Bewick:
dashman:
My Dad bought a new Trader in 1958,reg 487 BKA. a good wagon in its class.
I bought one in 1968? from Holt Lane Transport in Prescot / St Helens area, It was a C reg 1965 model ,ran it as a flat for a year then converted it to a tipper, had it on for Norwest Sand in Liverpool.
Any Thames Trader buffs out there?
Your going to have me in tears Dashman!! My first motor was a Trader which I bought for £500 from Beeches in Hanley.I’ve only got one photo of it and haven’t got it on photobucket! It was a 1964 SWB with Edbro ram and “U” shaped steel body.It had an Eaton 2 spd axle. I loved the Traders they were reliable workhorses and mine never missed a beat !Sold it for £600 when I got a new D1000.Cheers Bewick.PS The Reg No was EH **** ! can’t remember the 4 numbers wiil look the shot out1.
All we want now is a Trader tractor unit pulling a 4-in-line trailer!! I remember Robsons 'frae Carlisle ran a lot of Traders and I think Brady’s had a couple of tractor units also!! Cheers bewick.
Hi John,Fishflunk Ray will know where that last one was taken,he knows all the really old p-laces in Manchester 
One more here for the gallery
John
Here is a pic of my Dads when it was new,
Thats me in the passenger seat!
note, no indicators on the early models !
In the late 60`s I bought a 1965 ex Holt Lane Transport Trader, it had air over hydraulic brakes,this early one was vacuum .
Bewick:
All we want now is a Trader tractor unit pulling a 4-in-line trailer!! I remember Robsons 'frae Carlisle ran a lot of Traders and I think Brady’s had a couple of tractor units also!! Cheers bewick.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of payload would you get on an outfit like that?
Thames Pix aus der Türkei : lol :: lol :: lol
Payload?
I seem to remember it was loaded until you couldnt fit any more on it !
7 cubic yard body, load about 7 to 9 ton
also in those days there wasnt any red diesel, you filled in a diesel record, very trusting everyone was!
Nice Traders in Turkey, bet they loaded more than 9 ton !
Who remebers Butts from Northampton area, they had a fleet of Traders on the M1 contract.
As a fifteen year old apprentice, some few years ago, I worked for a company that ran quite a few Traders. The thing that sticks out in mind about them was that a fitter and an apprentice, well versed, and with all the tools and engine lift ready, could change an engine in less that three hours. It became a bit of a party piece doing them. We use to keep a re-built engine on the back of the recovery wagon, and do them on the side of the road. They were a very easy lorry to work on.
I really loved the trader, I liked the driving position and they cornered like a train on rails. They went for more comfort with the D series but what a backwards step putting the trader engine inclined.
macdangerous:
Bewick:
All we want now is a Trader tractor unit pulling a 4-in-line trailer!! I remember Robsons 'frae Carlisle ran a lot of Traders and I think Brady’s had a couple of tractor units also!! Cheers bewick.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of payload would you get on an outfit like that?
Now then “Mac” I think we could be developing a thread here to rival the GUY Big J 8LXB thread!! When someone of "Fergies"calibre joins in with an new episode of his er! erm! his “colourful and interesting” past then theres a chance that the thread will “run”.Anyhow I think we’ll need some help from the technicos with regard to the Trader’s braking system re Vacuum/Air over Hydraulic. I think the Trader tractor coupled to a single axle trailer would have been operating at 20 ton gross but with a 4-in-line I couldn’t be sure! would it have run at 24 ton with Air over Hydraulic brakes? If it did ever get to run at 24 ton I think it would have had an excellent payload !Cheers Bewick.
Payload might have been around 13 ton but I can’t be too sure, R Steenburg & Son who I was an apprentice fitter with late Sixties had many Fords, one of the Steenburg Brothers was married to the owner of the local Ford Dealership so Fords were always included in the fleet. I remember the Trader artics well but I think they used a Taskers automatic coupling similar to the Scammell, Taskers were something to do with Ford anyway I think. The first real trips away with my Father were in his Four Wheeler Trader from the same company, reg No 507 FUP, what a flyer too, until a mate of his blew it up when Dad was on holiday, he wasn’t too chuffed. They were a hard working reliable motor for the weight range they were in, I think then almost everybody must have drove a Trader at some point. Franky.
dashman:
Here is a pic of my Dads when it was new,
Thats me in the passenger seat!
note, no indicators on the early models !
In the late 60`s I bought a 1965 ex Holt Lane Transport Trader, it had air over hydraulic brakes,this early one was vacuum .
Hi dashman, What a gem of a picture! I drove a short wheel base like that, only in tanker form, when they had all the swish fibreglass skirting and a reel hose and meter behind a roller shutter on the back. It only had three tank sections, 200/300/500 gallons, as opposed to the long wheelbase one which had an extra 500 gall. It was the only short one on the firm and was refered to as the “flying flea.” I have related this story on another thread, but it was in the bad winter of '62/'63 and we were putting a few hours in due to delivery problems and high fuel demands. I had lost the power to the reel during the day but soldiered on using the handle, then after my last drop, found I had no starter. This was about 8 o’clock at night in Chipping Norton, so I collared a group of lads walking by and asked them to give me a push! They looked at me as if I were mad, but I managed to convince them that it was “do able.” It only took a couple of yards to bump start, and I was on my way, with the lads falling about laughing in disbelief! When I arrived back at the depot in Oxford it was all locked up so I parked on the carpark outside and got off home after another tiring day. Next morning, when I pulled onto the carpark there was just a burnt out shell, and firemen still standing by. Apparently it had been a very active night, but I never did know what had actually caused it!
Keep posting the pics. they are great. Cheers, BigG-Unit
Chris Webb:
Hi John,Fishflunk Ray will know where that last one was taken,he knows all the really old p-laces in Manchester
Eh yup tha Chris lad, thas nay wrong tha noes
Looks very much like New Bank Street, Ardwick/Longsight, not to far from the railway sidings which would become the Longsight Freightliner Depot.
Ray
John
[/quote]
They had Thames Traders at Payar Lebar Airport Singapore in the 60s…
HI I DROVE A SIX WHEEL TRADER FOR SMILES FOR MILES FROM BLUCHER NEWCASTLE MANY YEARS AGO THEY WERE A GOOD OLD LORRY ,REGULAR JOB WAS 3 LOAD OF GRAVEL A DAY FROM CATTERICK TO GIBSON READYMIX GATESHEAD NO MOTORWAYS THEN HARD DAYS WORK .LOVE TO SEE A PHOTO OF ONE
Chris Webb:
They had Thames Traders at Payar Lebar Airport Singapore in the 60s…
Hiya Chris is the geezer with the push bike you? Cheers Dennis.
Stanfield:
What a fantastic and evocative photo “Stanfield”. Driver nipping in for a quick cup of tea or lunch perhaps.!!
Who was he ? is that street still there ? what happened to the wagon ?
If memory serves, didn’t they do a Trader 75, presumably that was an up-rated engine to cope with the tag axle and higher GVW. What was the original HP ?
Didn’t they also fit an 8 cyl Gardner 8LXB engine in them ? Think I may have a photo somewhere !!! 
Sorry Den, only kiddin !!! 
