pete 359:
hi all,
some great information coming to light on this thread about these iconic motors .back in 2006 an ex boss of mine had found himself employed by shipping giant evergreen in south east asia.many years earlier this ex boss’ father had bought the two pedal i posted a picture of on page 1.during 2006 evergreen bought a large area of land and buildings for development,in either singapore or hong kong? when my ex boss was being shown around the building,in the corner were five new and unused right hand drive two pedal beavers in esso colours.wherever it was it was illegal to have left hand drive vehicles and esso had imported them and it would seem forgotten they were there.i believe they were all scrapped.
regards andrew.
I hope you`re wrong i would imagine there would be a few people who would want them
newmercman:
Noise levels and Tinnitus, been there and done that, I have Tinnitus in my left ear, I’ve done more miles in LHD lorries than RHD and it’s a combination of having the window open to flick out my ash for all those years and more recently, the noise from the straight through exhaust throbbing away just inches from my ear on my Peterbilt, bloody nightmare
It’s a wonder I haven’t got it in my right ear too, spent my whole childhood with my head on the doghouse of Atkis, Fodens and AECs as I slept soundly
Your the second person to mention ailments from having the window open i was talking to an old driver recently and he told me he was recovering from a stroke down the right side of his face and the doctors put it down to having the window down he was adamant about it ,i have had shoulder and neck pain on my right side for over 12 months ,about the same time i started driving a CF Daf with those silly windows
A recent study has said that, as lorry drivers, we live twelve years less than the average
Now the average lifespan is well into the 70s now, so the numbers they’re using are for the older drivers (obviously you have to be dead to take part in this survey) Back then the lorries were all noisy, uncomfortable and with poor heating systems, then there was the physical aspect of the job, handballing and sheeting up etc. I wonder how much of this had an impact on their reduced lifespan
In contrast, drivers of today should live longer than anyone else, the air suspended, climate controlled, do everything for you lorries on the road today mean that an office worker has a harder time than a lorry driver
newmercman:
A recent study has said that, as lorry drivers, we live twelve years less than the average
Now the average lifespan is well into the 70s now, so the numbers they’re using are for the older drivers (obviously you have to be dead to take part in this survey) Back then the lorries were all noisy, uncomfortable and with poor heating systems, then there was the physical aspect of the job, handballing and sheeting up etc. I wonder how much of this had an impact on their reduced lifespan
In contrast, drivers of today should live longer than anyone else, the air suspended, climate controlled, do everything for you lorries on the road today mean that an office worker has a harder time than a lorry driver
newmercman:
Noise levels and Tinnitus, been there and done that, I have Tinnitus in my left ear, I’ve done more miles in LHD lorries than RHD and it’s a combination of having the window open to flick out my ash for all those years and more recently, the noise from the straight through exhaust throbbing away just inches from my ear on my Peterbilt, bloody nightmare
It’s a wonder I haven’t got it in my right ear too, spent my whole childhood with my head on the doghouse of Atkis, Fodens and AECs as I slept soundly
Your the second person to mention ailments from having the window open i was talking to an old driver recently and he told me he was recovering from a stroke down the right side of his face and the doctors put it down to having the window down he was adamant about it ,i have had shoulder and neck pain on my right side for over 12 months ,about the same time i started driving a CF Daf with those silly windows
Back in the early eighties same thing happened to one of our lads. Right hand side of his face and mouth dropped, smilar symptoms to a stroke. Was diagnosed as Bell’s palsy. The facial muscles are weakend by constant exposure to draughts. Saw him a while ago,now in his seventies,the effected muscles have strengthed a little over the years but will never fully recover.
newmercman:
Noise levels and Tinnitus, been there and done that, I have Tinnitus in my left ear, I’ve done more miles in LHD lorries than RHD and it’s a combination of having the window open to flick out my ash for all those years and more recently, the noise from the straight through exhaust throbbing away just inches from my ear on my Peterbilt, bloody nightmare
It’s a wonder I haven’t got it in my right ear too, spent my whole childhood with my head on the doghouse of Atkis, Fodens and AECs as I slept soundly
Your the second person to mention ailments from having the window open i was talking to an old driver recently and he told me he was recovering from a stroke down the right side of his face and the doctors put it down to having the window down he was adamant about it ,i have had shoulder and neck pain on my right side for over 12 months ,about the same time i started driving a CF Daf with those silly windows
Back in the early eighties same thing happened to one of our lads. Right hand side of his face and mouth dropped, smilar symptoms to a stroke. Was diagnosed as Bell’s palsy. The facial muscles are weakend by constant exposure to draughts. Saw him a while ago,now in his seventies,the effected muscles have strengthed a little over the years but will never fully recover.
There was a programme on TV about a month ago about the ageing process and a study of lorry drivers has proved that by driving with the window open the right side of the face does show more signs of skin ageing than the left hand side of the face. (It’s amazing what (useless??) information these threads bring to light!!)
Elsewhere on the forum, some aspects of Scania vehicles have been cited as contributors to health problems:
Cab suspension on the rear of the cab only (1, 2 and 3 series), combined with hard rear suspension, causing back problems, due to the fore-and-aft “nodding” effect.
Engine cover intrusion (P cab 4 series) causing back problems, due to the driver sitting askew.
Heavy gearchange (RHD 10 speed range-change models) causing “Scania shoulder.”
Was any of this ever proved in court?
[zb]
anorak:
Elsewhere on the forum, some aspects of Scania vehicles have been cited as contributors to health problems:
Cab suspension on the rear of the cab only (1, 2 and 3 series), combined with hard rear suspension, causing back problems, due to the fore-and-aft “nodding” effect.
Engine cover intrusion (P cab 4 series) causing back problems, due to the driver sitting askew.
Heavy gearchange (RHD 10 speed range-change models) causing “Scania shoulder.”
Was any of this ever proved in court?
Hiya …i do with a good claim…not really…i had a new fl 10 a new fm12 and a renault 420 in a few years.
now if thats not what knackered my shoulder nothing did…after having foden s39,s A series ERF then
DAF 1900/2100/2800/3300,s all these trucks had a long gearstick close to your leg…(easy change) than
come along this new idea of a short stick quite high up and10 inches away from your body was a no no in my book
now i have a cocked up left shoulder. back to my AEC long gearstick and down to the floor with plenty of leaverage.
newmercman:
A recent study has said that, as lorry drivers, we live twelve years less than the average
Now the average lifespan is well into the 70s now, so the numbers they’re using are for the older drivers (obviously you have to be dead to take part in this survey) Back then the lorries were all noisy, uncomfortable and with poor heating systems, then there was the physical aspect of the job, handballing and sheeting up etc. I wonder how much of this had an impact on their reduced lifespan
In contrast, drivers of today should live longer than anyone else, the air suspended, climate controlled, do everything for you lorries on the road today mean that an office worker has a harder time than a lorry driver
Bit harder to burn off the heart attack on a plate breakfasts though.
It would beinteresting to hear how the beaver compared in performance to the mandator the sx speed aec box was always a bit slow at changing up , but i,m a bit bias was brought up with AEC.
Kingtrucker143:
ESSO used the semi automatic beaver back in the sixties and seventies, my dad worked there, I can remember driving around Fleet services lorry park in my dads wagon in 1978 when I was 16 using the throttle to go and the dead man to stop, he eventually jumped back in as said there wouldn’t be any tyres left.
I eventually started at ESSO Stanwell in 1990 for a short time. Whilst there, the longer serving drivers used to recite tales of the big fire that occurred on the 01/04/67 at ESSO. There were a lot of Beavers at various stages of loading when the fire took hold and as the heat built up a number of the Beavers fired up and drove themselves across the yard and into the offices opposite the loading gantry’s.
It must have been a hell of a site seeing driverless Beavers in flames.
Regards Pete.
Is this photo a still from the Sweeney im sure ive seen it before and was the passenger door window at the bottom ESSO only?
scud:
It would beinteresting to hear how the beaver compared in performance to the mandator the sx speed aec box was always a bit slow at changing up , but i,m a bit bias was brought up with AEC.
Scud,i drove both and prefered two pedal Beaver to the AEC.Not a lot in it but i thought the Beaver drove better and had a much better sound to it.Vic.
gingerfold:
One of Caledonian’s Two-Pedlars, still with the plastic seat cover in place.
Are you going to tell us why they had white steering wheels Graham,Daimler buses were also fitted with them in Bradford?
The white steering wheel in the Two-Pedlar was to differentiate it from the standard Beaver. It was a bus thing in terms of highlighting various specifications and as Leyland was a large bus builder it carried over to lorries. For instance, Leyland buses and Leyland lorries also had different coloured centre covers in their steering wheels. Yellow and blue, but I cannot now remember which was fitted to which. It was also common in bus fleets to have white, or black, or even red, or green steering wheels, usually so drivers would know what type of gearbox was in the bus they had been allocated. For example, crash box, synchromesh, pre-select, Pneumo-Cyclic, and so on.
You would only make the mistake once with a Mk2 Regent. If you treated the change speed pedal as a clutch then the bus-bar spring would liven up your ankle enough for you never to forget.
scud:
It would beinteresting to hear how the beaver compared in performance to the mandator the sx speed aec box was always a bit slow at changing up , but i,m a bit bias was brought up with AEC.
Scud,i drove both and prefered two pedal Beaver to the AEC.Not a lot in it but i thought the Beaver drove better and had a much better sound to it.Vic.
Cheers for that vic, we only ran AECs so i dont know what the Beaver was like to drive ,the mk5 mandator was nicer to drive than the ergo lihgter on the steering ,so our last mandators had power steering.also the bosch fuel system they went better with that and the eaton gearbox looking back all this should have been standardon all mandators.Later we had a leyland bison this had the L12 the old AV760 coupled to the 6speed aec box but it had the high datum cab allowing for a bigger radiator to keep it cooler this should also have been used years ago as it was avalable in 1971.Incidentally we fit a AECmercury front axle to a mandator not only was it stronger it had much bigger brakes and also looked b etter.All it was short of was a sleeper cab ,but farther thought it would add extra weight and was not nessacery.We,d managed without them for years.tipical of the old school.
.back in 2006 an ex boss of mine had found himself employed by shipping giant evergreen in south east asia.many years earlier this ex boss’ father had bought the two pedal i posted a picture of on page 1.during 2006 evergreen bought a large area of land and buildings for development,in either singapore or hong kong? when my ex boss was being shown around the building,in the corner were five new and unused right hand drive two pedal beavers in esso colours.wherever it was it was illegal to have left hand drive vehicles and esso had imported them and it would seem forgotten they were there.i believe they were all scrapped.
