FWY Plaxton Presidents

[Matty]

Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents 32100-107 have now left London and are at Rotherham works, they are for West Yorkshire or Eastern counties but it is rumored they will be split up between the two... Wonder where in West Yorkshire these will go?

Source: YDBN

[Jamie]

Jan 7, 2010 21:54:36 GMT 1 Matty said:

Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents 32100-107 have now left London and are at Rotherham works, they are for West Yorkshire or Eastern counties but it is rumored they will be split up between the two... Wonder where in West Yorkshire these will go?

Hi,
After my mate contact a contact he has we were emarked to have some B7tls to what ones it was not known but what is happening currently is things keep change rapidly at F.E.C when you add F.E to the situation we are in great need as we have around 20-25 that are stepped DD's left. And Essex must have atleast 20 odd aswell.

[westyorkshirebus]

I would have thought Eastern Counties would have a greater need than FWY

[billycarne]

if they are anything like the presidents at selby then they will be nothing to look forward to. Heavy, underpowered, hopeless top speed and make a right racket.

[Matty]

If they have a Voith gearbox they are fine with speed, without one they are slow.

[DaveG]

Jan 8, 2010 19:12:49 GMT 1 Matty said:

If they have a Voith gearbox they are fine with speed, without one they are slow.

Arriva Yorkshire's president's have voith gearbox & they are very slow, possibly would be quicker with ZF as most of the buses that have ZF are quicker than the same type with voith gearboxes.

[Matty]

Only about 15 or 20 AY President's have Voith's and they are a lot faster than the ones with ZF's - Voith makes any bus faster hence why company's upgrade their gearboxes to Voith from ZF like what Arriva did and a few company's down South. First's Gemini's, ALX400's etc have all got ZF's and they are the most slowest buses ever!

[T101VWU]

no that would be voith gearboxes that are slow!! just look how long take alx300s & presidents with arriva to accelerate from a stop or traffic light!! even a tortoise could overtake them!

[kendall17]

Yep, read round many forums saying that the ZFs are better.

[Matty]

Well the Voith President's what I get on seem a lot faster than say a ZF Gemini which has the same engine as a President, MCW Metrobuses (Which are Voith) are a lot faster than say a Gardiner engined Leyland Olympian which has a ZF and First's Royale's are slow but when you get on an Ex Scottish P*** WSU Royale which has a Voith they are a lot faster - I know they aren't the best at setting off but they build up speed quicker (after setting off) and once they get going they are rockets.

+ We overtook a Gemini going up Ainley Top towards Huddersfield once in an MCW Metrobus (BYX 217V)

[77syk7]

I think the acceleration of a Gemini/ZF is quite good for a 12 ton unladen double decker - as I have commented before I would like to see some sort of comparison with an Enviro 400 (both with Scania & AD chassis). The combination I was impressed with was the VDL/Voith combination owned by Arriva. This is interesting material for the forum!

[www.buseireann.ie]

Voith's are brilliant at maintaining a good level of speed on hills unlike ZF gearbox which seems to allow the bus to easily loose power. For me ZFs accelerate better from a standing start but the voith is better when the bus is at speed. Voith's should be used for services that hardly stop e.g the X84, or go up sizeable hills e.g the 33A, and ZFs should be used for busy stopping services that mostly run on flater roads or on routes that have smaller hills eg the 12s 13s 16s etc.

[kendall17]

Jan 9, 2010 19:37:24 GMT 1 Matty said:

+ We overtook a Gemini going up Ainley Top towards Huddersfield once in an MCW Metrobus (BYX 217V)

Did the Gemini driver have the foot to the floor? Could you tell?

[striderlad]

byx 217v is impossable to take over a gemini going up ainsley 17 gets up there at abt 12mph as all metrobuses do ........ im sure some people will agree metros aint good on hills

Zf is alot better then voith on power and voith also make a lot of whining noises

nathan

[DaveG]

Yeah too true Zf are faster than Voith for power & metrobuses are sluggish on hills i've been on enough to know that.

[billycarne]

voith are better when they are paired to a powerfull engine as they use the revs more before changing gear. i.e the AWY VDL lowlanders accelerate like something stupid. ZF change gear too early, you always hear the driver having to kickdown all the time, especially on volvo olympians. ZF are good with engines that have power in the low revs.

[Matty]

It was on the X36 when we was on it when it ran and I think it was when it had it's old engine in, It was at the point where the 503 pulls out onto the Dual Carriageway - The Gemini would have had his foot to the floor because they always do and we overtook it (Slowly)

[kendall17]

Jan 9, 2010 21:53:37 GMT 1 Matty said:

The Gemini would have had his foot to the floor because they always do

is all i can say to that.

[www.buseireann.ie]

Jan 9, 2010 21:40:40 GMT 1 billycarne said:

voith are better when they are paired to a powerfull engine as they use the revs more before changing gear. i.e the AWY VDL lowlanders accelerate like something stupid. ZF change gear too early, you always hear the driver having to kickdown all the time, especially on volvo olympians. ZF are good with engines that have power in the low revs.

This seems to be the case when you think about it. The Volvo B7 presidents have powerful engines so the voith gearbox seems to suit them well, however at the other end of the spectrum, the ALX300 have underpowered engines (so it seems, I may be wrong) and the voith gears on these buses don't appear to help them gain a decent level of speed.

[Jamie]

32102 has been brought in on suspended tow to Norwich this afternoon thanks to Tony Holland from East Anglia Buses Yahoo! Group for the Gen.

[kendall17]

What depot is this at? Nothing caught my eye tonight at HP apart from a fitter flying around in T104 VWW with no lights on

[striderlad]

i honestly cant see FWY getting them

[kendall17]

Jan 20, 2010 20:13:44 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

What depot is this at? Nothing caught my eye tonight at HP apart from a fitter flying around in T104 VWW with no lights on

Never mind, misread Jamie's orignal post

[timelesstable]

Jan 9, 2010 22:24:47 GMT 1 www.buseireann.ie said:

Jan 9, 2010 21:40:40 GMT 1 billycarne said:

voith are better when they are paired to a powerfull engine as they use the revs more before changing gear. i.e the AWY VDL lowlanders accelerate like something stupid. ZF change gear too early, you always hear the driver having to kickdown all the time, especially on volvo olympians. ZF are good with engines that have power in the low revs.

This seems to be the case when you think about it. The Volvo B7 presidents have powerful engines so the voith gearbox seems to suit them well, however at the other end of the spectrum, the ALX300 have underpowered engines (so it seems, I may be wrong) and the voith gears on these buses don't appear to help them gain a decent level of speed.

Power unit is OK in the Arriva ALX300, gearbox is the problem for the slow/delay in the power transfer.

[Jamie]

Further to this apparently First East England are due to get the batch consisting of 32100-7.