They were definitely Eatons because Orhan Sertel, the owner, was a fan of U.S equipment so ■■■■■■■ plus Eaton filled the bill as far as he was concerned. Next best to Macks!
Sorry just realised my mistake. The drivetrain on those 400’s was ■■■■■■■■ Fuller, Eaton.
Many apologies!
Jazzandy:
Sorry just realised my mistake. The drivetrain on those 400’s was ■■■■■■■■ Fuller, Eaton.Many apologies!
A shiny new one was featured in the brochure for the ‘400 Series International’
I seem to remember that OHS loaded out of Stranraer in the early 80s.The local creamery started producing feta cheese for export and OHS had a contract i think. They later started moving it by train but I remember the Macks and fridges.
You’re right. The contract came through an expat Iranian and was just starting when I left the company.
Used to be a couple of OHS or ex OHS macks in Izmir when i used ti deliver to the BMC factory there, they used to be in a yard near to the electronics factory I reloaded at sometimes.
Saviem:
newmercman:
Jazzandy:
I’ll be posting some pics of the 400’s. I was transport manager of OHS when they were bought so remember them well. They were purchased direct from Sedoon Atkinson rather than through a dealer which was quite unusual.I’m pretty sure they had ■■■■■■■ 335 bhp motors and Eaton gearboxes and rear axles.
The fact that you say you think they had Eaton axles confirms that they did, if they had the ‘group’ rear axle, you’d remember
They were a major disaster
Hello Mark, you know your history well, disaster, that is not really an apt enough term! Lack of oil retention, even when new , was a major design feature!! When they first appeared on the Borderer, well, we all new it was the beginning of the end!! Cheerio for now.
Vous êtes trop aimable 
What I’d like to know is how and why were these inferior products allowed to go to market? Was it nepotism or the Old School Tie Network buying crap off of each other? Or were they really that unconcerned with their customers?
I think it was sheer British bad management and failure to invest in R & D. Do you remember the infamous Leyland fixed head engines. absolute nightmare which bankrupted several haulage companies.
One Leyalnd man described the problem to me as ‘imagine a surgeon carrying out a throat operation by going in through the ■■■■■■!’
Yet they persevered with the bloody things and watched their market share plummet.
It was an attitude I got when I worked for Avis and we were complaining bitterly about the 30 cwt Commer vans they were saddling us with. A top Avis ■■■■ looked me directly in the eye and said ‘If it’s got Avis on the side, it’s the best van on the road!’
With that kind of refusal to face facts how the hell are you going to survive?
Interesting links.Thank you.Good thread-Inever knew about the OHS 400s.Used to see a Mack or two.Also saw the ‘dustbin lorry’ in Farthing Corner a couple of times,driven by someone who looked like he’d just done a very messy oil change.Apologies if it was anybody on here 
The main reason they were bought, and it was me who actually bought them for the company, was because fhey were, with ■■■■■■■ Fuller Eaton drivetrains, as close to an American truck as you get get without paying the transport and import duties on the real thing. They were not a frustrated export order for Greece as has been suggested. We bought one which proved OK and then bought them in batches of twos and threes. The first one incidentally was the wrong colour. For some reason I specified Royal Blue which was far to dark. Oops!!!
One major reason for the purchase was the weights which allowed us to tow heavier trailers in the UK and they were never supposed to go any further than Turkey. I’d be really interested to hear driivers experiences in the Saudi desert.
The first OHS driver to have one was Roy Evett.
Hi Jazzandy, I like this thread. It’s nice to hear from people who did things other than just drive- it does indeed take all sorts!
Regarding the 400s, there are numerous posts on the Forum which slate them- kangarou starts, gearlever becoming disconnected on right-hand corners, different steering angle left/right (how ridiculous- even if their design office contained only one man and one drawing board, you would still expect the thing to be symmetrical!) etc, not to mention the axle and the corrosion. Yours, however, seemed to be quite satisfactory- did SA pull out all the stops to show that it could build a genuine rival to the 140, F89 etc, or was it simply that you specified the vehicles sensibly? How did the drivers rate them, compared to the Macks and others?
Apart from around the yard and a couple if UK collections the only time I really drove one was when I picked one up on the Trieste border after a driver was taken ill and brought it back to UK.
I thought it was a lovely truck to drive comparable to an F10 for example. They didn’t have the luxury interior finish of the Macks but the bunk was a decent size and I had no complaints.
As I said, I’d be interested to hear from other drivers their experiences of taking them all the way to the Gulf.
Here’s one of my GMC Astro on the road south of Brno in Chechoslovakia as it then was.
Hello Jazzandy
I worked as a mechanic for S/A dealer Rylands of Hendon 77-79 and remember seeing your 400’s and Macks. They came for parts not service, remember one poor driver trying to lift a diff into the cab all on his own.
The 400 at the time was very easy to work on compared to the more classic British lorries, yes it had some issues (cab ram top pins snapping and front chrome trim that I could never fit properly… LOL…) but the Ryland Fleet engineer and I copied the F88 air/hyd clutch slave cylinder set up on one of the Fleet Hire trucks (that’s what I looked after mostly) and that drew some good customer comments and I think it got incorporated on the line soon after…
Our rental F10’s and E290 sleeper 400’s were always appreciated by customers… but we only kept them 18 months so I never got to see them rust…!!! 
Some of your drivers told me of their travels… must have done something for me as I emigrated to Canada and went to work for Mack in Vancouver on the very same F700’s you had…!!!
cheers
YVR Brit
Nice to hear from you yvr Brit.
The trucks were serviced and repaired in our own workshops in Rainham Essex. Anything we couldn’t handle was normally shunted into Van Hove in Brussels.
Still think the GMC Astro was the sexiest truck on the fleet. Nobody has disputed that yet!
Jazzandy:
Still think the GMC Astro was the sexiest truck on the fleet. Nobody has disputed that yet!
Nothing to dispute mate, they were 
Hi Andy; Dug out a few pics. Be nice to get your ‘expert’ opinion on them…
This pic courtesy of Roger Williams - owner of Willhire.
This pic courtesy of the late Howard Leighton.
These form Tony Khan.
is that you on the left?
old colours?
Turkey?
And a few general pics; some are mine; others im not sure of;
Volvos were Trukish spec; trilex wheels?
Love the ‘little Mack’. I take it was just for UK shunting?
Excellent pics
How many trucks did OHS run at there peak?