5,000th volvo f86 sold to smiths crisps 1972
From my recollections of reading the charts in Truck magazine and Commercial Motor in the late seventies, the biggest sellers of top-weight chassis were ERF and Seddon-Atkinson - notably the B-Series and the 400-series. I’m sure the other categories were carved-up between all the other manufacturers, but I always seem to remember having the same old argument with a school pal; his uncle drove a Seddon-Atkinson 400 and my Dad drove a succession of ERF B-Series. He swore the 400 was the best-seller and I always said the B-Series. One of us was invariably correct, probably due to own-account fleet purchases by the like of petroleum companies, supermarket fleets, etc.
Did the supermarket fleets run that many lorries in those days?
I wouldn’t have thought they ran enough to have a big impact on sales figures.
There were a lot of British lorries on the road then, so the Sed Ak or ERF would be out there in big numbers for sure, but Volvo went to the trouble of making the UK only F88-290, so they must have put quite a lot of chassis out, to go to all that trouble, so even if the two Brits did top the sales charts, I doubt it was by a huge margin.
Looking back, the bigger operators in my area were mostly ERF, Guy or Sed Ak, but the smaller firms were mostly Merc, Scania or Volvo, with a few Daf operators thrown in for good measure, a couple even ran MANs.
Rigids were almost exclusively Scammell or Foden for eight wheelers and a mix of Bedford or Ford for 16ton and below.
How times have changed…
I was referring to the period around 78 - 82, which was probably the last throes of home ■■■■■■■■■■ in the top-weight sales category. ERF & SA definitely dominated the sector, but the signs were there that DAF & Volvo were chasing hard. My memory can’t recall the minutii of who was buying what or whether spermarket fleets were of such a significant scale, but there’s no doubt that if you were selling to the likes of BP, Shell, Fina, etc., you were in clover.
Yes, the oil companies ran British lorries, I think that had a lot to do with low tare weight and the availability of earth return wiring to comply with Pet Regs.
Cheap pricing for fleet deals wouldn’t have been a deciding factor IMHO, as the foreigners would’ve discounted heavily to get a foot in the door.
The British lorries from that era were as good, sometimes better, than the foreign lorries, but the poor customer service from factory and dealers alike that allowed the foreigners to go from strength to strength.
Such a shame…
The petrol regs. That’s an interesting point newmercman but do vehicles have to comply with earth return today? I can’t imagine that Volvo or MAN would modify vehicles just for the UK market so is it yet another sensible safety regulation that has been lost to the Euro ‘Elf and Safety’ b**sht?
David
David Miller:
The petrol regs. That’s an interesting point newmercmanDavid
Every once in a while I come up with something sensible, you have to trawl through a lot of nonsense to find it, but it’s there all the same 
I would say Dieseldave or Wheel Nut would be the ones to know, the only tanks I ever pulled were under my trailer, or tucked away in the headboard (allegedly) 
Allegedly 
I’ve no idea about how good the ‘selling’ of trucks in the 70’s was but I can tell you as a 6 year old lad growing up with trucks there was no finer sight and noise than one of these…
Now whether it was economical, nice to drive or a good earner for an operator I couldn’t tell you but for me it was the best!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Allegedly
Yeah, as in, not proven
LeeJ:
I’ve no idea about how good the ‘selling’ of trucks in the 70’s was but I can tell you as a 6 year old lad growing up with trucks there was no finer sight and noise than one of these…
Now whether it was economical, nice to drive or a good earner for an operator I couldn’t tell you but for me it was the best!
I drove one for Midlands BRS, the ones we had were reliable, loads of room in the cab and good pullers (ours had the 280 Rolls). Economy I couldn’t tell you as I don’t remember but they would have been on par with the similar size ■■■■■■■■ The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of steps into the cab, if the wheel step ring was wet or you had diesel on your boots you could take serious amounts of skin from your shin.
IIRC the one I drove was KJO 461N.
the noise of it will stay with me forever. it just snorted and growled.
A Crusader with a 280 Rolls and a sleeper cab was my first motor on the Middle East in 1972. Comfortable and sophisticated it was not but it was totally reliable, never let me done, and as strong as an Ox. But I can see from the photo that North Western BRS had figured out the one modification the truck really needed - move the exhaust from under the front bumper and civilise it by sticking it up the back of the cab. Got mine done in Tehran in stainless at a cost of about 50 quid.
But the thing that I loved best about the truck was checking the oil in German Tankstellen. To do so you first lifted the fiberglass bit around the radiator grill and then loosened two handwheels - you can see one on the photo down to the right of the grill above the bumper - which then allowed you to swing the radiator itself open like a barn door. That exposed the whole front of the engine, the fan and the belts and, low down, the dipstick. By the time you had done that you would be surrounded by German drivers laughing fit to wet themselves. ‘Ho Ho Ho’ they would say ‘It’s an antique, no?’ I always used to say to them ‘OK, big laugh but just how easy is it to change a fan belt on your fixed cab Mercedes?’ That would shut them up every time.
Bloody good truck.
David
Trev_H:
LeeJ:
I’ve no idea about how good the ‘selling’ of trucks in the 70’s was but I can tell you as a 6 year old lad growing up with trucks there was no finer sight and noise than one of these…
Now whether it was economical, nice to drive or a good earner for an operator I couldn’t tell you but for me it was the best!
I drove one for Midlands BRS, the ones we had were reliable, loads of room in the cab and good pullers (ours had the 280 Rolls). Economy I couldn’t tell you as I don’t remember but they would have been on par with the similar size ■■■■■■■■ The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of steps into the cab, if the wheel step ring was wet or you had diesel on your boots you could take serious amounts of skin from your shin.
IIRC the one I drove was KJO 461N.
Can only find a photo of KJO 460N
David Miller:
A Crusader with a 280 Rolls and a sleeper cab was my first motor on the Middle East in 1972. Comfortable and sophisticated it was not but it was totally reliable, never let me done, and as strong as an Ox. But I can see from the photo that North Western BRS had figured out the one modification the truck really needed - move the exhaust from under the front bumper and civilise it by sticking it up the back of the cab. Got mine done in Tehran in stainless at a cost of about 50 quid.But the thing that I loved best about the truck was checking the oil in German Tankstellen. To do so you first lifted the fiberglass bit around the radiator grill and then loosened two handwheels - you can see one on the photo down to the right of the grill above the bumper - which then allowed you to swing the radiator itself open like a barn door. That exposed the whole front of the engine, the fan and the belts and, low down, the dipstick. By the time you had done that you would be surrounded by German drivers laughing fit to wet themselves. ‘Ho Ho Ho’ they would say ‘It’s an antique, no?’ I always used to say to them ‘OK, big laugh but just how easy is it to change a fan belt on your fixed cab Mercedes?’ That would shut them up every time.
Bloody good truck.
David
The hinged radiator idea was copied from the LB 76 Scania Vabis by BRS engineers who collaborated with Scammell/ Leyland on the design of the Crusader.
Hi Tidderson, thanks for that picture, 460N + 461N were both on truck rental for 2 yrs, looks like 460 went to the training school.
You are quiet right, Tidderson, They were a ■■■■■ to climb in or out of but that was pretty typical of the time wasn’t it? The manufacturers did not spend a lot of time worried about the man that was going to drive it.
David
David Miller:
The petrol regs. That’s an interesting point newmercman but do vehicles have to comply with earth return today? I can’t imagine that Volvo or MAN would modify vehicles just for the UK market so is it yet another sensible safety regulation that has been lost to the Euro ‘Elf and Safety’ b**sht?David
ERF were strong right to the end in the fuel tanker sector and had a specific line at middlewich for pet regs motors. MAN seem to be very big these days in that market so must have carried it over in some way.