JAKEY:
Cracking load Mark but that would take at least four hours to unload with two of you ,even more with the current heat !!! , yes we are rammed solid and trying cram in as much as we can ,but we all knows what happens when this happens ,DAMAGE !!!, so we going to have calm down with care ,bumper been hit on the VITO so far mr nobody !! also small scratch on the bumper of the Kangoo (mr nobody) a few small bits of poor packing ! but we got this under contol (hopefully)
Steve take a bit more than four hours to unload this lot…I’d say more around 7 hours maybe more …the temp is 35 Friday roll on
We also have a few (mr nobody) with us to.
smallcoal:
Spotted this rusting away in calne Wiltshire
John thats a cracking find this Freighter…its Ex Perry’s cracking condition…where to was it in Calne mate ?
Hi mark,it’s where calne coaches are based towards hills recycling centre across from the big industrial estate it’s up where the new houses Are,well loaded that is mate ,is that ford the other side yours as well
That freighter looks good enough to put to work…lovely little find.
Yes the Ford D series was ours also…we bought her second hand from Hereford she was an Ex Associated KBO 810P…We bought her for the Christmas rush back then…she had been contracted to Taylormade Abertillery…she was a spare back up at the time.
JAKEY:
Cracking load Mark but that would take at least four hours to unload with two of you ,even more with the current heat !!! , yes we are rammed solid and trying cram in as much as we can ,but we all knows what happens when this happens ,DAMAGE !!!, so we going to have calm down with care ,bumper been hit on the VITO so far mr nobody !! also small scratch on the bumper of the Kangoo (mr nobody) a few small bits of poor packing ! but we got this under contol (hopefully)
Steve take a bit more than four hours to unload this lot…I’d say more around 7 hours maybe more …the temp is 35 Friday roll on
We also have a few (mr nobody) with us to.
Hi mark,where you sailing from when you going up then ,that Bedford of yours Jones had some with that bumper style
Taylormade is that the one in an old mining place old buildings it had we loaded out of there one winterbloody froze me and Johnny think we only done one load out of there
JAKEY:
Hello John ,Mark and Dean , yes very busy and struggling to keep up these days , two good casual lads in at the moment to keep up (bought uniform too for them ) saves the customers asking questions , lots of local work (so the Hoff cheesed off ) John any descant parking spots in Coombe Martin area what you know of ? Mark you did a good job in that stacking mate ! was she heavy ?
Hi Steve yes plenty on way up your 4 miles from ilfracombe there’s a big beach up there with a coach park or if you going up coast rd from Barnstable loads of lay bys on way also ,or there’s a truck park in Barnstable in the town
Hello lads,
Steve yes heavy load lot of owner packed cartons and a lot of heavy wood furniture and stone garden orniments and pots…its going down to Pau not far from spanish border…tipping it next week and picking another full load to come back just North of Paris for Swansea…you flat out then Steve ?
Proper load Mark ! Did a fair few jobs down to Pau,i bet it was roasting down there.
Hi lads ,how’s you diddling ,not been on very busy this week Steve did you try them car parks mate, how’s work with you ,mark how did your jolly go hope ok mate
Hi Dean,
Lovely articles once again…I always loved the BMC Lairds the shape of the cabs pitty the running gear wasn’t up to the style of the cab
Yes been very busy with us thank god…lets hope it continues for all our sakes.
Hi mark,how did your trip go mate hope family ok it’s getting ridiculous with us we back on sy postcodes again ,done one run pontypool,Hereford,leominster,hay on wye, then to Aberystwyth
smallcoal:
Hi mark was you in raglan services Friday morning
Hi John,
No that wasn’t me mate one of the otherguys more than probably, I’ve been in been Essex most of this week job up and a big bugger to come back.
Brought the first part back Wednesday Thursdayand Friday close to 3000ft …one hell of a lot of packing on it and plenty of Antique pieces to plenty of export wrap to…back up to get the Second and final part of the job on Tuesday coming…access in to the property very tight to …gatepostsandbloody camber going in and coming out…survived the first one
How you doing mate you still busy…I know Steve is busy seen some of his posts on is facebook page.
I remember this Wokingham company when I lived in the area, I wonder if they are still in business? I don’t remember this vehicle of theirs though, although some more senior members might! NMP
Hi Dean,
Lovely articles once again…I always loved the BMC Lairds the shape of the cabs pitty the running gear wasn’t up to the style of the cab
Yes been very busy with us thank god…lets hope it continues for all our sakes.
Hi Mark We had several Lairds and it wasn’t the running gear as such but the engines that was the trouble. I think the excuse given was that they were fitted at an angle & not vertical presumably to fit them in the position there was not adequate height under the ■■■ cab, if my memory serves me right. Chassis and steering components didn’t seem to be too bad but we never really got the mileage to adequately assess. The only saving grace was we never fitted expensive bodies (Just boxvans & demountables). It would have been heartbreaking to think we had forked out for a Marsden integral & then have been so badly let down.
However we did have one a platform that we ran from Courtaulds factory 5 loads a week from Spennymoor to Oldham ( 240 mile per day) with large heavy boxes of what they considered Waste yarn which had snapped during production. They were fork lifted on so had to be roped & sheeted and strangley we had a female driver carrying out the work. It loaded first thing each morning took a load down & returned empty. We put the lack of engine problems down to not suffering the wind resistance a large van would suffer, but whenever I see a nice picture of a new Laird van ready to try to earn its keep I feel so sorry for the hopeful owners, as I would be very suppried if they had many months of profitable running.
Actually the Lairds were little better than the previous FJ models, they suffered the same cooling system airlocks as their predecessors. They overheated badly, probably BMC didn’t find that when testing them as the initial tests were done in Finland! Working for a BMC dealership they kept us busy, hard to believe that the reliable 5.1 and 5.7 BMC diesels fitted in the FFK’s etc could have so many issues when tilted over! Actually the interim FHK range used the same underfloor engine in the FFK cab but with a different cooling system and they performed well and yet still had a three man cab, but it didn’t tilt of course so major maintenance on them was ‘fun’ to say the least and I still have the bad back and knees! The cylinder head and pistons/liners had to be removed from beneath the nearside wheelarch in a narrow space between the chassis and cab floor. Removal lads liked them for the three man cab though and we looked after several with Luton bodies. However with the failure of the Laird range eventually they saw sense and modified the engine by re- designing it into the 6.98 range and fitting them vertically into the Boxer range as an option to the Perkins 6.354 where they were quite trouble free and still had a three man cab. Apart from the engines the FJ’s and Lairds were trouble free really, everything fitted behind the engine (gearbox, axles etc) actually seemed to perform well!
Actually the Lairds were little better than the previous FJ models, they suffered the same cooling system airlocks as their predecessors. They overheated badly, probably BMC didn’t find that when testing them as the initial tests were done in Finland! Working for a BMC dealership they kept us busy, hard to believe that the reliable 5.1 and 5.7 BMC diesels fitted in the FFK’s etc could have so many issues when tilted over! Actually the interim FHK range used the same underfloor engine in the FFK cab but with a different cooling system and they performed well and yet still had a three man cab, but it didn’t tilt of course so major maintenance on them was ‘fun’ to say the least and I still have the bad back and knees! The cylinder head and pistons/liners had to be removed from beneath the nearside wheelarch in a narrow space between the chassis and cab floor. Removal lads liked them for the three man cab though and we looked after several with Luton bodies. However with the failure of the Laird range eventually they saw sense and modified the engine by re- designing it into the 6.98 range and fitting them vertically into the Boxer range as an option to the Perkins 6.354 where they were quite trouble free and still had a three man cab. Apart from the engines the FJ’s and Lairds were trouble free really, everything fitted behind the engine (gearbox, axles etc) actually seemed to perform well!
Pete.
Sadly we bought a new Boxer with the re-designed engine. ■■■■ Barret-Atkin who by then was with Hargreaves at Stockton On Tees who had taken over the agency from Byers Dunn Turvey at Sunderland said they had solved all problems mainly fitting the engine vertically. He said Leyland wanted to buy back our confidence and the chassis cab was supplied at 30% discount an offer we felt we couldn’t refuse. Our own company, Coachskill Ltd built a Glassonite boxvan body complete with Radcliffe tail lift & we painted it in Thorn EMI domestic appliance livery. I think it was ‘S’ reg (sadly a photo has never emerged yet as perhaps it spent so much time in our workshops not being seen so much on roads, and we continued with it getting and fitting a new short motor every 6 months or so. I, by that time my time was being absorbed by setting up our new depots so I was not able to keep track of its history but it was the final straw & we never again bought another Redline apart from one last 350 FG ‘V reg’ which we had confidence in. We had quite a few Boxers with Perkins 6.354 engines & one thing I cannot understand we had same engines in Seddon’s (Mostly Pennine passenger chassis) Dodge rigids (Artics another story) & a Commer Comando rigid and they got excellent mileages in the Seddons not quite as good in Dodge-Commer but at least 25% less in the Boxers. We put it down to possibly better cooling-ventilation or Engine positioning, Did you experience that, Pete. I would imagine engine specification by Perkins would be the same in all but on same work that was our findings,
But in the end of day all the Laird’s sold must have cost Leyland a fortune as we were continually receiving new boxed short motors under warranty to fit. We had to pay the fitting costs & towing in costs from all over the UK time off the road & diverting other vans to tranship loads to ensure we met delivery time in order not to reduce the standard of our service to our customers. How could Leyland ever have any hope of a long term future?
, yes we are rammed solid and trying cram in as much as we can ,but we all knows what happens when this happens ,DAMAGE !!!, so we going to have calm down with care ,bumper been hit on the VITO so far mr nobody !! also small scratch on the bumper of the Kangoo (mr nobody) a few small bits of poor packing ! but we got this under contol (hopefully)
, lots of local work (so the Hoff cheesed off ) John any descant parking spots in Coombe Martin area what you know of ? Mark you did a good job in that stacking mate ! was she heavy ?
Working for a BMC dealership they kept us busy, hard to believe that the reliable 5.1 and 5.7 BMC diesels fitted in the FFK’s etc could have so many issues when tilted over! Actually the interim FHK range used the same underfloor engine in the FFK cab but with a different cooling system and they performed well and yet still had a three man cab, but it didn’t tilt of course so major maintenance on them was ‘fun’ to say the least and I still have the bad back and knees! The cylinder head and pistons/liners had to be removed from beneath the nearside wheelarch in a narrow space between the chassis and cab floor. Removal lads liked them for the three man cab though and we looked after several with Luton bodies. However with the failure of the Laird range eventually they saw sense and modified the engine by re- designing it into the 6.98 range and fitting them vertically into the Boxer range as an option to the Perkins 6.354 where they were quite trouble free and still had a three man cab. Apart from the engines the FJ’s and Lairds were trouble free really, everything fitted behind the engine (gearbox, axles etc) actually seemed to perform well!