ben walker:
Drove for Wimpey Lancaster Rd Southall Central Plant late 60s.One Morning a Driver Bob Trump got into his Cab an AEC Mercury Ergo Cab was filling in Log Book reving lightly when the Gearbox blue to bits and blew holes in the Cab Floor and Mudwings ,AEC said if i can remember right that the breather had got blocked and caused it.anybody ever came across anything like. Ben.
We had a Ergo cab Mercury tractor unit that blew the gearbox apart…driver error was to blame. He had 18 tons of paper on the trailer (it was legal it was a 26-tons gvw model). The load was out of Robert Fletcher’s papermill at Stoneclough, Lancs, and it was a steep climb out of that village. It was also a 12-speed splitter 'box, and the driver missed a gear on the hill, snatched the gear lever, fouled the splitter switch, probably engaged two and a half gears at once and the result was spectacular.