The Albion Chieftan that was my workhorse for many years with a Carter Engineering from Tamworth trailer.Despite the fact that the driver was last thing in the designers mind this motor proved to be one of the most reliable throughout my transporter driving career.With no powersteering and a Smiths electric heater that could not compete with any temperature close to 0 so your breath would still freeze on the inside of the windscreen.When you think that the Leyland diesel this Albion had produced around 135bhp one can appreciate how gear-changing was a drivers art to keep the momentum going.I was fortunate to have an air operated splitter integral in the standard 6spd box effectively doubling the number of available ratios,in fact it was the air diaphragm in the gearbox that operated the splitter that gave me the only problem ever experienced in this lorry.If they leak air because of seal failure it builds up pressure in the gearbox and eventually blows all the box seals and out comes all the oil and bang goes the box.In my case I spotted the oil spattered around the inside of the chassis members on the morning walk around so avoided the catastrophe.I look back with fondness for this Albion as I was so keen to drive an artic at a relatively young age that creature comforts were the last thing on my mind.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 11:28:21 +0000
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