Number One on my list was not one that I owned or ran.However it was this motor but more patricularly the Great driver Eric Postlethwaite who really sharpened my interest in the industry.The motor in question was one of T. Brady & Sons Ltd.Leyland 680 Power Plus Octopus’s JEO 192 which pulled a trailer all the time it was on the fleet apart from it’s final months in 1968 when it finished it’s days running solo between Felixstowe and London with Tuborg Lager bulk tanks.Riding shot gun on that outfit in my late teens until I left prior to becoming 21 and kicking off on my own were great times,I was taught so much about how the job should be done correctly,immaculate sheeting and roping and,of course,careful steady driving.You’ll never know how much the grounding I got with Possy and the Octopus stood me in good stead when I started building up Bewick Transport.When Possy finally allowed me to get behind the wheel of the Octopus I was like a dog with two tails,while the Octopus was easy to drive having extremely light power steering,it only had 6 wheeler braking plus one axle on the Crane drawbar so braking wasn’t one of it’s strengths!!You had to “plan” as far as ahead as possible and “slacken off” in good time,it was no good standing on the anchors as all you got was a puff of blue smoke and that was your lot!!But boy could this Motor pull,if it was working hard for a few days with often 27/28 ton payloads the drivers side front wheel would turn black with exhaust smoke,we called at Leyland Motors at Oldbury now and again to have the pump “tuned up” by the shop foreman Dessy Bull and he would then follow us for a bit down the M5 in his Vitesse van when Eric would wind the motor up and could it pick up it’s heels!!One thing you never did was allow it to start “pulling” in O/D,straight down into 5th then it would dig in and pull!!Great Motor,Great driver and great days!! This is a shot of the first Octopus Bradys got HEO557 a few months before JEO192 seen here when delivered new in '61.PS you were dead right “ramone” so you may go to the front of the class and give the pencils out!!
Bewick:
Number One on my list was not one that I owned or ran.However it was this motor but more patricularly the Great driver Eric Postlethwaite who really sharpened my interest in the industry.The motor in question was one of T. Brady & Sons Ltd.Leyland 680 Power Plus Octopus’s JEO 192 which pulled a trailer all the time it was on the fleet apart from it’s final months in 1968 when it finished it’s days running solo between Felixstowe and London with Tuborg Lager bulk tanks.Riding shot gun on that outfit in my late teens until I left prior to becoming 21 and kicking off on my own were great times,I was taught so much about how the job should be done correctly,immaculate sheeting and roping and,of course,careful steady driving.You’ll never know how much the grounding I got with Possy and the Octopus stood me in good stead when I started building up Bewick Transport.When Possy finally allowed me to get behind the wheel of the Octopus I was like a dog with two tails,while the Octopus was easy to drive having extremely light power steering,it only had 6 wheeler braking plus one axle on the Crane drawbar so braking wasn’t one of it’s strengths!!You had to “plan” as far as ahead as possible and “slacken off” in good time,it was no good standing on the anchors as all you got was a puff of blue smoke and that was your lot!!But boy could this Motor pull,if it was working hard for a few days with often 27/28 ton payloads the drivers side front wheel would turn black with exhaust smoke,we called at Leyland Motors now and again to have the pump “tuned up” by the shop foreman Dessy Bull and he would then follow us for a bit down the M5 in his Vitesse van when Eric would wind the motor up and could it pick up it’s heels!!One thing you never did was allow it to start “pulling” in O/D,straight down into 5th then it would dig in and pull!!Great Motor,Great driver and great days!! This is a shot of the first Octopus Bradys got HEO557 a few months before JEO192 seen here when delivered new in '61.PS you were dead right “ramone” so you may go to the front of the class and give the pencils out!!
Blimey Bewick next you’ll be saying what the Dutch already knew that the 680 was a better motor than the 180 Gardner. 
Surely it’s not too much to expect that a sensible thread such as this could be be kept “CF” free !!! So “go forth and multiply my son” !! Bewick.
bloody hell , that’s blown it i have to admit in front of dennis that my favourite lorry was a FODEN . new in1979 big cam 290 ■■■■■■■ , 9 speed fuller , there was nothing to touch it for pulling power . i kept it for nearly 7 years and it earned me some damned good wages . it had a new pump when uprated to 38 tons , and it pulled as well as it had at 32 tons . even worse dennis it was pulling a bulk tipper , cheers , dave
My favourite lorry was not one I drove but one I spent (like most of us on here) all my saturdays and school holidays in with my Dad at the wheel this was a Dodge D308 tipper with a perkins 6.354 engine and eaton 2 speed axle and then to top this off when I left school in 1962 I got an apprenticeship as a hgv mechanic with the same firm (brilliant),served my time there until I was 21 then left and went to work on a couple of other favourites which were the Albion Rievers and the Scammell Routemans again for a tipper firm.I know they dont match up to some of the ones most of you lads on here have driven in the past but I liked them and we were asked what was our favourites.When I look at todays motors they dont compare to the ones from wayback they all look the same now plain white or blinged up to the hilt.
This is Tipits Dad who aslo worked at the same firm
Permission to list a few more in the favourites granted then, mucho thanks guvnor.
Foden S80, my first power steering and air assisted clutch motor, and my first ■■■■■■■■ simply a lovely motor after Gardner engined powered nothing S39 and 40’s.
Scania 110 day cab…with cushette you know…wasn’t fast but it would simply pull any hill in top gear whatever the load.
Day cabbed Crusader with 290 Rolls, always on top of the job, and the first lorry i really learned to change gear without using the clutch…simple reason, it was so bloody heavy to hold down, literally a two feet job…slipped off the bloody wheel step ring though and cracked me ankle sideways on a kerb ending up in a crumpled heap in agony, ankle has been weak ever since so i almost always wear boots for support…not in bed though.
Aforesaid Sed Ack 401 was best of the lot, and aforesaid Daf 2800 DKTD.
DAF 2500, the new roller bearing (going from memory here so happy to be put right) king pins gave it the smoothest and most direct steering i’d experienced up till then, it handled a dream and whilst slightly lacking in power after 2800 made up for it in sheer cornering and handling ability, was a bit (lot) younger and dafter then.
MAN 331, when the marque were simple, very tough and durable (unlike the latest plastic computerised garb), it went like hell, with about 15 tons on board it would pull 50mph going UP Archway Hill.
MAN 332 (F90), simply because it could cruise at 95mph and was fitted with Eaton Twin Split, which coupled very well to the free revving engine that would drop revs amazingly quickly, made gearchanging into an art form, didn’t pull anywhere near as well as the 331 though.
Scania 112 day cab, yes we had 'em on Kwik save, probably the best urban delivery artic ever, simple and dependable, windows all round and the steering lock of a fork truck, you really could get them in anywhere, no image so no glory boys wanted in on the job so it didn’t get carved up…its a favourite lorry cos the job was one of the best, mainly cos of the lack of glory boys.
We had one day cabbed 1727 Merc, despite still being on cart springs it was a comfy cracking little motor.
FL12 380 wagon and drag, on car transporter work, the engine the FL10 should have had from day one, very good all round motor, handled well, did all i wanted, it earned me serious money.
I’ve driven dozens more, then and more modern, many of the so called top range stuff, and they did nothing for me, too big to be chuckable and manoeuverable, too high for nipping in and out of easily, all show and no substance.
Most of my jobs were money earners, requiring hard work and lots of deliveries as in the more cars delivered the more you earned, small cabs but fast and chuckable trucks delivered them faster, especially when flying round using the unapproved routes.
Not much after those days to be honest, lorries stuffed with electronics and now most are fitted with satans auto crap boxes, just pose behind the wheel now like a bloody mannequin.
Only two modern lorries i like, CF 460 with manual box, been out in one today, proper lorry drivers motor.
And Axor 430 6x2 with middle lifter and manual box, again simple and rugged, can to be driven the old way, the engine able to lug right down to 7/800 rpm without a moments hesitation, feels like it was designed in 1980, and none the worse for that.
Actually, three decent modern lorries, i really like Hino’s, Japanese Axors?
Sorry to interrupt the flow, but the last post (and others) made me think about the use of older motors nowadays. I read somewhere that US operators are rebuilding pre-nonsense engines/gearboxes and putting them in glider kits, effectively building themselves “proper lorries”, but without the expense and trouble of electronics and emissions paraphernalia. According to what I read, the US emissions law applies to the engine build date, so the older engines can still be used. I know that this does not apply in the UK, what with the LEZ and EEV, BSE and all the rest of it but, elsewhere on TNUK, someone said that a particulate trap gets an older vehicle over these hurdles.
The downside is the expense of the p. trap, plus the fact that it wears out when you use it, plus it increases exhaust back pressure, leading to bigger fuel bills/reduced performance. My thought was: what if the trap could be easily be connected/disconnected? The vehicle could run normally without the trap but, when entering London (or the MoT station!), with the flick of a lever (or whatever), the trap could be connected and the Fume Police would be none the wiser. This way, the trap will last for ages, so may be transferred from one lorry to the next, spreading its cost. Thoughts please- if the idea is a runner, I’ll build a prototype!
peterpallet:
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
Evening all, Peter, I was hoping that you would join in!! Gentlemen, Peterpallet could recount some really interesting tales,if he so wishes, (and Ireally hope that he does)! From Macks to MANs, he “has really done it”.
Westerman forwarding, the late Tom Annabal sadly no longer with us, a man with ethics, (unlike those who came later) Makes me recall MANs, what excellent lorries, (and of course the wonderful Saviem cab)! I had a 232 that ran over 1000000kms, and only ever cost routine preventative maintenance, what a lorry!!
18 months windsurfing,… where did I go wrong, …but you cor do that on t`cut at Bilston, there aye no wind!! Cheerio for now.
bowser:
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 .
Cheeky git
Yes, I have photos of it from brand new, through every phase of the rebuild from 1987 to 1991, and then of the rest of the time it spent with me until the day I sold it in 2003.
Brand new:
On the road briefly, 1986/7:
Battersea Park 1987:
c.1987, dismantling the cab:
building it back up again:
1991 Pennine, the day after it left the paint shop:
Preston Guild, 1992:
Collecting the Shap Memorial stone from Shap Granite Quarry:
thanks for the pics its good to see them .
im not sure when you last saw it but i’ll tell you this , it arrived in our yard not much more than 2 months ago and looked exactly the same as it does in the east lancs photo . the only thing im aware of that needed sorting was a panel just behind the drivers side of the cab and a door that was difficult to shut , other than that it was minor things thats all . so i can confirm that your cab rebuild was spot on and lasted much longer than it probably should have …
again thanks for the pics and i was sorry to see it leave the yard …
[zb]
anorak:
Sorry to interrupt the flow, but the last post (and others) made me think about the use of older motors nowadays. I read somewhere that US operators are rebuilding pre-nonsense engines/gearboxes and putting them in glider kits, effectively building themselves “proper lorries”, but without the expense and trouble of electronics and emissions paraphernalia. According to what I read, the US emissions law applies to the engine build date, so the older engines can still be used. I know that this does not apply in the UK, what with the LEZ and EEV, BSE and all the rest of it but, elsewhere on TNUK, someone said that a particulate trap gets an older vehicle over these hurdles.The downside is the expense of the p. trap, plus the fact that it wears out when you use it, plus it increases exhaust back pressure, leading to bigger fuel bills/reduced performance. My thought was: what if the trap could be easily be connected/disconnected? The vehicle could run normally without the trap but, when entering London (or the MoT station!), with the flick of a lever (or whatever), the trap could be connected and the Fume Police would be none the wiser. This way, the trap will last for ages, so may be transferred from one lorry to the next, spreading its cost. Thoughts please- if the idea is a runner, I’ll build a prototype!
Not sure exactly how it all works but some of your blinged up machinery has a valve to bypass silencers for strictly off road use of course but don’t see why this couldn’t work in front of an lez exhaust. Sure someone with some knowledge will be able to confirm this.
Bewick:
Number One on my list was not one that I owned or ran.However it was this motor but more patricularly the Great driver Eric Postlethwaite who really sharpened my interest in the industry.The motor in question was one of T. Brady & Sons Ltd.Leyland 680 Power Plus Octopus’s JEO 192 which pulled a trailer all the time it was on the fleet apart from it’s final months in 1968 when it finished it’s days running solo between Felixstowe and London with Tuborg Lager bulk tanks.Riding shot gun on that outfit in my late teens until I left prior to becoming 21 and kicking off on my own were great times,I was taught so much about how the job should be done correctly,immaculate sheeting and roping and,of course,careful steady driving.You’ll never know how much the grounding I got with Possy and the Octopus stood me in good stead when I started building up Bewick Transport.When Possy finally allowed me to get behind the wheel of the Octopus I was like a dog with two tails,while the Octopus was easy to drive having extremely light power steering,it only had 6 wheeler braking plus one axle on the Crane drawbar so braking wasn’t one of it’s strengths!!You had to “plan” as far as ahead as possible and “slacken off” in good time,it was no good standing on the anchors as all you got was a puff of blue smoke and that was your lot!!But boy could this Motor pull,if it was working hard for a few days with often 27/28 ton payloads the drivers side front wheel would turn black with exhaust smoke,we called at Leyland Motors at Oldbury now and again to have the pump “tuned up” by the shop foreman Dessy Bull and he would then follow us for a bit down the M5 in his Vitesse van when Eric would wind the motor up and could it pick up it’s heels!!One thing you never did was allow it to start “pulling” in O/D,straight down into 5th then it would dig in and pull!!Great Motor,Great driver and great days!! This is a shot of the first Octopus Bradys got HEO557 a few months before JEO192 seen here when delivered new in '61.PS you were dead right “ramone” so you may go to the front of the class and give the pencils out!!
But you were far too astute to put any proper Leylands on your fleet Dennis (dont blame you either ) maybe a Marathon or 2 could have krept in but never did but they weren`t really Leylands anyway
Can’t allow this “slight” pass without a response “ramone”,of course we ran a Leyland !! Well OK,if you want to “nit pick” a Bathgate one,but still a Leyland !! Backbone of the fleet it was !! I think I was the only one that drove it !! Cheers Dennis.
bowser:
thanks for the pics its good to see them .im not sure when you last saw it but i’ll tell you this , it arrived in our yard not much more than 2 months ago and looked exactly the same as it does in the east lancs photo . the only thing im aware of that needed sorting was a panel just behind the drivers side of the cab and a door that was difficult to shut , other than that it was minor things thats all . so i can confirm that your cab rebuild was spot on and lasted much longer than it probably should have …
again thanks for the pics and i was sorry to see it leave the yard …
Thanks very much, and I’m really pleased to hear how well it lasted - it spent virtually all of the time from 1991-2003 parked outdoors all year round too! As you can probably gather, I didn’t particularly go in for washing and polishing, but I did put a lot of miles on it, and ran it all over the country. It spent a lot of time loaded as well, and got involved with all sort of interesting jobs, like collecting the Shap stone, moving various loads for charities (i.e. non-commercial) and various moves for the BVCM. Biggest frustration was a trip to Belgium, to do a changeover with an international aid trailer, and which was cancelled at the last minute because my changeover man was early and came all the way back to England 
Number Two:Having enjoyed my time as a trailer mate at Brady’s I finally decided that there was only one course of action to take and that was get my-self started as an owner driver,but there were no “A” licences to be had locally at the end of '67 but! The construction of the M6 past Kendal was just starting and as I was impatient to get going I was able to apply for,and get, a 15 mile radius B licence for a 4 wheel tipper in the name of Bewick Haulage !! I had decided to look for,my favourite, a Trader and I duly found a nice one at Beeches Garage Stoke,it was a '64 Edbro U shaped steel body and gear a real little “Gem”,cost me £500,it also had an Eaton 2 spd axle which was a bonus!!What a great little motor,I started in mid Feb '68 first doing 6 or 7 loads of stone a day out of Penningtons Quarry in Kendal up onto the M6 to build the haul roads,later on I hauled loads of dust from Harrisons Lime Works at Shap to top off the stone on the haul roads.But while the earnings were decent (well I thought they were!) It was hard graft for a little motor and I could see there was no long term future in this kind of tipper work,and I had found out there was the chance of and “A” licence from a firm called Coward Bros. of Sedbergh which appealed to me immediately.However,in the days of the old carriers licencing it took a while to have a licence transferred so I sold the little Trader for what I paid for it and which had grafted trouble free for me and which I had enjoyed driving for a few months helping to build the M6.I could get about 10 ton 5cwt payload on the Trader at 14 ton gross,I even fitted a radio under the dash in front of my right knee,and had the speaker on the floor in the corner of the cab behind the drivers seat.Reception wasn’t great a lot of the time but then I dont suppose it was very good anywhere in those days!! But hey,Happy days they most surely were!! Cheers Bewick.
Iveco 190.48 I’m afraid the combination of the Italian charisma the noise And the fact it would out pull the merc 1748 and the Scania 143 450 just to rub salt in the wounds !!!
kr79:
MAN 30.331 tipper. First lorry I drove that wasn’t a total heap of scrap. Drove nice even though it was quite old plenty of get up and go and I would still cut the mustard against any tipper on the road now.
My dad drove a 232 8 wheel tipper. One with a column change? Happy days they were. That thing went anywhere.
I think my favourite has to be an 09 plate fh 480 with the I shift. The power and comfort i loved.
Having said that I also had a p reg fh380 globetrotter with an 8 speed manual which was a fantastic truck. Never broke down and took me all over Europe.
Stralisnumerouno:
Iveco 190.48 I’m afraid the combination of the Italian charisma the noise And the fact it would out pull the merc 1748 and the Scania 143 450 just to rub salt in the wounds !!!
I drove 1 of those now and again when it was new G380 JCP i think, and that thing just could pull
If you can’t be with the one you love; love the one you’re with.
2011 Peterbilt 386, 450 ■■■■■■■■ 13 speed Eaton-Fuller, 63 inch double-bunk sleeper.
Is this the sexiest truck on the old OHS fleet?
I collected this new from Antwerp with a new Dorsey skeletal flatbed trailer and brought it over to Rainham to Tilt Tek. Picked up a brand new completed tilt and this is a picture of the rig after servicing and washing by the Contex crew at Pinar Basi near Izmir after the first trip.
Here’s one at the side of the road in Slovakia south of Brno
and in Turkey
