Bedford TM

Here’s a film seemly made for an audience of GM employees:
youtube.com/watch?v=6dy4lpiakds

  1. Spot the heavily- modified Motor Panels mock-up at the start.
  2. I wonder why the narrow track version never made it onto the road? It would have been a more modern alternative to the TL.
  3. The film must have been made well before the launch of the TM- enough time for them to develop a proper sleeper cab, to replace the proposed nesting box.

Using a similar driveline to the premium vehicles, notably ERF and Foden, the ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ TM was let down only by it’s steel cab. Many had taken to the breakers pile while the Sandbach “plastics” were still in their prime. Shame because they were a comfortable and reasonably spacious alternative.

The Bedford TM was launched in 1974 at The Earls Court motor show.

Click on pages twice.

I was an apprentice at Ryder Truck rental at Park Royal in the late 70s.They ran a fleet of TMs,P and R reg, units and rigids,with the 8v 71 s and the 6vs in the rigids, some as drawbars.
The Detroits were not that popular with the mechanics as there was some reluctance to embrace the two stroke technology, not that it was new, but just different, and they were a bit of a faff to set up the injectors, stop them surging on tickover etc.
The later ones,T regs, had the more familiar ■■■■■■■ , in the new E290 form.They had the Spicer 10 speed boxes which were not as good as the Fuller, harder to use and certainly not able to stand up to the abuse rental trucks got, and if you had to change a clutch you had to remove all the air tanks which were mounted inside the chassis.Quite a performance.Others on the rental fleet were Sed Atki 400s with ■■■■■■■ and Rolls and three Volvo F88s, one of which seemed a permanent fixture in the workshop with gearbox issues.
Those Detroits did sound the business though.

I liked the Bedford oakleys of Hereford ran a whole fleet of them this was mine used to do Neath th heinz in Harlesden every day ,the two in the pic were a driving school crossroads of lougher till he sold them to skill place I passed my test on the sleeper cab 1991

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One of oakleys sleeper cab

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An Italian one :

My father had a narrow cab TM with the v6 Detroit and a 9 speed fuller box-he loved it
Initially he wasn’t too keen on buying one with a two stroke engine but he blew his KM artic up,and this TM was available locally so he bought it.he usually ran it with a single axle trailer so would been 24ton gross -16 ton payload.occasionally he would rent a 40 foot trailer for certain jobs.
This Bedford gave great service and I remember it very fondly

Can remember Anchor foods running a big fleet of Tms. Artics and 6 wheelers. The 4 wheelers were Kms
Never seen a photo of one on here though . . . Wonder if bubbs has any ? :slight_smile:
I drove a 16t Tm for a couple of years with the Bedford 500 engine. It was very long legged and had a Locomotors sleeper conversion.
Not a bad motor but not a patch on the FL6 that replaced it.

Smith of Maddiston ran 3 of them on banana tanks for ICI Grangemouth,rumour had it they were too thirsty for a couple of canny Scotsmen,not sure what power unit they had in them,may have been Detroits but I somehow doubt it!

David

I had a few laps of Millbrook in some of the development trucks .
Some of my mates were testing techies at the track so blagged a few trips in some weird and wonderful GM vehicles .
I do remember seeing three figure speeds on the high speed banking .

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grumpyken52:
I had a few laps of Millbrook in some of the development trucks .
Some of my mates were testing techies at the track so blagged a few trips in some weird and wonderful GM vehicles .
I do remember seeing three figure speeds on the high speed banking .

The Italian drawbar prime mover looks like it’s probably 8v92T 4400 spec there was also from memory a 3800 6v92T powered version all available to UK special order in the late 1970’s and more powerful than the later Silver series versions.All chassis of choice for truck racing and emergency vehicle manufacturers in the day and even 6 or 8v71 powered 4 or 6 wheeler rigids were quick. :wink: But not sure about 3 figures with a TM ? although might just have been possible with a 475 spec 8v92 in a tractor unit. :open_mouth:

Carryfast:

grumpyken52:
I had a few laps of Millbrook in some of the development trucks .
Some of my mates were testing techies at the track so blagged a few trips in some weird and wonderful GM vehicles .
I do remember seeing three figure speeds on the high speed banking .

The Italian drawbar prime mover looks like it’s probably 8v92T 4400 spec there was also from memory a 3800 6v92T powered version all available to UK special order in the late 1970’s and more powerful than the later Silver series versions.All chassis of choice for truck racing and emergency vehicle manufacturers in the day and even 6 or 8v71 powered 4 or 6 wheeler rigids were quick. :wink: But not sure about 3 figures with a TM ? although might just have been possible with a 475 spec 8v92 in a tractor unit. :open_mouth:

I do remember it being pretty hairy !
The usual trick was to wedge the throttle with a broom handle ,it stopped you getting cramp !
Their best trick was when doing high speed runs in CF Bedford vans was to wedge the throttle and then wave through the rear window as you passed those who were watching.
Fun times before H&S was rife and everything was on recorded cameras .

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grumpyken52:
Their best trick was when doing high speed runs in CF Bedford vans was to wedge the throttle and then wave through the rear window as you passed those who were watching.
Fun times before H&S was rife and everything was on recorded cameras .

I surprised a few Jag/Rover/BMW drivers when driving the council’s 2.3 Firenza type engined CF vans on the recently opened M25 and the A3 in the days before cameras and unmarked law cars.More or less as quick as Essex V6 Transit and Rover V8 Sherpas.All loved by Blaggers and the Law and Ambulance crews alike. :wink:

But unfortunately we, nor Bedford, never went for the full 475 spec 8v92 in production TM’s including fire trucks for some reason.Doubt if anyone else did other than the truck racers.That would have been a very quick truck in the day.I think any of those who did tweak them after market, stopped at the 435 mark.I’d guess because of fuel consumption and/or didn’t need any extra power than that, if anything.

Carryfast:

grumpyken52:
Their best trick was when doing high speed runs in CF Bedford vans was to wedge the throttle and then wave through the rear window as you passed those who were watching.
Fun times before H&S was rife and everything was on recorded cameras .

I surprised a few Jag/Rover/BMW drivers when driving the council’s 2.3 Firenza type engined CF vans on the recently opened M25 and the A3 in the days before cameras and unmarked law cars.More or less as quick as Essex V6 Transit and Rover V8 Sherpas.All loved by Blaggers and the Law and Ambulance crews alike. :wink:

But unfortunately we, nor Bedford, never went for the full 475 spec 8v92 in production TM’s including fire trucks for some reason.Doubt if anyone else did other than the truck racers.That would have been a very quick truck in the day.I think any of those who did tweak them after market, stopped at the 435 mark.I’d guess because of fuel consumption and/or didn’t need any extra power than that, if anything.

We did get to play with the test 4×4 firenza engined CFs
We would chase all the police training cars all over Dunstable downs .
I don’t think many of the 4x4s got released
and most of the 2.3 engines were de- tuned so as to run on low octane fuel .
Later I had a sliding door CF short wheel base that started life as a 1.6 three speed but I put in a 2.3 VX4/90 engine with overdrive box . That was very quick to 80mph and was only ever used to tow my stock cars or banger racers .
Many years later I helped a mate sort out his CF that had a Rover 3.5 V8 and 5 speed box .
He could only get two gears ! The gearbox mount on one side had snapped and the box had twisted and dropped preventing the gear lever moving across the gate . The happy days of a miss spent past .
Strangely in my last job I got to drive experimental Ford Transits on long term testing all over the UK and Europe . Their 3.2 5 cyl turbo diesel is capable of some good power and very very illegal speeds

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Carryfast:

grumpyken52:
I had a few laps of Millbrook in some of the development trucks .
Some of my mates were testing techies at the track so blagged a few trips in some weird and wonderful GM vehicles .
I do remember seeing three figure speeds on the high speed banking .

The Italian drawbar prime mover looks like it’s probably 8v92T 4400 spec there was also from memory a 3800 6v92T powered version all available to UK special order in the late 1970’s and more powerful than the later Silver series versions.All chassis of choice for truck racing and emergency vehicle manufacturers in the day and even 6 or 8v71 powered 4 or 6 wheeler rigids were quick. :wink: But not sure about 3 figures with a TM ? although might just have been possible with a 475 spec 8v92 in a tractor unit. :open_mouth:

Heres a Danish one.

bedford denmarka.PNG

5thwheel:
Smith of Maddiston ran 3 of them on banana tanks for ICI Grangemouth,rumour had it they were too thirsty for a couple of canny Scotsmen,not sure what power unit they had in them,may have been Detroits but I somehow doubt it!

David

Found a photo of a SoM TM

Suedehead:
Can remember Anchor foods running a big fleet of Tms. Artics and 6 wheelers. The 4 wheelers were Kms
Never seen a photo of one on here though . . . Wonder if bubbs has any ? :slight_smile:
I drove a 16t Tm for a couple of years with the Bedford 500 engine. It was very long legged and had a Locomotors sleeper conversion.
Not a bad motor but not a patch on the FL6 that replaced it.

Here you go chap, Anchor. :wink:

A02911.JPG

DEANB:

Carryfast:
The Italian drawbar prime mover looks like it’s probably 8v92T 4400 spec there was also from memory a 3800 6v92T powered version all available to UK special order in the late 1970’s and more powerful than the later Silver series versions.All chassis of choice for truck racing and emergency vehicle manufacturers in the day and even 6 or 8v71 powered 4 or 6 wheeler rigids were quick. :wink: But not sure about 3 figures with a TM ? although might just have been possible with a 475 spec 8v92 in a tractor unit. :open_mouth:

Heres a Danish one.

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Looks like a poverty spec narrow cab 6v71.From memory the 92T series powered specials were first and foremost developed for the Scandinavian and Italian markets.Also taken up by a few Brit buyers and all loved by the emergency vehicle sector like us and Carmichael etc whether 71 or 92 series powered. Really can’t understand Bedford’s thinking in using the less efficient 71 series at all at that point mid to late 1970’s.

Carryfast:
The Italian drawbar prime mover looks like it’s probably 8v92T 4400 spec there was also from memory a 3800 6v92T powered version all available to UK special order in the late 1970’s and more powerful than the later Silver series versions.All chassis of choice for truck racing and emergency vehicle manufacturers in the day and even 6 or 8v71 powered 4 or 6 wheeler rigids were quick. :wink: But not sure about 3 figures with a TM ? although might just have been possible with a 475 spec 8v92 in a tractor unit. :open_mouth:

We have covered this in other threads: The only confirmed 92 series TMs in the late 1970s were the French 340-badged example, the 1977 Italian TTA-engined 365bhp show exhibit, then the 1979 TA versions, with 392-400 DIN bhp, depending on governed speed. IIRC, the 400 horses came 100 or 150rpm further round the dial. The 6v92 ones only arrived with the 1982 Silver Series relaunch.

I do agree with your argument that a 6v92TTA TM should have been available in GB as soon as the first engine of that type was made, but there is nothing recorded anywhere- unless you can find something.