i saw that once and thought what a good idea so i took the seat out of my vabis - a lot better then more room to move around!
put this here to a like the bonneted ls76
I remember as a kid riding in my old mans tanker there was a firm from Baildon near Bradford that run LB76s were they called Chippys ■■?
I remember British Ropes at Doncaster having these Scania Vabis Units, The firm I worked for in the 60/70s Bought on of them, F.Short & Sons The driver was Billy Hodgson, I dont know what happened to it, but Billy went on to work for Sean Hannah who was Shorties foreman fitter & went on to start his own haulage company, then into mobile crane hire, Happy days, Regards Larry.
This LBS was one of many lorries’ belonging to a group of schools in Sweden educating future drivers in the sixties, and it seems to be an early model of LBS76 if you look on the step under the door.
/Stellan
Hello Gentlemen, Bill, what thread to start! For this, “non Scania” man, the LB76 was probably the best Scania product ever! The superb and knowledgble contributions from yourself, Trev H, BMA,Autotransit,[ZB], et al, make it all live! Back in the late 60s, as a “Black Country” Atkinson salesman, I was loosing clients to those B&W “bandits”, led by Ken Astbury, Bill Wright, and ■■■■ Phillips, who if I ever saw them bouncing along in a new LB76, in the general direction of one of "my " clients, well I knew that Atkinson were about to loose a customer! Then in 1974 working in France, who was knocking holes in our market share, (in a very stagnant market), but Scania. Imported from 1960 by the Samyns family, mainly L conventional machines, but a significant number of LB cab overs. 1975, the importation was taken over by Scania themselves, perhaps not quite such a “bloody” operation as happened in the UK, but it had its own casualties in human terms, with the inevitable shedding of staff who did not fit the new mould. One such was Giles Labbe, with Samyns since 1963, and possesing a tremendous knowledge of the French Scania operators. He ended up as a salesman at our SaviFrance operation in Marsailles, really a fish out of water. I cannot describe how different selling lorries in a (depressed) French market was compared to how we do, or perhaps how we did it in the UK,the salesman never drove the lorry,that was the job of the “Artisan”, the salesman negotiated, and to take a part exchange, well unless it was positively geriatric, they did not want to know! So in reality, the salesmen strutted around like “popinjays”, and nothing ever got done, (or sold). So, incompetent as ever I turn up, the new kid on the block, responsible for the sales of our "combined " Saviem and Berliet ranges, with Marsailles, as part of my remit. Well it sure was different to the “Black Country”, and a bit warmer! Well, we did the pep talk, analysed the (tired) stock, discussed prospective clients, (very few sales were attempted a conquests from competitors)!! And one such conquest was identified as Transports Brucy, close by the old port. They had a requirement for a new 4x2 tractor, and we had in stock an SM340 V8 . The appointment was made, Giles and I were to go together, he was disturbed that I proposed that we go in the SM340, (he prefered his Renault 16), we went in the SM. An amicable meeting, and one week later Marsailles took into stock a 1966 LB76 4x2 sleeper with splitter box, in quite tidy condition, and only about 380 thousand kms. The panic was now to turn this over, Giles came up trumps, and the LB76 found a new home at the now long gone Tpts Aras, of Robaix. Over the years Giles and I did quite a bit of business, and became firm friends, even when our paths diverged. He is now in his eighties,but still with a keen mind, and good memory .Incidentally, [ZB], he confirms that the LV75 was a De Beers Dutch special, as the factory would not supply the model that the market demanded, viz, a cabover design gave a 7cu metre cargo space advantage over the conventional). And that Be Ge were in Holand from 1963. Anyway to finish my story, I was at a FNTR , (French RHA, with just as many faults), dinner in Paris 1982, and a guest of Giles, in conversation he told the story of the LB76, and how we had first met, a fellow guest on our taqble, recounted that he had purchased the same LB76 from Aras in 1979, and she was sitting in his yard, unused since 1981. The following week I was in Bayonne, and she looked little different to how I had first seen her in 1975! Just a little worn! Well, a deal was done, and she drove (wonderfully), back to our little place close to Bordeaux. And that Gentlemen is where she sits today, up on blocks, drained of fluids, in our barn, she is not rotten, not abused, just a little old, (but so am I )! I admit I have (unsuccesfully) tried to swop her for my first love, a Bernard, or even a Willeme, but as on another thread, mrken said , those white steering wheels, oh those white steering wheels, I can only agree, they get to you! And Bill, when you started this thread, I knew it would rekindle my interest in her, so do I fire up the John Deere, fill her with “white”, couple up our plant trailer, Bordeaux is a long way at 40kph, but the Doctor tells me I need a holiday! Cheerio for now.
What sort of man would choose a c*r over an SM340? I’m glad you put him straight!
De Beers, eh? That’s interesting. I wonder which, if any, of the cabs they built themselves? My amateur research into the LV is going a bit slowly at the moment, as if it is in “low split” and I can’t decide whether it has a switch or a lever to speed it up! I have found about two dozen different LV’s on the internet, five or six of which are in preservation. The only cabs I can put a name to, so far, are Roset and Jonckheere. I have yet to identify the builder of the attractive steel-panelled cabs, found on many of them (example below). Could this type be by de Beers?
Here’s one with a different cab again. I think it is a stunner- an early '60s king of the road?
thank you correcting my small mistakes ,i have no book,s so relying to memory only.The interesting thing whit SCANIA VABIS and VOLVO was that neither had big cabover engine modells before 63,when the same year LB76 andTITAN TIPTOP are on market. in home market the bonneted where more common a longtime in to the 70,s unlike in europe whit lenght regulations.so infact they had nothing to compear whit in brittich market before that.and couse dutch was scania,s eurohomemarket they shorly supported the big dutch transportcompanys to build cabovers,same time they get knowledge of cabovers that they did not have.dutch think,s scania is dutch,and it alright for my,couse there you find the real scania lovers.(saviem ,think mixed up years about zwolle 66scania to over the bege in sweden to 
)
have a god day,benkku
Oh dear Saviem! you have got me thinking now,do i dust off my passport and look up TGV times to sud de France area or sir here and think about it ! That would be the trip of a lifetime to go down and fetch that home. Never mind it’s all good excercise for the grey matter.I am so glad this thread is coming to life as there are so many stories to hear from people as you have said. And the technical input from you and others is great. I only have pictures and a first hand account of driving them to offer.
[zb]
anorak:bma.finland:
Trev_H:
LB76:
1I know what he is thinking, “one day I’ll get that running again”
where can i hyde it so wife not sees it
Hahahaha. Excellent!
I’ll put the following here, since the talk about LB76 cabs seems to have migrated into this thread:
0
The left one is the normal “production” sleeper; the others are the “long” ones posted previously. They look longer to me. They look like BeGe jobs too, rather than one-offs.
ok just get comfirmed the bigger sleeper is original bege built in dutch for euromarket(not sold in scandinavia)
“Kristanstads Thermo Transport” on the Swedish west coast was a company hauling for Bilspedition before it became incorporated with “Coldsped” that belonged to the Bilspedition group of companies in those days.
Here´s at photo with the same company, and maybe the lorry in the background is the same one showing above?
/Stellan
Yes Stellan it looks like it!
bma.finland:
ok just get comfirmed the bigger sleeper is original bege built in dutch for euromarket(not sold in scandinavia)
…or Britain, unless someone comes up with words to the contrary! Well done bma, already we have more information, on this thread, than in the books.
What we lack (so far) is the sort of stuff you would find in the magazines of the day- how did the Scania Vabis compare to the other makes- to drive and to operate? In the UK, I suppose its only true competitor was the F88 (although the British makes occasionally made the effort- there is a very impressive 1965 ERF LV on one of the other threads, 6x4 with a factory sleeper). I will leave this to the men who actually worked with the vehicles…
havn,t don many miles on real work whit either of them ,but have had bout.they are so different it,s hard to say whitsh is better,bout have god and bad sides.one bad on old scannis is the double fame,if the motor is driven on salty roads my 76 was tenicaly superd but oh the fame 
then emotyonaly noting can change the fact alove scania,s more,even if i know the weaknesis it had
To live and work with? Well speaking from personal experience i found the Scania - Vabis LB76 very easy to drive, the power steering was good with a good feel to it, the 2 sticks were no problem at all once you settled into a pattern that suited your own driving style. The brakes were always good - on a lorry and trailer combination anyway i cant speak for artic units as i never drove one. The splitters were sometimes troublesome and that was not a problem that was exclusive to UK motors either. But as for general reliability they were very good, i had mine for a couple of years and went all over Europe in it only let me down once in the middle of the night in Germany when the planetary gears chucked up and brought me to a standstill on the Autobahn! With a RHD model the problem with the heating was really noticable the turbo used to get very hot and because of where it was positioned you would soon feel the heat through the engine cover, i presume this is where they got the Swedish nick-name of “Sommer Scania” it was always summer in there!Another bad point were the wipers - air operated as in the early Volvo’s not always with the strongest of motors fitted to them and prone to failure, once in my case coming home from Portugal across Spain and it came down in buckets, the only way to get the wipers to work was to keep switching them on and off then they would just clear enough to see through safely and stop again. By the time the rain had stopped my fingers were down to the bone almost due to the shape of the switch! Engine wise no problems at all. All in all not too many faults at all.It has been interesting to read on here of other peoples experiences with this model and i think we have covered the batteries in the cab problem which was always a bad idea.
LB76:
0
Bill Bowker used to recount the tale that he came back to Blackburn having seen one of the British Ropes motors, and said, “Gentlemen, I have just seen the finest lorry that money can buy.”
That would have been quite early in 1967, and Bowker had their first ones on the road with E-plates too.
The last 2 pics were taken in a yard in Leeds, years after they were sold
only 4700 about where built ,so some of us have areal fortune to have driving or working whit LB/LBS 76.i,ll was to young to drive it to work,but it was a peasant toy whit nice sound and very fun to drive