classic trucks - 1990

hello folks, i am doing a bit of historical research into HGV's and wondered if the 'font of knowledge' that is the Nissan 4x4 owners club could help.

I am looking for popular makes and models of trucks partcularly those, tractor units that would have pulled articuated trailers, and any info you have about them, power, weight carrying capacity, how many gears etc.

If you were in a position to be buying the bees-knees of vehicles in this category in early 1990 what would it have been?

and any quirks or weakness they may have had from a drivers point of view.

excuse me if my language and questions seem stupid, i know nothing abouth this, hence the posting.

Cheers

ah, this could be interesting.

always been a bit of big truck fan,

I suspect, the dream machines would have been
the big Volvos, Scanias and Renault Magnum.

On the volvo side, think would have been in the F series
so F10/12/16, the number being the capacity in litres.
Addititionally long range tractors would have had the
globetrotter hi roof design. I saw the globetrotter
concept released to the public at the NEC motor show '82.

The F's latter went on to be redesigned as FH's slightly
less boxy in design.

Never much desired a Scania, but the Renault Magnum
is still in production in almost same design as 20 years
ago. Believe then demonstrated how roomy it was by
placing the then largest competitor's cab inside a Magnum!

The Magnum's were designed as as international distance
tractors, I imagine the griving position isnt that far removed
from sitting upstairs on a double decker bus! I think it was
of first trucks to have a totally flat cab floor too.

Power outputs well back in late 80s, cross european tractors
and even heavy hauls were content with 375hp, these days
the regular haulers of baked beans will have 400/440 and
recently saw a volvo FH16 claiming to push out around 650hp
for lugging heavy plant around.

thanks for the first contribution mate, given me a few starting points to get googleing on! :thumb2

Guess, home grown talent was on the wain.

thru 80s, Leyland' Road Train was going to their saviour
but suspect didint work out that way, though the military
took plenty on and still use them, passed a convey of
various bodied 8x8 trucks recently, including wreckers
and 'big hook' demountable units, cant think of correct
name but not unlike what you might see at a dump site
and drags skip/flat bed/whatever up and onto chassis.

Classics from the previous eras ERF and Foden going
out of the general haulage scene, but being snapped
up by the showmen liked for their plodding Gardner
engines. These days showmen are more likely to have
Volvos!

Other names dissappearing then include Seddon and
Atkinson, even after these 2 merged writing was on
the wall for British trucks.

Interesting stuff, thanks!

I have had a bit of a search and found the renault magnum was truck of the year 1991, am i right in assuming that owuld have been awarded at a show in 1990, so by 91 the trucks would have been 'stickered up'? i assumed this fomr the quote below.

'The presentation of the 2008 International Truck of the Year award took place at the European Road Transport Show in Amsterdam on 2007-10-27.[1] Truck of the Year 2008 are the MAN TGX and the MAN TGS[3].'

magnum gallery

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=r...4#!/photo_search.php?oid=42283971896&view=all

check out the horse box rigid and yellow tractor with extended cab, almost yank proportions!

my beloved volvo f10/12/16

http://www.volvotrucks.com/trucks/global/en-gb/company/history/1980s/pages/F10_F12_and_F16.aspx

discusses the drive train in reasonable detail.

and how their straight 6 engines evolved.

Being a trucker :augie

Have a look at these mags, there in most petrol stations

http://www.magazine-group.co.uk/magazine/motoring-transport/trucks/

Am I being old by saying that I much preffered the shape of Volvo F86 and 88:nenau OK not quite of the correct era.

Jim

jims-terrano said:

Am I being old by saying that I much preffered the shape of Volvo F86 and 88:nenau OK not quite of the correct era.

Jim

Click to expand...

know what you mean then the boxy ones came along felt like progress,
as per volvo link, it says how many trucks copied the style though.

those 88/89s do look tiny though now, split windscreens too.

cheers for all the info! i will folow all the links later and try to take it all in. Thanks again fo the input :thumb2

Wasn't the old box shape supposed to be called "Euro Cab" to allow panels from one truck to fit another. I remember getting an F7 Sleeper with Tipper body at a place I worked fresh from the 82 Motor show. It had a cracking paint job, met blue chassis:thumb2

Jim

think some of f7s shared parts with renault, then later volvo bought renault.

think there has been a lot of bed sharing in the truck industry.

late 70s, ford, yes ford had a euro tractor unit the transcontinental,

may be where volvo got their idea from as was very boxy, later this cab
wore the renault diamond. the volvo boxy cab was used by another
manuf, name escapes, but tended to build all wheel drive chassis, 8x8 etc.

ford->iveco, leyland and daf, seddon and atkinson. in the US Volvo White,
funny that another 'VW'. Mercedes, and VW, ok more on van side with
sprinters. on van from note how do renault end up as vauxhall, mind some
nissans became ldv.

getting back to proper trucks, only other day i was thinking about asking
forum for truckers to explain all the axle weight/configurations on current
scene, ADZ??

oh Mav is a trucker as is Rob Lloyd, shark1e of yor. few others but names escape.

Those used to be built near where I life..:thumb2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seddon_Atkinson

Well I have zilch driving experience in such vehicles, BUT I do know mechanical porn when I see it

My god father had a Scania 113 "360", bit of a mid-range tractor unit. I spent a week in it with him one time and had awesome fun, this gave me my love of trucks and big diesel engines. I instantly took a liking to Scanias and the almost american style grille the 3 series had. The ultimate of the 3 series was of course the 143 with its huge 14L V8 engine with power options topping 500hp, and of course producing an awesome exhaust note! :naughty

Now in my opinion there is just one truck on british roads which tops this model... THE LONG NOSE SCANIA 143 lol!!!!!! G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S!!!!!!

So that gets my vote!

Some how the newer and rounder styled 4 series just dont have the same appeal for me. I like the dirty flat fronted hard ass looking Scanias of the 80s & early 90s.

The other that gets my vote is anything with a "Scammell" badge on. During the 70s & 80s there were some cracking trucks built by Leyland that wore Scammell badges such as the Contractor - a good heavy duty truck. The ones that did it for me though were the Scammell bull nose tank transporters of the 80s. Big, beasty and beautiful in a hard-ass way

thanks for the infor muckypup :thumbs

Paul said:

Those used to be built near where I life..:thumb2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seddon_Atkinson

Click to expand...

good link mate, i'm starting to get a bit more of a mental picutre now, thanks

I am probably going back further than your requirements, but it might help with general background, in the late 70s I drove a 2800 DAF around Europe did over a quarter of a million miles in that job (not just the one truck) at that time 280 bhp (the DAF) was about the norm I was running alongside Volvo F88's at the same bhp then they got the F88 290 (+10bhp) with twin turbos but as anyone who knows about diesels, the more turbo the less the compression ratio, so to get these things started you turned on the ignition and pressed the heater button, and when the light went out turned the key, if there was enough left in the massif 24 v battery bank you started, another item at the time was Gardners arguably the best engine in the world, they were up against the Volvo/Skania competition, but steadfastly refused to blow their engines, so to get the bhp they just added pots, hence the 8 cylinder lump that was fitted to the Seddon Atkinson range, the trouble was that two pots hung out the back of the cab, and to pull a 40 ft trailer if it was to miss the engine on turns put you over the legal length limit, lovely days, I used to do Vienna and back in a week, Rick