And our suntanned friends like them judging by the amount heading for the coast… 
A nice example of C W Griffiths.
Three of their Bisons.
Dave the Renegade:
A nice example of C W Griffiths.
What year’s that, 1992ish? Nice retro touch with the old Leyland badge
Any excuse to post these!
The Bison is still earning a living and the Constructor is going back to work.
A reminder of sunnier and warmer days! by fryske, on Flickr
Leyland Bison CFO500V by fryske, on Flickr
How’d they manage re. spares for these? Do they work seasonally on lime?
Muckaway:
How’d they manage re. spares for these? Do they work seasonally on lime?
Yes - on lime.
fryske:
Any excuse to post these!
The Bison is still earning a living and the Constructor is going back to work.
I drove a 1985 6x4 Constructor for Sainsbury’s, it was like a racing car!
The Bison at nearly 32 years old still working ,not bad going,i know Speirs ran their Mandators and a few Buffalos (L12S) into the early 90s until they moved to 38 ton, then they went onto ERF and SA and subsequently sold out soon after
ramone:
The Bison at nearly 32 years old still working ,not bad going,i know Speirs ran their Mandators and a few Buffalos (L12S) into the early 90s until they moved to 38 ton, then they went onto ERF and SA and subsequently sold out soon after
Yes - it’s pretty good!
It was only used around a farm for a few years but it has never been a non-runner -
The Bison is on its 3rd cab (it was one of the cabs taken from the RAF refuellers that had T45 cabs fitted).
The were several Leylands in use by Land Rover until about 1997 or so - The Octopus (500 series engine) has been saved - not sure about the others.
(not my pics - click through to them for the original)
EKV 465T by BISON 2, on Flickr
EKV 470T by BISON 2, on Flickr
Lynx 2 by BISON 2, on Flickr
I always thought the ergo was a smart looking cab from the outside but the inside was pretty poor
fryske:
Any excuse to post these!
The Bison is still earning a living and the Constructor is going back to work.
A reminder of sunnier and warmer days! by fryske, on Flickr
Leyland Bison CFO500V by fryske, on Flickr
Absolutely fabulous!! A real credit to all concerned with them
I too spend my youth i a 6 wheel Bison Tipper. My auld man had one for 12 years. It was a truck that saw punishment from day one and all I ever saw of my auld man during the week was his two feet sticking out from under it It was unreliable but at the time there wasnt much that could take the punishment of the heavy loads and bad roads that were thrown at it. Hinos were too thirsty and heavy and the F7 chassis were too narrow, you’d need to be dead level tipping them but the leyland would tip at 45 degree angle 
If there was no oil under it there was none in it the fitter reckoned He managed to break almost everything on it at some stage and the old girl kept going 
But availabilty of parts in Ireland were becoming scarce.
She eventually went up in smoke with 25 ton of stone on her back 
and he replaced it with a Dennison( only kept it a year)
If anyone knows of a half decent 6 wheel bison for sale drop me a pm as I’m looking for one 
That yellow and red one above is stunning
Cheers
John
Dad had an X reg Leyland Constructor 6 wheeler VWL 513X and he found the clutches were really stiff…I can remember him having time off with a groin strain because of it. It could easily outpull Smiths’ Fodens of the same age but was nowhere near as good for driver comfort.
Here’s an E reg Freighter that’s had the same owner (and I think) same driver from new
hello all.
this is a little off the subject of trucks,if you spare a thought for excavators, hymac for instance ,they were at the front very early on with the 380/580/880/1290/ when the continentals done exactly the same as volvo/scania etc,the poclains the o&k liebherr and many more covered the uk manufacturing base without doubt with very up to date machines that had very large investment of R&D thrown at them,the rest again is history.
graham.
Bewick:
The Atkis and the ERFs were miles better than a poxy Buffalo,and they held their value in the secondhand market as well.You couldn’t give Leylands away once they were seconhand.their value(if they had ever had any) plummeted!!!Sed/Atks unfortunately headed the same way as the Leylands.Dennis.
When I worked in the management accounts dept at Pandoro in the late 70s, one of the things I set up was downtime reporting: I well remember the day when 16 out of 20 Buffaloes were parked up for mechanical attention. All had L12 engines and 6-speed boxes, and were loathed with a passion by the drivers.
Dave the Renegade:
Was’nt the V8 AEC engine the forerunner of the same engine used by Scania.
Cheers Dave.
An old wives’ tale, I fear, Dave - wasn’t the Scania V8 already in production before the AEC V8 appeared? But it was DAF who took on the O.680 - even a 3300 DAF sounds quite like a 680 Leyland.
I’m sure that someone also had a licence for the O.400 engine, but I can’t remember now who that was.
240 Gardner:
Bewick:
The Atkis and the ERFs were miles better than a poxy Buffalo,and they held their value in the secondhand market as well.You couldn’t give Leylands away once they were seconhand.their value(if they had ever had any) plummeted!!!Sed/Atks unfortunately headed the same way as the Leylands.Dennis.When I worked in the management accounts dept at Pandoro in the late 70s, one of the things I set up was downtime reporting: I well remember the day when 16 out of 20 Buffaloes were parked up for mechanical attention. All had L12 engines and 6-speed boxes, and were loathed with a passion by the drivers.
So all 16 had engine problems? or was it various faults,6 speed in the late 70s with just over 2oobhp is hardly going to make any driver happy,all Leyland by now they killed the rest off ,word as it that when the mandator was killed off the loyal operators and there was still a few wouldnt touch the Buffalo so they put the L12 in it to try keep the buisness they put the ZF in the Leopard when the killed off the Reliance that didn`t work either
A classic Leyland.
Dave the Renegade:
A classic Leyland.
One of their best looking cabs IMHO.