Who is publishing this magazine■■?
turbom:
Who is publishing this magazine■■?
The same folk who publish truck and driver ,commercial motor im guessing .
Saviem, your comments are spot on. As newmercman said, Truck magazine was put together by lorry men.
I certainly miss it, like many others I read it cover to cover, over and over.
I have this years Truck & Driver 9/10 issues sitting on my desk. I haven’t completely read even one of them. Apart from Ron Chapman’s stories there didn’t seem to be anything of interest to me.
George Bennett and Mark’s articles were probably the last I followed.
Across the Pond was in my opinion really good, factual and to the point. It showed an insight into long haul trucking in North America as it is first hand.
T&D had an opportunity to use the knowledge of an ex-pat, experienced driver and truck journalist to breath some new life into the magazine, yet missed the opportunity!
Big Lorry Blog went the same way.
If the truck journalist has a following, then the magazine will!
Hi all. Just went on Big Lorry Blog.
Commercial Motor in conjunction with Daf Trucks are doing a blog called, A Week in Trucks.
Seemed alright looking at it from an ex-pat point of view, or perhaps someone retired who likes to look in from the outside. Not sure if anyone involved in the U.K. road transport business daily would agree though!
Nice clip from the Retro Show.
Regards Paul.
Not sure what happened there, but some extra words showed up! Sorted now.
Paul- Brian retired, one of the best wordsmiths in the business, his BLB role was taken over by another person, and now its been passed onto me… I am no Brian- hell I am a truck driver who struggles to put two words together, I don’t have Brians contacts or years of experience. I recognise the issues and say if you have BLB content send it in, BLB is not just about the editor but about whats sent to him
I have had a quick look at the finished product, and it is epic-I know I am biased working for the company but in this case it is something that I would go out and buy.
Goody! I’ll get one. Robert 
)
Rikki-UK:
Paul- Brian retired, one of the best wordsmiths in the business, his BLB role was taken over by another person, and now its been passed onto me… I am no Brian- hell I am a truck driver who struggles to put two words together, I don’t have Brians contacts or years of experience. I recognise the issues and say if you have BLB content send it in, BLB is not just about the editor but about whats sent to him
Hi Rikki. I hear what you are saying, obviously some big shoes to fill as the editor following on from Brian and or the other person who perhaps found it difficult to follow through with the content we were used to.
My comments were not directed at you personally, but the way the format and site changed. I used to reply regularly, and probably could of contributed more.
If I manage, my time better I’ll try to get some photos of the Quatar Motor Sports power boat racing teams motors. They have a base here in Orlando with a few nice Kenworth’s, but my interest is in the three Scania’s they brought over and what a sight it was to see them on North American roads. Just as exciting was to hear them pull out of the yard and listen to the sweet music of those V8s.The power boats and their trailers are spectacular.
Riding with these guys would be a great experience and LDD.
I’m still wondering if I can get a copy sent over to Canada?
I got my copy today… and it is epic- and not saying that because I work for the company 
picked it up for a quick flick through and two hours later am now well behind with work-
Mark will see if I can get you one sent, but no promises 
Rikki-UK:
Paul- Brian retired, one of the best wordsmiths in the business, his BLB role was taken over by another person, and now its been passed onto me… I am no Brian- hell I am a truck driver who struggles to put two words together, I don’t have Brians contacts or years of experience. I recognise the issues and say if you have BLB content send it in, BLB is not just about the editor but about whats sent to him
Rikki, I was always under the impression that you were old enough to be a LORRY driver and if you had have been old enough to use log sheets you would have an excellent experience of being a wordsmith both in the use of facts and fiction especially 
cheers Johnnie
Rikki-UK:
I got my copy today… and it is epic- and not saying that because I work for the companyMark will see if I can get you one sent, but no promises
Thanks mate.
Although not a Truck road test, to prove Saviem’s point. Quote Gibb Grace MSc. CEng. MIMechE from CM 8/12/1972:
"From the driver’s point of viewthe BigJ8 has good visibility, inherent stability and good brakes, but is woefully underpowered.
Slight motorway gradients slow the vehicle considerably and typical trunk road hills nearly stop it.The large turning circle makes it unwieldy in towns and the insensitive steering makes it wearing to drive on straight roads.
The lasting impression I have of the vehicle is of driving with the left hand on the spoke close to the wheel boss to reduce steering wheel movement and the right hand on my knee to help keep my aching right leg hard down on the throttle pedal."
Now that is telling it like it was. 
cav551:
Although not a Truck road test, to prove Saviem’s point. Quote Gibb Grace MSc. CEng. MIMechE from CM 8/12/1972:"From the driver’s point of viewthe BigJ8 has good visibility, inherent stability and good brakes, but is woefully underpowered.
Slight motorway gradients slow the vehicle considerably and typical trunk road hills nearly stop it.The large turning circle makes it unwieldy in towns and the insensitive steering makes it wearing to drive on straight roads.The lasting impression I have of the vehicle is of driving with the left hand on the spoke close to the wheel boss to reduce steering wheel movement and the right hand on my knee to help keep my aching right leg hard down on the throttle pedal."
Now that is telling it like it was.
Readers of these threads may conclude that Guys were “well engineered”. That vehicle sounds as if it was deliberately made to be difficult to drive.
He had a lot more to say of a similar scathing nature all of which described a typical British manufactured vehicle of the day, which had scarcely been improved since the original design concept from the middle to the late 1950s. This was after all just a Guy Invincible with its garden shed replaced by a tin box version, power steering which hadn’t been engineered as an efficient installation and a pathetic increase in power from the same engine manufacturer. However in the meantime it now had to cope with an increase in its gross weight of some 6 to 8 tons depending on which date is chosen to which one refers back.
There were some items viewed favourably, the previous paragraph having read:
" The Big J8 then is a difficult vehicle to appraise. It is a robust vehicle which should give years of use, its chassis is heavily flitched and its cab, though dated inside and out, is tough and workmanlike. Yet despite the heavy cab and chassis, the payload is still very good at 20.4 tons, and an 8x2 version is available which saves a further 0.35 tons and would give a true 20 tons payload with almost all types of bodywork. These features plus the Gardner engine’s efficiency and longevity should guarantee its appeal to operators." Gibb Grace.
cav551:
He had a lot more to say of a similar scathing nature all of which described a typical British manufactured vehicle of the day, which had scarcely been improved since the original design concept from the middle to the late 1950s…
" … its cab, though dated inside and out, is tough and workmanlike. Yet despite the heavy cab and chassis, the payload is still very good at 20.4 tons, and an 8x2 version is available which saves a further 0.35 tons and would give a true 20 tons payload with almost all types of bodywork. These features plus the Gardner engine’s efficiency and longevity should guarantee its appeal to operators." Gibb Grace.
By 1972, the MP cab was considered outdated. What would he have said about the ERF LV and Mk2 Atki, both of which were current models in that year? Interestingly, he slates the performance of the vehicle, yet the Gardner 180 was, I would guess, the most popular 8 wheeler engine of the time.
Gibb Grace and a few others from that era were still knocking about during my time as a full time scribe, they were both full of knowledge and highly entertaining, they were held in very high regard by the manufacturers, they were proper lorry men.
I think he just did not like the Motor Panels cab since his road test of the Foden S40 29/10/71 is almost equally scathing:
“Fodens have now standardised on the Coventry Motor Panels steel cab and it is to my mind a distinct improvement over the glass fibre one that we all got to know so well. But it looks better from the outside than the inside. The driver sits high by current British standards, and has an excellent view of the road. However, driver and mate are separated by the very deep engine cover, which comes up almost to screen height. This arrangement is very restricting and creates problems which Fodens do not seem to be able to solve. The exhaust manifold is on the driver’s side of centre, making him very hot and, because the cover is removeable for engine servicing, the cab is very noisy.”
He then mentions the startling effect of the Kysor radiator shutter operating at 60 mph: It was comparable to opening and closing your front door on a windy day."
There is more cab related criticism concerning the angle, position and operating load of the pedals and not surprisingly also the steering " bordering on the dangerous".
However Trvor Longcroft’s test of the Seddon 34.4 hardly mentions the cab.
Gibb Grace also tested a John Raymond borrowed Atki 8lxb Borderer 23/6/72. He did not particularly like the cab of that either:
" The MkII cab of the Atkinson is dated in appearance and still very stark by current European standards" He then complements the vision and the seat adjustment. but goes on to say:
“With so much room available it is a pity the wheel and pedals are not better placed in relation to each other… the clutch pedal is displaced much too far to the left and so is awkward to operate… the accelerator is a throwback to yesteryear being a high-set treadle needing much too high an effort to operate it…proper control of the throttle was even more difficult, making driving at anything other than full throttle very wearing indeed.”
The steering again comes in for criticism being:" too heavy in the twisty hill sections and in tighter traffic conditions."
However he concludes: The Borderer, though now dated in appearance and in spite of not having ideally laid out controls, is still somehow very much a driver’s vehicle."
There were two road tests of ■■■■■■■ 220 powered A series ERFs around the time, one in drawbar form and the other an artic. My copies of these now 40+ year old magazines are in very poor condition and not all complete. They will however be on the CM archive if someone can work out how to copy the article onto this forum. Trevor Longcroft tested the Artic on 24/3/72 and was quite complementary of the LV cab. This vehicle had ZF steering which cam in for particular praise:
“…does not have any of that vagueness - evident in some systems- that requires constant wheel correction to maintai a straight course…”
Personally I would love to see a compilation of Road Tests from Truck and Commercial Motor from this period published.