Carryfast:
ramone:
Carryfast:
I had the misfortune of nights out with that short sleeper as opposed to the longer version shown in the Mid Easter photo.While to add insult to injury it was obviously an excessively narrow cab which then didn’t leave enough room for a decent steering wheel which was another flaw which I hated about the thing.As for the brakes what brakes especially when pulling knackered old unaccompanied trailers.The thing was a joke in trying to make a decent truck out of the Ergo and compared to the DAF 2800 which was the truck it should have been.I think most manufacturers apart from Mercedes switched to smaller steering wheels. Maybe the poor brakes were down to maintenance , like you said pulling unaccompanied trailers which were knackered won`t have helped, as for the short sleeper that would be your bosses fault for not specking a unit with a full sleeper. Horses for courses , you sound more like a modern day steering wheel attendant than an older experienced driver.
As I remember it the DAF 85/95 also both had decent sized steering wheels.Probably because like the 2800 and unlike the Marathon it wasn’t an after thought caused by a zb cab design.Also don’t see how a preference,for a decent proper truck sized steering wheel and the constant mesh ZF box,makes anyone a car driving steering wheel attendant.
While the DAF obviously didn’t offer the guvnor the choice of adding the insult of the short sleeper to the injury of the cheap and nasty narrow Ergo ‘upgrade’.
As for the brakes.I also did the same job with an F10 which to the guvnor’s credit rotated equally with the Marathon between me and the more senior driver he had working for him.Make no mistake I’m always the first to defend Brit trucks.But not afraid to call a spade a spade in the case of heaps like the Marathon which ironically was the type of junk which just added to the unfair stereotypes against other much better products.
Actually, steering wheels did get smaller during that period, simply as a result of widespread use of power-steering. Only the German-built lorries retained full-sized steering wheels because at that time German C&U regs (equivalent) required that a driver should still be able to get home if the power-steering failed (for which you needed a big wheel for full leverage). IIRC, the same regs stipulated that you must have manual wind-up driver’s windows in case of electrics failure. Both entirely sensible in my view. Nowadays, of course, you are required to park and call out a fitter at enormous expense even if your radio fails to receive Radio 3. You mention DAF, which as you say seemed to retain a big wheel for longer than most - BTW, the difference between a DAF 95 and a 95XF steering wheel was huge! Robert