I refuse to incriminate myself because the allegation that I was in a P reg DAF 85 400 (about 1998) with a knacked limiter fuse, on my way home from an unexpected (and unwanted) Friday night out, doing well over 75 mph (and still somemore left to go!!) is not true!! 
dennisw1:
anyone with a good memery remember how fast a 290 would go?
Totally depends on the gear ratios, so to say an ‘engine’ will do a certain MPH isnt really acurate. As i understand it race trucks have higher gear ratios (they pull no weight) so that at the same revs they go faster.
youre right dennis, nitpicking, but right! 
i dunno what gear ratios the ones i drove were but theyd take the pee out of a 2800 daf easy enough, thats scientific!
out of stick
Mal. You mean Scotsmans overdrive!
When i had my own unit in '99 B reg Scania 112 on steel, no limiter, think it would have been good for 75 -80, but never tried it, didn’t want it to blow up just then! Cruised very comfortably at about 63 on the cruise control. (ok, hand throttle 
) I had a miniature version of a nodding dog, sat on top of the nearside interior door trim, angled back at 45 degrees nodding at all the drivers I passed
when I started in april last year my tm actually showed me what fuse to pull -p reg merc 18 t with knackered low water sensor , so 2 stop the annoying warning buzzer you had 2 pull fuse ,upshot being that the limiter no longer worked and newbie driver is hoofing down the m4 wondering what all the fuss about overtaking was all about
135 kph in merc actros in iraq
I once drove a beautifull Ford Transconti cos everyone else in the yard wanted the new Volvo F10s. 
290 ■■■■■■■ engine, it was good for 75-80 even going uphill as we were only loaded to about 20 tons gross!!! Wow, was she a fantastic motor but she did like a drink! 
I can also remeber going down the A1 towards Wetherbey roundabout in a convoy doing about 70 ish when plod came past us all wagging his finger for us to slow down. There he was waiting for us at the top of the next hill and we all got a good telling off before being allowed to carry on. I’ll just say there was some canny banter on the (illegal AM) Cb afterwards
fatsest truck I drove was a DAF 3300 ATI when I worked on Kammac, it done 76mph flat out.
Second one was an FL10 when on the car transporters, it done 68 mph, but if you pulled the hand throttle, it would do 72mph.
Both these were prior to speed limiters being fitted, and although I done that speed regularly, no way could I do it again nowadays, even if the truck could
same thing happened to me, M1 south doing a nice steady 65 in a Merc at night, good clear road. I glanced out the side window and despite my usually excellent rear view radar honed from years of driving there pacing me was plod, and he waggled his finger at me too, I nodded and dropped back to 60. I still wonder how he sneaked up on me.
Those were the days, few cameras, just plenty of traffic police with common sense who I have always had a great deal of respect for.
said this before but before limiters you had that bit of leeway for overtaking and we didnt have to drive in convoys at 55. Limiters havent done anything for road safety or congestion at all, just made it worse and car drivers think we drive in convoys to annoy them.
Phil
some middle-aged (i.e. 2000/W) MANs you used to be able to “dance” on the pedals to fool the limiter,and rapidly depressing and releasing the clutch followed by stamping on the loud pedal, wait for the surge to die a bit and repeat, you could get up to just shy of 70 (on a closed private road of course ).
handy for overtaking other lorries to surge to 60, and get it over and done with.
Yes on the TGA.LE-220 if you hold the cruise control lever up wth your foot on the gas it will give you a brief surge of about 1mph
DAF 3300 ATI when I worked on Kammac
Hero’s or Villains, the kammac crew were certainly one of the hauliers remembered by a lot of people
Am i correct in thinking the O/D’s working for Kammac could have any colour truck but had to have the kammac stripe
Back on topic: fastest for me was a 112R inherited from a driver that left to go back to being a mechanic 
Seem to remember it doing 75 without thinking about it, I guess it was capable of a bit more !
Freebird:
before limiters you had that bit of leeway for overtaking and we didnt have to drive in convoys at 55. Limiters havent done anything for road safety or congestion at all, just made it worse and car drivers think we drive in convoys to annoy them.
Amen to that, worst thing that ever happened.
Fastest? I think in pre limiter, pre limit, pre 3rd lane ban days - 75mph in a Kew (LAD cabbed) Dodge with Perkins 6.354 and 6 speed/2 speed axle 24 tons gross Boden 4-in-line flat trailer loaded with ashphalt blocks, heading south on the practically deserted new M1. 3rd lane almost all the way .
I say ‘I think’ because coming down Stainmore with a 20 ton sheeted load of whisky behind my Scammell Highwayman (max speed 38mph) in angel gear (super 7th) was so scary that I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road to look at the speedo 
.
Those were the days eh, when we were all so responsible 
Salut, David.
I think the fastest non truck I drove was a P reg Leyland Terrier, lets just say it would go off the clock
And the fastest artic ended up as a draw. Me and a mate had loaded in Boxhill in the forest above Rykas and were going home to Hull. Somewhere we got split up and I thought my mate was in front and gone up the A1, I went up the A1 chasing him 
he had gone up the M1 and I beat him home, neither of us had gone much less than 70mph with 22 tonne of round timber.
In a former life of course officer.
I had a 141 and he had a 276? Transcon
The law stated that any vehicle manufactured after January 1988 (I think!) had to have a speed limiter fitted and I’m pretty sure speed limiters weren’t actually introduced until 1992/1993.
I was working for Portway International around 1992/1993. The company had been running MANs and changed to 2538 Mercs at around that time. When we took delivery of the new Mercs they had no limiters; the limiters were fitted at a later date.
I remember someone saying that all new vehicles from 1992/1993 onwards would be fitted with them, older vehicles had until 1996 to get it sorted.
My memory is a bit flakey as I sustained a nasty head injury around the same time!
More recently…
At my last employer,while awaiting our 53 plate Twingos,we had some older blue Twingos on hire.
I had 2 in that time,one was a V reg,with the solo cab,which was a great motor,and immaculate inside once I’d cleaned it out,and after that,I was given an X reg one.
The V reg would only do 56 flat out,but one the day after I was allocated the X reg one,I was going east towards Hull on the 62,just after leaving the yard at Leeds,and the speedo was showing 56,but the truck was passing everything in it’s sight.Most unusual for a Twingo.Even the trace on the chart was showing 56,but I know the thing was going a lot faster.
Still never found out how fast.
Ken.
Well i would say its a bit diffrent here in the U.S. I have followed trucks doing 98mph,108mph was the fastest. But i have talked to drivers that said they have ran their trucks up to 120mph. Most of these being Peterbilts. But i would say the avrage truck here does 70mph. My friend Dave drives for what i think is the largest trucking compnay in the U.S. Schneider National. Anyway i went on a trip with him and it was limited at 65mph. Cruise was 63mph. It is a 2004 Freightliner C120. 370hp Detroit(spelling)diesel. 10 speed.
Mike
Thanks for the replys everyone! Neil i saw the picture of you doing 80mph. 135kmh.
I spelled average wrong. sorry. Oh and Schneider owns 15,000 trucks.
Big Mike:
Well i would say its a bit diffrent here in the U.S. I have followed trucks doing 98mph,108mph was the fastest. But i have talked to drivers that said they have ran their trucks up to 120mph. Most of these being Peterbilts. But i would say the avrage truck here does 70mph. My friend Dave drives for what i think is the largest trucking compnay in the U.S. Schneider National. Anyway i went on a trip with him and it was limited at 65mph. Cruise was 63mph. It is a 2004 Freightliner C120. 370hp Detroit(spelling)diesel. 10 speed.Mike
Thanks for the replys everyone! Neil i saw the picture of you doing 80mph. 135kmh.
Hey Mike, whats the score with limiters, speed cams and tachographs in the US?
Phil
the trucks in the us that you are following at that speed must have high spped diffs in mike, as a well as powerfull engines of course! a lot of the pre-limiter stuff here was quite fast, but mostly on the overrun as the diffs were only good for 65-70, some even less!
we had at one firm a erf with a coach spec diff in, and a 250 ■■■■■■■■ the lorry was a complete waste of time for pulling, but when it got going it was a lot faster that the standard ones were. as soon as hwe hit a slope though, he was bollockeds!
north surrey haulage:
ralliesport:
Had a jreg leyland artic a year back, so it had no speed limiter, it would crack 70.I’m pretty sure speed limiters came in in about 1987 (C/D reg) so it should’ve had one fitted
Do you mean 1998