Leyland Buffalo: What's the Story?

Atkipete - I seem to recall that the Ergo cab Hippo's got a lousy name for overheating here in the West .. so they got unpopular, quick smart.
Seem to remember something about the chassis rails being narrower, and the radiator correspondingly smaller? ..

In addition, I recall that that period was one where Leyland were undergoing huge problems with the merger with BMH .. engineered by the Pommy Wilson Labour Govt .. and Leyland really lost its way.

Then came the part-nationalisation in 1975, and that finished Leyland, in a lot of peoples eyes.
There was a huge drive to cheap crappy plastics in all the Pommy stuff in that era .. and the plastic they produced was utter crap, and fell to pieces in the Aussie sun.

Add in engines that were old and at their limit, and lots better stuff was on offer from Australian/American manufacturers .. and trying to sell the Ergo cabbed Leylands was like selling lead balloons at a fair .. :'(

I know quite a few salesmen who bailed out of trying to sell British trucks, and particularly Leylands, in the heavy end of the market, during that late 1960's, early 1970's period .. :'(

That does sound right Ron, I was also thinking about the cost of replacing that big windscreen on a regular basis.

I remember Luya Julius having a number of the Ergo cabbed Leyland 8x4's but went to newer cab ( G Cab?? ) models as 6x4 prime movers so someone sold a fleet of them! Thanks for the help. Did the Ergo cab tilt?

kenworth 10x6

Pete. The Ergo cab was a brilliant design for it's time, and in the cooler climes of Europe. It worked really well with the Mercury model with it's smaller motor and distribution role. However, things got dumb when they stuffed the big 680 (and AEC 760) motors under the hump. There was little room for air flow around the motor and no room to accommodate a larger radiator. In addition the driver was sitting next to the motor. These issues were addressed in a clumsy way with the Marathon by lifting the whole cab up to get a flat floor. Twin flat screens were a factory option and could also be done locally without too much difficulty. There were quite a few ergos in the 60's, they have just not survived. The LAD cab continued on Albion imports long after they ceased in England(Cheaper and more robust) When Aussie assembly started they favoured the G cab (ex BMC) and were cheaper because they wern't paying the tariffs of fully imported stuff. An important dynamic which slowed Leylands ability/willingness to change (apart from being bled to keep the car divisions alive) was that in the late 60's new legislation was introduced in the UK with minimum braking and bhp per ton requirements so operators had to update their fleets quick smart to stay in business. Consequently they couldn't make enough and waiting lists were long, and there was no pressure to change. Then in the 70's Germany brought in the requirement of 8bhp per ton at a time when trans Europe traffic was developing and it was this that opened the doors for the Swedish invasion.

The Buffalo, Bison and Lynx used an Ergo cab which was raised 5" and used a new engine of 500ci. It's main features were that it had no head and gave heaps of problems while underdeveloped. However they fixed most of the problems and it was the power plant for the National bus for many years

Fully agree with mammoth and Onetrack, and a darn shame it was how they threw it all away, but one of the things typified by the bonnetted Buffalo's story is that the rot started already in the 1950s, when the basic design was sound but not properly developed. If a US producer had something like the Buffalo on offer, I bet it would have gotten a Joey or Roadranger from day one and you could imagine it being in production say in 1970 with 400 or more hp.

Someone, somewhere in "my" region had the right idea



Not badly executed actually. Pic from the Toprun.ch site.

Cheers,

T

Interesting point Mammoth, their waiting lists at at home saw them ignore the what was going wrong in their export markets. Was that G cab built in Australia ?

Edmund T Lennon tpt "Lennon Towers pty ltd"
Had a lot of Leylands. These were a fleet of 18 or 20
Haulig coal from Huntley colliery to Tallawarra power station and also to Port Kembla, late 60's early 70's. Looks like the photo was taken just outside Huntly.
They added a single wheel pusher axle and towards the end were coverted to a tri. Found the piccys on the net. Some of the early coal haulage in the Illawarra

Notice the mechanical hand on the door, now that's different. they didn't have them in the later years.

I don't understand why the Leyland has a mechanical hand signal, when it's fitted with indicators?? Maybe the Leyland electrics failed so often, they needed a permanent mechanical backup?? ..

Here in the West, I can't recall a truck built after about 1960, that wasn't fitted with indicators.
Cars had them by 1957, trucks were right behind the cars, time-wise, with indicator fitment.
Most truck owners were only too keen to retrofit indicators, and get away from having to juggle gears, hand signal and steering ..

Tatra - It looks like one of the locals has been reading up about that Merc/Leyland beast, and built his own.

www.costlesstrader.com/costlesstrader/tr...556624afd01b8-p.html

I can't imagine what the Leyland engineers would think about a repower that sent the HP up by 50% .. and which probably propels the Leyland to road speeds unimaginable to the Leyland men ..

I hate to think what supersonic speeds the tailshafts are humming at, at top speed .. with a double overdrive, and hub reduction back end ..