Bedford Lorries, you used to see them everywhere

Retired Old ■■■■:
I regularly used to take a full load of apples from Gloucestershire to Edinburgh & Glasgow with an S-type (330) in the second half of the 1960s. Biggest drawback was that the guvnor had the thing governed to 40mph for a previous driver! Mod cons consisted of my father’s old Civil Defence-issue overcoat which went around my legs in an attempt to reduce the draught and a valve radio cadged from my cousin which had to be mounted on the rear cab wall next to my left ear!
Despite these niggles the old girl looked a treat when polished with a pair of foglamps mounted under the bumper & a pair of spotlamps above it.
The only time she ever let me down was when a fan blade broke off & threw itself through the radiator on the way to Sheffield fruit market at about four in the (icy cold) morning.
And talking of fan blades, does anyone know if it was a common fault with Bedfords? I remember having quite a shock when a blade came through the bonnet in front of my eyes when riding shotgun in an A-model petrol.

Ran Bedfords for years, we must have discovered every weak point, but I can only remember one fan blade failure, on a 330 TK. How the blade escaped without causing any further damage, I will never know, but it was foung 40 yards from the road, weeks later.
Peter