I hated the things with a vengeance, had three go pop on me, 2 x 6 pot LXB’s, and a partial seizure of a 300. the second LXB cost me about 6 hours on the M1 in the wee small hours at about -6’, never been so cold in me life, when running right freezing bloody cold all winter and prone to fuel waxing even when you’d been running for hours.
The most vivid memories are of winter mornings in the yard (or at the Crawford Arms) and a row of Gardners ticking over and the whole area disappearing in a white stinking fog, whilst the drivers of said motors stood upwind for half an hour or so till they could search for their own truck.
The best day with a Gardner was when it when bang for the last time and you got issued with a ■■■■■■■■
Running backwards? a mate with an LXC semi stalled it with the far too high geared Rolonoff’s PTO and when he released the clutch the bloody thing fired up backwards, amusing watching puffs of smoke exiting the air intake…not his fault, the PTO was so high geared that once when he allowed the revs to rise over 1000 rpm the extra load split the gearbox casing.