I used to work on a fishing trawler that was powered by a Gardner engine. I can't remember the actual engine model number but was told it was basically a marinised bin lorry engine. It wasn't fast (12 knots max) but it also never broke. The sound was gorgeous and it moved a 42 foot steel hulled North Sea boat.
I worked on Gardner 180`s as a young apprentice,back in the late seventies. They were a superbly built engine,to a high engineering standard. We also had the 240 which was the eight cylinder version,but they never seemed as popular.
Stephen Smith. They weren’t popular because they wouldn’t pull your hat off when compared to a Cummins or a Rolls,superb engine if you had all day to get where you were going. Gardner refused to keep up with the ever increasing power demand’s from hauliers and lost sales to Scania and Volvo and Never went back to Gardner,they were brilliant engines but we’re only fit for power generation or boats but for haulage work they were left behind and useless. Gardner had it all there own way for years,the company I worked for had to order at least 2years before they were ready to be delivered, Gardner dug their own hole and eventually buried themselves in it all because they wouldn’t expand and up their game,so sad but if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen,they were mowed down by the competition,just look at Scania today,top dogs and likely to stay that way until they have to go electric ⚡️.
@@davidellis279 Yes, Gardner were a very old company that unfortunately had old ideas and old ways of doing things and as you say, never moved forward like the other company`s were doing. Saying that, they still powered some of the Biggest names in Road haulage. We did work for Tate & Lyles and as far as I can remember, the entire fleet was Gardiner powered. There was a wagon recycling yard near where I worked and the guy couldn`t get hold of them fast enough, he used to ship them out to east Asia. I was at a garage near Doncaster about 7 years ago and I couldn`t believe what was in the corner, a 180 on a pallet that had been completely rebuilt, the Block and head had been painted in British Racing Green.
@@stephensmith4480 My father in law worked there and I only lived round the corner from the Patricroft factory,it’s a tragedy that they closed but as you say they just wouldn’t gear up to meet demand or invest in New Engines to fight off the competition,it was their way or no way unfortunately but that’s the way they operated.
@@davidellis279 On their side, the 6LY could have matched the competition and saved the company but it's development was delayed during one of the many recessions in the 1970's and the development programme couldn't be finished in time to get it into production before the doors closed.
I Tell you that ol girl at around 810 sure has a beautiful voice.I just wish there would of been more of it....had a friend that had battery failure and he was out at sea and removed the rocker covers and but pennies under the exaust values.except 1 cylinder and got it started.... out in the Gulf of Mexico from America....thank you for a great video.....Johnny b.
Was the fitting of a starter motor to this engine successful? Is it a quick starter now? If not...any thoughts re fitting a "thermostart" flame intake heater (uses diesel) like many tractors have) in place of the meths burner for intake air heating on freezing mornings?
Call me romantic but the sound of the aircraft overhead at around 9:46 sounded just like a Merlin! Obviously it wasn't but it added to the effect! Great vid!
It will start on two cyls using de-comp. Providing fuel etc is clean and in order. The old boy using the starting handle needs to know that one never wraps their thumb around any starting handle when using it. It also needs more rotational speed, just like starting a military 27 1/2 KVA generator.
Did anybody think about priming the injectors first? Small levers on the injection pump, one to each cylinder. It saves hours of swinging the starting handles.
I worked on a fleet of Gardner engined vehicles in the 60s, 4lw -5lw-6lw-6lx-6lxbs and never had to strip any of them for repairs even after hundreds of thousands of miles and one or two of them even managed a million, all we did was change the oil and filters on a regular basis and they ran and ran with out any problems at all. I was a foreman fitter for this large Manchester Haulage Co.for about 6years when they decided to employ a fleet engineer called John Ward who used to work on milk floats for UCD. This utter total prick instructed me to decoke our 1year old 5lw ERFs at 50,000 miles, I told him that these engines were just about run in at that mileage and decoking them would ruin the performance of the engine but this know all wasn't having it so I left their employ and set up my own business. It's no wonder Geoffrey Reyner Ltd went bust with this idiot in charge of his fleet, what a total tosser.
Very interesting, they are great engines, I have a 2 LW in a narrowboat. Thanks for the comment, especially like the comment about decoking a 5LW at such a low mileage - if it ain't broke don't fix it!.
He probably worked for a Ford dealer ship where Ford Prefects had to be decoked every year ....I worked on Rolls Royce and leyland diesels as part of my Apprenticeship and we only had one man who did the Gardners, He might have to do a complete rebuild once a year ,the rest of the time he worked with us on the 'rollers'. The Gardners just seemed to keep running ,beautifully despite looking pretty grim,the nice grey finish having worn off decades before.
yep beautiful built engines , they had their day until the late 70s/80s, then very powerful Turbocharged engines replaced them, OK they did not last as long but modern day transport fleets need 400/550 HP units to pull 44 tonnes and have excellent economy as well ! A 14 liter Gardner only made 240 hp, ( and used a lot of oil as well so you would need a 30 liter Gardner to match these outputs, A son of the Gardner family along with an engineer secretly designed a Turbo engine , the old man found out and sacked them both , could have been the way forward , but it,s all history now . ah well
@@RJ1999x Hi, Removing the cylinder heads and cleaning all the carbon off the head and valves. used to do it on cars (petrol engines) but cleaner burn fuels helps to prevent carbon build up these days.
Hi, not really a 'tug boat' but built to take health officials out to boats entering the Thames estuary, to check for problems. Named 'Frederick Whittingham, it was fully restored a few years ago and was seen in action in 2019 at the Rickmansworth canal festival (Ricky is small town on the Southern GU just outside the London suburbs). Hope this helps.
@@mikegriffin4657 That was quick, thanks for the full name. I found further info here for those who are interested: www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/95429-gjcc-100-year-old-tug-on-ebay-amazing-survivor/
Hi, Take care, the post by Magnetmen, 15/03/18 has the most relevance and picture. But it's not a tug, but a PLA launch with a 6Ĺ2,. Google Rickmansworth festival there may well be some pics on there. I may have put the name incorrectly........
I don't understand why they stopped turning once decompressors were dropped back, you have to keep on turning and turning on compression, as anyone knows who's started a single cylinder diesel in a mixer or dumper knows full well.
6L2 motors installed in the first Western Lady ferry, a converted Fairmile B RML were rated at 60 hp at 1500 rpm. They were replaced by 6LX motors in 1972.
Whoever the last Chief was on that boat should be ashamed of himself. The Engine room and the engine itself are filthy dirty. Should be as clean as an operating theatre
The boat had been unused for several years, it was only luck that the engine survived as the exhaust was left uncovered and rainwater down the pipe settled in the silencer and rusted this through, instead of collecting and filling the cylinders....
6 mins in still dikking with it, then cutaway and come back with the sound of an engine running, and since there arw no visible moving parts I have my doubts it's really running, and the sounds are dubbed in from a recording. And when they got underway... that's smoke and mirrors too. A lot of smoke. Lol Am I being sarcastic? You decide
I could quite happily record one of these on tick over for an hour and listen to it while I nod off. Such mechanical soothing!
I used to work on a fishing trawler that was powered by a Gardner engine. I can't remember the actual engine model number but was told it was basically a marinised bin lorry engine.
It wasn't fast (12 knots max) but it also never broke. The sound was gorgeous and it moved a 42 foot steel hulled North Sea boat.
An old saying but it was generally reckoned that any boat would take you out to sea, but a Gardner would always keep going and bring you back.
I worked on Gardner 180`s as a young apprentice,back in the late seventies. They were a superbly built engine,to a high engineering standard. We also had the 240 which was the eight cylinder version,but they never seemed as popular.
Stephen Smith. They weren’t popular because they wouldn’t pull your hat off when compared to a Cummins or a Rolls,superb engine if you had all day to get where you were going. Gardner refused to keep up with the ever increasing power demand’s from hauliers and lost sales to Scania and Volvo and Never went back to Gardner,they were brilliant engines but we’re only fit for power generation or boats but for haulage work they were left behind and useless. Gardner had it all there own way for years,the company I worked for had to order at least 2years before they were ready to be delivered, Gardner dug their own hole and eventually buried themselves in it all because they wouldn’t expand and up their game,so sad but if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen,they were mowed down by the competition,just look at Scania today,top dogs and likely to stay that way until they have to go electric ⚡️.
@@davidellis279 Yes, Gardner were a very old company that unfortunately had old ideas and old ways of doing things and as you say, never moved forward like the other company`s were doing. Saying that, they still powered some of the Biggest names in Road haulage. We did work for Tate & Lyles and as far as I can remember, the entire fleet was Gardiner powered. There was a wagon recycling yard near where I worked and the guy couldn`t get hold of them fast enough, he used to ship them out to east Asia. I was at a garage near Doncaster about 7 years ago and I couldn`t believe what was in the corner, a 180 on a pallet that had been completely rebuilt, the Block and head had been painted in British Racing Green.
@@stephensmith4480 My father in law worked there and I only lived round the corner from the Patricroft factory,it’s a tragedy that they closed but as you say they just wouldn’t gear up to meet demand or invest in New Engines to fight off the competition,it was their way or no way unfortunately but that’s the way they operated.
@@davidellis279 On their side, the 6LY could have matched the competition and saved the company but it's development was delayed during one of the many recessions in the 1970's and the development programme couldn't be finished in time to get it into production before the doors closed.
I
Tell you that ol girl at around 810 sure has a beautiful voice.I just wish there would of been more of it....had a friend that had battery failure and he was out at sea and removed the rocker covers and but pennies under the exaust values.except 1 cylinder and got it started.... out in the Gulf of Mexico from America....thank you for a great video.....Johnny b.
Pleased that you enjoyed it.
lovely sounding machine.
Was the fitting of a starter motor to this engine successful?
Is it a quick starter now?
If not...any thoughts re fitting a "thermostart" flame intake heater (uses diesel) like many tractors have) in place of the meths burner for intake air heating on freezing mornings?
My all-time favourite British engines
They are the best, pleased you like it.
I fell in love with this old Tug as soon as I saw it and made enquiries about buying it. Glad to see it is being cared for now
Hi, THanks for note, it is in good 'nick' and moors near Rickmansworth. MG,
Just marvelous! Thanks for sharing. 👍
Pleased you enjoyed it.
That's a great looking boat. Lovely engine.
Reminds me of starting a typical British Leyland era car
True......only difference the Gardner started.
@@mikegriffin4657 Got me by that 😃
Call me romantic but the sound of the aircraft overhead at around 9:46 sounded just like a Merlin! Obviously it wasn't but it added to the effect! Great vid!
I thought it was a merlin also. 👍
I am sure it was.
Loveley sounding engines
She sounds glorious.
It will start on two cyls using de-comp. Providing fuel etc is clean and in order. The old boy using the starting handle needs to know that one never wraps their thumb around any starting handle when using it. It also needs more rotational speed, just like starting a military 27 1/2 KVA generator.
Thanks for info.
That “old boy” prolly knows a lot more about it than you do.
@@jimlepeu577 Perhaps only by having his hand broken when the engine DIDN'T crank suddenly previously.
@@simplywonderful449 It’s called experience, all us old boys have got it - it comes with age.
Did anybody think about priming the injectors first? Small levers on the injection pump, one to each cylinder. It saves hours of swinging the starting handles.
Hi and what was the hp of this engine the 6LW was 72 BHP @1350 rpm
6L2 gave 60hp @ 1500 rpm.
I worked on a fleet of Gardner engined vehicles in the 60s, 4lw -5lw-6lw-6lx-6lxbs and never had to strip any of them for repairs even after hundreds of thousands of miles and one or two of them even managed a million, all we did was change the oil and filters on a regular basis and they ran and ran with out any problems at all. I was a foreman fitter for this large Manchester Haulage Co.for about 6years when they decided to employ a fleet engineer called John Ward who used to work on milk floats for UCD. This utter total prick instructed me to decoke our 1year old 5lw ERFs at 50,000 miles, I told him that these engines were just about run in at that mileage and decoking them would ruin the performance of the engine but this know all wasn't having it so I left their employ and set up my own business. It's no wonder Geoffrey Reyner Ltd went bust with this idiot in charge of his fleet, what a total tosser.
Very interesting, they are great engines, I have a 2 LW in a narrowboat. Thanks for the comment, especially like the comment about decoking a 5LW at such a low mileage - if it ain't broke don't fix it!.
He probably worked for a Ford dealer ship where Ford Prefects had to be decoked every year ....I worked on Rolls Royce and leyland diesels as part of my Apprenticeship and we only had one man who did the Gardners, He might have to do a complete rebuild once a year ,the rest of the time he worked with us on the 'rollers'. The Gardners just seemed to keep running ,beautifully despite looking pretty grim,the nice grey finish having worn off decades before.
What is decoking? I never heard that expression before
yep beautiful built engines , they had their day until the late 70s/80s, then very powerful Turbocharged engines replaced them, OK they did not last as long but modern day transport fleets need 400/550 HP units to pull 44 tonnes and have excellent economy as well ! A 14 liter Gardner only made 240 hp, ( and used a lot of oil as well
so you would need a 30 liter Gardner to match these outputs,
A son of the Gardner family along with an engineer secretly designed a Turbo engine , the old man found out and sacked them both , could have been the way forward , but it,s all history now . ah well
@@RJ1999x Hi,
Removing the cylinder heads and cleaning all the carbon off the head and valves. used to do it on cars (petrol engines) but cleaner burn fuels helps to prevent carbon build up these days.
What a nice project
Has that 3LW only got 2x cylinders ?.🤔🏴
Nnnn
No, fired up on 3, lovely engine.
I've got a 5lw , thank god I got an electric starter.
gardner engines run forever,
The topsides could do with a rust kill and a coat or two paint. Great engine
09;56, sounds like a merlin powered aircraft passing overhead!
Gardner 6L2 and RR Merlin both have 6in stroke.
Sorry about that, I think I had a go at cranking it and was cracked. JIM took over and it fired up. Apologies if it spoilt you viewing.
what happened to the tugboat please? Its awesome. whats the full name of it,
I couldnt make it out? Was it restored in the end? Thanks
Hi, not really a 'tug boat' but built to take health officials out to boats entering the Thames estuary, to check for problems. Named 'Frederick Whittingham, it was fully restored a few years ago and was seen in action in 2019 at the Rickmansworth canal festival (Ricky is small town on the Southern GU just outside the London suburbs). Hope this helps.
@@mikegriffin4657 That was quick, thanks for the full name. I found further info here for those who are interested:
www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/95429-gjcc-100-year-old-tug-on-ebay-amazing-survivor/
Hi,
Take care, the post by Magnetmen, 15/03/18 has the most relevance and picture. But it's not a tug, but a PLA launch with a 6Ĺ2,. Google Rickmansworth festival there may well be some pics on there. I may have put the name incorrectly........
Any update on this? Is it still running?
I had one of the later 6L2s with VTEC.
That was Honda
Can you just imagine hand starting that every moring in the cold and damp
That was why the meths air intake preheater was fitted.
It's there...use it!
Did edit out the starting or did you not film it ? Either way it makes the video pretty pointless.
I’d love to own a older boat like this That could have been a fishin vessel for a small time fishin operation
I don't understand why they stopped turning once decompressors were dropped back, you have to keep on turning and turning on compression, as anyone knows who's started a single cylinder diesel in a mixer or dumper knows full well.
Ok, on a single engine, but on a 6 cylinder job.....impossible.
English engineering at its best.
Get electric start quick.
Beautiful baby brother of the 6
What are you on about?
@@cidertom5140
3 cylinder is half the 6 cylinder...a "half" brother?
She's a beauty. :-)
Talk about giving me an inferiority complex. All I have is an early 80s Bukh.
The Bukh is a good engine too.
3LW idle might be a bit high...
how much horsepower does it have
Hi, About 14 per pot so about 84.......MG
147 smokpower
6L2 motors installed in the first Western Lady ferry, a converted Fairmile B RML were rated at 60 hp at 1500 rpm. They were replaced by 6LX motors in 1972.
We missed the most important part!
Yes sorry, reply below explains reason.....
Watford ?
I think you'll find that 3LW is a 2LW.
Nope it's a 3LW...........thanks for watching.
Whoever the last Chief was on that boat should be ashamed of himself. The Engine room and the engine itself are filthy dirty. Should be as clean as an operating theatre
The barge shows how clean an engine and engine room should be.
The boat had been unused for several years, it was only luck that the engine survived as the exhaust was left uncovered and rainwater down the pipe settled in the silencer and rusted this through, instead of collecting and filling the cylinders....
Not so much polishing on the 3LW
Pea Soup if you want them hepy clean
6 mins in still dikking with it, then cutaway and come back with the sound of an engine running, and since there arw no visible moving parts I have my doubts it's really running, and the sounds are dubbed in from a recording.
And when they got underway... that's smoke and mirrors too.
A lot of smoke. Lol
Am I being sarcastic? You decide
Sorry, filmed as happened, no dubbing. It took a lot of energy starting it.
Music.
Hi,
music neeeded or the sound of a 6L2 enough - hope you enjoyed it. I have a 2 LW
No, sorry-the sound of this engine IS music, to me!
Clearly wasn't a hand start
Sorry, not sure what makes you think that but the 6l2 was started by hand, obviously the 3 cylinder engine was started with a starter motor...
D plex ment
unfortunately very poorly photographed.. so we lose the knowledge he is sharing.
Indeed very unfortunate that the video is distorted (filmed in 16:9 but shown in 4:3) and the most important part is missing: the actual start.
Get a horse.
To do what, walk on water?