coomsey:
Never knew they ran these, are they still going? NMP off FB
Impressive fuel capacity on this smallish Bedford. I wonder why?
Probably away from the depot for most of the week, many folk fitted two tanks as it was cheaper to use their own fuel than buy it out. One well known Peak District haulier just carried drums of diesel on the trucks, either on the bunk in the cab as Rigsby can testify or under the body between the chassis rails. Their powder tankers strapped drums to the catwalk, if their driver’s ran short of fuel they had to buy it themselves and not get reimbersed.
Pete.
I drove a TL with twin tanks, and yes I could be away for 3 days a week.
Talk of carrying fuel reminded me of a company that we dealt with in my early days, my teens, when I worked in the garage. The garage was rented from a fuel company for a pepper corn rent, the down side being that there was a filling station attached and one of the rental conditions was a certain (high!) throughput of fuels sales. So we really needed customers! Amongst the many things we tried to increase sales ((including getting the girl pump attendants (I hinted it was long ago!) to wear bikinis and high heels on sunny summer Saturdays)) was accepting credit accounts. One customer we took a punt on was a local transport company operating on a low budget-so low that bought ex-fleet BMC FJ tractors… not a wise move.
We knew, or suspected strongly, this was going badly when they started filling up the vehicle tanks and 10 or so jerry cans. We stopped the account just a few weeks before they went bust. A near miss…
coomsey:
Never knew they ran these, are they still going? NMP off FB
Impressive fuel capacity on this smallish Bedford. I wonder why?
Probably away from the depot for most of the week, many folk fitted two tanks as it was cheaper to use their own fuel than buy it out. One well known Peak District haulier just carried drums of diesel on the trucks, either on the bunk in the cab as Rigsby can testify or under the body between the chassis rails. Their powder tankers strapped drums to the catwalk, if their driver’s ran short of fuel they had to buy it themselves and not get reimbersed.
Pete.
I drove a TL with twin tanks, and yes I could be away for 3 days a week.
Kempston:
Can you imagine head wind with this, no idea what size engine they had.
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I occasionally drove similarly bodied TKs and soon learned the best I could do on Motorways was to tuck in (at a safe distance of course) behind a decent sized wagon’s slipstream and cruise comfortably. I rarely had enough power to overtake. If I did ever attempt to pull out do so it was as if the brakes were slammed on!
Kempston:
Can you imagine head wind with this, no idea what size engine they had.
1
0
I occasionally drove similarly bodied TKs and soon learned the best I could do on Motorways was to tuck in (at a safe distance of course) behind a decent sized wagon’s slipstream and cruise comfortably. I rarely had enough power to overtake. If I did ever attempt to pull out do so it was as if the brakes were slammed on!
I had an ERF tipper with 180/ DB 6 loaded with a good head wind n I’d spend a lot of time in 5th on the M1 London to Leicester cheers coomsey
coomsey:
Never knew they ran these, are they still going? NMP off FB
0
Impressive fuel capacity on this smallish Bedford. I wonder why?
Probably away from the depot for most of the week, many folk fitted two tanks as it was cheaper to use their own fuel than buy it out. One well known Peak District haulier just carried drums of diesel on the trucks, either on the bunk in the cab as Rigsby can testify or under the body between the chassis rails. Their powder tankers strapped drums to the catwalk, if their driver’s ran short of fuel they had to buy it themselves and not get reimbersed.
Pete.
Very common in those days, with our firm it was a matter of cost, drivers paying and getting re imbursed the following week,was sometimes queried . International trailers had belly tanks fitted as well – Toshboy
Kempston:
Can you imagine head wind with this, no idea what size engine they had.
I occasionally drove similarly bodied TKs and soon learned the best I could do on Motorways was to tuck in (at a safe distance of course) behind a decent sized wagon’s slipstream and cruise comfortably. I rarely had enough power to overtake. If I did ever attempt to pull out do so it was as if the brakes were slammed on!
I had an ERF tipper with 180/ DB 6 loaded with a good head wind n I’d spend a lot of time in 5th on the M1 London to Leicester cheers coomsey
I read a lot of comments about Bedfords being slow in a head wind but that certainly was not our experience. Granted I had not many times driven any of our TKs fully loaded but our drivers never complained and one of the biggest tyre wear we experience was scrubbing of the tyre-walls on the driver’s side as they travelled on the fast lane on two lane motorways.
In fact on one rare occasion I had to collect an integral KF with the 330 cu in engine from London which was loaded with 136 Tricity fridges which was the capacity load, wth fridges loaded 3 high. The van had been stolen from Leicester and caught in London by the MET police as the thieves were just starting to unload it. It must have been in the early 70s and as their was complicated getting the van released (Similar to the one in the photo probably not that one but identical We had a lot) I travelled down by train to collect it.
Stupid as it sounds the MET police were not on speaking terms with Leicester police and as it had been stolen in Leicester they wanted to examine and me to complete forms etc so I had to call at the Lecicester Police HQ at Syston Leicester.
Travelling up the M1 fully loaded at about 11 ton Gross (The KFs were 11.35 to plated weight) I found no problem cruising at 65-70MPH however the problem came when I was turning off the M1 to go to Syston as the slip road was down hill with a roundabout at the bottom & I needed to turn left. I had eased off but as the van carried on I had to brake and brake hard and seeing the roundabout coming nearer & nearer I thought it was not going to stop and standing up to put my full weight on the footbrake it just did in time. So when people say Bedford TKs were slow I wonder if they have the wrong gearbox or back axle specified. As years went on we had the 466 then 500 engines but in fairness we need to compare like with like as no doubt they would be pathetic compared to todays but there again we had no speed limiters.
However I never would have considered running TKs with draw bar trailers.
michel:
Also in France ,you saw Bedford TK with a trailer.
In France, we had the Berliet GBK (120 bhp), Unic P8 (135 or 160 bhp), and Saviem SM 6 (110 bhp). I don’t think the third was available with a sleeper cab.
Thanks Coomsey, that’s going to rekindle my PTSD! I used to flog one of those up and down the Pacific Highway, in 6x4 with a tri-axle semi configuration. What a PoS, made by Isuzu but marketed as Bedford by Isuzu. Allegedly 230 or 240 hope, but they were little Japanese ponies. 1418 and other lesser powered trucks would bag me up with ease. Burringbar, Murrwillumba and Bulahdelah ranges were climbed at walking speed.
