Question.
From ‘83 onwards, both Foden and ERF offered optional lightweight Rockwell tandem-drive SQ100 bogies for their double-drive 38 / 40-tonners to reduce weight and avoid the use of heavy haulage tractors for 38t general haulage work.
Can any of you remember using this option and was it a good set-up? (TBH I may well have used it myself but I don’t know if the double-drive Foden and ERF I drove actually had the SQ100).
Cheers!
My limit Ro is recognising a double drive beyond that I know zilch about axles.
A bilbobagweed photo.
When did palm couplings go out of fashion and why? I remember in the late 70’s whenever we rented out an artic unit we always asked the customer if they needed them and kept a stock for this purpose. Can’t remember anyone ever asking for them though.
Maybe because the more modern ones were more efficient?…who knows.
The only experience with them I have had is with the use of adaptors, maybe it was just me but I wasn’t keen, and on occasions they were not as efficient as they should have been
I remember using “push “ couplings in the 80’s so maybe they were falling out of favour around that time?
Having said that, a year and a half ago I was working for a company pulling foreign/European fridges and they were all palm couplings.
I quite like palm couplings actually, very easy to use and don’t require as much brute force imo.
I started in '76. Mostly C couplings then although some trucks still had palm couplings.
By using M/F F/M and a different size of F/M it was impossible to connect C couplings wrongly.
(Well I daresay some muppets could find a way to mess it up)
Palm couplings can leak more when the rubbers are worn.
The French still use palms I believe, and the Italians had a different box and clip type coupling at one time, but I don’t know what they have now.
I was still regularly using palm couplings on dock traction work in the early 2000s. I always carried adaptors for them under the bunk jic.
Curiously, himself didn’t like them: however, he mostly confined his pronouncements on the Leyland 0.500 thread to criticising OHC diesel engines for some reason or other. You could say he moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. Could.
Beyond the old Škoda jokes (Why do Skodas have heated rear windscreens?
To keep your hands warm while you’re pushing it. &c) and the utilitarian interior, the 1000MB and the models that followed (100, 110, Estelle) were actually decent cars. Yes they rusted; no, the materials weren’t all that; yes, swing-arm rear suspension sudden oversteer. But people went rallying with them, they were affordable (cheap if you like) cars in the 70s and much better-built than all the Soviet cheapies (Lada, Moskvich) and better than a Wartburg. I think the 110R is a good-looking thing:
Reminiscent of a Tatra 603 in a way.
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I had an 18 year old new HGV Driver in the yard today. My advice was always listen to people local to the area you drive to. Local knowledge is invaluable. Ignore the sat nav and phone the drop or stop and ask the man walking his dog. Always listen to older drivers but use a filter some of it will be s##t some of it will be spot on and make your life easier. Don’t get frustrated by traffic the UK is over populated with not enough road space you need to remember that. Always remember people in gatehouses. Forklift Drivers and office staff think you just exist to ruin their lives you turn up out of your own choice just to piss them off. Don’t lose your cool be the better person and smile and agree with them. (Anything to get loaded or unloaded quicker) And finally never refuse a brew!
Good snippets of advice…
What I say is not to allow ‘‘them’‘ to have you running around like an idiot like there is no tomorrow and like your arse is on fire….as you will be heading towards your first heart attack before 50 and look.about 70…..as many do and as I have seen many times.
Some drivers seem to use the same mind set. That office workers and FLT drivers deliberately pee off drivers. That paperwork, safety rules, procedures, are there only to make the life of drivers harder and slower. Think: No company wants to slow things down!
There are awkward individuals out there, of course there are, and as many sit in trucks as sit on FLTs.
That makes good sense.
What I actually said was small capacity over stressed screamer.Obviously ohc/cih let alone fixed head, makes maintenance much more difficult.
The Daimler Benz 600 series aero engine seemed to be an exception proving the rule.
To go back to numerous previous arguments the Americans like double drive because two 7.5t drive axles provide more traction than one 13t drive axle and almost half as much damage to the roads.
What you actually said was a lot more than that and people who’ve forgotten more than I will ever know.took you to task. I’ll let the reader decide
Sigh.
I didn’t ask what advantages 6x4 had over other configurations: I have lots of info on that.
I did ask whether the Rockwell SQ100 lightweight tandem-drive bogie gave good service.
I’m not familiar with SQ 100 terminology, but a search tells me they were rated at 40,000 lb.. SP 40, also rated at 40,000 lb. was a popular choice here until B doubles became ubiquitous.
SP 40s gave sterling service in single trailer operations and offered little complaint in practice at higher weights, even though they were never intended for the heavier service.
Yes, I believe that’s the one. Thanks for that SDU! 
I wonder where it was shot and who by ? That unit was new into service Jan ‘77 driven from new by Colin “Chuffer” Ellis it was the only Big J on the Henry Cooke contract the others were Seddon 32/4’s and Sed Atks plus a couple of Scania 81’s . The Sed Atks and the 81’s did have drop down bunks fitted which apparently were very comfy even if they made the cab a bit cramped. Looking at the headboard and chock rail on the trailer I think it was one of a batch I bought in late ‘76 and into ‘77. The Big J’s were good reliable fleet motors back in the day they were 100% trouble free.
