History of Scammell Trucks - Truck History Episode 40

hey what's up guys welcome to another truck history episode on today's episode we will be looking at the history of scammel trucks now let's get started [Music] the scammer heritage began in the victorian era when the wheelwright george scamel of fashion street spittle fields in the east end of london developed his business later named g scammel and nephew they were involved in the building and repair of craftsmen built carts and vans in the early 1900s a substantial business had been built up selling and maintaining foed and steam wagons and small trucks one of the firm's customers edward rudd had imported a knox tractor from america and was so impressed with its high payload low weight potential that it is believed he suggested to scammel and nephew that they built a similar vehicle for the uk the outbreak of war in 1914 presented itself as a turning point in the history of road transport mechanical transport was seen to work proving its vast potential beyond doubt to such a forward-looking company as camel so when george's great nephew alfred george scamel was injured and invalided out of the army he was able to apply the practical experience gained during the war and set about developing the articulated six-wheeler which went into production in 1920. this vehicle like the nox was articulated and its very low axle weight allowed it to carry its 7.5 ton payload at 12 miles per hour rather than being limited to 5 miles per hour hence scammel's first lorry advertisement used at the 1920 motor show carried the headline seven and a half tons of three ton speed and cost the following year a test vehicle pulled a load of just under 8 tons up west hill and highgate in second gear and reached 18 miles per hour on the flat orders for 150 lorries were rapidly taken and it was clear that the fashion street works could not cope so in 1921 scammel and nephew floated a new company scamilari's limited with scammel as managing director the new firm acquired land in tolpit's lane watford and built a new factory for the construction of the new articulated six-wheeler while the articulated six-wheelers motive unit was relatively unchanged during the 1920s the firm concentrated on a wide range of carriers for it to pull an early and consistent customer was shell max whose fleet number one was an early articulated six-wheeler this led to scammel's patent in 1926 for the world's first frameless tanker by 1927 scammer had strengthened its position by launching its first cross-country vehicle aptly named the pioneer this 6x4 rigid had a walking beam bogey so that any of its four wheels could be raised two feet without the bogey losing traction the pioneer's mobility could be further enhanced by adding a driven front axle while the pioneer was popular overseas its real success did not come until an articulated version was developed two years later in 1929 the company introduced the world's largest lorry the articulated hundred tonner heavy haulage vehicle only two of these revolutionary lorries designed by oliver north were ever made they were initially built with the scammel 7-liter petrol engine which consumed a gallon of fuel every three-quarter mile after a couple of years they were rebuilt with the new gardner 6lw diesel engine and consumption improved to 4.2 miles per gallon with a full 100 ton payload the front axle weight was 10 tons and there was no power steering the drive axle comprise four separate solid tired wheels in line and carried 40 tons the remaining 80 tons being an 8-wheel steerable carrier bogey even though this bogey had brakes they were controlled by a rear steersman who not surprisingly had to have a telephone connection to the driver to tell him when to apply them fortunately the speed when laden was no more than three miles per hour in 1933 scammel was able to purchase a three-wheeled tractor design from the napier company and promptly turned it into the famous mechanical horse oliver north developed a new automatic coupling and with the ability of the tractor and trailer to turn in less than their own length set new standards of versatility in road transport over twenty thousand of these three ton and six contractors and their successors were built together with more than a hundred thousand carriers the articulated six-wheeler and its brother the articulated eight-wheeler were developed into the lightweight range with the garner 6lw and north's famous 6-speed gearbox however the lorries built by scammel were top of the range expensive and at the time built in small quantities and money was always tight the depression affected the firm badly and it was in a poor financial position in 1934 wafford council had helped out by ordering a pair of fire engines but it was not enough and it was left to shell mechs to inject much-needed capital but in return they insisted on a management shakeout which deprived scam office post in 1929 the firm looking for new markets had diversified into four and six wheel rigids the rigid six-wheeler found some success and with his balloon tires at last permitted sustained high-speed long distance road operation the ridgid six was joined by a new forward control rigid eight-wheeler in 1937 the first of a long line of scammel eights during world war ii scammel made a massive contribution to the war effort building large numbers of pioneer tank transporters gun tractors and heavy recovery vehicles as well as fire pumps and auto coupling conversions the first new post war product was the famous show track amazingly of the 18 built 17 still survive and of those seven were seen together at a show in 2007 apart from this the company also found itself increasingly involved in such fields as heavy construction oil drilling mining and logging as well as maintaining its military presence with vehicles such as the 6x6 explorer 4x4 mountaineer and by 1952 the constructor in its various forms in the mid-1950s the superconstructor forerunner of today's cross-country heavies with rolls-royce c6 turbocharged engine and semi-automatic gearbox was introduced membership of the leyland group in 1955 provided ready access to leyland engines gearboxes and axles and was followed by the gradual replacement for the lightweight range buy new models using leland engines these were the bonneted 4x2 highwaymen motive unit the forward control routeman 8-wheeler and a new 4x2 forward control mode of unit the handyman this and the highwayman could be configured as heavy hollis tractors for operation up to 50 tons or more and were complimented by the full range of scammel trailers made at the more park works a new dump truck range comprising the 4x2 sherpa and the 6x4 himalayan was launched the star of 1960s was marked by the introduction of the new michelotti designed glass fiber reinforced plastic cab for the routman handyman and the new twin steer 6x2 trunk retractor which took advantage of the increased legal weights available when coupled to long front overhang bogey semi trailers intended initially to compete in american dominated territories overseas the 6x4 contractor high power prime mover with its cummins 335 engine a lip clutch and fuller gearbox went into production in 1964 and found great success as a tank transporter and heavy haulage tractor it had a choice of the leland 24 ton or scam 30 or 40 ton bogeys which were to feature on all the future scammel heavies with coach bill cab and semi-automatic gearbox the contractor was popular in the uk for 240 plus ton gtw operation over the next few years further designs were introduced and in 1969 the 6x4 crusader made its entry initially as a high-power high-speed motive unit with its modern steel cab many hundreds of a military version with the rolls-royce 305 engine were supplied to mod as plant tractors and recovery vehicles pressure from brs who placed the first orders soon resulted in development of 4x2 versions for premium operation and so popular did these tractors with their rolls royce 220 and 280 engines was transferred to guy motors at wolverhampton by this time divisional reorganization within the leland group had resulted in the firm's name becoming scandal motors and the closure of transport equipment in 1972 had resulted in the transfer of the nubian range of 6x6 airfield crash tenders to scammel together with the ld55 6x4 dump truck all these new vehicles were in production in parallel with a consolidated a range comprising the handyman 4 trunker 3 and the double driver outman 3 all of which were now available with a range of engines and transmissions to compete with the powerful foreign trucks which were becoming available to british haulers a surge of development in the late 1970s commenced with the contractor mk2 heavy hauler with its 18 liter 425 horsepower cummins kt450 engine and allison automatic gearbox and the build of the first commander tank transporter for the british army this 100 ton plus gtw tractor fitted with the rolls-royce cv12 tce 26 liter 48 valve dual turbocharged 625 horsepower intercooled v12 diesel engine semi-automatic gearbox and scammel 40-ton bogie was required to have the same acceleration and braking performance as a contemporary 32 tonner new braking cab bonnet and winching systems were devised and the fleet entered service in 1983 having been built at the newly opened moving line construction shop which at last gave scammel a modern state-of-the-art factory in parallel with this development the x thorny craft nubian range was replaced by a completely new range of 4x4 and 6x6 rear engine airfield crash tenders with engine powers up to 540 horsepower to complement their automatic transmission scam will devise the family of high power pto systems to enable the foam discharge system to be operated at constant speed while also driving the vehicle the last new version of the contractor was built in large quantities including a 6x6 for heavy recovery in the middle east two developments by the parent company leland motors at the end of the 1970s benefited scammel layland wished to develop two new heavy vehicle ranges the overseas bonneted land train and the uk forward control road train which would feature the new c40 tilt cab in view of scanl's expertise the firm was tasked with development of the land train and was able to use the same cab and bonnet for the replacement for the contractor this range the s24 was available in 6x4 and 6x6 formats the manual automatic and torque converter manual transmissions and a newly developed transfer gearbox the full weight range from 40 tons gvw to more than 200 tons gtw was covered with the cummins nt350 or 400 engine but the difficulty of providing a replacement for the contractor's coach bill cab was dealt with by specifying an american type crew pod behind the cab to replace the super constructor oil field flatbed vehicle a long wheelbase s24 6x6 with the constructor winch and body was produced knowing scammel's pre-eminence in the field leyland entrusted the a wheeler version of the road train called the constructor 8 to scammel this would at least give scammel access to a modern tilt cab to supplement the lower powered leyland road trains scam will develop the s26 range using the same cab and eventually as the 1980s progressed a range of premium 4x2 6x2 and 6x4 tractors with a full range of engine and transmission options was developed to replace the crusader and a range with as much similarity with the s24 running gear as possible a military 6x6 version with rolls-royce 350 engine zf automatic gearbox and kirkstall axles followed and this was offered in 8x6 form to the british army in 1986 for the hook lift equipped drops vehicle requirement in february 1987 scammel learned that its tender for 1500 such vehicles was successful but also that leland group had been purchased by daf bv of holland staff elected to build the drops and selected s-26 vehicles at the leland plant and to close the watford factory upon closure in july 1988 the s24 and the nubian ranges together with rights to the crusader and commander were bought by unipower limited who opened a new plant in west watford so that wraps up this truck history episode hopefully you guys enjoyed it before you leave like the video subscribe to our channel click that notification bell and comment below what did you think of scammel trucks need new parts for your rig check out our website jaxxfromshop.com as we have a wide variety of products and if you can't find what you need give us a call and we'll help you find it thanks again guys for watching i'll see you next time and remember if your rig don't shine you don't know jack

Channel: Jack's Chrome Shop

Views: 40,493

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Id: RKpk0qeppVg

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021