newmercman:
I tend to agree with CF here, by the mid to late 70s the Gardner engines were past their prime and in the 80s they were totally outclassed. My own experience of Gardner ‘power’ was with a 6LXC 400 SA with DB 6spd and 2spd axle, it was painful, noisy, slow and it drank oil like it was going out of fashion.At the time I was hauling British Gypsum and delivering around the south coast, from Margate to Bognor Regis, I did one load a day, with a short run like a Margate or Folkestone i got back early enough to get one on wheels for the next day, I was also roping and sheeting the loads.
I got a newer lorry, another 400 but this had a 290 ■■■■■■■ and a tri axle curtainsider behind it, a sleeper cab too, it was like a holiday compared to the older lorry, I got twice as much done and my wages went up significantly as a result, which tells me the guvnor was earning a lot more too as he was as tight as two coats of paint and wouldn’t part with cash unless he had to.
This was the late 80s, to me it justifies CFs description, by then they were boat anchors.
By which time the company had been owned by Hawker Siddley for some years who was anxious to dispose of Gardners, which they did by selling to Perkins, who also owned Rolls Royce Diesels, so neither owner had any interest, or desire, to develop existing Gardner designs (impossible given the age of the basic design), or replace them with completely new designs.
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