Driving position and comfort…ergo for me.
Hi,
In it’s day the Guy BigJ was ,I believe a good workhorse. It was an improvement on a lot of what went before. I drove the invincible before getting a BigJ and charismatic as the Invincible was and in many ways ultra modern in styling------at that time-----the Bigj was a revelation.
Good vision, reasonable soundproofing ,mostly warm with good controls. Depending on which powerplant was fitted it could be a flyer or a plodder. It covered most haulage roles, from tipper to heavy haulage and whilst some others may have done some jobs better it did them all To me they should not be compared to F88’s and Scania 111’s because they were the fore runners of modern technology and the Bigj was the changeover technology from traditional truck building to the present generation.
In many haulage firms of the BigJ’s era it was the backbone of the fleet. You could drive a better truck, you could also drive a lot worse. It was relatively cheap, maybe not cheerfull, but it was a vehicle of a time of traditional haulage in Britain.
As for the “Ergo” I cannot comment , I never drove one.
Cheers Bassman
In 1973 I graduated from a Big J with a Gardner180 that was 3 years old to a new Leyland Buffalo both on the same work, in fact with the same trailer, on bulk tipper distance work. The difference was chalk and cheese in favour of the ergo cab, good driving position, controls readily to hand and a much quieter cab, in fact I bought a radio (£6.50) to fit in the Leyland whereas it just wouldn’t be audible in the Big J. The Buffalo vertical exhaust with a pleasant turbo whistle made it a pleasure to drive with the window open, then there was the 10 speed range change box, a first for me, and the fact that it went faster than 55 mph (MUCH faster) was a bonus on (and off) the motorway. Having said that I was happy with the Big J, compared to the LAD cabbed Albion I drove before it was an equilly giant step forward, so which one gets the vote? Difficult one but at the time I wouldn’t have wanted to go back to the Big J (without power steering by the way) so I guess the Ergo cab has it. Would I drive a Big J today? Yes, but with ear defenders.
I drove both, a buffalo with the L12 and slow 6 speed box, I drove many different Big J’s from the slow Gardner 180, Perkins V8 with a roomy cab and a bloody aeroplane with 290■■■■■■■ and fuller 9 speed. Some people just couldn’t get on with the Guy’s driving position, I found it ok.
On general haulage it was the Big J every time for me, I did like the driving positon in the Ergo cab but I didn’t like the acres of glass that made headlight glare at night awful and a sod to demist in wet weather.
I’m not sure this is a fair comparison, if you asked a Mandator driver which he would prefer then I’m sure he would say the AEC even with the V8 or not and what about the Big J fitted with the AEC 505, not so much a big motor there then. Maybe a better comparison would be the Big J and Seddon 32:Four, the cabs almost the same from the outside but interior and under bonnet could be another matter, used on mainly the same work too so is there a great difference between these two, I only mended them at the time and one was no more better or worse than the other so what about from the bosses and drivers view! Franky.
Two nice pics to compare which have been on the site before.
Hiya Franky,great shot of the SOM Seddon unit,here’s a shot of the only ■■■■■■■ engined Seddon unit we ran at Bewick Transport stood alongside one of the many Atkys we ran at the time,spec for spec between those two units the Seddon won “hands down” as it had the Fuller 10 speed box and Power steering while that particular Atky had the 6 speed DB box and no P/steering 
Both had the Cu 220 engine and the Group axle.That Seddon was a real nice motor,smooth as silk to drive and fairly high geared and pulled like a train 
.They are shot here in late afternoon awaiting the start of their night shift to Daventry and back,all our other Seddon 32/4 units had the LXB 180 engine and the DB 6 speed box.
While on the subject of Motor Panels cabs this is a shot of one of a number of Guy Big J’s we ran which all had the 180LXB engine/6 speed box/HR Guy axle,this particular late '76 unit also had P/steering.If I was to choose I’d say the Seddon 32/4 had the better seating position for the driver but that is only my opinion,there was nowt much wrong with the Big J either.We never had any Big J’s with a ■■■■■■■ 220 engine so I couldn’t compare the two specs,but those Big J’s of SOM seemed to perform very well as I recall.
Well, they would with 240 horses, wouldn’t they?
Cheers Dennis interesting stuff, I suppose its all about getting the right combination of drive train for the job required and no doubt some companies got it wrong and the make (I’m considering all makes here) gets slated, so much in some cases the particular make or model never gets bought again, horses for courses eh. Cheers Franky.