Truck Shite

[cms206]

Fullers bought TLs as late as 1996 on an N-plate; papped one a few years back in the Czeck Republic. They were Marshall built and badged Bedford.

[Grundig]

I think GM spat their dummy out  after the government, poo pooed the sale of Leyland truck & bus to an American company (probably in light of the Westland affair??) ( GM said making lorries in the UK wasn't viable unless it could buy Leyland trucks) 

[scruff]

I seem to recall reading the same. They had a replacement for at least the TM on the drawing board but it came to nought. 

[AnthonyG]

I think Marshall of Cambridge built 'Bedford' MKs for the armed forces, or maybe refurbished a stack load of them during the 1990s. IIRC they currently own the rights to the name.

 

I don't think AWD lasted long as an independent company - I remember a dealer north of Hereford in about 1990 but it didn't sell them for more than a couple of years.

[quicksilver]

All this talk of AWDs reminded me I had this. Photo taken in 2010 but its still around on SORN.

 

And this is an AWD-built MK

 

(these seem to be pearoasts from page 1 but that was almost 3 years ago - can't believe this thread is still going after all that time!)

[Vantman]

 AWD Engineering Limited started in 1970 at Dunstable in Bedfordshire. This company AWD of Bedfordshire is owned by David John Brown the founder of DJB/[[Artix]. AWD were also the later manufacturers and owned the tradename of the famous AWD-Multiwheeler brand based on 4X4 and 6X6 Bedford T-Series models until they closed in 1992. Soon another firm called MARSHALL-SPV of Cambridge acquired them and resumed production of their new largest allterrain models.

They were later owned by the British GMC-UK group who also controlled & actually owned the old IBC Ltd (the ISUZU-BEDFORD COMPANY) factory that was producing specialized BEDFORD, COMMER, DODGE trucks and offroad vehicles, in recent times the IBC company has made the ISUZU Amigo 4X4 & ISUZU Trooper 4X4 offroad light models under several different names since 1990s for Europe, after the BEDFORD truck making business ended.

 

[rawy]

Talking of TKs & Trucks, below is a few from Brooklands Museum, including a very rotten BA TK, Control Tower & Fire Engine. Also Some ex National Recovery Wreckers, inc Brooklands Belle & Millie-tant.

 

You can see more of the old trucks. inc TKs here too - 

 

 

Cheers

 

Rawy

[Slappy]

My grandad ran an F reg AWD flatbed when I was as young as I can remember til about 95 I reckon. Almost no chance of that still being around. Sadly I don't know of any pics.

 

Other trucks that were in the family business from memory, A G reg Leyland Roadrunner, a J reg Roadrunner which replaced the Bedford, P40* KKK (new with Kent Paper Company until they went under) Leyland 45, which replaced the G reg. A T reg 45, which is still in the yard, and an '06 LF curtainside, which didn't stay long. There were others of course before my time, but I'll have to ask my Dad.

 

Will see if I can find pics of any of the old trucks.

[Vantman]

[willswitchengage]

How does the quality of modern truck manufacturers compare? I had a tour of DAF in Leyland not long ago and they said IVECO were undeniably awful and MB were the best, albeit very expensive. DAF, they said, offered "value for money", which doesn't inspire much confidence...

[Richard]

Warren T Claim posted a list a while back showing what the equivalent car make was for each truck make. Unfortunately I can't remember any of them but I'd say a DAF lorry was roughly equivalent to a Ford car- not the best but good enough for the job.

[v8 scania]

I drive a daf xf now and again and its not a bad truck, man tga not too bad, Volvo good, Iveco worse than skoda or lada (laughable autoboxes)give me a scania anyday

[Cavcraft]

The Mercedes truck driving people I fairly often encounter seem to put them in the same sort of bracket as Iveco. F*ck*ng awful.

[v8 scania]

a firm I used to work for had hino tippers and mixers  my god they were bad,  brakes very sharp, the ride is crap, knock through gearbox, no one there liked them, only the foriengers did

[oman5]

It depends, the Axor fleet motor is a total bag of crap, uncomfortable with on/off brakes, ludicrously low geared steering, crap mirrors and lacklustre engines whose power output bears no relation to what the badge on the door says it is. Little room in the cab (it's a 7.5 ton dinky toy cab plonked onto a heavy truck chassis) Lowest common denominator trucking, but I think they are at least cheap.

The Actros by comparison is a wonderful truck, supremely comfy especially in mega space cab form, but you want a 460 at least.

I have always found DAFs to be a good drive, quietly competent although in common with other makes power has suffered as the Euro ratings bite.

MAN and Volvo are excellent. From what I've driven, volvo wins for the best engines.

Sorry..unless it's a v8 I don't rate scanias. They are trading on the good name generated by everything they made before 2004.

[rml2345]

I think DAF have had the biggest market share for the last 5 or 6 years so they can't be that bad. The Ford comparison is a fair one I think.

Scania/Volvo seem regarded as the best but come at a price. Renault trucks oddly enough are supposed to be very good thanks to Volvo ownership and engineering input.

[bigstraight6]

Today I drove a brand new DAF LF Euro 6 220 16 tonner and I did find it really struggled on the hills, but I still found it a nice drive, the worst lorries I've driven are Iveco and Renault.

[Timewaster]

I've only ever driven an Iveco Trakker since passing my cat C.

 

THE worst auto box ever produced by anyone. Ever

[oman5]

I've only ever driven an Iveco Trakker since passing my cat C.

THE worst auto box ever produced by anyone. Ever

Try the Scania opticruise. If the truck had bollocks, you'd want to kick them.

 

I was told that the reason for the proliferation of auto boxes in trucks is that most truck sales go to big fleets who have many different drivers driving each truck. The auto box will make a good driver who with a manual box is getting good mpg show a worse result. But crucially, the auto box will make a crap drivers mpg better. So the average improves, but makes the truck horrible to drive. Give me a clutch, range change and splitter any day.

[cobblers]

We get loads of customers at work asking for us to hack gear selectors for auto buses (voith/ZF radio button types) so that there's just RND in the space where there should be RND321 so that drivers can't bash through the gears to wring a bit more bastard out of the thing. One customer asked us to leave the 321 in the selector but have them all just do the same as drive, cos every time they put "RND" selectors in the drivers would smash them up.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Thought I'd just stick a couple of the pictures from last weekend down here, we meet up at The Hollies Transport Cafe on the A5 (just off the M6 junction 12)

 

 

 

 

 

[oman5]

I do like the DAF XF. I had a brand new one in '98. If you are living in a truck, they're great

[Jon]

As you can see, us volunteers are spared the indignity of having to deal with full size Scanias provided to the paid staff and instead are left with the cream of the crop:

 

Library pic - not actual appliance in question

 

Admittedly, the pump is a doddle to operate and it's a comfortable drive and handles predictably at high speed fully laden but the auto box is terrible. It slightly improves in sport mode (!!!) and I welcome not having to juggle clutch, gears and on/off air brake under certain circumstances (especially when the public are watching - doesn't inspire confidence if you mess up) but the rest of the time it's a drag. 

 

That said, it's an Italian, so naturally it has ash trays for the rear passengers. Nice touch, Iveco.

[Cavcraft]

Giving the propensity to try and self combust pretty much everytime I drove it, a fire engine is perhaps the only Iveco truly worth having.

 

 

Ref. auto boxes, have a word with the chemical lads, most of them seem to hate them in any truck as sloshing liquid sees the box changing itself into myriad wrong gears.

[Jon]

We've hills all around our town and what really bugs me is coming back home from a job at normal road speed (90km/h) and trying to maintain a smooth ride and average speed downhill without going over the limit. Either, I let the bugger chug all the way down on the exhaust brake (which annoys me), or I let off the throttle a bit and it then immediately decides to change up a gear, increasing the speed. I'm not one to sit on the brake if I can help it but it's the only way, quite often. 

 

Occasionally, when the thing breaks or goes in for one of its many services, we get an old International like this:

 

 

 

Or a Mitsubishi like this:

 

 

 

Or if we're really lucky, an ex-UK Dennis like this:

 

 

I bloody love these; the one we had came with stadium type lighting on top, an excellent pump, is purpose built on a proper chassis and is bloody quick, with the bonus of laying a thick layer of clag in its wake when you press on uphill. Fantastic

[Cavcraft]

Do you love them enough to want one? I know of one almost certainly for sale, though unsure of price yet. I'd have it myself just for a laugh but it's a pipe dream at the moment.

[oldcars]

Saw this Iveco Daily?? on a D  plate couple of weeks back.

[martc]

Interesting to here critical reviews of lorries something the majority of us have little experience of. I've always thought that if I was a haulier I would have a fleet of MAN's, they just look right - good to see they would be a sound choice.

 

I would have thought that the big Hino's would be the commercial worlds version of a Toyota car (same company)- does it's job well but without character, shame to hear they are dreadful. What has happened to them? There was a rash of them from around 08 to 12 but I don't think I've seen a newer one.

 

What are the smaller Japanese lorries like? There's hundreds of Mitsubishis and Isuzu's about, some the Isuzu's are quite large (the "Forward").

[scruff]

The firm I do work for have a DAF XF, for a wagon it's knocking on now as it is 02 plate but has only done 400k. Been a good motor AFAIK. Assuming I pass my HGV it'll be my steed along with an 04 plate ERF ECT four wheeler which is really a MAN with a Cummins engine and a different badge.

The haulage firm next door - and who also do all our maintenance - run a mix of DAFs and Scanias but recently took on some Iveco tractor units, not very popular with drivers!  

[cms206]

The EuroCargo is a definate case of worse improvement; how they started with the original Cargo and ended up with the EuroCargo I'll never know.

Maybe I'm biased having been launched from the cab of one, or been party to them being a dirty bastard in the wet, but my time on EuroCargos was not a happy one to the point that my preferred fleet vehicle at the end up was a G-reg Volvo FL6 instead of an 02-plate EuroCargo.

Hateful, hateful, hateful.