GUY Big J 8LXB Tractor Unit

Bewick seems to have made it clear why he thought that GUY would have had insurmountable problems with obtaining 240 Gardner supplies.
Fuel consumption running costs was obviously a Bewick priority.
Don’t think there would be any argument that Gardner had the upper hand over Cummins in that regard especially NA types including 240.

The distance between the rear face of the Big J’s radiator to the drive axle input flange v the overall length of the 8LXB from its cooling fan to the 9 speed Fuller output flange might be interesting ?.

It’s life Jim but not as we know it

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And to think that all CF has driven was a Reliant pick up on the Leatherhead Parks and Cemeteries dept So that three wheeler must have had a Fuller 9509A box in it no danger ! :rofl:

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And a V8 Detroit with a 15 Speed fuller unless he had been given the AEC 6 speed with the bus engine. Wouldn’t of got out of the shed or the bed they had him sedated in

You need to cut him some slack Dennis, he spent 5 hours on google assembling those replies. Word soup is a time consuming dish.

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Agreed, credit where it is due given his difficulties. It is not easy for Slartibartfast stuck on the planet he designed, when it keeps reversing direction of rotation unexpectedly every few hours - imagine that, just when you’ve got the furniture put back straight yet again (and think of the mess in the kitchen!) And all the time he’s got the Babel fish in his ear muttering complete gibberish; which eventually he believes. Then there’s the distance involved in contacting Earth from his last known position somewhere beyond K2-18b.
Even though our patience has worn thin I think we have to sympathise.

For those interested there is a short video from Mr B on You Tube of him driving a restored Big J … but I daren’t put that up for understandable reasons.

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The very same…our hero. :rofl:

I only got to a 13 speed Fuller and the Marmite Twin Splitter. I liked the 13 speed but have never seen a15 or 18 speed Fuller.I don’t know of any being fitted in lorries over here but i bet someone does and he mastered it before he sat in the seat

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The irony when AEC could have done a lot worse than making two stroke V8 Detroits under licence.
Worse as in trying to make their own 4 stroke V8 instead.

So after all that now you’re saying that it did fit and GUY could get their hands on as many as they wanted and could sell but SoM offered a better price for them than you did.I can believe that.

This topic is dead and buried you killed it and removed people who were worth listening to who actually knew what they were talking about well informed people. But once again AEC had the V8 as a concept engine not for commercial use .It was an experiment but your God Stokes decided they would put it in the Mandator. AEC designers were horrified because they didn’t know what it was going to be used for and pleaded for it not to happen .All this as been explained to you on several occasions by people who had close links with the men who worked on it at Southall .But why let facts get in the way of your drivell

Facts are always trumped by his overactive, yet wildly inaccurate imagination.

I’m kicking Google into touch for getting info, I shall now use Mr Carryfast as my default info. provider, he knows everything and I suspect if Google gets stuck THEY consult him for an answer. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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The 15-sp Fuller was quite common in UK on 6x4 units on either construction sites or on heavy-haulage, mostly in the usual culprits like ERF, Foden, Atkinson and Scammell. The only UK maker I know of who made quite a few 18-sp optionals was Foden in the '90s and early 'noughties in the 4000-series.

Let’s just say that the Gardner option was always about minimising running costs ?.
It would be logical to then try to do whatever it takes to put it into the cheapest available chassis so as not to defeat the object ?.
Although it looks a tall order to fit it all into a Big J tractor unit chassis at least.
This sort of complicated stuff is why we discuss it here not Google.

A ‘concept’ for what exactly ?.
Cash and resources invested in something which its own designers were then ‘horrified’ by when they’d finished it as being unfit for purpose.
Then put under a primitive cab designed for local delivery work, not for a long haul tractor unit, as the industry entered a pivotal period in customer and driver expectations.Maybe you’d have preferred it if Stokes had closed down AEC trucks division there and then which would have been a more logical solution.
As for this topic it’s anyone’s guess what Bewick’s point is/was.
But if I’ve got it right he’s now changed his mind the 8LXB Big J did exist.

There you go you dont listen The V8 wasn’t finished nowhere near and the people who worked on it never knew what it was going to be used for.It’s like trying to platt fog reacting to you.

Your right there GOM CF has steadily made Google irrelevant over the years and it is now an accepted fact that what he doesn’t KNOW could now be written on half a postage stamp ! :wink: :innocent: :student:

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What would have been the definition of ‘finished’, as opposed to what actually got put on the road ?.
They knew it was designed for heavy truck applications.
That needed torque.Which they were never going to get enough of out of such an engine design because of insufficient leverage.
Even in naturally aspirated form it was predictably over stressing its con rods and ends let alone turbocharging it. Also a weird cooling design only feeding one bank of cylinders from the radiator and water pump.
How and why would anyone even want to ‘finish’ that rather than knocking it on the head at the design drawing stage as a blind alley.
Obviously Stokes couldn’t have signed off something that had never been put in front of him or even told about.
So instead of messing about with a too small V8 they could have put that effort into a larger capacity, longer stroke, development of the AV760 to more than rival all the other 6 cylinder manufacturers’ products.
The rest is history.
Although to be fair there was some weird thinking going on across Leyland as with the V8 someone said let’s also make the 500, to do the job of wrecking the firm properly.
All moot when Bewick or GUY weren’t sure if they were ordering/putting a Gardner 180, or a Cummins, or a 240 Gardner in the BigJ or not.