fifthwheel wrote:While there are many threads on this fine website,this one clearly was aimed at truckers.If you are ,that's fine.But if you aren't then why complain about what is posted? Perhaps bigt is new to the industry and like plenty of new drivers over here,already knows all there is to know about the business.I've been at it for more than 20 years and have seen and experienced more than a few things,but I still learn new things.By the way,what is a Guy big j4 and a gardner 8lxb?
You're dead right, Fifthwheel. Always something new to learn in any walk of life. A few years ago whilst travelling back from Berlin towards Rotterdam I had as a passenger in my truck an aquaintence, an ex Army Major. I didn't know him very well, but the conversation soon got under way and we spent almost five hours just bouncing stories back and forth, talking about life's experiences and generally laughing at the absurdities of it all. The A2 from Berlin, known as the Berlin Corridor (formerly the only supply route into West Berlin during the Cold War and the road the East Germans shut resulting in the Berlin Airlift), it has to be said is quite possibly the single most boring road on earth. However on this day the miles, and hours just flew by, and by the time we stopped for lunch at Melle an unbreakable lifetime friendship had been formed.
In answer to your question, The Gardner 8lxb engine was produced (I think) during the late 60's, 70' and early 80's for both commercial road and marine use. A straight (inline) 8 cylinder, 13.93 litre engine which startes off in life as a straight six, the 6lxb which had a couple of extra pots added on! Lack of technical development saw its demise in the early - mid 80's when the increasingly popular Cummins engines gained a foothold in the British manufactured truck market.
As for the beastly Guy Big J4, look on
www.nationaltransportmuseum.org , then click on
"The Collection" then
"Commercial Vehicles" and then scroll down to, and click on
"What a Guy".I bet Norky'll find all that lot interesting. Nobody ever ran over a hedgehog in a Guy Big J4 'cos they made so much noise the little critters could hear 'em coming from miles away, and chances are the bloody thing would have broken down well before it reached them anyway! My Dad drove one for a while during the late 70's. What a heap of crap it was!
