s an odd thing to have happened regarding the lighter chassis. Did Volvo repair it under warranty once you had
pointed out the wrong chassis ■■
gazsa401:
“DEANB”Now then Mr Gardner what’s the crack with this one Chris,bit of a crew cab/sleeper conversion job !
Hey up Dean the “Longline” Atkinson was new to Stirlands it was sold on after 8 years service and later on was preserved
Sadly it was destroyed by a fire in a barn
Cheers Gary
Thats a shame Gary but explains why Chris said it had not been taxed since 1985 ! 
Carryfast:
Thanks for that great historical account.
CS were at the top of my list of naively hopeful opportunities in the day until the reality kicked in that they among others weren’t going to say yes you’ll be off across Europe within a day ot two of the interview.
But didn’t realise then and to date that they were actually using such downmarket kit for the job anyay.That seems to confirm some of what I’ve said elsewhere about the F88 being overrated in the form of a relatively small over stressed engine for the job.How they thought that the F86 instead of F89 was going to fix that is anyone’s guess.
Followed by 1619 and 1626 as I said seems a bit of a let down and doesn’t fit the dream even if anyone was lucky enough to get the job.I’d have expected more along the lines of the V10.
I honestly dont know why i even bother answering a post from you.
As usual you are knocking Volvo for the sake of knocking them,and you seem to hate Volvo and Scania.
You are knocking the F86,but its not always about power. Some operators were more intrested in payload and the F86
had without doubt, and possibly the best payload out of any 32 tonner at that time. With a flat bed it was possible to
load 23 tons for a 32 tonner !!!
I think you need to look at history !!! Who is still selling trucks in the UK ■■
Dont forget Volvo was soon out selling every make in the heavy end of the UK market and held that number one
position for years,outselling Leyland regularly. There was a reason why that happened,reliability,driver comfort,
re sale value. Volvo and Scania held there second hand prices better than any other make throughout the 70’s,80’s,90’s.
Its a well known fact Carryfast that you ■■■■ up every thread you start spouting your crap on ! 
Have you noticed certain respected posters have stopped posting because of your relentless
bull ■■■■,the most recent being “Gingerfold” Graham Edge ! 
Commercial motor
An iconic truck.
ERF-NGC-European:
“Carryfast”That seems to confirm some of what I’ve said elsewhere about the F88 being overrated in the form of a relatively small over stressed engine for the job.How they thought that the F86 instead of F89 was going to fix that is anyone’s guess.
Followed by 1619 and 1626 as I said seems a bit of a let down and doesn’t fit the dream even if anyone was lucky enough to get the job.I’d have expected more along the lines of the V10.I did quite a bit of frigo work in the UK in the early to mid-80s during the transitions from 32-38 tonnes (1983 IIRC). We too used a lot of 1619s, 1625s and 1626s. The 1625/6s were reliable and up the job for the period. The 1619s were a bit of a pain on the long motorway banks (you’d come off the Medway on the M2 at 70 mph and be down to 13 mph crawling up Swanscombe Hill) but you were not alone, for behind you and in front of you were all those 180-Gardner powered Atkinsons and similar-powered DAFs, Fords etc doing the same thing so it wasn’t exactly a problem. Most of the NG Mercs that did Italy etc were 1628s; and the later 1633s - now they were fliers and still the best Mercs for my money!
I agree Ro,those motors that Christian Salvesen were operating in 1974 were perfectly acceptable for that time.
Hargreaves:
The p s Simpson motor is from near Lincoln There still about running some nice Volvo s on tanker work out of immingham possibly for hydro or a ad blue company
Thanks for the info “Hargreaves”
dave docwra:
“DEANB”Anyone recognise the Scania ■■
The red & blue Scania could be one of Jerry Stacey’s from Waltham Cross.
Thanks for the possible name Dave.
smallcoal:
“DEANB”Watts DAF. Not sure if Watts is the haulier or a DAF dealer ■■
Watts are a daf truck dealer that is a demo unit cheers john
I thought they were the DAF dealer,but thanks for confirming John.
smallcoal:
Hi. Dean,talking about marina vans my dad worked for South Wales electricity board ,they had a lot of Leyland mini,s and marina vans on the fleet ,they had big Ford transits as well here’s a pic of one of them in port talbot
Will have a look and see if i have anything on them and get back to you tomorrow John.
