Dennis Jubilant

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Dennis Jubilant

The Dennis Jubilant was a chassis for buses from the British commercial vehicle manufacturer Dennis Brothers . The type was built from 1977 to 1982 exclusively for export. Various superstructures were placed on the chassis.

Like the Leyland Victory Mk 2, the bus was specially designed for the conditions in the former British Crown Colony of Hong Kong - steep routes and one-man operation with a pay box. One of the largest operators of bus routes in Hong Kong, Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) , requested a double-decker bus with a front engine. In 1976, KMB tested four Leyland Victory Mk 2s with a double-decker body from Bus Bodies from South Africa and was satisfied with the configuration, although the trend towards buses with a rear engine had already started in the 1960s. Dennis had stopped making buses in 1967 after the production of the Loline , which was based on the Bristol Lodekka , ceased . The Loline was also a double-decker bus with an engine in the front, but neither the basic design nor the assemblies used met modern requirements. Similar to Leyland for the Victory , Dennis chose a design with a conventional ladder frame made of steel profiles, in which the front axle was set far back so that the entrance door could be placed in the front overhang. This made the bus well suited for one-man operation without a conductor. The relatively narrow entrance door was in front of the front axle, so that the passengers had to pay the fare at the payment box under the control of the driver immediately after boarding. The bus was left through a wider folding door that was arranged between the axles. The engine was located directly above the front axle for better weight distribution. As with Victory, the long front overhang was problematic in terms of driving dynamics , however , as it led to strong pitching movements when starting and accelerating. The bus was powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine from Gardner . The 6LXB was used . As an automatic transmission gearbox type was D851 of Voith installed to relieve the driver of shifts in city traffic and on the uphill stretches. Since the project was started in 1977, the year of the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne , the bus was given the name Jubilant .

Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) tested four prototypes, which received a body from its own workshop, and put them into service for testing purposes in 1977/78. Parts of the superstructure were supplied by the British Aluminum Company. Since the tests were successful, a total of 209 buses with an Alexander body and between 1981 and 1982 another 150 buses with a Duple Metsec body were put into servicebetween 1979 and 1981. In 1980 KMB also received a double-decker designed as a touring coach with an Alexander body. This bus had air conditioning that was powered by a separate engine in the rear. However, the air conditioning did not prove itself in practice and was soon removed and the bus converted into a normal bus. The segregation of buses began in 1994 and continued until 2000.

China Motor Bus (CMB) purchased twenty buses with an Alexander body in 1980 . One of the buses had to be written off after a fire in 1993, the rest went to New World First Bus in 1998 , but were eliminated in the following year.

A Jubilant was delivered to Cape Town in South Africa and got a body from bus bodies .

Due to its similarity to the Victory Mk 2 , which was nicknamed chicken because of the strong pitching movements when starting and braking, which reminded of the gait of chickens , the Jubilant was nicknamed duck

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