XDA553T, a Leyland Lynx in the old green Lucas livery parked outside a motor show in Paris, October 1984 (courtesy Alain Mugica on fickr)
Possibly an āage-relatedā number plate issued by DVLA or whatever itās called these days.
Seems like Punchy Dan has a mate in the States.
This bloke has a Mounty fork truck hanging on the back when he doesnāt have the trailer
Click a couple of times for a better look.
How did anyone drive them, the noise must have driven you mad, once bought an AEC Mandator ex Harp larger with an AV760 and found a pair of ear defenders in the cab, suppose it was a driver issue bit of equipment, Buzzer
Used to travel miles with my Dad as a young kid in one of those old Commersā¦in fact he drove 2 at different times.
I used to stand up (for some reason) in passenger side with my fingers in heater vent peering through windscreen over dashboard ā¦no H&S in those days.
The fumes in the cab were just normal, and when pulling hard, flames came out of the exhaust.
They had a distinctive growling noise, my Dad used to say āāYou can always tell a Commer (by the sound) and you can always smell a Commerāā.
@parkroyal2100 Classy right hand turn!
I like the noise of the 2-speed axle (not quite) dropping in.
My very first HGV, a Commer Knocker, I was nobbut a lad, just starting, (1960?), Fred Chappell, Batley
7 load a day with the Commer, Roundwood Colliery, Wakefield to Tingley gas works.
Happy days. Fred was a good man, he looked after his young and old men.
WE had 2 x 3 axle Commer tippers in the fleet, loaded up to the greedy boards with coal the knockers handled them quite well. One of the 6 wheelers only had one silencer, you could definitely hear that coming.
My one and only one was an artic for Hedly Shaw of Stapleford, I was very pleased that it soon went out of the fleet and I was given something a bit quieter. I think it must have been one of Reg Coopers from Wendesbury. He had sold out to Charlie Dormer of Leytonstone, who had already bought Shaws, and they put him in charge of us. Mainly my steeds there were first an LAD Albion and then a similar Dodge. Much quieter.
To be fair, bus and lorry engines were much more interchangeable in those days. In 1966 when that Mammoth Major drawbar outfit was commissioned by Asia Trans, its AEC AV 691 (205 bhp) lump was, as you suggest, also used in some buses (BEA Routemasters for eg). But Leyland lorries were powered by 0.600 and 0.680 engines that also powered most Leyland buses at that time. Iād love to know what gearbox that AEC had in it: perhaps the TET D203 6-sp constant-mesh - who knows? Ashley doesnāt and Gordon Pearce, bless him, died before I could ask him!
Well i know those 9.6 and 11.3 engines were the back bone of many fleets as was the 12.47 but iām afraid they didnāt cut it with a certain person on here who shall remain nameless .He didnāt like the fact that they had a short stroke and declared them nothing more than a bus engine. So there we have it
Thereās an in joke here I presumeā¦
Yep the TL12 AV760 11.3 & 9.6 were all bus engines that should only have been used in dust carts apparently. Not sure many old hauliers would agree with that one. But the bloke who probably never drove them apart from the TL12 knows best
Armchair truckers, like most trolls, are there to be ignored. Iām still learning to do it