philt:
Hello,
I recently purchased an "85 401 tractor unit powered by a RR 300Li. I intend to restore this truck, possibly to show standards
Why would you want to do that its a bit of junk and it was never a good lorry and never will be
DAVEY68 . Just reading your coments sounds to me like you were a brilcream boy driver whome probably could not change gear .YOU would be ok on VOLVO SCANI MERC that were for STOBBART drivers and our laddy drivers not old hands who can rope and sheet regards B WADDY
This vehicle is a 3-11 series model T17L25 4x2 tractor fitted with a ■■■■■■■ L10250 engine, and an Eaton/Fuller 9-speed range-change gear-box. It was built on the 18th November 1987 and delivered on the 28th January 1988. It has 350,061 recorded miles which may or may not be genuine. Royal Mail have owned it from new, and it has stood in one of their yards for a number of years since being withdrawn from service.
They have decided to sell it, but want it to go for preservation rather than being broken up for scrap. It fired up immediately when connected to a good battery, but there may be something (unspecified) up with the clutch according to BCA.
Two Sed/Atk 8LXB double shifters stood in the yard in Milnthorpe village. and a couple of Sed/Atk 401 8LXC’s standing in the new depot near Milnthorpe.
Evening all, Im supposed to be doing my farm paperwork, then along come you lot! Dennis, your fleet photographs are always a delight, you ran a fleet to be proud of. I was searching out a piece of elusive EU agricultural documentation this morning, when I came across a beautiful photograph sent me by that super Sheffield family, the Thorpes, of one of my King GTS60, 60tonne semi low tri axles that they bought from me. It was used internaly in the steelworks at Sheffield behind an ex army 401, (anyway its got a 401 grille)! Rolls, 6x4 daycab, to carry 3 or 4 coils, internally, 50tonne payload. Looks really smart in white, with twin beacons. Lovely people, I really must get some equipment to put photographs on here! Im still a ludite!! Cheerio for now. (and Im still looking for the EU document)!
Dennis, your motors allwyas looked the part, well painted, & very well looked after, to say the least, also you must have had some good drivers ,who looked after them, What kind of paint did you use ? it never seemed to fade, Regards Larry
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis, your motors allwyas looked the part, well painted, & very well looked after, to say the least, also you must have had some good drivers ,who looked after them, What kind of paint did you use ? it never seemed to fade, Regards Larry
In the earlier years we used ICI Larry but they priced themselves out of it and we switched to Joseph Masons,wished we’d switched years before,we dealt with them direct and nothing was ever too much trouble what a grand set of folk to deal with.I think we painted one or two using International Paint after ICI but they were crap,we then went to masons and never looked back.cheers Dennis.
This one of ours, I hand painted myself with Techoloid, which was good to used inside the garage, but the doors had to be closed, to keep the temprature on a even keel, otherwise it could cause a bit of a problem, but I was delighted with the
This was a nice smooth motor and for an 8LXB the heater worked well even when solo,it was magic!! We got this tractor new in Jan '77 from Scotts of Penrith together with a new F88 from Taits of Carlisle TEC 570R and TEC571R.
Lawrence Dunbar:
This one of ours, I hand painted myself with Techoloid, which was good to used inside the garage, but the doors had to be closed, to keep the temprature on a even keel, otherwise it could cause a bit of a problem, but I was delighted with the 0finished job, & didnt cost a lot of money, The signwriting was done by a local lad. Regards Larry0
Nice tidy job that Larry,where’s the rear mudflaps ? We went onto vynyl lettering in the mid/later 80’s,took a bit of persuading though to change from the “brushes” but I shouldn’t have bothered mesel as vynyl was a lot better as it quickly turned out.cheers Dennis.
Dennis I never noticed they were missing, Eh I dont think they were compulsory on a T reg ? correct me if Im wrong, & I must have bee luckey at Sandy Lane, ? Eh Regards Larry It never failed the MOT.?
We only had one , with the vynal lettering, only beause when we bought it, it just had been painted, so why waste money ?.It was a tidy looking bit of gear, & it gave us very good service on our rush jobs, it could just manage the 2 tonne mark, but usually it was light loaded, it earned a lot of money in its day, sometimes better than the wagons, & no tacho to worry about, The Happy Good Old Days, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis I never noticed they were missing, Eh I dont think they were compulsory on a T reg ? correct me if Im wrong, & I must have bee luckey at Sandy Lane, ? Eh Regards Larry It never failed the MOT.?
No! no! no! Larry,I didn’t mean owt to do with Spray supression requirements,but I always had mudflaps fitted back and fron’t on all the motors I ran from the year dot,I always thought they not only looked smarter but were practical as well !! Cheers Dennis.
Three of our Sed/Atks parked in the yard at Milnthorpe,the near one was an 8LXB engined day cab with Fuller 9509 box and Group axle,the middle one is a180LXB/DB 6spd/Eaton 2 speed and the far one is an 8LXB sleeper with Fuller 9509/Group axle
I drove a few 400’s working for Prestons of Potto in the late 70’s I think they all had ■■■■■■■ and Fuller boxes, the chinese shift pattern took some getting used to! I thought at the time they were great trucks, so when I got the opportunity to work for Harold Woods to drive fuel tankers and found out they were starting to buy 400’s big time I thought no problem and even took my driving assessment in a 400. The problem was that a large part of the fleet was A series ERF’s with the normal shift pattern Fuller so one day I may have an A series the next a 400, anyway to make a short story long I had a trainee in the passenger seat one day, going somewhere in ■■■■■■■■ and having explained that it was easy to forget what you were driving that is exactly what I did driving up out of Appleby!! leaving me with a red face and a hill start much to the amusement of my passenger!! I still thought they were ■■■■ fine trucks though. Regards, Mizzo.
This was the first truck that I drove full time as an HGV Class 1 driver, aged 21+a1/4…1st load, reels of paper from Convoys, Deptford for delivery to Oxford.
The old girl had a 240 Gardner in it and the steering lock was better one way than the other !!
I remember having to stand up and pulling to get full lock !!
I got the job done and then there was no looking back !
Happy days…
GS
and a couple of Sed/Atk 401 8LXC’s standing in the new depot near Milnthorpe.
