What was the craic with the handbrake on those early D series ? Pulled horizontally from just under the dashboard
wasnt they ? 
Here is a broken one in need of TLC 
Suedehead:
What was the craic with the handbrake on those early D series ? Pulled horizontally from just under the dashboard
wasnt they ?
Yeah and they were sometimes a bit of a pain to get off.
Iâve added this from a previous thread about the Dodge 500 series and mentioned the D1000 as below,
Getting back to the Ford â â â â â â â V8, I remember one problem that had the fitters scratching their heads when I worked for Alfie W Ellis in Newcastle (thatâs a blast from the past) we were continually getting water in the fuel problems and eventually after much searching found that because the â â â â â â â pressure time fuel system returned quite a lot of hot fuel back to the tank on the return side when the drivers got back at night and filled up with cold diesel it caused condensation to build up in the tanks and this produced enough water to give the problems encountered, after that they had to fill up in the mornings and this cured it.
They could also shift and one story at the time was a driver got stopped by the Police near the Forth Bridge and said they had clocked him at 92 mph, he got let off as they couldnât believe it would do that and thought their instruments must be wrong, they might well have been but we knew these V8âs wouldnât be far off that speed, that is until they blew up which did happen too. My Dad had an F reg if I recall correctly and although only a 28 ton GCW it went like stink and could pull, some hated the âLucky dipâ gearbox and the handbrake has been mentioned but oh the heater was brill and the cab comfortable, he never had any engine problems while he had it and I believe when the â â â â â â â was going well not much could touch it, a pigeon catcher! Franky. Hereâs a Ford brochure pic.
My uncle ran this one for some years in the late '80s thru to mid '90s mainly for recovering district council refuse trucks, it had the V8 Perkins in itâŚhe got it from Cawsey? Commercials in Launceston who apparently made the original conversion from its previous life of being a mixer truck, uncle made a few changes to the lifting neck and add a winch.
I also remember the early tractors had the American style wing mirror arms and quite a large mirror for those days, Dad loved them as he was a mirror man and never hung out the door window as some others did, he often called out to me when I was on trips with him
âmind ya heedâ when he had to see into the nearside mirror, after a while I got used to getting out the way as soon as reverse gear got selected, later on I used to tell my son the same thing but I wasnât as blunt as Dad! Definately softer our generation. Strange what you recall. Franky.
the american style mirrors were called western mirrors if i am correct my father had them on a D1000 flai bed of 1970 vintage j reg
I was always puzzled as to why Ford offered west coast mirrors as an option on the early D series, they werenât very good as they were very
long and thin, causing bad blind spots. I always rated the standard mirrors on the D series, but when production stopped, i remember
everyone slating the early Ford cargo mirrors, the mirror arm used to flex the door skin when traveling at motorway speeds, resulting in the
doors usually splitting around the mirror mounts, Ford did seem to cure this problem pretty quick thoughâŚ
Jerry
Wheel Nut:
Here is a broken one in need of TLC
wheerâs this one?
Thanks for all your replies.
The 360 turbo engine was not a bad bit of kit, although there was a few problems in the early days as a lot of drivers were not used to turbos and would simply switch off without giving them a few minutes at idle which they needed after a run.
Agreed, the â â â â â â â was a flyer if it was running well, trick was to get it running well and more importantly keep it running well.
Brakes, shocking - end of story!
The West Coast mirrors, what self respecting 1970s âTruckerâ didnt want Coasters, an extra cost option if I remember and very poor field of vision compared with the standard offering.
The cab was great, spent many happy hours in em, first the vinyl seats and then in the later ones with the striped fabric, remember that?
Now the Ford Cargo is a whole different story, again the early ones were not the best and gave the old man more grey hairs.
A truck launched into the teeth of a recession I seem to remember!!
Cheers
Mark
Hi Mark,
You mentioning the brakes on the V8 powered D series reminded me of my mate in one, a six wheeler, belonging to S W Brisbanes of Knighton, he was on the A456 going down the hill into Bewdley (before the bypass was built ) when he came to a tailback of cars, his D series Ford, fully loaded at 24 ton failed to stop, he hit the back end of the one in front of him which caused the same to happen to another five. He finished with Brisbanes and went back to Roberts on ann Atki.
Cheers Dave.
Hi
In the late sixties my father worked out of Minera quarry Wrexham and there was a chap working out of there called Leace ? from half way down the Froud Coedpoeth. He brought four 6wheeler D series tippers. He had a planâŚthe first ones earnings would cover the drivers wages,the second would pay the HP. the third one would pay the fuel, and the last one would be profit. Everthing went well for a few months then one turned over when tipping, that was the profit gone. Then a few weeks later another was parked in the top of the quarry unloading some excess when the hand brake let go,over the edge she went.Now not only was there no profit but there was no money for drivers.The insurance would not pay up and the HP was still due on all four. The other two due to lack of money were not being maintained and were braking down all the time. It was not long before he had to pack up.
Here is a photo of a D series we run for a short while on small plant delivery and collection.You will note one ramp is wider than the other so we could load rollers. It also had an electric winch on the front headboard.
Regards Keith.
Back in the early 80âs I did a fair bit of agency driving for companies in Nottingham who ran D-series; Palmer & Harvey, Randalls (plumbers merchants), Fords (discount stores) and Bampton Packaging were the main ones.
Most were D710âs, fairly new then and not a bad bit of kit by the standards of the day. No power steering of course but the wheel was the size of a dustbin lid and the steering pretty low-geared; they rarely ran top weight so steering was not a problem and I thought they handled better than the Cargo. Randalls trucks were very low-geared, neither would go above 55 flat out (before limiters of course) but Bamptons flat-bed was a cracker, would sit at 70 all day. Worst bit of the D-series was the gearshift, like stirring a pudding and the lever was all over the shop. Huge gap between third and fourth too which made long hills a bind.
The very small 4-cylinder models were a different animal; asthmatic, under-powered, rattly and quite unpleasant. Brakes on either werenât up to much but then again neither was the TK Bedford, its main rival.
As has been said above, they were actually a better truck in many respects than the first Cargoâs, especially the little âuns. I also drove a variety of the bigger D-series for William Wests whilst working for Bill Kelly, most on Bootsâ shop-fitting contract out of Eastwood, where I lived then. These were older trucks and not half as nice, and if I got one of the Cargos with the bigger engine and range-change box the newer trucks won hands down.
One useful extra I did like on the D-series was the foot-operated âflick wipeâ, the screenwash was a rubber bulb with a metal ring round it fitted by the driverâs left foot, the ring operating the wipers whilst it was held down. Since even 2-speed wipers were a bit of a luxury then it was a welcome change from fiddling around on the dashboard like you did with other trucks.
Iâve just come across this old cutting, does anyone in the Leicester area remember it. ?
Never seen one like that Tipit, look at the lenth of it 
In 1969 when i was 15 I worked for a company called HEP Sections they had just bought a new D1000 16 tonner and having nothing to do one Saturday I went with the driver Pete Smith to Kings Lynn or somewhere out that way and on the way back he let me drive it from Peterborough to Leicester, wouldnât get away with that now, then when I passed my HGV in 75 my first lorry was a D800, good old days.
Tipit, the eight wheeler DUT 170K is certainly unusual and as far as I know was one of a kind.
I presume that somebody like Primrose did the conversion.
It was probably used on Ibstock block delivery or similar from the Leicester area.
It later wound up with NH Huggins & Sons from Whaplode in Lincs where it was painted maroon & blue and where it was fitted with the later style plastic grille.
It did the rounds at the early HCVC shows in the early 1980s.
Huggins finished a while back as far as I know, so who knows where it is now.
Cheers
Mark
roadcommander2:
Tipit, the eight wheeler DUT 170K is certainly unusual and as far as I know was one of a kind.I presume that somebody like Primrose did the conversion.
It was probably used on Ibstock block delivery or similar from the Leicester area.
It later wound up with NH Huggins & Sons from Whaplode in Lincs where it was painted maroon & blue and where it was fitted with the later style plastic grille.
It did the rounds at the early HCVC shows in the early 1980s.
Huggins finished a while back as far as I know, so who knows where it is now.Cheers
Mark
Itâs not looking goodâŚ
The vehicle details for DUT 170K are:
Date of Liability 01 02 1985
Date of First Registration 01 06 1972
Year of Manufacture Not Available
Cylinder Capacity (cc) Not Available
CO2 Emissions Not Available
Fuel Type Heavy Oil
Export Marker Not Applicable
Vehicle Status Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour RED
I use a D series as transport for my vintage tractor transportâŚgoes very well up to 43mph then sits at that spped all day long up hill or downâŚ
The brakes are good enought to throw you forward even when i have a tractor in the backâŚI use the front bit as living at rallysâŚThe handbrake is the umbrella type that you pull or push to work which I have got the hang of.Even the power assisted steering is not to bad when under way but a little heavy when standstill,gearbox is ok and after now getting the hang of it I can select gears smoothly without to much crunching(no syrinco on 1st)