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Posted

I have decided my 15 year old XF is definite truck shite, having to wallop the dash every now and then to get the fuel and temp gauges working and double-de-clutch into 2nd/6th has really endeared it to me. 

 

I had a CF the other week with waggy fuel gauge syndrome. It's such a pain to fix, you just get used to it, and shine a torch in the tank to determine level, or make up a dipstick if you've got an anti-syphon on the neck. That CF was an older 430 horse job: I'd forgotten how much you need to cane the arse off them to go anywhere. Still good motors, that generation, plenty of them around.

Tell you what I haven't seen in those in a long time: the uber rare 14L Cummins engined 525. DAF's own 530 engine was a head gasket muncher in the Rover idiom (and the 480 wasn't far behind), and they fitted the Cummins engine instead for a couple of years in the late 90's. Even the revised engine was a liability: I remember racing one of Davidson and Wilson's 530s up the A1. I lost him down Hawes Bank 'cos he used the Aberdeen Overdrive. Last laugh to me though, I passed him at the Metro Centre with clouds of steam pishing out from under the cab...

They were another firm that 'flagged out' on Dutch/Belgian plates at the time. Couple of years later they got absolutely flayed alive by the TC for all sorts of shenanigans: but they're back. If you see blue cabbed 510 DAFs with Gray and Adams liveried trailers battering down the east coast routes, that's them. Back to hauling fish out of Aberdeen. Still gaun' like fuck.

 

Speaking of which...North East England Shiters: what's the big glen between Longhorsley and Longframlington on the A697 called? Not been along there in ages, but managed to get the hill to myself last night, and I might have been gaun' like fuck on the way down. Crawled past the posh hotel at about 25mph, so I reckon it balances out.

Posted

Love that BRS film.  Oh, for the days before flippin' hi-vis waistcoats.

Everyone was wearing proper clothes back then, too....And using clipboards instead of hand-helds that tell your boss where you are every 10 minutes.

  • Like 1
Posted

I had a CF the other week with waggy fuel gauge syndrome. It's such a pain to fix, you just get used to it, and shine a torch in the tank to determine level, or make up a dipstick if you've got an anti-syphon on the neck. That CF was an older 430 horse job: I'd forgotten how much you need to cane the arse off them to go anywhere. Still good motors, that generation, plenty of them around.

Tell you what I haven't seen in those in a long time: the uber rare 14L Cummins engined 525. DAF's own 530 engine was a head gasket muncher in the Rover idiom (and the 480 wasn't far behind), and they fitted the Cummins engine instead for a couple of years in the late 90's. Even the revised engine was a liability: I remember racing one of Davidson and Wilson's 530s up the A1. I lost him down Hawes Bank 'cos he used the Aberdeen Overdrive. Last laugh to me though, I passed him at the Metro Centre with clouds of steam pishing out from under the cab...

They were another firm that 'flagged out' on Dutch/Belgian plates at the time. Couple of years later they got absolutely flayed alive by the TC for all sorts of shenanigans: but they're back. If you see blue cabbed 510 DAFs with Gray and Adams liveried trailers battering down the east coast routes, that's them. Back to hauling fish out of Aberdeen. Still gaun' like fuck.

 

Speaking of which...North East England Shiters: what's the big glen between Longhorsley and Longframlington on the A697 called? Not been along there in ages, but managed to get the hill to myself last night, and I might have been gaun' like fuck on the way down. Crawled past the posh hotel at about 25mph, so I reckon it balances out.

 

Oooh, a Cummins would be nice, especially with a jake. The DAF exhaust brake is proper toss; are they all like that? I've only driven mine and it does do something but compared to the jake on the ERF it's hopeless.

 

Mine's a 480.. don't think it has done a HG yet, but it's only done 750k. I have a nice new trailer now so I think she's going to be around for a little while yet.

 

post-3736-0-06268100-1436828639_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Posted

Hey Scruff when are you going to give us another installment of your steam engine shennanigans?

Posted

Is there any point in buying anything nowadays that isn't the new Actros? Just done a lovely road trip of Europe and they've definitely got the market cornered. Even the other 'all news' like the new FH are nowhere near as popular.

 

Also as I was on my way home I counted 13 miles of 'Operation Stack', crazy.

Posted

Oooh, a Cummins would be nice, especially with a jake. The DAF exhaust brake is proper toss; are they all like that? I've only driven mine and it does do something but compared to the jake on the ERF it's hopeless.

 

Mine's a 480.. don't think it has done a HG yet, but it's only done 750k. I have a nice new trailer now so I think she's going to be around for a little while yet.

 

attachicon.gifDaphne the DAF.jpg

 

The exhaust brakes on the newer MX engines are okay, but like the older ones they're still just a butterfly valve. Comparing them to an actual decompression brake like a Jake or Volvo Engine Brake, or Iveco's Turbo Brake is comparing chalk and cheese. Ditto for hydro retarders (ZF, Scania) or the Telma brake.

By the way, watch for the butterfly valve jamming on, I've had that happen a couple of times. Suddenly you've very little power and no boost, but no OMGFAILURE warnings of any sort. All gauges fine, no clouds of smoke or death rattles. As a bodge, it responds to a quick tap from the fixing stick, but apparently it's not hard to fix properly. It needs a can of brake cleaner down it (or a nice Safety Kleen bath) like a dodgy ICV.

Wouldn't worry about the HGF issue either, at the age yours is at, it would've been alright all along, or fixed with the uprated HG and fan. HGF was the symptom, but inadequate cooling was the problem. The 480 CFs were worse for it than the XFs, but the 450/500 Cat powered Foden Alphas were fine!

 

There's loads of New Actros out there, because Merc are keen to do deals. It probably won't end well in the long run (as Iveco and to an extent Scania found out) but hey ho. As long as Merc can punt them in bulk to Willi Betz, Waberer's, Prima Frio etc., they're happy. Personally I preferred the older ones, the new ones are so remote to drive, you might as well be playing Truck Sim. The 420 wouldn't pull the skin off your custard, and the 450s not much better. But, the bosses like them, because good image, decent on fuel and Merc are so eager to please.

Posted

Hey Scruff when are you going to give us another installment of your steam engine shennanigans?

 

I can do a post if there's enough interestz, don't want to bore anyone. Been a good year so far. Here's some steam/lorry interface action

 

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Posted

Heres something a bit smaller.

 

post-7547-0-20891800-1437400431_thumb.jpg

 

Sadly this is only half the vehicle it was (40's Morris Commercial)

It would be nice to find out more about it. Its not on the DVLA computer

and a trawl round out lorry pics sites has proved fruitless.

 

post-7547-0-42725200-1437401220_thumb.jpg

Posted

There's loads of New Actros out there, because Merc are keen to do deals. It probably won't end well in the long run (as Iveco and to an extent Scania found out) but hey ho. As long as Merc can punt them in bulk to Willi Betz, Waberer's, Prima Frio etc., they're happy. Personally I preferred the older ones, the new ones are so remote to drive, you might as well be playing Truck Sim. The 420 wouldn't pull the skin off your custard, and the 450s not much better. But, the bosses like them, because good image, decent on fuel and Merc are so eager to please.

 

So they're just being dumped on the market? I always thought MB genuinely made decent trucks, unlike their cars...

 

At the end of the day I guess Daimler are the world's biggest HGV maker and can afford to throw money at all new models and engines, unlike PACCAR and Scania who are now running 20 year old designs.

Posted

So they're just being dumped on the market? I always thought MB genuinely made decent trucks, unlike their cars...

 

At the end of the day I guess Daimler are the world's biggest HGV maker and can afford to throw money at all new models and engines, unlike PACCAR and Scania who are now running well proven and reliable designs.

Ftfy
Posted

It's image now that's shifting lorries (what is the matter with modern drivers, ooh i'd love a superextraXLspacecabwhatever cos it looks good....WTF are they on?), that and pie in the sky fuel consumptions being bandied around...about as realistic in the real world off the motorway as those fantasy fuel figures quoted in the car showrooms.

 

My mate's got the first of three new 440 Daf's, the poxy things got an 11 litre engine i ask you running 43 plus tons its about as much use as a 1.4 Diesel in a fuckin Range Rover, drinks fuel like it's free and as anyone with an ounce of common would expect, and wouldn't pull your foreskin back cos it's under load constantly hence the fuel.

I'm not due another new one for 2.5 years, so keeping everything crossed one of the bastards doesn't end up mine somehow, not as i mind Daf's had a 460 CF manual before i got the present MAN and it was a cracking lorry, pulled like fuck from no revs, good on fuel, right gear right time, what's not to like.

 

The trouble with modern lorries is it's so much one size fits all, they are now usually what i would call ''parcel spec'', designed to carry 3 tons of teddy bears and 40cu yds of fresh air on the motorway and the only maneuvering they are designed for is on a flat 40 acre site pushing that fannyful onto a level bay which is about all the poxy automated manuals can cope with, especially the ZF pile o' shit fitted to DAFMANIVECO, not the Merc autos i've driven are worth a toss either.

 

28+ tons inside a tank blind siding a reverse round a corner and up a steep hill makes the modern stuff cough.

 

I'd give me eye teeth to have me old 14 litre Cummins's back again coupled to a real gearbox, you can stick this modern overrated crap where the sun don't shine.

  • Like 2
Posted

Yes proper lorry that, and i wish i still had me twin steer Sed Ack 401, got some bloody guts those lorries, always on top of the job.

Posted

Nah you just need to go to one of the countries that Japan exports its lorries to

 

Gigaspecengine-thumb-448x311-107107.jpg

 

Isuzu, Nissan and Mitsi made crazy stuff over the past ten years - all manuals but with massive 20+ L engines, typically NA. Less of a focus on power and emissions as they were mainly sold to new worldy countries where all they want is reliability. Sadly now they're starting to get a bit more sensible and European...

  • Like 2
Posted

That's what i'm talking about..^^^, do me a treat, don't give a tuppeny's what cab or badge or bling or other crap its got, day cab B series ERF would be fine with that lump slung under, a lorry is only ever as good as its heart (engine), i don't want to live in it or make love to it, its there to do a days bloody work whilst being treated with mechanical sympathy and good maintenance.

 

ISTR Fiat/UNIC having a 19 litre unblown 8 pot back in the 70's running some 350hp and gawd nose how much torque, probably nearly max at tickover.

Posted

When I was on bulk powder tankers we ran on Alcoa alloy wheels all round. On weight critical operations that run up to the legal maximum (tippers, tankers) anything you can save on the tare weight is extra payload. It's why ERF/Foden was popular in this sector. Fibreglass cabs were much lighter.

From memory I think alloy wheels could save around 1/3 rd of a ton in weight (could be wrong) all I remember is how much of a twat they were to keep clean when you were in and out of stinking quarries all the time, having to drive through the inevitable cess pit of a wheel wash to stop mud getting onto the roads. Our firm used some heavily acidic stuff to keep the wheels shiny.

This was mine in '99. Dutch plates for avoiding crazy at the time UK road tax.

attachicon.gifimage.jpg

 

 

Also why do people use super space cabs like that on construction lorries? Seems a bit pointless when you're only doing lots of short trips not driving to Romania...

Posted

Some of them, it's vanity and status. Others (particularly some demolition companies I know) it's because the drivers are genuinely away for weeks at a time. They take on jobs down south, or in Ireland, lug all the gear down there; once they're at the job, it's all short runs, but at the end of a shift, it's your cab or THE CARAVAN*. No contest.

One of the Fife Tipper Mafia went power crazy a few years back. It came to a head with the Highline V8 eight legger. It carried fuck all, but nothing could get near it on the road. Except on sites, where it used to dig itself a lovely furrow, and sit there looking lovely and sounding nice, up to its' diffs in Fife's finest boggy clay 'soil'.

Mind you, Scania built Angus Agencies two Topline V8 units with hydro steered tag axles. First of their kind, and I wouldn't imagine many more have been built - they're over ten tons apiece. But they can turn on a sixpence without tyre scrub, which makes it all worthwhile I suppose.

 

In the end it's People In Offices Syndrome. Either when the bosses go power mad, or the engineers have a bright idea. The symptoms of PIOS include drivers tearing their hair out because a shiny 440 Daf is slower and thirstier than the 460 it replaced (see last month's Trucking feature on Pollock's for details), V8 status tippers, The Bigger The Cab The Smaller The Wages, ArseTronic, 55ft trailers/double deckers, Where's The Fucking Dipstick, don't you fix it we'll send a fitter who knows what he's doing (bwahaha), being clattered on the head by a redundant safety device, and many more.

 

Thankfully, there seems to be at least a bit of a backlash against semi-autos. PIOS has come back around from them realising that shattered clutches and trucks stranded because a switch has packed up, maybe aren't so great after all. And that just maybe 'fleet averaging' isn't all it was cracked up to be. I've noticed quite a few of the joint Stobart/Jenkinson order Scanias are manuals, same for Canute's new ones. Pity that Volvo/Renault and Merc in particular have made it almost impossible to order a stick.

 

 

*Probably a knackered 80s Bailey in Moss Green/Pus Yellow, that now miraculously sleeps 15.

  • Like 2
Posted

/\

Agree about the tippers, in some areas they seem to just have the flashest/most powerful ones possible and must spend 12 hours a day polishing them. As for automatics, they seem a massive waste of time as far as tanker drivers go, especially when there's load of ullage space. 

Posted

/\

Agree about the tippers, in some areas they seem to just have the flashest/most powerful ones possible and must spend 12 hours a day polishing them. As for automatics, they seem a massive waste of time as far as tanker drivers go, especially when there's load of ullage space. 

 

That, and what CJ says, is all fair and good and well but do the new FH/Actros/Renault T series even have stick shift options? We have a new Actros wrecker at works (the boffins at MOD procurement decide what our logistics team gets) and the gear switch is like a steering wheel audio control. Brilliant.

Posted

^ New trucks are heavy bastards too. 20 years ago several manufacturers would sell you an eight wheel tipper with a decent spec that would take a genuine 20 tonne payload and last 10 years. Now you'd struggle with one pared to the bone and the gearbox shits itself.

Hopeless.

Posted

You can get manual FH Volvos still.

Posted

You can get manual FH Volvos still.

 

Really? And not in the 'heavy haulage ultra maximum' spec? That used to be the way to do it, hence I've driven a four-over-four Actros. I know with MAN and Iveco, a manual is actually a delete option, ArseTronic comes as standard, so it's not impossible to find them.

Actually, one of Alan Glendinning's MANs is up for sale at Walkers in Leicestershire, and it's a manual box. That very one caused quite a stir in at Asda when it was new: we were all sitting round griping and loading up on coffee like you do, and the lass who was driving it was declaring herself well chuffed with it. Because it had a manual box. After an awed hush, we all trooped out for a gawp: there it was, a TGX with a stick poking out of the floor! Better still, she said, they'd already bypassed the ComfortShift, so no problems there either. Win? Maybe not, it's still a 440...

 

Merc have taken a leaf out of Scania's book with the box control switch: rotate one way to go forward, the other to go back the way. Leave it in the middle when you want to stay still. Hell of a sight simpler than Iveco's old joystick from the early Stralises. There were magic button combos on that, at least one of which selected the gear nearest the engine red line. Cunningly described as 'performance mode'! Only the Italians would feel the need to let the driver redline the engine.

 

Some assorted truck shite for yas, just to keep it on topic-ish...

 

How much do I want to play with this?

DSC_1370.jpg

 

Just about runs.

DSC_1275.jpg

 

Whereas this old codger's been round the clock at least once, and was a delight to use.

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  • Like 2
Posted

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Those (Volvos, like the silver one) still look modern to me.

Posted

^ Yet they gave it a daft all new cab that looks rubbish imho.

 

Crazy that they were still making ECXs in 2002. What a piece of junk.

Posted

The new cab's ugly as sin - not that stylists have much of a free hand with a big box - but it's better to live with than the old one. The overhead lockers aren't skull-splitters for anyone over 5'6" now, for a start. Bunk's wider and deeper, so you don't end up with a dead arm if you throw your arm out of bed (the mattress frame is too easy to find...). BTDT on both counts.
It does have the electronic park brake though. A wee flap on the dashboard that looks a bit like an ashtray. Pull it up to engage, hold it down to disengage. Quite intuitive once you're used to it, but it's thrown a fair few people. Also the glass panel in the roof is odd, but it does make the cab quite airy. And, if the boss is generous enough to buy the 750hp FH16, you can take the badges off and revel in the confusion of lesser mortals.

Moar pics...

Late Reg Madness for a square headlight 95. They were going onto Starey Eyes lights by then.

DSC_1478.jpg

First cousins: ten years apart and only really the cabs are different. Ex TDG ECS and ex Kenneth McWilliam EC10.

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  • Like 2
Posted

 

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The green one looks a lot like a MAN F2000:

 

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  • Like 1
Posted

Are those ECSeseses all ERF bar the cab then CJ? I just assumed they were like our ECT, a MAN with a Cummins engine and some ERF badges. 

 

My 95 is 02 plate with square lights, the only older one I see regularly is a Y reg which CS Ellis have locally running a curtainsider on the Cummins generators contract.

  • Like 1
Posted

Solely because of a Zimbabwean guy I used to work with (who exported a lot of trucks back home) I can't read ERF without hearing a hugely exaggerated rolled 'R' in the middle

Posted

Are those ECSeseses all ERF bar the cab then CJ? I just assumed they were like our ECT, a MAN with a Cummins engine and some ERF badges. 

 

My 95 is 02 plate with square lights, the only older one I see regularly is a Y reg which CS Ellis have locally running a curtainsider on the Cummins generators contract.

 

Think so, as far as I'm aware. The ECT was pretty much just a rebadged TGA with a Cummins 11L option, the ECS was the stopgap model. To the best of my knowledge they didn't come with MAN engines, all the ones I've come across have the Cummins 11L. The rest of the drivetrain and chassis was straight ahead ERF. They weren't offered with the Roadhaus cab like in Lukas' pic either, which was a pity - I think they missed a trick there. Same with Paccar and a 95 cabbed Foden: that could've worked. Many UK operators didn't think much further than the Cummins/Eaton-Fuller/Rockwell combo, but MAN and Paccar knew better...

 

Until recently, Russells of Grangemouth had a couple of very late first-gen 95s on the road, maybe about N reg? The ones with the triangular step above the lights. They were absolutely hanging to bits, but they kept going.

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