Stop complaining, Bewick, you’re only going to tempt fate. It’s been most pleasant of late, without the inexperienced one’s typed diahorea.
1 Like
He’s too busy polluting another thread that I was following. If you think his opinions on here are unhinged just go to the “Busy Mr Trump” thread.
I suppose it was too much to expect him to have totally left.
The last ‘good’ Mercedes, in my view, was the NG 1633 (despite the crap ZF syncro box). I used to pull tilts out of the docks with one and it went like stink!
1 Like
Is that the one with the micro-switch under the throttle pedal? I was told that increased power, and also opened up a hole in the bottom of the fuel tank!
There was one on the “fleet” when I joined - dark blue, battered and “powered” by a V4 that shouted a lot but didn’t do much else. I think I saw 40 on the North Circular one day but what with the speedo flapping around like a sheet in a storm and having to keep a keen eye on the temp gauge… The Mk2 Tran*ny with the Pinto(?) was faster but still boiled their heads.
There was one of those on the “fleet” for a while too (you can tell the quality of the outfit I was working for) and it had a luton body on it too. Like a Transit that someone had photocopied at 125% and a York diesel (@suedehead2) that all but stopped facing a stiff breeze.
We also had an old D-series, I still don’t know what the “10” in 0710 stood for. In defence of the TK I posted earlier, it would do 70 (indicated). Downhill. Empty. With a tailwind.
From memory the 07 (actually 7.5 tonne but that would have made a mess of the codes) was the gross weight and the 10 was for a 100hp engine. Therefore a D1614 chassis was a 16t GVW with a 140hp engine. Basing this on the codes for the bus chassis - A 1014 was a 10m chassis with a 140hp engine, 1140 was an 11m chassis with a 140hp engine.
Could be barking up the wrong tree though.
You should have bought a Commander ll from him Buzzer, provided it was Cummins powered of course.
I was being sarky about the “ten” in 0710, 
I think it was the Dover(?) engine. The old dog I drove had a 4-sp box and a short final drive. NW London to Longbridge took hours at 48mph flat-out. All early D-series had a squeaky and very stiff clutch pedal, the later ones ('78 onwards) were better. I got my Class 1 in an ex-Dagenham works 2417.
Downhill???
1 Like
Is that the same Gilders who have the transport firm truckstop and lorry restorations Buzzer?
This was mid-’80s. I don’t know about the micro-chip but I believe its regular driver had probably fettled it!
I didn’t like any Mercs that came after it: I hated EPS SKs with a vengeance and couldn’t stand Actrosses.
A mate (owner driver) had a Merc of that era, but I can’t remember the exact mode. He said it was OK on fuel until you floored the throttle when a switch gave it an extra power boost, but at a high fuel cost. He was torn between being a driver who wanted to get going, and a boss who wanted to save costs.
I’d forgotten all about those! Yes, he’s right. I think it was V8s that had it IIRC.
Yes under the accelerator pedal. I always thought and still do that they sound like a bag of spanners.Ours would have bankrupted an owner driver without exception
I think that the D series I brought up also had a 4 speed box. It has been kitted out to be a mobile oil transfer unit for BICC and the truck would spend it’s day on sites pumping oil through HV cables so the engine was constantly running to power the PTO. The odometer reading was about 6000 - even though the truck had to have been over 10 years old - but the engine would probably have had the equivalent of about 500k (albeit not at stress levels).
I drove a 1729(POWERLINER) 
What a sac of cac that was
1 Like
A Euroliner with a sliding roof from front to back and back to front…for loading from a crane, and bloody easier than a tilt.
There is a video of me somewhere taken by a firm of me loading a sliding roof chipliner, it was the first time this woodwaste firm had seen one.
I slid the roof back from back to front, got kinda half way loaded and did harsh brake shunts to move the sawdust to the front…not knowing the roof slid from front to back also.
In my defence I was just told to go with it, they were a new concept and I had no training or instruction prior to leaving, in those days you had to fend for yourself.
So that’s my excuse for making a prat of myself on camera…
2 Likes