It's a top weight show for tipper men
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• The seventh annual tipper convention, organized by the North Western area of the Road Haulage Association, opens today in Blackpool with more than 50 exhibits on display in the Exhibition Hall of the Norbeck Castle Hotel and on two outside exhibition sites within the grounds of the hotel.
No fewer than 18 eight-wheelers are on show and most of them are top-weight 30tonners. British Leyland is represented by an AEC Mammoth Major 8 and a Guy Big J8; both are 30-ton-gvw designs. The AEC, which is powered by a 212 bhp AEC AV760 engine, is fitted with an Edbro alloy 20 cu yd tipper body and the Big J8 has a Neville Industries steel 21.4 cu yd tipper body.
Chrysler UK Ltd is showing an 8 x 4 Unipower conversion of the Dodge KT 900. This model is plated for 28 tons gvw and uses the high-rated version of the Perkins V510 engine giving 180 bhp gross to BS AU 141a:1971 at 2800 rpm. It is fitted with an Edbro 15 Cu yd steel tipping body and Edbro 5LD tipping gear.
Atkinson, ERF and Fodens all have eightwheelers at Blackpool. Atkinson is showing a prototype Defender chassis powered by a Cummins NHK 220 engine developing 204 bhp net installed and using for the first time a David Brown DB 08-750 gearbox. This gearbox has a rated input torque of 750 lb ft and as the NHK 220 produces a maximum torque of 590 lb ft it has plenty in hand. The 21ft wheelbase chassis is fitted with a 33 cu yd tipping body built by Pennine Coachcraft — the Seddon Atkinson group bodybuilder. Two other Defender 30-tongvw chassis are on show; both have Gardner 6LXB engines, David Brown 06-600 sixspeed gearboxes and Eaton 38DS doubledrive bogies. The longer wheelbase (2Ift) exhibit is fitted with a 42 cu yd tipping body built by J. Grisdale and Son of Preston and a Milshaw stabilizer.
ERF eight-wheeler
ERF has one eight-wheeler on display — an 8 x 4 30-tonner, model LBC 304. This model is powered by a Cummins NHK 220 engine and uses a David Brown 06-600 gearbox and a Kirkstall D480 double-drive rear bogie. The body is an all-alloy 25 cu yd bolted design by Kingwood.
Fodens are showing five 30-ton-gvw eight-wheelers. All are 21ft 4in. outer wheelbase chassis, four have Rolls-Royce Eagle 220 engines and one has a Gardner 6LXB. The Foden-type 758 eight-speed overdrive gearbox is fitted to four of the vehicles. Two of the bodies are double skinned and grp lined; one is an 18 cu yd 22ft 6in.-long design by Anthony Carrimore, the other is an 18.25 cu yd 21ft 10in.-long design by Thynne Engineers. Both are of welded aluminium construction.
Seven Scammell Routeman 3 eightwheelers are exhibited; four are 30-ton-gvw designs, two are 28-tonners and one a 26tonner. All models use the Leyland 680 engine which produces 200 bhp; the 30tonners have 1811 1 lin. wheelbase, the 28tanners 1711 3in. wheelbase and the 26tonners a 1611 2in. wheelbase.
Volvo is the only foreign eight-wheeler represented; Volvo's F86 30-tormer uses the TD 70C 6.7-litre six-cylinder turbocharged engine which gives 192 bhp at 2400 rpm, the R51 eight-speed synchromesh rangechange gearbox, a fully articulated doubledrive bogie with inter-axle and two acrossaxle differential locks. The axles are singlereduction design with a standard ratio of 5.4 to 1; 4.9 to 1 units are available as an option.
Top weight six-wheelers are also very much in evidence and the big four manufacturers — Bedford, British Leyland, Chrysler and Ford — dominate this class although ERF and Seddon models can be seen.
The ERF-type LBG 242 is a 24-ton-gvw