When I was a lad we were so poor we could only afford one wheel
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Amazing what was acceptable in 1957, working in close proximity to heavy machinery and no load restraint.
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Amazing to see they used such small trucks to do big jobs, where 6 or 8-wheelers would have been more suitable.
I remember Gamages was a big store close to Piccadilly Circus, where was displayed a big circular model railway circuit (c. 1965).
Boat engine, more like boat anchor.
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Agree 100%, automatic boxes for cars, manual boxes for lorries.
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Yrah I know Iâm in a minority here among fellow older experienced driversđâŚbut I canât think why.
As I said Iâve nothing to prove anymore I could play a tune on a Fuller box once overâŚand without a clutch, but why would I want to today?
Modern autos just do all the work for you, I canât see why anybody would want to go back to manuals.
Downside?..a truck today is just like driving a big car, so you could train chimps to get a Class1.
(In fact in many cases they have done just that ! 
)
Stick that up yer flue Mr Boeing
A bike for a paper round ? absolute luxury, I had to walk, and I had 2 paper rounds. 
Iâve never driven a lorry with an auto so Iâm not in a position to criticise, but Iâve been a passenger in a Scania, auto box, soft sprung cab and seats, it was like being in a boat in choppy seas, the gearbox was up and down like a brides nightie.
Not for me. FullersâŚfor men 
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Maybe a bit of pride and skill still lingers with us old lads, anybody can sit there, press the loud pedal, and wait for things to happen, us old lads could MAKE things happen.
Ok , I accept, times change, ways of doing things change, but are they always for the better.
I firmly believe for 40 tonne + a 290/350 Cummins with a 9 speed Fuller canât be bettered.
My comments were on a personal basis.I prefer manuals because i feel more in control.Have you ever tried to reverse uphill onto a loading bay with a Daf auto.Jeeze the older ones were a nightmare.Like i said earlier an auto doesnât make my job any easier.Having said that i had a 13 year old XF Daf double drive manual for quite a while and i liked it.They took it off me and used it as a spare and gave me a 9 year old CF auto.They sent our âTop Driverâ out in it, he only got 2 miles down the road and snapped the clutch clean in half.Our mechanics took photos of it and said theyâd never seen the likes.The CF auto was absolute crap by the way.Horses for courses
The last company i worked for before retiring went over to all auto boxes. It was a plnt hire company so a lot of site work they said it was the cheaper option as they had a lot of burned out clutches,brocken half shafts and prop shafts my reply was employ better drivers. I wanted a manual but was told no in my opinion much better for site work auto box is no go or all go when itâs tight and a bit of clutch control would be handy and being able to rock back and forth on sticky ground donât work as well with auto. Only my opinion.Gerbil
Yeah that was the case 30+ years ago, and I would have been the first to agree with you at that time.
In fact I owned about 6 motors of that spec then.
But the alternatives were around then were 180s, 220s, and 250s, ..unless you pushed the boat out and bought a 143 450 V8.
Nowadays premium motors are running anywhere between 500 and 750.
Trucks and power ratios,.and their capabilities have changed so much since those days, and coupled with an auto box are just fine imo.
I was kinda weaned from manuals to autos,.when I got the MAN with the âclutchâ button on the gear knob (canât recall what they were called.. powershift was it? âŚ
I loved that motor, especially with the XXL cab.
Then the first auto replacement was another MAN, brand new on a 55 plate (Jeez man just realised that was TWENTY years ago ffs 
)
It took a while for me to get used to itâŚand like it, but once you knew how to adapt and handle it, it was fine after a few weeks.
Since then,.as I said, I would never go back to manualsâŚbut each to his own etc etc .
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Comfort shift i think.We had one but the MAN was nothing but trouble.It was a 6x4 on landfill always in the dealers who could never get parts or even repair the thing.It would go in for 3/4 weeks and come out with the same fault.They bought 3 8 wheelers they all had engines blow and the artic was just a bag of â â â â â â They learned their lesson (not) and decided to go with 7 Merc artics all having auto gearbox problems all in the dealers regularily again waiting for parts nothing but trouble.It must be a German thing. And guess what our mechanics said ⌠autos are better because we donât go through any clutches.Maybe so but they break down on a regular basis.Any owner driver would be bankrupt with them. We are running a few Scania rental motors at the moment and the landfillâs finished .The Scanias are much better all round compared with the Mercs.You could hear the gearbox crunch on the Mercs so maybe the computer was one of the new breed 
Yeah I suppose now that you say, I can see the benefits of a manual box on site work, over an auto box.
All I have done is long distance tramping.
Yes, comfortshift- a nice shift to use if set up right. I was given a '57 plate MAN about 18 months old and it was rubbish-gearstick all over the place-took it in for service and defected the shift-also had a word with the foreman fitter(proper old skool guy) and they fitted a new cable-totally different experience. Funny thing was I had that unit for 2+ years and the change was still tight-god knows what the first driver did to her 
With me itâs just personal taste and like i said i wouldnât touch a manual car