Hi all, What is it about Atkinsons?. My brother is a fanatic when it comes to these lorries, but I don’t understand a few things about them, hope you can help. Whats with the silver knight,black knight, borderer and all the rest of the names? What do they mean?. As you can probably see, I’m no expert but they look alright as trucks go. I also notice that some of them have one wiper at the top of the drivers side but on the bottom of the passenger side windscreen, nobody’s explained this. Were Jennings the only firm to make the sleeper conversions and were there any variations?. Also I wonder if anyone has any photo’s of Atkinsons owned by Lucozade. Many thanks…
Where to start?
Silver Knights, Black Knights and Gold Knights were the assignations given to the range of different chassis on the Mk1 range in the sixties.
Borderer, Defender, Searcher, Venturer, Leader and (although there is some debate about it) Raider were names given to different chassis in the Mk 11 range - these came into being after the introduction of the range, so there are some Mk11 Silver Knghts out there as well…
You’ll probably notice that it’s some of the Mk 1s which have the odd wiper arrangement - the Mk 11s had top-mounted wipers with a linkage which was concealed behind a panel in the cab.
Jennings were far from the only conversion suppliers. As well as the official factory option which came from Nightingale, there were also others who included Longton Coachcraft (very, very similar to the Jennings) and W&J Riding who did what was possibly the best sleeper modification, using a single glass-fibre roof panel, external locker and big rear windows. Riding developed the conversion for their famous long-running fleet of Mk 11s & Borderers but did do a number of conversions for other hauliers - including the last one which was done for Pandoro and went on LCK480N, their Venturer which lives on as two wagons - the chassis with a day cab belonging to Arthur Bridge from Warrington and the sleeper cab on SWW268M a Defender which belongs to Dave Lawrence from Uttoxeter.
They have character, they had a cult following from the operators who ran them and there are lots which have been saved for posterity by drivers and hauliers alike. Once seen, never mistaken for anything else.
Very succinctly put, Mark!
And, apart from the character (anachronism?) that they sustained perhaps beyond their time, many, many hauliers apart from Bewick will tell you how much they made out of operating them. Whatever else is discussed, that is ultimately the only measure of success for any commercial enterprise.
Did they make specials to ship to Aus. or were they made out there?
Over to 240 - he’ll give you all the information you want…
What is it about Atkinsons? simples, they were the best!!
Me.Paul.101:
Did they make specials to ship to Aus. or were they made out there?
They made specials for the Euro market, LHD fitted with factory sleepers made by Krupp (Austrian I think) only ever seen one, apart from photos,( some of which are on Bubbs,s pages) I often wondered why they weren,t made for the UK market, as speaking from experience the outdated 50s technology cabs were a masochists paradise 
the 400series twin bunk sleeper were a much better driver,s motor, but arrived 10yrs too late, as the Volvos & Scanias had taken over by then…
marky:
Over to 240 - he’ll give you all the information you want…
thank you!
Well, there were assembly plants in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and each sourced cabs locally after intially marketing the U.K. cab and/or derivatives. The Australian Atkinson cab was by far the most successful of these, and produced in considerable numbers from 1966 onwards. Initially, U.K. kits were assembled, but Australia in particular came to build its own designs.
Preston-built Atkinsons were exported to a whole range of markets, some as CKD kits for local assembly (including local cabs) and others as fully built vehicles. Destinations included Jamaica, Pakistan, Cyprus (buses), various African countries, some European countries (mainly in the 1950s) and Sri Lanka.
The only export destinations I can think of off-hand for the Borderer were Jamaica and Eire. The Irish ones went as CKD kits, I believe, due to import taxes.
hi lads spotted this old atki today at holyhead,remember the days, if you had one of these you were king of the road 
bumper
I never got my licence till 78 so never drove an atki only some sed atkis although there were lots still around , I was a butcher for many years before that I started in the meat in 68 now I worked at a lot of places including the savoy hotel in the strand london and there were a couple of scotch meat carriers who delivered to me at various locations the firms were “morrisons” who mainly had mercs but were not sign written and “T.M. Catto” there is lots of pics of cattos on this forum they had marathons atkis and variuos others which escape me now anyway sorry to digress so much its an age thing there was a driver on cattos big big bloke and he always drove an atki he wrote it off once and he really was upset and missed that motor he used to say “I brooke me motoor” if you get the scotch accent nice bloke though cheers fred m
Forgive my ignorance, but what is ‘CKD’?
CKD = Complete Knock Down kit
It’s a big-lad’s airfix kit. When you’ve emptied all the boxes, read the instructions & glued it all together, you’ve got yourself a wagon 
Sorry, but I just had to smile. I would never have got that in a million years…
Me.Paul.101:
Forgive my ignorance, but what is ‘CKD’?
Complete knock-down (CKD), which is a complete kit needed to assemble a product.
I’ve never heard that before. Is that a technical term used in the manufacture of vehicles?, or does it cover other things?
Me.Paul.101:
I’ve never heard that before. Is that a technical term used in the manufacture of vehicles?, or does it cover other things?
Courtesy of Wikipedia.
A knock-down kit (also styled knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown, and sometimes abbreviated KD) is a kit containing the parts needed to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, then exported to another country or region for final assembly.
A common form of knock-down is a complete knock-down (CKD), which is a complete kit needed to assemble a product. It is also a method of supplying parts to a market, particularly in shipping to foreign nations, and serves as a way of counting or pricing.[1] CKD is a common practice within the automotive industry, the bus and heavy truck industry, and the rail vehicle industry, as well as electronics, furniture, and in other products. Businesses sell knocked down kits to their foreign affiliates or licensees for various reasons, including to avoid import taxes, to receive tax preferences for providing local manufacturing jobs, or even to be considered as a bidder at all (for example, in public transit projects with “buy national” rules).
Thank you Dave. Here endeth the first lesson…
Me.Paul.101:
Thank you Dave. Here endeth the first lesson…
No problem Paul,if you want to know anything try Wikipedia.
Cheers Dave.
Anybody know Sutton Bank nr. Thirsk? No HGV’s up there thank you, 1 in 4 uphill. Well in 1962 i got a new Atki 8 wheeel tipper, 150 Gardner, 6 speed David Brown and I took it, loaded, up Sutton Bank (naughty naughty).
Road salt from Winsford, half the load to be tipped half way up the bank, the rest at the top. The Atki played with the job, I stopped at the bottom of the bank, put it in No.1, and left it to it. A very fine machine, i won’t hear a wrong word about Atkis, and here’s me, an AEC man, (before they were involved with Leyland). 
grumpy old man:
Anybody know Sutton Bank nr. Thirsk? No HGV’s up there thank you, 1 in 4 uphill. Well in 1962 i got a new Atki 8 wheeel tipper, 150 Gardner, 6 speed David Brown and I took it, loaded, up Sutton Bank (naughty naughty).
Road salt from Winsford, half the load to be tipped half way up the bank, the rest at the top. The Atki played with the job, I stopped at the bottom of the bank, put it in No.1, and left it to it. A very fine machine, i won’t hear a wrong word about Atkis, and here’s me, an AEC man, (before they were involved with Leyland).
In a similar vein, Pandoro’s driving instructor took the company training vehicle out whilst training for his ADI qualification. Armed with a fully-freighted test trailer at 32 tons, he decided to have a go at the Kirkstone Pass (Dennis will know it!). His motor had a 180 with a 6-speed David Brown (no crawler), and geared for a fairly high top speed of 58 mph. I gather he kept away from the All-Bran for a while afterwards, but it did make it. But only just…