Truck Shite

[quicksilver]

There's another circus in town now and this one's fleet is ace - no lorries under 20 years old!

 

H326DJU by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

J979DRH by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

D110ARE by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

G52HSC by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

C981NTO by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

KFL955S by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

F993NPL by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

G133DKC by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

X785HAK by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

This Y-reg Foden is a new acquisition this year

DFA642Y by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

No gaffa tape on this Mondeo's bumpers but plenty of wob in the back arches

P161SRH by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

[Split_Pin]

Nice one, those Fodens are weapons grade showmans stuff!

 

That Magnum is quote early for a UK one too.

[AeroNautiCal]

A couple more automotive dead-ends for you to ponder:

 

"something" from France by Brimen, on Flickr

 

1949 Ford Special Car Transporter by Brimen, on Flickr

 

These two (loosely) remind me of the beautifully engineered Decoliner, built for Jay Leno, capable of being driven from the cab, or elevated position. One guy built this thing (guy on the left).

 

[Justin Case]

Spotted today at a local charity event:

 

Very nice ERF E10

 

ERF E10 Fairground Transport by geoffp5, on Flickr

 

A photo just doesn't do justice to this magnificent Foden

 

Foden 8-Wheel Fairground Transport by geoffp5, on Flickr

[Vin]

It is great that showmen tend to buy discarded wagons and then keep them going. Majority of the featured wagons in 'Classic and Vintage Commercials' seem to have had a 'second life' with showmen and thus have survived into preservation

 

I also saw that Magnum and thought that's a very early one on a J plate..

[willswitchengage]

 

Duuuuude, that's messin' with ma perspectives! It looks like MC Escher designed that interior.

 

Shame the Army is finally ditching all its old Foden wreckers, although I am quite fond of their replacements:

 

[Split_Pin]

Just found this vid of a Ford A Series. I've never heard one of these running before, is is a 6 cyl?

 

[scruff]

Straight six Ford York I think

[Split_Pin]

Ah, the seller mentioned Tork but I thought that was the name of the 4cyl Transit job, must be 2 types then. Sounds nice.

 

Incidentally the van in the vid has been unlicensed since 4th Feb this year.

[rml2345]

Sure I read it somewhere that the woeful nature of the York diesels was part of the reason why the A-series failed to take off. Dunno how true it is though having never had the pleasure of a York diesel.

Also, that 8 legger Foden Showmans wagon is superb!

[willswitchengage]

Get low!

 

Found all these whilst flickr browsing:

 

Leyland low cab CAR HAULAWAYS by PAcarhauler, on Flickr

 

Cab under Cargo 3, DAF by PAcarhauler, on Flickr

 

Leyland Leopard, Australia by PAcarhauler, on Flickr

 

The last is a "Leopard" so I assume just mid-engined bus chassis, guess it's the same for the other two. Anybody know about any of these designs?

[Split_Pin]

Good heavens those are a tip_top find! I bet those were ponderous performers. And the cabs look like a death trap! Great find, Id love to know more about them!

[scruff]

Those are amazing!!

[worldofceri]

Amazing. I see that Dutch DAF outfit was operated by de Rooy. Still running the some of the most ingenious transporter outfits on UK roads (although often on Polish plates). I believe they have their own workshops where they convert trucks and build their own trailers to maximise the capacity for each application, be it hauling truck chassis, tractors or whatever.

 

[CreepingJesus]

The point of the low-cab things was to maximise the load length, obviously. The Leyland ones were based on Leopard chassis, and a few of them (I think) ended up as aircraft service motors.

There was also the Bussing 'Supercargo'...

...which remained a one-off.

 

After MAN aquired them, some of Bussing's radical ideas were used here and there, until they coalesced into the 'Unterflur' max cube drawbars in the mid-80's;

They were possibly the ultimate of the 'shortcabs' from then (effectively outlawed, as the EU deliberately tightened up cab impact tests), and I last saw one of Brit-European's ones about 10 years ago in Dalkeith. It was impressive, watching it come thro' the town centre on the old A68 route; they were max length (2x25' bodies, 4m tall), but being mid-engined, there was a fag paper's clearance underneath, coming across the staggered crossroads in the town centre. Kinda wish I'd seen it come down from Carter Bar!

 

Jan de Rooy, on the other hand, is a well known Daf fan and welder of things to other things to make crazy things. Like so...

...the '85 Paris-Dakar 'Turbo Twin'. 4 wheel drive and steering, two engines, utterly utterly barking mental.

[willswitchengage]

^Nice! Forget stupid space frame Touaregs the truck class is definitely the best bit of the Paris Dakar!

[eddyramrod]

G133DKC by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

I used to drive G150 DKC! That was a Cargo 0813 curtainside, good ole bus too. For a moment I thought you'd found it for me!

[Inspector Morose]

More info on the car transporters.

Firstly the New Zealand leopards. Two were converted from new around 1965, one a semi auto and the other a manual. The wheelbase was shortened to 16ft 6 by moving the rear axle forwards and the excess chassis removed. A 10in x 4in x 8ft rolled steel joist section was used as the starting point for the cab area. The control pedals and gear selection box was mounted further down with the manual chassis given air assistance to the gear change. On both outfits, when fully loaded, the cab floor was only 14 inches off the ground.

The Denmark chassis were not leopards. They were in fact Tiger Cubs (8 stud wheels as can be seen in the photos). These were modified and bodied by DAB, a subsidiary of Leyland at the time and were powered by the Leyland 0350 engine.

 

There were some car transporters built on bus chassis in this country as well. Barnett car transporters had an early leopard chassis modified and bodied by Carter Engineering and A & C McLennan of Spittalfield bought several 15 year old Royal Tigers, scrapped the bodies and moved the driving controls to the extreme offside of the chassis to accommodate a small car to be parked alongside. A narrow cab finished off these odd looking conversions. Apparently these chassis lasted in their second role for several years.

 

More popular in this country was the pantechnician on bus chassis. Silver cross prams were the most famous users of these, bought new on Bristol LH chassis. There were many converted from time expired buses too. One noteable example was the double deck AEC Q side engined, three axle double decker built experimentally for London Transport for their Green Line services. On this the between deck floor was removed and the roof lowered to the point of the bottom of the upper deck window line. This created a cavernous space for furniture which was easily loaded due to the side engine and low build of the chassis.

 

I hope this is of interest to someone!

[willswitchengage]

Bravo! Thanks for the eloquent write-up, passed the plagiarism test too

[Inspector Morose]

I try!

 

Information came from the leyland bus mk2 book. A veritable treasure trove of all things leyland and bus shaped. What got me delving was the eight stud wheels on the first pic; leopards were all 10 stud as dar as I know. I'll get my anorak.

[eddyramrod]

I'll get my anorak.

 

I think you should be awarded one for all that!

[Inspector Morose]

Thanks Eddy! I've had one for the past 29 years!

 

On the subject of bus related trucks how's about

Leyland Dromedary by Dentaurthurdent, on Flickr

[Split_Pin]

Another interesting read on the train to work! Thanks Metrobi!

[CreepingJesus]

Love the Leyland dromedary tank, such a neat idea. My school had Vol 2 of 'Leyland Buses' in the library; I was about the only person who bothered with it. And I wondered why the girls all thought I was weird? Quite fancy a copy now, but it's one helluva book. A light bedtime read it ain't.

 

I'm borrowing this photo...

...because I wasn't in a position to snap the truck myself. The most remarkable thing is, that it was earning its' keep when I saw it this afternoon! Hauling a load of steel joists up the Edinburgh City Bypass. Vintage trucks out and about of a weekend, give me a smile, and I usually give them a flash and a wave. But this was a proper jaw-dropper.

I googled it earlier on, and it seems that Les Baston is a bit of a legend, on account of this old girl. No wonder. Hats off...

 

Puts my most recent truckshite spot to shame, but it's going in anyway.

It's at least 10 years old, immaculate, and still touring Europe and who knows where else (the E.Europeans were very frequent visitors to the Middle East and further, back in the day.), and I wouldn't be surprised if it were an ex-Ferrari team truck. There must be a few! Allegedly, they were tweaked by Iveco for even more head gasket ruining power...

[Split_Pin]

Somehow Iveco made these a very imposing looking truck, despite having a cab that looks similar to a Cargo. Top spots!

[CreepingJesus]

Yeah, and you need to drive them like an Italian to make sense of them!

Those later ones (and the Mk1 all-new* Stralis which replaced it) had a 'joystick' for the ZF ArseTronic 'box, which had a number of 'special functions', if you knew how to access them: only the Italians could dream up a 'special function' which allowed you to find the redline in a matter of moments . And they wonder why so many of them were thrashed to death...

 

*In normal, non-Italian reality, only the cab exterior panels and interior were different.

[Cavcraft]

You had to thrash Ivecos so you could get as far as possible before they broke down!

 

The Sed Atk is ace, reminds me of a Rolls engined one I (very) occasionally drove round P&O's yard on The Wirral many moons back. It sounded like no other truck in that fleet and went like a scalded cat, the driver who was on it all the time said it was the best motor he'd ever driven.

[cort16]

This was at the local truck shite auction. I'd like to buy this for my commute.

 

DAF T by cort16, on Flickr

[rml2345]

^ that looks like it started life in the army. GR8 4 FLOODZ.

No pic, but I spotted a Roadrunner on an E plate yesterday, travelling through Liberton. Early ones seem to be proper rare up here now...

[scruff]

Yep that Atki is brill!! You can pick ex-MOD 401s up for quite reasonable money, all with Rolls Royce motors and Fuller gearboxes and naff all miles. I would love one!!