AECs and Albions

I found a new use for this old (Newcastle City Council) AEC today, that sits on the road at Kurri Kurri as a promotional vehicle for a panel shop. lol

Badged Leyland, but really an AEC Mammoth Major 8, type TG8R with 226 horsepower AV760 motor, Fuller RTO913 gearbox and AEC double helical double reduction tandem. R.R. Price, logging contractor, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Another photo of Price's Mammoth Major. Notice the Mammoth Major has wider front guards than the Octopus. AECs must have had wider front axles.

This really is a Leyland, a 24OT or 26OT Octopus with 200 horsepower O.680 Power Plus motor, would probably have a 6 speed box with separate lever 2 speed splitter box and Maudslay hub reduction bogie. R.R. Price, Christchurch.

R.R. Price, Christchurch Albion Reiver RE25 or RE29-O.400 Power Plus Leyland motor-125 horsepower. RE25 models had hydraulic brakes, while RE29s were full air and were known as Super Reivers. There were also Ergomatic tilt cab RE33 Super Reiver 20s which we never had in N.Z. Did you have these in Aussie?

Andy or Rufo would know the answer to that one. I think with 125 hp and that load of logs he would not be going anywhere fast.

The Ergo AECs, even if they had Leyland badging, had 2 full length chrome grilles below the windscreen on either side of the badge, but the true Leylands had short grilles which only covered the air intakes.

Yes the chrome strips and the wider front guards was the easy way to pick them from a distance.
Never noticed any wider front track on my AEC than on the Beaver, but you kick more paint off the AEC guards when getting in.
Those are Leyland reduction hubs on that Octopus, not the Maudsley stuff.
Pretty sure every model was represented when the Ergo cab was released.
Competition for sales between very similar spec models.
Albion v's AEC v's Leyland.

jeffo, even though the heavy hub reduction axles were used on Leylands I understood they were known as Maudslay axles, probably because they were manufactured at the former Maudslay factory at Great Alne, Warwickshire. Leyland Motors would have acquired this factory in 1962 when they purchased ACV-Associated Commercial Vehicles. I think you're right about most Albion, Leyland, and AEC cabover models using the Ergomatic cab at one time or another, although it was never used on the Albion/Leyland Chieftain or Chieftain Super Six. The LAD cab CH3 four cylinder Chieftain and CH13 Chieftain Super Six were quite long lived models. They were introduced in the late 1950s, with the Super Six models, by now badged Leyland, being built well into the 1970s until they were replaced by the G series (BMC type) tilt cab Chieftain ECH4013 model.

This old girl belongs to a neighbour and gets used for grain mostly. Recently it carted a couple of hundred tonne of fill, and never missed a beat.