Those hubs dont look Volvo
looks same as on n12 from 80,s to my
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Anorak as you say both motors in your CM pics have bottom mounted wipers it remains a mystery as to why those early models supplied to the UK. market had top mounted wipers. Some one maybe your best mate CF. will know why, also when i said the air intake on the RH side denotes F89 that would appear to be untrue after looking at the pic of the 88 its mounted on the right looking from the rear of the cab. Thinking about this it would seem that all LHD models were like that in other words the air cleaner on LHD on the right rear of the engine and RHD on the left mainly because the gear linkage on UK models ran round the back of the engine having a much longer gear stick part of the mechanism being bolted directly to the side of the motor and having an annoying habit of working loose. If that article was written in 1971 which it, was does nt that F89 look lovely.Regards, Crow.
Hi Crow. I reckon the UK market got the “run out” stock of any old parts, because it was not as demanding as Europe, at least in terms of driver-oriented luxuries like wipers etc. 
. I think there are some UK 88s with upstairs wipers on the L reg (1972/3). When did the black plastic grille come in on 240s? I have a 1974 brochure which shows it.
Yes, both lorries in that CM article are stunners, to be fair. However, I have always preferred the look of the other Swedish make. There is a picture of a 3.4m wheelbase LBT140 in one of those old CMs, at the 1970 Earls Court Show, with its cab up. Here it is:
Anorak the black plastic grille on 88s 1973 I had an 88 demo L reg which Springys had for a week to evaluate 4 of us drove it and gave it the thumbs up it had a 16 speed box. They ordered 4 they were delivered not long after with plastic grille the demo had metal grille all were L 1973 reg but only with the 8 speed box a much inferior animal.I semm to think that the first 89s were launched in 1970 not in Uk and 88s in 1967. The only real way to ID. themotor in the pic is to get a look at the engine pull the front flap down and if you know what you re looking for you can tell other wise up the cab if poss or look on the drivers seat mounting the specs are there of course this could have been changed so only conclusive way is cab up. The axles look genuine Volvo to me. Crow.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Anorak the black plastic grille on 88s 1973 I had an 88 demo L reg which Springys had for a week to evaluate 4 of us drove it and gave it the thumbs up it had a 16 speed box. They ordered 4 they were delivered not long after with plastic grille the demo had metal grille all were L 1973 reg but onl with the 8 speed box a much inferior animal.I semm to think that the first 89s were launched in 1970 not in Uk and 88s in 1967. The only real way to ID. themotor in the pic is to get a look at the engine pull the front flap down and if you know what you re looking for you can tell other wise up the cab if poss or look on the drivers seat mounting the specs are there of course this could have been changed so only conclusive way is cab up. The axles look genuine Volvo to me. Crow.
Hi Crow. Yes, that makes sense. The 89 came out in Europe in 1970, so that CM report in early '71 would have been on one of the first. According to the various web sources, the Tip Top was launched in 1964, and replaced with the 88 in '65. I think 1967 was the year we got them over here, first imported as 6x2 tractors, in anticipation of an increase to 44 ton on 5 axles. Here is a (pretty sparse) article on the Volvo site: volvotrucks.com/trucks/globa … d_G88.aspx.
There are various photos of the TD96 (Tip Top) engine on the web, to aid identification of this model.
Evening all,strange how you look at these threads…and bang, your mind is off down a series of memory “railway sidings”! Happened to me when I glanced at this thread earlier, (when I should have been doing my “office work”). Ended up with me searching through all sorts of old papers and photographs from my time selling Volvos from Walsall, and my years in Europe, and did the memories flood back! And the proper work got postponed!!
That Greek lorry, could be an earlier FB88, double driver, which had the N series axle sets,with a F89 grill to smarten it up a bit. All the pre 74 (chrome grill) 8speeders seemed to have top mounted wipers.
Or it could be a F89, with an earlier F88 cab on it!!
Tpts Trouillet, from Angers, used to run a similar looking unit, big axle sets, 6x4, which with its broad grill I always took to be an F89…untill I saw it broken down with a large O&K on the trailer, and the tilted cab revealed the TD100 motor!!
Those FB88s could handle some weights, particularly if it had an MR61 Torque converter fitted. The Uniforce FB that I wrote about on the Black country thread, did not have one, but Amos, her driver had no problems, even well in excess of 100tons @270hp DIN.
I always rated the TD120, 12 litre, as perhaps the best engine of its time, and coupled to the SR61 16speed synchro box, the most “driveable” combination . Scania had a beautiful engine in the 14litre 350hp V, and a nice cab for living space, but poor, in comparison brakes, and they could never ever work out how to design a transmission!!! Somehow, those big Volvos just “purrrrrrrred” along!! And they handled so well.
Of all the photographs that I turned up, all the F89s have bottom mounted wipers, as do all the plastic grill 240 F88s. The chrome grill F88s have top mounted wipers, but then there is the photograph that I took in Kleyn Trucks yard at Veuren, of some F89s that I was going to import, and right next to them is a rigid, wearing an 89 grill, but with top wipers!!!
Like I say," memory railway sidings", great are they not, and much better than “office work”!!
Now when did we go to blue trim, from red/brown,…perhaps a little Bollinger will help! Cheerio for now. (sorry about being right off thread).
That might be the key to it- top wipers on 8 speed F88s, with metal grilles. Or top wipers on RHD F88s, with metal grilles. Or top wipers on 8 speed RHD metal grille F88s. How about this:
A late FB88, sporting an F89 grille! I have a hazy memory of an article in CM, that said that the last of the 240 F88s used this grille, instead of the narrow plastic one.
The F88 290 which was really an overblown 230 and was arguably the worst engine that Volvo ever produced, was made specially for the British market and also had the big grill.
Anorak that R reg FB88 is a 290 and although it s got the wide grille it s different slightly from the 89 in sofar as its as it s almost twice as thick as the 89, it sticks out further,the one on the Greek Volvo is much thinner in other words a genuine 89. Don t you find this thread much more interesting than the Gardner which thankfully seems to be in its death throes. Saviem if you sold Volvo s from Walsall you must have worked for Hartshornes.Regards,Crow.
Hi all
Just to throw a spanner in the works we have a March 73 F88 with stainless grill & bottom wipers from new.
How the alchol from the evaporator exhausted in the cab from the wiper motor great days.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Anorak that R reg FB88 is a 290 and although it s got the wide grille it s different slightly from the 89 in sofar as its as it s almost twice as thick as the 89, it sticks out further,the one on the Greek Volvo is much thinner in other words a genuine 89. Don t you find this thread much more interesting than the Gardner which thankfully seems to be in its death throes. Saviem if you sold Volvo s from Walsall you must have worked for Hartshornes.Regards,Crow.
Hi Crow. The FB88 in the picture does not have the “spaced-out” grille- it’s the “flush” one, like an 89. Given the appearance of the vehicle- TIR and all the rest of it- I would say it was an 89, but it says F88 on the door. I’ll have a look through the CM archives, to see if I can find that article. Yes, this is better than the poor old Gardner thread. There was plenty more mileage in that discussion- I had plenty more to say and even more to ask, but I can understand why it became intolerable to most people.
tribsa:
Hi all
Just to throw a spanner in the works we have a March 73 F88 with stainless grill & bottom wipers from new.
How the alchol from the evaporator exhausted in the cab from the wiper motor great days.
That is the same as the one in the CM article above, so it makes sense. Is it 8 or 16 speed, RHD or LHD?
Those FB88s could handle some weights, particularly if it had an MR61 Torque converter fitted. The Uniforce FB that I wrote about on the Black country thread, did not have one, but Amos, her driver had no problems, even well in excess of 100tons @270hp DIN.
Like I say," memory railway sidings", great are they not, and much better than “office work”!!
Now when did we go to blue trim, from red/brown,…perhaps a little Bollinger will help! Cheerio for now. (sorry about being right off thread).
[/quote]
Siddle C. Cook had a FB88 6x4 on a “G” plate and it went to Pickfords Birtley depot it was a 240 with a 8 speed box and that would handle 100tons or over I did a few shifts on it and it geared to around 38 mph and I found out the hard way that the exhaust brake was also the fuel cut off on that model ( used the exhaust brake to slow it to change down and soon as I went into neutral it went very quiet ) but I realised straight away and no harm was done.
cheers Johnnie 
SsssssszzzzzZ !! What the F***, Oh! You,ve just woke me up, Prats. Oh! Sorry mate. Bloody Hell It,s you Geoff and these others blokes, creeping round the trucks in St. Nick,s square, all with poxy tape measures, measuring the thicknesses of bleeding radiator surrounds, top or bottom mounted Wipers or right, left or upside down Air intakes. Now then, what did you pay for it ? What’s the pulling power of it, What,s the consumtion like ? Is it a good comfortable ride ? What’s the Brakes like ? No ? These are the wrong points of interest ?. Oh ! Dear think I ,d best try to get a bit more sleep, eh ?
Kalinihta, Archie. 
16 speed rhd
tribsa:
16 speed rhd
So UK must have got the narrow black grille in 1973. There are L plated ones with both types. I wonder when it appeared in Sweden?
For those of us kept awake by nagging doubts over F88 esoterica, how about this?
Had Volvo forgotten they had a 240bhp F88 in the catalogue?
Evening all, its a right b… when you cant just put your finger on the details isnt it. Archie has the correct questions, fuel, how much she cost, and does she pull, but the other bits are fascinating! Particularly as they are things that years ago I never paid any attention to!!
Now when I came into Volvo, (finally having given up the struggle with Atkinson, and Seddon), the stainless grill F88s were coming to an end. But I do recall driving, up at Barrhead, a stainless grill F88, with the 16speed. Where the wipers were, I don`t have a clue, I was captivated by that box! She must have been an early demo, because I can only recall plastic grills, with the SR61 box, (and bottom wipers)!
Mind you, it was all pretty academic, we could not easily get F88s outside of our allocation, and those were mostly sold in advance, F89s, were a distant dream. And my particular favourite, (and I still think the lorry that “finished off” the UK industry), the humble little F86 were in short supply, apart from the FBs. What a cracking 6wheeler they were, everything that an AEC Marshall should have been, but immesurably better!
Yes Geoff, guilty as charged! Hartshornes was a “bostin” company back in the 70s, and looking after its customers was the priority, but it got big, lost direction, the original team went on to do other things in other places, and what was, is no more, (so Im told, but of course Im long out of the industry).
Just as an aside, and particularly with Geoffs comments about Samuel Williams, at the back of the Bentley Mill lane yard, was an office and parking for John Hudsons vehicles. There were four, or six G88 day cab tractors, coupled to Whale tanks, stainless grill 230 8speeds, unregistered, and unused, and still there when I left late 73/early 74. Wonder what happened to them. I recall Dennis Barter, the MD of Hudsons being an amiable sort of chap.
Back to that Redcliff Volvo, Tony, your comments on the 290 are bang on, really the lorry that lost Volvo its reputation for quality. But that lorry is LHD, and I thought that 290s were only RHD??
Why Volvo could engineer the 89, into RHD for Australia, and not the UK, is perhaps a mystery that we will never know the answer to. I would suspect that the “true” reason lies in someones ego, at Barrhead/Irvine, rather than the engineers in Sweden!! From my experience of working with lorry manufacturers, personalities, and egos have lots to answer for!!!(mostly catastrophic ■■■■ ups, but then the “corporate man”, executes a neat side step, and dumps the blame elsewhere)!!
Ah, I shall away to my theraputic Bollinger, and remember Volvos I have known! (and a few ■■■■ ups)! Cheerio for now.
Saviem you re right it is LHD so therefore has to be an 89, it s only when you blow the pic up that you can see the steering wheel. Crow. It s also got the badge on the grille which says F89 Turbo Six 330 BHP or something similar, those badges were constantly being stolen and despite wiring ours on they still disappeared. Why it s got 88 badge on door is a mystery.
[zb]
anorak:tribsa:
16 speed rhdSo UK must have got the narrow black grille in 1973. There are L plated ones with both types. I wonder when it appeared in Sweden?
For those of us kept awake by nagging doubts over F88 esoterica, how about this?
0
Had Volvo forgotten they had a 240bhp F88 in the catalogue?
anorak,I think there’s a misconception here Volvo never made a 240 bhp engine as far as I know.The F86 was 206 bhp, the original F88 was 230 bhp for the british market and 260 bhp for the European market.It was blown to 290 bhp later.The F89 was 330 bhp for the British market and 350 bhp for European market.If I am wrong, no doubt I will be (quite rightly) corrected.
So would this be a L4951 Titan or a F88 ?
robthedog:
So would this be a L4951 Titan or a F88 ?
Low indicators, so probably an F88. All the L4951s I have seen on the internet have the high indicators.