[While I’d put the Marathon a long way below nearly there in its day and definitely preferred the Foden S 83/85 even with the plastic cab. 
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Well, to a certain extent CF has point. I drove F8-cabbed 280 and 281 MANs with 13-speed Fullers in them: they were excellent tools and the gearbox installation was very good. I also drove early F90-cabbed MANs which were equipped with the wonderful Eaton Twin-splitter - again, a constant-mesh gearbox; but you have to remember that the new generation of F90 / F2000 MANs were not offered with Fuller 'boxes as CF suggests. There were rare 13sp-Fuller options in Germany only, as far as my research shows, but no more. In UK the Twin-splitter option was gone by the early '90s. In my experience, all these MAN models were very good lorries. I hope that helps. Robert
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I think I have mentioned this guy long since in a different thread, so I’ll be brief in the retelling, I knew a man from Freidrichshaven who had six F90 19-402 pulling silos for Schmidt Heilbronn they ranged from 1992 to 1994 the first two definitely had 13 speed fullers the later ones twin-splitters. Now we never had the 402 in the UK, but my recollection is that the 292 and 332 had the twin splitter as standard and Ecosplit as an option whilst the 362 and V10 were ZF only, this doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t have fitted a fuller to request as it was definitely engineered for the chassis. When the F2000 came they were 16 speed synchro only but you had choice of ZF or Eaton. The F8 was Fuller only except for the 361 which came ZF only.
P.S. What have the fantastically well engineered, very reliable, efficient, spacious and comfortable MAN F8 and F90 got to do with Leyland Marathons?
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I dont quite remember them being that good.MAN have always been plagued with weak engines.
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I agree with you 100%. MAN have always had “tender” engines. There is a (false) perception from some people that everything European was and is fantastic, and everything British was rubbish. There was, and is, good and bad points about every truck marque of the 1970s, even Scania and Volvo had their problems. And believe me as someone still involved in the day to day running of them they still give problems. The trouble-free truck has still to be made.