For me it’s got to be the DAF 2800 I drove in 1977 on tilt trailer deliveries ex Portsmouth, Newhaven and Poole, 13 speed fuller box and reasonable horsepower for the time. I had been long distance driving for ten years at the time and it was the first sleeper cab I’d driven (although I has overnighted in a few day cabs) plus it had a night heater, an optional extra in those days, and double glazing on the back windows. So in summary it was a good workplace and a good overnight cab.
Bewick:
Bearing in mind the strict criteria laid down by “Saviem” that posts should be strictly “My favourite lorry” singular! ( that means one only!) I wonder if he would grant me permission to nominate five!! Having had “umpteen” motors through my hands over the years via Bewick Transport there are 5(one wasn’t ,in fact, a Bewick motor) that I can’t seperate and as I drove all 5,some more than others,I still can’t promote one, above the other 4, for different reasons but they were all relevent and close to my heart !!One thing may put the “damper” on things as far as “Saviem” is concerned,none of the 5 motors are French!!! In the meantime I will await his considered response once he has returned from a day’s toil in the fields with his Shire team and washed down the dust with some cloudy “Scrumpy”!! Cheers Bewick.
Would 1 be a Leyland Octopus by any chance Dennis?
ramone:
Bewick:
Bearing in mind the strict criteria laid down by “Saviem” that posts should be strictly “My favourite lorry” singular! ( that means one only!) I wonder if he would grant me permission to nominate five!! Having had “umpteen” motors through my hands over the years via Bewick Transport there are 5(one wasn’t ,in fact, a Bewick motor) that I can’t seperate and as I drove all 5,some more than others,I still can’t promote one, above the other 4, for different reasons but they were all relevent and close to my heart !!One thing may put the “damper” on things as far as “Saviem” is concerned,none of the 5 motors are French!!! In the meantime I will await his considered response once he has returned from a day’s toil in the fields with his Shire team and washed down the dust with some cloudy “Scrumpy”!! Cheers Bewick.Would 1 be a Leyland Octopus by any chance Dennis?
All may be revealed at a later time “ramone”!! In the meantime,if you can’t discern which is the better motor between poxy Foden and “state of the art” Scania you probably experience extreme difficulty finding your own arse with both hands!!! It sure must have been a very bad Scania!!Don’t take it personally “ramone”,I couldn’t resist !!! 
Bewick:
ramone:
Bewick:
Bearing in mind the strict criteria laid down by “Saviem” that posts should be strictly “My favourite lorry” singular! ( that means one only!) I wonder if he would grant me permission to nominate five!! Having had “umpteen” motors through my hands over the years via Bewick Transport there are 5(one wasn’t ,in fact, a Bewick motor) that I can’t seperate and as I drove all 5,some more than others,I still can’t promote one, above the other 4, for different reasons but they were all relevent and close to my heart !!One thing may put the “damper” on things as far as “Saviem” is concerned,none of the 5 motors are French!!! In the meantime I will await his considered response once he has returned from a day’s toil in the fields with his Shire team and washed down the dust with some cloudy “Scrumpy”!! Cheers Bewick.Would 1 be a Leyland Octopus by any chance Dennis?
All may be revealed at a later time “ramone”!! In the meantime,if you can’t discern which is the better motor between poxy Foden and “state of the art” Scania you probably experience extreme difficulty finding your own arse with both hands!!! It sure must have been a very bad Scania!!Don’t take it personally “ramone”,I couldn’t resist !!!
Ha ha ,well 1 reason i liked the Foden so much is that i had just come off a (dare i say this on a Saviem thread?) pile of french crap also known as a Renault 290 GT … LOL AT THE GT … so the Foden probably felt better than it was compared with the Reno.But it had been well looked after before my boss bought it ,it was new to Parkinson Spencer refactories at Holemfield Halifax , and was very tidy , it was bought to go abroad but it had a very short wheelbase and wouldn`t go under our tilts so i got it with a flat trailer happy days, the Scania was faultless apart from pulling which it didnt like ,it should have gone to Feathers for sorting but never did.I had 2 of the 4 series Scanias after that and wanted it back
Strangely enough I think I am going to plump for a DAF too, but a 2500, my reasoning being was that it was my first properly set up lorry and I went to pick up a brand new Metalair silo trailer up in my customers livery. It had a 12 speed splitter box, one of the very best Peabody Holmes powder blowers on the market and the job took me anywhere between Grangemouth and Dagenham and delivered anywhere between with polythene granules.
Unfortunately I lost this great lorry to a Scania 82 after about a year. I then left that job and went back to another with a 3300 DAF as my yoke
Either of Smiths Y reg Foden 8wheelers with the Leyland Daf 85 cab. Our 02 reg one is nice but I loved the bigger steering wheel with the little fold down table in the middle of it. They went well, made a nice sound but not too noisy and had great cab layout. Better I think than the CF cab that replaced it.
Still thoroughly ■■■■■■ off I never got one permanently (despite repeatedly asking) but was often asked to stand in when my 6w was serviced/mot’d 
although i’ve drove far better lorries over the years,my all time favourite is the first ‘proper’ truck that i was allocated,at Carryfast (North Kilworth),which was YRP 64S,a Seddon Atkinson 400 with Gardner 180 and David Brown box and Eaton 2-speed.
Bewick:
Bearing in mind the strict criteria laid down by “Saviem” that posts should be strictly “My favourite lorry” singular! ( that means one only!) I wonder if he would grant me permission to nominate five!! Having had “umpteen” motors through my hands over the years via Bewick Transport there are 5(one wasn’t ,in fact, a Bewick motor) that I can’t seperate and as I drove all 5,some more than others,I still can’t promote one, above the other 4, for different reasons but they were all relevent and close to my heart !!One thing may put the “damper” on things as far as “Saviem” is concerned,none of the 5 motors are French!!! In the meantime I will await his considered response once he has returned from a day’s toil in the fields with his Shire team and washed down the dust with some cloudy “Scrumpy”!! Cheers Bewick.
Evening all, well Dennis, the one Shire, she is pure “Claas”, and at this very moment having a (considerable), drink of a “cherry cordial”,(and is it not now an expensive commodity)! Me its a chicken sandwich, and a large Banks`s bitter, before its out the gate, and a few more hours!!
To answer your question, as many as you, or anyone else, cares to nominate, just one is impossible, (I realised today, as I droned up and down in air conditioned comfort), just how impossible it would be for me to settle on just one! After all, times , and circumstance change, and we all have probably driven , owned, repaired, bought, sold,so many, it would be unfair, and impossible to pick one only!!
My little group, S20 Foden, 4cylinder Gardner, my first “real” lorry, took me reliably through France and Italy, and gave me a love of France that I have never lost! S36 Foden tractor, 12speed, 150 Gardner, seemed the most powerful lorry in the world!! That wonderful gearbox, I could out climb those French Berliets, Bernards and Willemes, so fast were the changes! Years later working in France I learned that they were all carrying at least 6tonnes more than me!!! Ah well, I was young!!
Atkinsons, I loved them!! My Viewline, WAN183G, Rolls 220, 6speed ZF, like Chris, (Gardner 240), I regret selling her, as I do my Defender TAY384M, (even more so having seen Chris`s photograph of her reduced from a beautiful 8wheeled Tanker, to a tractor carrying platform)!! My Mack F 786, AUE267S, the whistle of that Turbo as she “dug in”, 60tons, no hill could defeat her!! Bubbs found me a picture of her with a tilt trailer, and on another thread she is there , old but still making someone some money!!
Berliets ■■■■■■■■■ TR305, that we used for Pat`s Truck Magazine Eurotest, 79, (if my memory serves me correctly), what a performer, and so quiet, and just “driveable”. As was the V8 356hp Turbo version, just rolling along on that creamy wave of endless torque! I remember sitting with Camion magazines Pascal Stich, outside a Cannes seafront cafe, as he “raved” about the V8, watching the afternoon sunlight reflecting on the red white and chrome Le Centaur/Lamberet outfit that we had just thrashed along the coast road, and thinking wow, what a machine!
So Im up to six, and I have not even mentioned those delightful, reliable, driveable, little Ford Cargo L10 ■■■■■■■ both tractors, and drawbars, what an underrated little lorry! Yes CF, I liked my DAFs, 2800 DKSE, and 3300s, but didnt they leak oil, (and never in the same place)!! Oneof my 3300s, A33PAT, having trunked all her life on a Brewery job, I sold on to Mike Stallward, and Tim Fuggle at Kents R&R, and she gave them years of reliable service hauling Tanks, and other military hardware around Europe!!
ramones right, those G290 Renaults had their problems, mine were so bad that I sent them back as not fit for purpose!!! And Ive forgotten the beautiful E series ERFs, truly a “drivers motor”, and cheapand reliable in ■■■■■■■ form to operate.
Ive gone on far to long, please feel free to expand your lists, lorries can be like fine wine, …there are always more than one!! (and its great to sample them all)!! Please keep them coming, Im away to combine a little more, Cheerio for now.
Saviem:
Atkinsons, I loved them!! My Viewline, WAN183G, Rolls 220, 6speed ZF, like Chris, (Gardner 240), I regret selling her, as I do my Defender TAY384M, (even more so having seen Chris`s photograph of her reduced from a beautiful 8wheeled Tanker, to a tractor carrying platform)!!
Memories of the days, John, when we each had a Viewline…
This was Belle Vue, 1990.
is that BVB 457H on the right ?
Hi All
Must choose two. First new lorry I ever drove BWN 944K. Atki with 205 ■■■■■■■■ and fuller range change. Second AEC Mandator NYL 396L 760 with a straight six box.
The Atki because she was a pleasure to drive after the old 150 gardner I had before and the only new wagon I ever had.
The Mandator I had for 5 years. Over the years it was sound proofed, fitted with a bostrum suspension seat, electric washers, and wipers and a tinted windscreen, and as somebody mentioned earlier there hasn’t been a better window mechanism. Took me all over the country and I earned a resonable wage for driving it
If we are allowed more than one il add the best artic I’ve driven too same as Newmercman it’s a scania 143 one I drove was a 450 but same as any scania 3 series it just felt perfect the seating position the steering brakes the mirrors just perfect. Only thing I would change was mine had the earlier 10 speed gear box as it was a h reg but the later 14 speed was a buch better setup.
bowser:
is that BVB 457H on the right ?
It certainly is 
240 Gardner:
bowser:
is that BVB 457H on the right ?It certainly is
being the cheeky git that i am ill ask if you have anymore pics during the rebuild , im just interested you understand due to it spending a few weeks in our yard and it would be good to see them . 
Mine was an M.A.N 14.192 wagon with a drawbar trailer.She travelled the roads of Europe from Berlin to Nantes to Molina de Seguro and many points in between.I had been a Branch Manager for MAN in Abu Dhabi and when I finished in 1986 a friend of mine had lined up an Owner Drivers job with Westermann Forwarding. So I ordered the truck from my local dealers, A left hand drive unit.
For two years I was based in the UK running between Yorkshire and Berlin then My wife said “why not move to Spain” and I left her to it.
So we moved to Spain in 1989 and I kept the truck, but put a driver on her, whilst I went windsurfing
(which I did for 18 months until my Bank Manager told me to get back to work)
I did a further 3 1/2 years with the truck and finally sold her in 1995. She had done 900,000+ Kmss and she appeared in a" Truck"article in June 1997 under the heading “Elderly MAN heads east”
I had her for 7 years and she gave me and my wife a good living and she obviously did the same for a further 2 to 3 years with her next owner/
My “career” went on after the sale, I returned to being a Sales Manager in Saudi Arabia selling MAN
(what else)
Peter
1993 Renault R340 Turboliner I am afraid, I just loved that truck, but it sounded like a bag of nails on tickover, the previous 1990 R340 sounded far better, I was told the new R340 was just an over blown 290.
Although I also loved the Leyland Daf’s with the 4 over 4 split.
mine would have to be the C series ERF I drove for Davis in Corby for 4 years , L10-250 and 9 speed roadranger, bit underpowered for 38 tonne work , but it drove really well , the RTO box that replaced the RTX was really quick, and there was plenty of room for me and my stuff inside. When he changed it to a P112 , i couldn’t get all me stuff in it.
But as an operator i can’t fault the DAF 85 , at swift and salvesen we ran them more or less 24 hours a day and they could certainly take some hammer from all sorts of drivers, and i’ve always rated them as a pretty good motor to drive.
mine was the scania 111 it was a good truck then in later life i had a scania t-cab and this motor was like driving a car just a sheer pleasure
Very refreshing and interesting to read virtually all peoples’ favourites are run of the mill everyday wagons, not “King of the Road” material. I think if this question were to be on the Prof Drivers Forum, it’d be a lot different.
JLS Driver SOS:
1993 Renault R340 Turboliner I am afraid, I just loved that truck, but it sounded like a bag of nails on tickover, the previous 1990 R340 sounded far better, I was told the new R340 was just an over blown 290.
Although I also loved the Leyland Daf’s with the 4 over 4 split.
I drove both a 290 Renault and a R340 , they were like chalk and cheese,i would go as far as saying the cab was much better than the Premium which replaced it, they did sound like a bag of nails on tickover though