In order to initiate you fully into the banter “Glenman” you haven’t got a Big J with 8LXB engine lurking about in the Province or should I say The North of Ireland!! If you have, please post a picture,half of the thread will cheer and me and the other half,including that very nice chap “H” will groan!!! Its only when the likes of you rattle his cage that he gets stroppy!!!The Bush is on you if we all ever meet—so get saving, one bottle won’t be enough----at least ONE each and it should be two for “H”!! All the best for 2011 Bewick.
glenman:
ffs, is this how pensioners bully people ? by bombarding them with pictures of rubbish defunct lorries ?
I ain’t a pensioner,how dare you call me a pensioner.Sorry it’s the season of goodwill,peace on earth and goodwill to all people without a sense of humour .
oh, so you are just old before your time then ? someone go round and knock old harrys door and tell him to come back. although he is probably taking a wee nap with all this activity tiring him out.
Might be old before my time,but I can get you going,no problem,you have asked for it now,have an ERF .
In order to initiate you fully into the banter “Glenman” you haven’t got a Big J with 8LXB engine lurking about in the Province or should I say The North of Ireland!! If you have, please post a picture,half of the thread will cheer and me and the other half,including that very nice chap “H” will groan!!! Its only when the likes of you rattle his cage that he gets stroppy!!!The Bush is on you if we all ever meet—so get saving, one bottle won’t be enough----at least ONE each and it should be two for “H”!! All the best for 2011 Bewick.
one bottle would do you old boys, a miniature one that is. oh and by the way i never had any water problems unlike some other people just a matter of miles away.as far as the old guy, its down the bottom of the garden but i cant show it as its where the little folk live and those leprechauns like the privacy.
I started driving in 1977 and in 1980 started driving an N reg ex National Carriers Borderer, it had a 220 ■■■■■■■ and a David Brown 6 spd box. At the time I thought it was a pile of ‘plop’ and still do, I’ve never been accused of having ‘rose tinted specs’ and I believe I saw it as it was, at the time I would raather have driven the F86, F88 290 or either of the Daf 2800’s the firm had but as the ‘new guy’ it was the Borderer.
It was noisy, draughty and uncomfortable, (especially for sleeping in!!!) if you were reversing with your head out the window and the clutch ‘bit’ your head would hit the top or the wooden door frame with such force it’d hurt for days, I hated it at the time but if I’d been 12 or 15 yrs older having come from earlier motors I might have seen it very differently. I had also driven a Seddon with a 180 Gardner and a Borderer with a 180 but once I was promoted to the R reg Daf 2800 DKS I thought I’d ‘arrived’!!!
Not only that, the Sed Ack 400 sleeper was one of the most comfortable cabs to sleep in I’ve ever had, & with a 340 ‘Roller’ it was one of the quickest!! (is there any hope for me )
8LXBV8BRIAN:
The MK2 Atkinson was as good as it was going to get for Atkinson in my view any way.
The cab was at the end of its life required a new more modern tilt cab and with the seddon tie up
came the dreaded SEDDON/ATKINSON 400 series, from then on it was all down hill .
but the damage was allready done with the introduction of the group axle into the Atkinson line up
the poor build quality of the product and the problems it caused in service showed how it was going to be in the future
The true ATKINSON was dead this new ------/Atkinson was an inferior product in so many ways.
and to bring back the BIG A for the 401 etc was just a joke
They didnt have the same strong design of the older Atkinson’s so for me i would have rather had the name
die with the TRUE ATKINSON .
Spot-on Brian. The Seddon axle caused a lot of warranty problems to Atkinson, especially with a batch in Jamaica, apparently!
The introduction of the Seddon front axle into the 400 Series instead of a Kirkstall unit brought lots of problems with tyre wear and braking performance. Together with other (Seddon) component quality problems, I can say with certainty that that is why W. H Bowker became exclusively Volvo. They were not alone in having Borderers which were still in service after 400s were disposed of. (They also had a Mk.1 Atkinson tractor that outlived them all, but that’s another story!)
I think with the 400 series it depended on the spec, we had ■■■■■■■ 290’s with rockwell axles that gave no trouble at all. The ones we had with 265 rollers had the Seddon axle and the hub reduction gears broke up on a regular basis.
Trev_H:
I think with the 400 series it depended on the spec, we had ■■■■■■■ 290’s with rockwell axles that gave no trouble at all. The ones we had with 265 rollers had the Seddon axle and the hub reduction gears broke up on a regular basis.
I think that the Rockwell was a later addition, and introduced to get a suitable ratio to match the new E290 engine.
We had two new 400s when they first appeared.The boss wanted away from Daf 2300 and 2800s and the engine problems they had.My recommendation to cure the engine problems was to sack half the drivers and hire some who would put oil and water in their lorries but unfortunately he went ahead with the 400s. We got one with a 240 and because of Gardner not being able to supply got the other with a 290 ■■■■■■■■■■■■ a heap of crap.From day one both had electrical problems as everything was behind the grill and was permanently soaking wet.Brakes didnt last long and the 290 dropped a piston going over the Forth.The fleet engineer (ha ha) remarked on driving over the same road that he wasnt surprised it had dropped the piston because of the state of the road. Give it its due,the 240 could pull and once going didnt slow down.I was in a 2800 one night following it up the M6,both loaded and it left us and the 2800s could go.
Anyway the ■■■■■■■ got jacknifed and written off and the 240 eventually went too,I think both at less than a year old.One had 60,000 on it and the other 90,000,very poor mileages when compared against the Dafs.
Maybe our 290 models were later being T reg. the only problems we had with them were, poor steering lock, leaking windscreens and doors that tended to lock by themselves if you slammed the door. Later on we got 401’s, Y reg I think and the leaking windscreen problem was still there !
Suprisingly the 265 rollers had no real engine problems and pulled really well but the back axles were a regular pain.
I don’t know why but I don’t recall seeing any BRS Borderers?
.
someone go round and knock old harrys door and tell him to come back. 
although he is probably taking a wee nap with all this activity tiring him out. 
I’m gonna go & run for cover 
you’re barred ! 
this new ------/Atkinson was an inferior product in so many ways.