Hi all, forget the glam, the glitz, the looks and comfort, what are your memories of a particular workhorse you may have once driven or knew about?? Everybody remembers a comfy nice lorry, but when it came down to sheer reliability, hard graft and non-stop dependerbility, are there any motors which stand out in your mind??
I would be intresred to hear your comments, cheers, Chris 
1966 Commer Maxiload TS3 twostroke four wheel tipper 16 ton gross, brilliant lorry, pulled well , strongly made, excellent brakes, a good well built lorry, it never missed a beat. To the best of my knowledge my boss never had any trouble with it the whole time he had it, about six years in total, I drove it for 12 months.
Was still at school when this arrived, didnât ever imagine that I would end up driving it. Started in 82 on that machine 180 Gardner solid as a rock, but bloody cold in winter. Eventually got a night heater and a fold away bed.
Never let you down. Still in the yard to this day, although hasnât worked for about 5 year now.
I once towed a B Series unit with trailer (Clutch / gearbox fault), empty all the way from the Craig to Wooler via Lanark - Peebles That was a long hurl.
Long old life for that old girl then!! Some motors just get out-dated before they are worn-out! Love the Mitchell fleet, such a nice turn out on their motors, definitley one of the smartest Cornish fleets around. Over the years ive noted that alot of their ERFs have had the iluminated headboards blanked (even an EC olyimpic i think), is this to stop the leaks or just a prefrence Brian??
He dont like advertising and it didnt go with his livery to have the name up there.
Only the 1st one or 2 came with the Olympic board, after that he got ERF to stop cutting the slot out.
He still has the old 6 wheeler (1st ever ERF after Albion & Leylands),
B series 240 Gardner unit (Came as a day cab, been a jennings on it then the new jennings high roof)
C series 300 Gardner 6x2 factory built steer
E series â â â â â â â 320 6x2 unit
Thats his little collection all brand new to him.
Has still got a M plate EC14 Olympic 6x2 unit, 2 x EC11 Olympic cabbed 6x2âs Not Olympic spec tho (T & X reg)
1 x ECX 6x2 unit & an ECT fully automatic
Thanks for the info Brian, always wondered bout that!! Have seen the new Scanias wearing that livery, they look really nice, like the lod ERFs, they suit the livery well
.
My undoubted favourite for best workhorse would be the DAF 2800 DKTD
All of 240 BHP and still a good drive and ultra reliable at 38 ton. Early ones had
the ZF gearbox where you changed up going away from you, the later ones were
the right way round. bought one once for srcap and it was so good I had it painted and sent
it up and down the road. Far more reliable than the 2800 DKS or the 3300!!
12 Grand new in 1977! arrr the memories!
K
bedgar047:
Was still at school when this arrived, didnât ever imagine that I would end up driving it. Started in 82 on that machine 180 Gardner solid as a rock, but bloody cold in winter. Eventually got a night heater and a fold away bed.
Never let you down. Still in the yard to this day, although hasnât worked for about 5 year now.
I once towed a B Series unit with trailer (Clutch / gearbox fault), empty all the way from the Craig to Wooler via Lanark - Peebles That was a long hurl.
A 180 Gardner in those days was a big Engine for a 6 wheeler, david brown 5 speed box. once you got it rolling it could go, but see a hill died a death. Went all over in that thing. Seed spuds down Devon Cornwall kent and along the South coast. Double sheets and strawâŚoh they were the daysâŚ
My departed father ran an eight wheeler maudsley tipper HAY492 from 1951 to 1964 it was really an AEC mammoth major cant remember what mark.It had a 24 ton gross weight and carried around 14 tons of quarry product.This was the property of the whitwick granite company in Leicestershire .It had a 9.6 6 cylinder AEC engine five speed gearbox.I have no idea the mileage it got on it through its lifetime running about 150 mile radius from Coalville (mainly south).It also did a lot of internal quarry work to my fathers displeasure often my dad would show up at work only to find the truck filthy from working all night in the quarry.It helped to build the southern leg of the M1 motorway and the Ross spur to name a couple.By the early 1960 s and the coming of the motorways this unit and its 36 MPH top speed had made it obsolete until it was finally scrapped in 1964.It was one of 5 similiar units which all lasted as long >It never seemed to break down I know on a few occasions he had to nurse it back but always on its own steam.What a motor I hope it made someone rich my dad got less than 5 bob an hour for driving it
For me it has to be an ERF, as a young lad of 23 years I got on for the CWS driving milk tankers in those days it was a dead mans boots job, The only reason I got the job was because they ran out of drivers, a lot of old boyâs retired at the same time and they needed drivers. They had Lotâs of 8 legger ERFâs and AECâs in those dayâs and they were old, they were cold but they never missed a beat, never ever been stuck on the side of the road with one, always got me home.
knowall:
My undoubted favourite for best workhorse would be the DAF 2800 DKTD
All of 240 BHP and still a good drive and ultra reliable at 38 ton. Early ones had
the ZF gearbox where you changed up going away from you, the later ones were
the right way round. bought one once for srcap and it was so good I had it painted and sent
it up and down the road. Far more reliable than the 2800 DKS or the 3300!!
12 Grand new in 1977! arrr the memories!K
DAF DKTD 2800 for me too, but I think they were 260 bhp, never let me down, up and down to Spain, Italy, not as flash as some but never in the workshop.
the oldens are always the best,sumat to get ya teeth into,loadsa gear changein to keep you on ya toes.always nice to have a new truck but i think they have become mindnumbingly boring,no excitment in the job anymore
I also started on an ERF A series - that was in 1985 or 6 if I remember correctly, and the whole firm was a bit of an anachronism - we had a whole fleet of '60âs ERFs still going strong. My best âmemoryâ is already posted here, on the âyour worst night outâ thread
curnock:
the oldens are always the best,sumat to get ya teeth into,loadsa gear changein to keep you on ya toes.always nice to have a new truck but i think they have become mindnumbingly boring,no excitment in the job anymore
your right there Zetorpilot, me and my mate were only saying the same thing yesterday, i have no intrest in any new truck anymore, not that there is many to choose from anymore!!! we are both still stuck in the 80âs, when there was plenty of 60âs & 70âs motors still on the road, firms were doing chassis and axle alterations in-house and the fitters could actualy fix a lorry without the aid of a laptop! 
, in my mind the industry has gone (as you say) mind numingly boring, i dont even by the monthly mags anymore only the vintage ones. No, you can keep your R-series and ya TGXâs and gimmie an old ERF or Seddon Atkinson to drive anyday, because they are drivers lorries, not for steering wheel attendants
Your right there STRIGHT EIGHT they were good to drive mate, I would love to drive one now good old solid trucks 
Sorry boys but Iâm going to have to bring this a little more up to date, all this talk of ERFs is making me depressed
I owned a 143 Scania for just over 5 years, that apart from tyres & brake shoes & an incident where a fitter cracked an injector pipe during servicing, never cost me a penny, I donât think I even put a bulb in it, it never used a drop of oil between services & I worked that thing hard, I had to get rid of it as it couldnât go up to 44tonnes, but if I hadnât I would still be driving it now (well if I wasnât in Canada I would) I would go as far to say that the 143 was the last proper lorry to be made, now theyâre all electric this & computer controlled that, the 143 was made from lumps of metal like a REAL lorry should be 
Although I will say that a Gardner is pretty indestructible, I know this because I tried everything possible to destroy the 180 that was in a Sudden Accident I was FORCED to drive, no matter what I did I couldnât break it, though it nearly broke me 
I went up in the world from that to a non intercooled 2300 Daf with the chinese ZF box that you had to use every gear or it played God save the Queen & not once did miss that piece of junk from Lancashire 
Love that story on the chinese ZF box in that DAF Mercman , and your bang on about these Electronics, it â â â â â !! Be nice if we could just go back to having lorries that dont need a lap-top to fixâem, the days of in-house repairs and maintanance are fading fast, the fitters are not allowed do much but change the oil and reline the brakes these days 
. Ive got more confidence going on long journeys in our old C series than i have in a brand new MAN, because if we did have a problem, you now youâve got a good chance of fixing it yourself and getting on your way, its just not like that anymore, now i just seem to be waiting for the computer to tell me somthing else has gone wrong and wait it to put itself in limp-mode!! 
One thing is clear from these posts, the old timers are held in higher regard than the Super dooper things you just have to point in the direction you hope to go these days. I will have to speak for my Dad on this one, although the SAâs have come in for a bit of stick, before Seddon took over Atkinson (not the other way around as some think) the Seddon Diesel was regarded as a typical workhorse, nothing fancy and not thought to be in the same class as AECâs, ERFâs, Atkinsons etc. Dad got a new C reg 32:4:6LX tractor the first 32 tonner in the firm, the model with the coachbuilt fibreglass cab. This unit never let him down, the first few years of its life being on night trunk to Mossely over Standedge, it never gave any trouble and the 150 Gardner just kept going forever. No power steering or assisted clutch, naff heater, solid seats but he loved that wagon. He only had one complaint, the speed, just under 40mph and even attempts to tweak the throttle linkage only got him 42, but as he would say âItâll pull a hoose doonâ. He once while loaded with 20ton on Newcastle Qauyside pulled his mates outfit similarly loaded that had broken down back up the slope to the workshop and even changed gear. Some of his best remembered driving days were done in that Seddon and just before he died last year aged 81 he said to me out of the blue âIâd love just one more drive in me wagonâ, he might have driven many during his years but I knew which one he meant.
I recall something my Foreman Fitter said one day âAnyone can drive a new wagon, but a proper driver can drive an old one like its newâ.
Cheers Franky.