The humble Ford D series

Hmm, yes, the D series, been there done that got the scars :wink:

First was a 72 0710 WEH183L box van, with the infamous twist-off-and-break-your-knuckles handbrake, about 49mph flat stick (but a bit faster down hill in angel gear :open_mouth: ). Seemed to take forever to do a NW10 to Brum outbound leg, longer even than a TK.

Next was YJH572T a newer 0710 with spiffy air spring park brake and the factory-fitted nothing-nothing-nothing-…bang! footbrake and standard fitment waggly mirrors.

Next VLR87X, another 0710 but IIRC a 5-speed box, but still with standard D series brakes, mirrors etc.

In about 1985 I took and passed my Class 1 on a V8 Perkins-powered 2817 with 6 speed/ 2-speed axle (defunct), nearly putting the examiner through the windscreen on the emergency stop, much to the amusement of my instructor.

Apart from the waggly mirrors and the brakes (and thanks to the someone above who reminded me of the 180deg turn for the gear lever before tilting the cab - had forgotten that one), and the fact you could see out of the cab (a revelation to someone who’d been hunched up in a TK cab for longer than was healthy), my abiding memory of the D series was the distinctive clutch pedal squeak and the noise of the compressor going taka taka taka taka.

Get an earful of this old dunger in Oz with the 6-cyl from the 0710/1000 and complete with clutch pedal squeak…

youtube.com/watch?v=5tuY9pCinQ4


Custom cab D series unit seen at Gaydon 2010.

Dave the Renegade:

Custom cab D series unit seen at Gaydon 2010.

Any idea which engine that D1000 would have had in it Dave ? My guess would be ,going by the reg.,that it would have had the “Ford” badged Perkins V8 as I think the ■■■■■■■ option was dropped once Ford had done the deal with Perkins in the early '70’s.Cheers Dennis.

ParkRoyal2100:
Hmm, yes, the D series, been there done that got the scars :wink:

First was a 72 0710 WEH183L box van, with the infamous twist-off-and-break-your-knuckles handbrake, about 49mph flat stick (but a bit faster down hill in angel gear :open_mouth: ). Seemed to take forever to do a NW10 to Brum outbound leg, longer even than a TK.

Next was YJH572T a newer 0710 with spiffy air spring park brake and the factory-fitted nothing-nothing-nothing-…bang! footbrake and standard fitment waggly mirrors.

Next VLR87X, another 0710 but IIRC a 5-speed box, but still with standard D series brakes, mirrors etc.

In about 1985 I took and passed my Class 1 on a V8 Perkins-powered 2817 with 6 speed/ 2-speed axle (defunct), nearly putting the examiner through the windscreen on the emergency stop, much to the amusement of my instructor.

Apart from the waggly mirrors and the brakes (and thanks to the someone above who reminded me of the 180deg turn for the gear lever before tilting the cab - had forgotten that one), and the fact you could see out of the cab (a revelation to someone who’d been hunched up in a TK cab for longer than was healthy), my abiding memory of the D series was the distinctive clutch pedal squeak and the noise of the compressor going taka taka taka taka.

Get an earful of this old dunger in Oz with the 6-cyl from the 0710/1000 and complete with clutch pedal squeak…

youtube.com/watch?v=5tuY9pCinQ4

theres some nice litle films on that youtube page, fredm

My father used to drive an early D800 for J.Grindrod of Littleborough, nr Rochdale .Hauling steel pipes from Markland Scowcroft of Bolton usually to South Wales .And usually at maximum wieght ,it was a cracking little truck very quick ,not sure which engine was in it but always reiable. Jack the gaffer ran about 6 o general haulge and also ran quite a few on tipper work .The one my father drove was VTC 78D a dropside rigid .

Bewick:

Dave the Renegade:

Custom cab D series unit seen at Gaydon 2010.

Any idea which engine that D1000 would have had in it Dave ? My guess would be ,going by the reg.,that it would have had the “Ford” badged Perkins V8 as I think the ■■■■■■■ option was dropped once Ford had done the deal with Perkins in the early '70’s.Cheers Dennis.

Possibly Dennis.I didn’t look to be honest.It was one of many lorries Tracy took photo’s of at Gaydon.
Cheers Dave.

Harry Monk:

Crumbs, where were those taken - Malta?

tonyhogi:
Hiya ,
What was the thing with the ‘west coast’ mirrors in the early 70s- didn’t ERF try them as well? Are they ‘flat’ glass? & what were they like compared to normal mirrors .

Don’t start me on flat glass mirrors :unamused: they do the same here (Oz). In fact they even replace the convex mirrors in new kit (DAF, Scania, Volvo etc) with flat glass.

wtf?? :open_mouth: :unamused:

ParkRoyal2100:

Harry Monk:

Crumbs, where were those taken - Malta?

Somewhere in SOUTH AFRICA

The EC on the reg of the one on the right means it was registered in the Eastern Cape so that is East London, Port Elizabeth area.

I had 3 D series when I first passed my class three test,the first was an M reg then onto the S reg pictured here. This was a 1314 turbo with 6 speed box and 2 speed axle,then onto my first brand new motor the V reg this was also a 1314 turbo 6 speed and 2 speed axle ,ordered from T C Harrison trucks in Derby but delivered from Ford direct to Locomotors in Andover who did the sleeper cab conversion,it was then collected by one of our fitters and delivered to TCH who carried the pre delivery inspection.It had a Custom cab with a twin passenger seat finished in a stripey fabric material a raised bunk and a Blaukpunt cassete radio with extra speakers set into a new insulated roof lining.There were only two problems with it the cab was really heavy to tilt because of the extra weight of the sleeper and at that time drawbars were still limited by law to 30 mph on all roads other than motorways where you could do 60

Dave the Renegade:

Bewick:

Dave the Renegade:

Custom cab D series unit seen at Gaydon 2010.

Any idea which engine that D1000 would have had in it Dave ? My guess would be ,going by the reg.,that it would have had the “Ford” badged Perkins V8 as I think the ■■■■■■■ option was dropped once Ford had done the deal with Perkins in the early '70’s.Cheers Dennis.

Possibly Dennis.I didn’t look to be honest.It was one of many lorries Tracy took photo’s of at Gaydon.
Cheers Dave.

Yep, this has the naturally aspirated Perkins 540 V8, non-turbo lump in it (167bhp) and the rocker covers have ‘FORD’ cast into them. The turbo version was an option (rare) and offered 235bhp.

sdg1970:

Dave the Renegade:

Bewick:

Dave the Renegade:

Custom cab D series unit seen at Gaydon 2010.

Any idea which engine that D1000 would have had in it Dave ? My guess would be ,going by the reg.,that it would have had the “Ford” badged Perkins V8 as I think the ■■■■■■■ option was dropped once Ford had done the deal with Perkins in the early '70’s.Cheers Dennis.

Possibly Dennis.I didn’t look to be honest.It was one of many lorries Tracy took photo’s of at Gaydon.
Cheers Dave.

Yep, this has the naturally aspirated Perkins 540 V8, non-turbo lump in it (167bhp) and the rocker covers have ‘FORD’ cast into them. The turbo version was an option (rare) and offered 235bhp.

I never knew that the Perkins V8 was offered with a Turbo ! But as I was only involved with the ■■■■■■■ and Perkins V’s in the late 60’s and 1970 when they were both fairly new on the scene so they probably hadn’t considered developing the Perkins further as they were too busy trying to improve the performance and reliability of the non-turbo’d engine.Although I can say that we had excellent service rom the 3 V 8’s we ran ! Cheers Dennis.

Bewick:
I never knew that the Perkins V8 was offered with a Turbo ! But as I was only involved with the ■■■■■■■ and Perkins V’s in the late 60’s and 1970 when they were both fairly new on the scene so they probably hadn’t considered developing the Perkins further as they were too busy trying to improve the performance and reliability of the non-turbo’d engine.Although I can say that we had excellent service rom the 3 V 8’s we ran ! Cheers Dennis.

I had one new in a Dodge six wheeler in 1986. I think they only brought them out a little while before that and, even then, they were pretty rare. I was only aware of about half a dozen in this part of the world. Lovely noise but it was crap, to be honest… :smiley:

9 speed Fuller which meant lightening quick gear changes and Norde rubber suspension which meant it would corner as though it was on rails. Pity they weren’t married up to a ■■■■■■■ L10… :frowning:

The favourite was to crack of the oil feed pipes to the turbo and then plaster everything in oil while it emptied the sump - the pipes were a complete ■■■■■ to get at cos they were right in the ‘V’. It also suffered with the timing pulley (I think it was but I might be mistaken…) coming loose. The art was getting it back in the right place and welding the bugger on because the keyway was knackered :open_mouth: I seem to remember that the 510’s used to suffer with this as well, at times.

My boss got shot when she was about 10 years old and last heard of she was still rattling around the London area 4 or 5 years later!! :open_mouth:

Is it okay to post an advert with a Custom Cab? :smiley: :wink:


/Stellan

Here is a phto of a little D series boxvan that we ran from our London depot

finish army used D series FORD.s in 70/80 as servicemotors for troops ,along whit sisu,s

SSPROS1965:
Somewhere in SOUTH AFRICA

The EC on the reg of the one on the right means it was registered in the Eastern Cape so that is East London, Port Elizabeth area.

Yes, that’s correct, I took them in Montagu, South Africa.

My first lorry was a D1000. Born in 1969 with a fold-flat body, she was used and abused for about 13 or 14 years before I was presented with her :smiley:

Originally owned by West Midland Farmers somewhere in the Gloucester area, she ended up at a farm only being used for the summer harvest and muck shifting :open_mouth: :smiley:

My boss had put me on the Young HGV Drivers Scheme and part of the conditions of the scheme was that there was a four wheeler for me to drive (He only had artics at the time…). This poor old thing arrived in the yard one day and the guvnor said ‘Thats yours, clean it up and spruce it up - you’re out in it tomorrow…’. I was over the moon :smiley:

I had her for two years doing all sorts of general haulage outbound and bulk grain back to some smaller mills that couldn’t handle artics… I was in heaven :smiley:

48 mph flat out, the umbrella handbrake, no radio but comfortable seats and room to stretch out - I loved that old girl :smiley: :smiley:

Way back in about 1973 RTITB arranged for me to go on a three week Drivers Assessors Course at MOTEC High Ercall, in Shropshire.
To get our ‘Block Grant’ it was required that we employed a qualified Drivers Assessor.
I didn’t know what to expect but when I got there me and everyone else in the course were told that before we could assess anyone else’s driving they had to get us up to standard.
Most of the course was an advance driving course, with us all driving Ford D series round the Iron Bridge area. Looking back now I really enjoyed it and enjoyed driving, and riding in a Ford D series for 3 weeks, and that encouraged me to buy about 12 of them.