jon.k Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 8 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said: wouldn't the wheels give a hard ride/fuck up the road surface?? And the lack of steering might be a problem I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artdjones Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 On 12/8/2019 at 3:56 PM, Eyersey1234 said: What body is that VR? Unusual to see one that isn't ECW bodied. Northern Counties. Eyersey1234 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 3 hours ago, artdjones said: Northern Counties. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martc Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 20 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said: wouldn't the wheels give a hard ride/fuck up the road surface?? wouldn't the wheels give a hard ride/fuck up the rails?? No change there then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsinthewelder Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Yay 3rd change of operator on our local route. http://andybodders.co.uk/2019/12/20/breaking-diamond-bus-get-contract-to-run-the-ludlow-to-kidderminster-service-from-january/ Apparently the current operator has to let the route go over serious irregularities around vehicle maintenance and drivers hours ? He's right about the route fucking up busses, a few have caught fire on the inclines and the snow causes much hilarity ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 First day back in the saddle... ex-Ulsterbus 70-seat Volvo B12B with PieShift. rml2345, Steviemillar, clayts450 and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 4 hours ago, cms206 said: First day back in the saddle... ex-Ulsterbus 70-seat Volvo B12B with PieShift. I'm about to make a move onto coaches off local bus myself, onto the National Express rota. stonedagain, cms206 and HarmonicCheeseburger 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Guessing the alleged software updates over the last couple of years haven't made the iShift system any less appalling than the one I had a shot of back in 2013? Even as a passenger it drives me nuts...never known a gearbox which spends more time in neutral between gears than actually providing propulsion...yet then also seeming to without fail be in the wrong gear at any given time. To me an automatic gearbox only has any right to exist if it can do at least as good a job as a reasonably competent driver... otherwise just give me a year lever and a clutch please. CreepingJesus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petermchugh79 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 The sun rises over Donnybrook garage on the 27th of DecemberSent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Oh god... iShit. Not Volvo's finest hour by any stretch, worse even than some Voith 'boxes that I've driven. I drove a couple of ex-COMS B12B's with iShit gearboxes, you can tell instantly that they are designed for motorway work and fuck all else. Devon country lanes really aren't the best place for them, the gearbox brain gets hopelessly confused on country roads. Up, down, up, up a bit more, down 3, up 2, down 1, up 2.... all on a bit of road that I'd have just stuck a Spanish gearbox in 3rd or 4th and left it alone. By the time the Mid Devon ones arrived they'd also had the manual control buttons removed, so all that could be done was stick it in 'D' and hope for the best. I ran out of gears once on the way up to Okehampton camp, on a hairpin bend going steep uphill I had to slow for a car and the brain couldn't shift quickly enough to catch up with what I wanted, the combination of hill, bend and brake then throttle totally confused it, causing me to come to a dead stop because it was trying to give me 5th for a 1st gear situation. Hand brake on, reselect 'D', try again. The fuel economy was also utterly horrific - on hilly roads they could sustain 2 GPM for significant lengths of time even lightly loaded - they were averaging 5mpg overall. I've got a pic somewhere of one driving up a gentle hill completely unladen, the dash is showing it returning 2.5mpg at 20mph in 7th. In short, they were fucking awful. A far cry from the worlds best ever coach chassis, the B10M in either six-speed manual or ZF auto formats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 i-Shift is a walk in the park compared to AS-Tronic. Now THAT is a fucking pile of arse. CreepingJesus, cobblers and Eddie Honda 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 We have mostly Volvo coaches after a bad experience with Scania in the mid 90s so most of the coach fleet has the ishift gearbox, though we have gone back to Scania for the latest Levantes for NX work. Scania reliability has apparently massively improved and Volvos has plummeted. We have switched to ADL for the latest buses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 @83C 2.5mpg is fucking awful, why the hell was it so bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 The main memory I have of the iShift was turning out of a junction onto a busy dual carriageway. Was thinking "brand new bus, this will be easy!" Cue my dismay when the thing decided to pause not once, not twice, but five times for gearchange - at the best part of a second apiece - before I made it to the far lane that I was aiming for...by that point looking an utter idiot. Note to self: Next time turning out of there in a B12R(I think...15M Panther body anyway) with that gearbox, aim for a gap I'd usually be looking to slot the 1929 Albion into! LightBulbFun, Eyersey1234, stonedagain and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 50 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said: @83C 2.5mpg is fucking awful, why the hell was it so bad? I suspect because it’s an electronic brain trying to select what it thinks is best out of a 12-speed manual gearbox, and most of the time getting it hopelessly wrong. As @Zelandeth says, the pauses between gearchanges are painfully slow. On flat ground gear progression will be something like 2nd-3rd-5th-7th-10th-12th, and each time it lets go of a gear you’re painfully aware of the amount of time it’s taking to select the next one, so you tend to keep right hoof welded to the floor in an attempt to keep the rate of acceleration going. They’re better at steaming along at 62mph on the motorway where the gearbox doesn’t get involved, they’ll get up to 7-8mpg. Country roads just flummox the thing so badly that the fuel economy goes straight down the toilet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 From what I have heard I think the I-Shift gearbox is more designed for trucks than coaches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rml2345 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 All the automated manuals were designed for wagons, hence their ability to do motorways and not a lot else. ArseTronic is further hampered by having been designed to work best with Iveco Tector engines and bodged to suit everything else. Apparently the worst of then all is Merc's PowerShift, which takes about a fortnight between changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 The gearboxes on our Scania NX coaches think about whether they can be arsed to change up or not too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Just had a look at the ZF website, it goes on about Arsetronic giving lorries efficient progress. Presumably they don't give a toss about coaches then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 11 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said: @83C 2.5mpg is fucking awful, why the hell was it so bad? I reset the computer on mine yesterday and over about four hours I averaged 7.9mpg on a mixed cycle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 I'm told our NX B9Rs average about 7-8mpg whereas the Scanias are averaging about 10 even though they are bigger, heavier and have bigger engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobblers Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 13 hours ago, cms206 said: i-Shift is a walk in the park compared to AS-Tronic. Now THAT is a fucking pile of arse. Then there's AS-Tronic Lite, for fleet managers who really really fucking hate their drivers. I can't complain though - I don't have to drive the fuckers and there's a months wage in rebuilt units on my workbench ready to post out. They're basically a slightly more industrial version of the fiat 500 auto gearbox setup, but with a lot less sensors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramz7 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 What's the oldest REVENUE earning bus you've seen lately? I'm in Bristol and saw W809PAE in use, a Volvo B7(?) with ALX400 bodywork in use with First and their motley fleet of newish and not so new stuff. Listed as a 9.6 litre engine. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightBulbFun Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 19 minutes ago, bramz7 said: What's the oldest REVENUE earning bus you've seen lately? I'm in Bristol and saw W809PAE in use, a Volvo B7(?) with ALX400 bodywork in use with First and their motley fleet of newish and not so new stuff. Listed as a 9.6 litre engine. RM871 WLT871 1962 AEC Routemaster saw it working Route 8 during one of my driving lessons, but normally works Route 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon.k Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 19 minutes ago, bramz7 said: What's the oldest REVENUE earning bus you've seen lately? I'm in Bristol and saw W809PAE in use, a Volvo B7(?) with ALX400 bodywork in use with First and their motley fleet of newish and not so new stuff. Listed as a 9.6 litre engine. I was just thinking exactly this and came here to post. A few pages back I posted a Plaxton Supreme which is still doing a school contract past my house every day. It's old Y reg, I think! When I'm looking through classic bus magazines/books I'm always calculating how old the vehicles were when they were taken out of service. I love seeing the survivors.. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 VKH 44, a Willowbrook bodied AEC Regent V new to EYMS in 1956. Now used for weddings etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Heading back to the depot for the last time earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramz7 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Okay by revenue service I mean with a frontline company, not on a heritage route or on schools or for hire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightBulbFun Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 6 minutes ago, bramz7 said: Okay by revenue service I mean with a frontline company, not on a heritage route or on schools or for hire. ok this could probably be classed as special circumstance so does not exactly count but pretty much any time there's a tube strike all the Routemasters and RTs and other vintage buses come out to play on frontline routes to provide extra capacity its always amusing to keep an eye on twitter/social media during these times as the commuters tweet their bewilderment as a 1940s RT pulls up to the bus stop to pick them up and I must be one of the few people who actually look forward to tube strikes for these reasons LOL tooSavvy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Our oldest front line bus is a 54 reg Wright bodied Volvo B7RLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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