Trev_H:
Up to ya neck in it eh Bewick?
Re the Gardner/ Green leaker dispute, depends on your viewpoint, if you was a driver on trip money you’d want the Detroit, if you was buying the fuel it would be the Gardner.
I personally liked the sound of both, done thousands of miles with a 180 (gardner’s worst IMHO), the gardner always got you home…
…to late for tea though
Hiya Trev you loving this or what !! I only want proof that Guy fitted the 8LXB in the Big J and I have ended up causing a Transatlantic war !! anyway have you come up with anything yet or are you just another masochist ? Cheers Bewick.
fryske:
Never mind the 8LXB - you need the Mervyn Edwards’ flying machine… ■■■■■■■ 335 & 13-speed Fuller… back in action one day I hope… although he will probably put it straight back to work!
Hiya Fryske nice shots of the Big J I bet that is one evil machine !! While were on what back axle has it got ■■ Hope it can start another thread and take the heat out of the 8LXB enquiry !!! Cheers Bewick.
they did some with Gardner 240’s but not many. One was exhibited at a Commercial Motor show.
Hi Dennis,
You are going to have to find another little conundrum for them,now that Steve appears to have solved that one.
Cheers Dave.
Yea Dave I think this thread is just about played out !! I am going into the garden shed to put my head in a bucket or maybe I will take up cage fighting it will be a lot less painfull Cheers Dennis.
they did some with Gardner 240’s but not many. One was exhibited at a Commercial Motor show.
Hi Dennis,
You are going to have to find another little conundrum for them,now that Steve appears to have solved that one.
Cheers Dave.
Yea Dave I think this thread is just about played out !! I am going into the garden shed to put my head in a bucket or maybe I will take up cage fighting it will be a lot less painfull Cheers Dennis.
Go on Dennis,set them another,stop them kicking the dog,or molesting their missis.
Cheers Dave.
they did some with Gardner 240’s but not many. One was exhibited at a Commercial Motor show.
Hi Dennis,
You are going to have to find another little conundrum for them,now that Steve appears to have solved that one.
Cheers Dave.
Yea Dave I think this thread is just about played out !! I am going into the garden shed to put my head in a bucket or maybe I will take up cage fighting it will be a lot less painfull Cheers Dennis.
Go on Dennis,set them another,stop them kicking the dog,or molesting their missis.
Cheers Dave.
Its o.k. for you to take a consiencious objector position in this war !!! If Andrew could locate and rebuild OJM480L this motor could see off any GM/TK or BigJ no danger !! Wishful thinking I think I have forgot to take my medication NURSE NURSE oh well MATRON MATRON !! Cheers Dennis.
3300John:
Hiya I’ve just had a look at the U tube video. Well are you telling me thats a standard engine with no ballancing or over fueling without waterinjection
and would do more than 2 miles without a rebuild.Some of us have done a bit of motoring and know thats just a way of using lots of Dollars for fun.
If you want to spend $5000 for 3 seconds thats your game.Gardner was building good Diesel engines when yanks was running sidevalve gas engines.
People always respected Gardner engines.the reason people do’nt drag race Gardner engines is after your 5 second drag some daft bugger strips the engine and sticks a new set of pistons back in ready for the next demo.Nowadays there are not many people willing to rebuild a Gardner engine not as they need a rebuild that often.If the rack stuck back on a Gardner it would rev itself till it blew up maybe this what the Detroit dose after every drag.New pistons and heads to me is a rebuild.I’ve driven Bedford two strokes and Gardner 240s and the Gardner will come out on top every time.Iam not saying Detroits are
bad but don’t come up to a 240 standard.
John.
Don’t have a clue exactly what spec that one’s built to because there’s no way of knowing.But I do know that in the very early days of truck racing road going Detroit powered TM’s were used in road spec and usually beat everything else which was thrown at them and that racing spec one looked like a purpose built light weight racer so it’s possible that the motor was’nt far from standard road spec with just 2 turbos instead of 1?because a standard 8V92 TM unit would’nt have been far behind that 85mph + in a quarter mile.But I can’t possibly see how a 240 Gardner could come out on top of any comparison with a TM with even the lowest spec Detroit in it.Even the 7 Litre 6V71 without a turbo gave out well over 250 horse.(272 hp if I remember).But with an 8V71 or 8V92 you’re looking at around 300 horse for the 71 and around 400 horse for the 92.And I know the way that they can throw a loaded fire truck down the road and a Gardner would’nt even get close.While mechanically they’re probably as,if not more,reliable.
I like the ■■■■■■■ engined Guy, exactly the same set up as the 290 I had, the exhaust stack,air intake, header tank at the back of the cab is totally original as I remember it. That exhaust in your right ear was loud, we used to get pulled by the law about the noise.
My mate done a regular run through Whitchurch every night, the law pulled him up and told him they had complaints from residents having their windows rattled every night, was his exhaust faulty? My mate replied no its not faulty its a new truck and tell the residents of Whitchurch they get it for 5 mins every night, I’ve got it for 11hrs
I wonder if the blue one in the Photo is ex. Pickfords they had a few with the 335, god knows what they went like, the speedo went to 80mph, the main beam warning light was at 6 o clock they were still pulling past that, unlike the gardner they had a real good heater too.
Wish I still drove one!
Trev_H:
I like the ■■■■■■■ engined Guy, exactly the same set up as the 290 I had, the exhaust stack,air intake, header tank at the back of the cab is totally original as I remember it. That exhaust in your right ear was loud, we used to get pulled by the law about the noise.
My mate done a regular run through Whitchurch every night, the law pulled him up and told him they had complaints from residents having their windows rattled every night, was his exhaust faulty? My mate replied no its not faulty its a new truck and tell the residents of Whitchurch they get it for 5 mins every night, I’ve got it for 11hrs
I wonder if the blue one in the Photo is ex. Pickfords they had a few with the 335, god knows what they went like, the speedo went to 80mph, the main beam warning light was at 6 o clock they were still pulling past that, unlike the gardner they had a real good heater too.
Wish I still drove one!
If it was ex Pickfords Trev it would never have been over worked while in their service as it would have just paddled about at 30MPH with a police ■■■■■■ and they would have parked up at 4PM washed and changed and sat in the digs waiting for opening time .And I dare say when it came out of service it still had the polythene on the seats and engine !! When the next owner opened it up for the first time I bet there were cobwebs , birds nests and god knows what else come out of the exhaust stack !! Cheers Bewick.
Sorry for that, I’ve been reading the various posts on this subject and found it intriguing to say the least, sorry first off for not being able to give an answer on the GUY 8LXB mystery despite frantic searching but it has certainly brought out some interesting details and taken over four separate threads, hopefully when gb1 scoures his Mothers attic he might come up with the solution in the way of a GUY brochure, we’ll just have to wait but can’t believe after all this that no one has definate proof despite some saying they drove these vehicles. I personally think it quite feasable GUY did fit these engines even if it was late on in their life span and to just a small number, simply because every other British maker did that used optional engines and transmissions. Seddon with the 34:4:8LXB, ERF in the A Series, Atkinson in the Borderer, so it would only have been some stern instruction from the Leyland ‘Mafia’ that might have stopped GUY’s engineers from having a go too. Can’t wait to see something in black and white! Franky.
Trev_H:
I like the ■■■■■■■ engined Guy, exactly the same set up as the 290 I had, the exhaust stack,air intake, header tank at the back of the cab is totally original as I remember it. That exhaust in your right ear was loud, we used to get pulled by the law about the noise.
My mate done a regular run through Whitchurch every night, the law pulled him up and told him they had complaints from residents having their windows rattled every night, was his exhaust faulty? My mate replied no its not faulty its a new truck and tell the residents of Whitchurch they get it for 5 mins every night, I’ve got it for 11hrs
I wonder if the blue one in the Photo is ex. Pickfords they had a few with the 335, god knows what they went like, the speedo went to 80mph, the main beam warning light was at 6 o clock they were still pulling past that, unlike the gardner they had a real good heater too.
Wish I still drove one!
If it was ex Pickfords Trev it would never have been over worked while in their service as it would have just paddled about at 30MPH with a police ■■■■■■ and they would have parked up at 4PM washed and changed and sat in the digs waiting for opening time .And I dare say when it came out of service it still had the polythene on the seats and engine !! When the next owner opened it up for the first time I bet there were cobwebs , birds nests and god knows what else come out of the exhaust stack !! Cheers Bewick.
I’m not sure of its earlier life but it’s been with the current owners for a number of years now.
And going by the current fleet it will have earned its keep many times over.
Next time you’re on the A14 and an elderly ERF steams past with a load of timber or straw you’ll see what I mean!
Carryfast:
12 litres +, 8 cylinders,massive price difference,all for 240 horses.Why would anyone have bothered to spec it anyway?.Probably the same managers who asked Bedford to use the 7 Litre V6 Detroit in the TM to run at 32 tonnes and who would’nt buy the 8V92 version maybe and the ones who would’nt give me a job when I was a new driver in the 1980’s might have done.
If you looked like a sensible lad Carryfast I would have given you a start but not on a TK on Steroids !! You would have gone onto a Big J (180LXB ) which was enough of a motor for a lad !! Then once you had proved yourself an 8LXB was a definite possibility!! But don’t compare a Detroit clockwork orange with the creme de la creme Gardner 8LXB they are not in the same leauge !!! Cheers Bewick
No thanks bewick.I was happy enough when they gave me a DAF 2800 for my first job on artics at 25.We did have a Gardner powered heap but it was our yard shunter which is about all it was quick enough for. But I actually preferred those proper yank engines over anything else I’ve driven since and my first guvnors were happy enough to trust me at 21 with a new licence with up to more than double the amount of power that old plodder of a Gardner could even come close to.Just hope there’s no yanks who read the best truck engines made described as clockwork.Unless you know where there’s a 400 horse or 635 horse Gardner fitted in a Guy Big J
Hiya Carryfast ! THE JOB ---- During the 70s & 80s we used to get any number of lads asking for starts who had only been taught to pass their test (not taught how to drive properly nor of course how to carry out the numerous other tasks they were required to carry out as a professional HGV driver ) However usually without exception they expected to be allocated nothing less than an F88 or a 111 !!! Of course they always recieved the same answer "Dont ring us we’ll ring you " . Those lads that did accept a spell being taught and guided for a while by our shunters always turned out to become 1st class employees and sailed up the ranks quickly . GM Vs GARDENER If you are talking about drag racing at Santa Pod we would appear to be on different planets because I am talking about running an economical , reliable truck in the tough environs of the road haulage business !! Unfortunatley it was totally futile and financially suicidal to even consider KM/TM as an alternative to operating Gardener/Scania/■■■■■■■■ Volvo engined tractors ! We did have a few visits from our local Bedford dealer to demo the KM/TM tractors in the 70s but if I had had a momentary lapse and agreed to taking one or two into the fleet I would have had a riot on my hands !! Not to mention the damage to our fleet profile and of course some of our customers would definitley have started asking questions ! In my opinion the ones we had on demo were (excuse my French )all wind and p**s and wouldn’t have lasted the distance in our fleet .I would not wish to get involved in the fine technical details I am only speaking as a former road haulier !! Please do not take a powder ! Regards Bewick.
The main reason why those old two strokes were and still are so good at truck racing is/was because they’ve got the type of specific outputs that Gardner/Scania/■■■■■■■ and all the other stuff could’nt even dream of.It’s actually false economy to fit a wagon with a big,heavy,14 litre lump of a motor which can only give out around 250 horsepower.Although Scania and Volvo did eventually learn that years after the yanks were fitting 500 horse V12 two strokes in their wagons and then they wiped the floor with those idiot Brit manufacturers who’d listened to British transport managers with the attitude that Gardners are best.But it’s what you’ve said there about the treatment of new drivers which was the reason why I wanted out of Britain and try the states instead.But unluckily for me they would’nt let Brits in back then.But before I’d got on to my first artic job I had to spend 5 years in a very low paid council job driving anything from a 1940’s AEC Matador to Leyland Clydesdales,■■■■■■■ powered Atkis and Rolls Powered Fodens.Followed by 15 years of night trunking in which the at the time 6 year old 1978/9 Daf 2800 I was first given was a better truck than most of the stuff the guvnors gave me later.But I never did get the international work which I wanted because of guvnors with that attitude.The Gardner powered heaps were rightly regarded as (British) guvnors motors not drivers trucks.But there’s probably plenty of old yank drivers out there who’d disagree with you and who,like the trucks they drove, provided their guvnors with years of profitable miles.I 'm sure that you would’nt have heard those drivers saying that a two stroke powered yank wagon was all wind and p**s and that it would’nt have lasted the distance.
