this looks interesting. youtu.be/adXl1fASYII fredm
Excellent piece of film Fred. A proper driver and the motor sounded well. Thanks for posting it.
Cheers Dave.
Now just maybe I’m being too fussy, but bear with me-
After watching stateside drivers over the past fifty or so years, everywhere from Cannonball through Ice Road Truckers and on to various Youtube offerings, can someone enlighten me: All the drivers I’ve seen seem to subscribe to the “feel where the next gear SHOULD be a few times, then give up & chuck it at the approximate position where you found it yesterday” school of gearchanging.
I’m not sure which of several scenarios is the correct one. Has the gear linkage become cr*p because of the brute force regularly applied by the “driver”? Is the gearlinkage so poorly designed & adjusted that this is the only way to engage a gear? Or, perish the thought (& wait for a tirade from the Leatherhead area), has nobody thought to teach these colonials how to drive?
There is a fourth school of thought- maybe their haulage rates are so brilliant that they can afford to replace/repair their transmission systems more often than us on this side of the pond.
Discuss 
I am appalled at the poor gear changing on IRT etc.
Sounds mint though, I was more concerned about changing gear with his arm through the steering wheel, not a very good idea that especially on anything other thana billard table smooth road {;-(
And anyone who needs both hands to handle a two-sticker needs a kick up the arris!
They don’t make drivers like they used to!
But that’s only MY opinion 
R.O.F.
Don’t you think Volvo and Scania And "good old ERF " was better having the splitter swich on the gear lever, I mean how can you pick your nose when you need two hands to change gear? And what would they make of MAN’s comfort shift?
Cheers Bassman
Hey to all, if you were used to it it was easy to shift not all but Scania and Fiat was nice.
My experience and opinion.
Cheers Eric,
Ha ha I’ve got one of them now, great when ur get used to it you and peck ur snotter and scratch ur arse all while driving { we’ve never ad it so good
Bassman:
R.O.F.Don’t you think Volvo and Scania And "good old ERF " was better having the splitter swich on the gear lever, I mean how can you pick your nose when you need two hands to change gear? And what would they make of MAN’s comfort shift?
Cheers Bassman
Do you mean the Comfort Shift that sends the message “Press Clutch” whenever you make a quick gearchange?
I’m a great fan of modern technology but I do wish manufacturers would get the stuff working properly before unleashing it on the public.
No clutch in ours but we have got one with a clutch and if ur change gear, without the clutch, even though its a perfect change it tells ur off on the dash, I’m only a pup but I can remember some of the first ones I drove you could use the clutch ur needed both legs push the peddle down, no riding the clutch in traffic and ur needed ur other leg to put ur foot on the wheel to stop {
Evening all, fair cheered this poor old “invalid” up tonight…thanks Fred!!
Bullnose with "corn binder " steering, even as a bare tractor that steering would be heavier than a Foden chinese six…believe me, and the back end would be Reyco, …not the easiest of rides!
That yard, what a dream, did you see what was parked there? A collectors paradise…and I bet he knows to the last cent what the current value of each actually is!
I once went to see a “good old boy”, just outside Charleston NC, who was going to buy some Midliners instead of Chevrolet Gas powered trucks, he invited me in to his home for lunch, and we were talking, not about trucks…but of France, and the beaches, and Omaha in particular where he had landed in the second phase. As we walked through his workshops, and out into the searing heat I was astounded to see a line of “needle nose Petes”…so grateful was he to have survived the second war, he never ever sold a line haul tractor that he personally drove, he just kept them, to remind himself of the passing years…with gratitude!
Great clip, really bought bthe memories flooding back!
Cheerio for now.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Bassman:
R.O.F.Don’t you think Volvo and Scania And "good old ERF " was better having the splitter swich on the gear lever, I mean how can you pick your nose when you need two hands to change gear? And what would they make of MAN’s comfort shift?
Cheers Bassman
Do you mean the Comfort Shift that sends the message “Press Clutch” whenever you make a quick gearchange?
I’m a great fan of modern technology but I do wish manufacturers would get the stuff working properly before unleashing it on the public.
I find this Comfort Shift bollix just a gimmick,only usefull if you have plenty of time and a straight road!
It must have cost a fortune to develop something that nobody wanted!
And then to continue with the ■■■■ thing even though they must have realised that it was cr*p. 
ROF
It seems like I,m in the minority in liking the Comfort Shift box. When I was with Calor we had some MAN,s fitted with the Comfort Shift but I don’t, recall any dash message to tell you to press the clutch. On the whole I Iiked them but not having the same truck two days running, one day you would have a truck with a Twin Splitter next day a MAN auto then a ZF 16 speed ,so when you did get one with a Comfort Shift you had to think about it and you were never on one long enough for it to become 2nd nature.
Having said that and despite the trucks having many drivers ,I don,t recall many gearbox problems during my time there.
Cheers. Bassman
The one that tells you to " depress the clutch " is in one of our four wheelers on a 56 plate I think and tells you this after you’ve changed gear without using the clutch, I think it’s a four over four box in it, I anner been in it for a while
Didn`t AEC have two sticks in some of their motors in the earlier years , how did they work ,i remember my dad saying they were a booster box■■?
We had loads of MAN’s with the comfort shift and yes they all flashed the depress clutch message now and again but they all done about 700,000kms and never had clutch or gearbox failures. Previous to those we had the normal manual ZF versions and if you swapped drivers about on them they had regular clutch master cylinder failures which were £130 a throw.
The only 2 stick motors I drove were LB 76 Scania’s and LAD reivers which both had the splitter on the second stick.
One of my mates drove a Reiver for Tarmac with the two sticks, he told me that Tarmac’s driving assessor wasn’t impressed when he took both hands off the wheel to change gear but, after trying it himself, agreed that was the only easy way to do it! Yes the AEC’s did have two stick transmission, as did Fodens.
Pete.