Hi all
Not sure if this is the right place to ask but I was wondering about the speed limit of lorries over the last 50 or so years. I’ve been driving lorries for well over a decade now and all the stuff I’ve driven has been limited to at most 56 and some 52. I’m sure some of those supermarket lorries are set to 49.999999. But when did this happen? Were lorries in the 80’s as fast as the engine would allow? Was it a free for all on the motorway with light stuff doing 75 up the hill and the heavy ones rolling down hills however fast the driver was brave enough to go? Has the speed limit always been different for cars and lorries?
Thanks in advance
When I was a boy I think lorries were restricted to 20mph (1950s)not that they’d go much faster.When I started driving it was 40 and 60 on motorways.Famously only 40 on the dualled A74.When i was at BRS Nottingham in the late 60s there was a Seddon which no one would dare find out top speed.It used to pass Yelloway coaches on the motorway.A daf 3300 which i bought in 1982 would do 75 mph.How times have changed.My last job before retiring had trucks limited to 52.Hourly pay=no probs.
This is filmed during the last days before speed limiters were introduced in early 1990’s.
I actually defected the first truck I ever drove with one I thought there was something wrong with the thing. 
youtube.com/watch?v=CQsMFQZa8os 35.20 - 36.11
The best of the 1980’s trucks was as quick as it ever got especially at night.Not much difference between truck and car running speeds generally on the flat.
In the 1970s the lorry limits were 60 on Motorways but 40 on other roads including dual carriageways - that made the A1 a slow road in comparison to the M1.
Additionally and probably long forgotten now, the limit on normal roads for drawbar lorries was 30 mph.
The speed limit for HGVs on motorways is still 60mph but you must have a functional speed limiter that restricts the vehicle to 56mph max.I don’t think everyone has grasped that yet because at 56mph lorries still pass me as if i’m stood still
cav551:
In the 1970s the lorry limits were 60 on Motorways but 40 on other roads including dual carriageways - that made the A1 a slow road in comparison to the M1.
Additionally and probably long forgotten now, the limit on normal roads for drawbar lorries was 30 mph.
Yep, to date I’ve only ever been done for speeding once, it was long ago on the A1 near The Red House Cafe, Doncaster…48mph. When the ‘young police officer’ 
started lecturing me on how to drive tankers…the side of the road interview didn’t go well after that, his job was enforcing the law, not lecturing me on how to do my job. Reported and fined 
cav551:
In the 1970s the lorry limits were 60 on Motorways but 40 on other roads including dual carriageways - that made the A1 a slow road in comparison to the M1.
Additionally and probably long forgotten now, the limit on normal roads for drawbar lorries was 30 mph.
I remember a driver being prosecuted in the early 80s for exceeding 30 mph on the A74 with a drawbar - how dangerous would it be to be driving at 30 mph on what is virtually a motorway?
In the 1950s I think trucks were limited according to their size. BRS night-trunkers would take an 8-wheeler limited to 20mph on the outward journey and return with a ready loaded 4-wheeler with a 30mph limit on it, to stay within his hours.
On another note, back in the early '80s there were still plenty of artics about with 180 / 190 /200 bhp engines and I remember holding around 70mph on the flat for sustained periods, 75-80mph downhill and 13mph uphill. Swanscombe drag on the A2 in Kent was a classic example of this. Ro
The odd thing was police attitude to solo units in the 1970/80s, never ever got a pull with a trailer on, but the Bill didn’t like you going over 70 unit only.
ISTR the exception was the A12 in Essex where they heavily enforced 40mph for all heavies regardless.
In the 70’s a Solicitor friend of mine showed me a newspaper cutting he had kept. It was of a Dutch Scania rigid clocked at over 100mph on the A47 in North Norfolk. The police had put him on a weighbridge and he was 6 tons over to boot! You have to believe stories of drivers bottling out at 85 mph. Jim.
jmc jnr:
In the 70’s a Solicitor friend of mine showed me a newspaper cutting he had kept. It was of a Dutch Scania rigid clocked at over 100mph on the A47 in North Norfolk. The police had put him on a weighbridge and he was 6 tons over to boot! You have to believe stories of drivers bottling out at 85 mph. Jim.
I bottled out at 85 with a Transcon and loaded fridge trailer up the M11 when I was late for a delivery. It had a 350 ■■■■■■■ in it and the regular driver had 90 out of but it wasn’t my usual motor and I afraid of throwing treads! Things were more exciting 40 years ago.
The Polis were the worst, 40mph all over Jockland. The A74 was the only decent twintrack but they were strict on the speed limits, meanwhile 80mph down past Scammonden with a 290 ■■■■■■■ whistling was music to the ears
I think that BRS were consulted about increasing the limit from 20 mph to 30 back in the fities? I know a lot of trucks were doing 70 mph on Motorways, the Norde was actually designed for that, and in the sixties a friend had a front tyre blow out on the M1 at around the 65 mph mark when driving a loaded ERF artic but managed to control it. One of our Foden halfcab eight wheelers lost a set of rear wheels somewhere near Newport Pagnell, “it started vibrating at 60 mph so I went faster and the vibration stopped” he said. He pulled into the services and found the wheels missing! And folk reckoned Gardner 180’s didn’t go well!
Pete.
[attachment=0]Baxter1.jpg[/attachmentThis one that I drove was flat out at 32 MPH, But 20 MPH was the limit even when running solo as the wagon weighed over 3 ton , Anything over 3 ton was the same,Regards Larry.
Drawbars had a 30mph limit even into the late 70’s
The heavy lorry 20 mph speed limit was abolished in 1957. A heavy lorry was any lorry weighing more than 3 tons unladen weight. Most “big” 4-wheelers and multi-axle heavy lorries made in the 1950s were geared to a maximum speed of 34 to 38 mph. Even those made after 1957 weren’t that much faster. My uncle had a 1959 AEC Mercury 4-wheeler, 5-speed direct top gearbox, it did 42 mph top speed, but it went up most hills loaded quickly if it wasn’t baulked by a slower lorry. He also bought a 1960 Leyland Super Comet 4-wheeler, second hand, ex-BRS, again 5-speed direct top 'box, that did 44 mph until he put a 6th gear, overdrive, in. That gave it another 14 mph. The 1958 Leyland Comet he had, 5-speed box and 2-speed axle was quick for the time at 57 mph. By the early 1960s and a growing Motorway network lorries did get faster. The first genuine 60 mph lorries uncle had, bought new, were a 1962 Seddon 14/4/400, and a 1963 Leyland Super Comet. The Seddon 30/4/690 units were 60 mph lorries. (AEC 2AV690 engines). The late-1960s AECs, Ergo-cabs, he had were all good for 60 -65 mph, as was the Scammell Handyman (Leyland O.680 power plus engine)
work thomas bell be-ro flour 1962-66 wagon and drag newcastle on tyne to inverness 5day job, speed limit 20mph average speed 16mph, oh happy days.
I seem to remember most lorries would do high 60,s and more in the 1970,s. I drove a Marathon that would touch 80 with the blower whistling away even loaded but then l would chicken out, it even flew up Keele bank a lot better than most.