3, i was driving the old Renault Kangoo (22 years old now) as the Merc Vito ws being used on another job .
DEANB:
Suedehead:
“robthedog” Couple of old bedfords
Nice pics. Sureways, looks like Chalkers of WeymouthThats an ex Pickfords Bedford.
“Suedehead” Yes it does look like Chalkers had it before Sureways.
Hi Dean…yes this lovely looking TL is indeed an Ex Pickfords van…she was posted on another site recently to…but the Marsden grill is confusing to because it’s not a Marsden body …the only thing I can think that might of happened is Pickfords Engineering took the grill off a scrap Marsden TL they must of had…,…if I’m not mistaken I think this van was originally based on the south coast area to…,…I had the sister D458 FYE …M3896
Here she is when pretty new with Pickfords
marktaff:
“DEANB” “Suedehead” “robthedog” Couple of old bedfords
Nice pics. Sureways, looks like Chalkers of WeymouthThats an ex Pickfords Bedford.
“Suedehead” Yes it does look like Chalkers had it before Sureways.Hi Dean…yes this lovely looking TL is indeed an Ex Pickfords van…she was posted on another site recently to…but the Marsden grill is confusing to because it’s not a Marsden body …the only thing I can think that might of happened is Pickfords Engineering took the grill off a scrap Marsden TL they must of had…,…if I’m not mistaken I think this van was originally based on the south coast area to…,…I had the sister D458 FYE …M3896
Here she is when pretty new with Pickfords
Mark,Not 100% sure but I think its one of powerbodies ?
DEANB:
marktaff:
“DEANB” “Suedehead” “robthedog” Couple of old bedfords
Nice pics. Sureways, looks like Chalkers of WeymouthThats an ex Pickfords Bedford.
“Suedehead” Yes it does look like Chalkers had it before Sureways.Hi Dean…yes this lovely looking TL is indeed an Ex Pickfords van…she was posted on another site recently to…but the Marsden grill is confusing to because it’s not a Marsden body …the only thing I can think that might of happened is Pickfords Engineering took the grill off a scrap Marsden TL they must of had…,…if I’m not mistaken I think this van was originally based on the south coast area to…,…I had the sister D458 FYE …M3896
Here she is when pretty new with PickfordsMark,Not 100% sure but I think its one of powerbodies ?
Dean hope your keeping well…yes Power Bodies built most of the bodies for Pickfords at that time…mainly integrals on the day cab Volvo’s and Bedford’s…Marsden and Vanplan also built a few to but Power Bodies built the majority of them…the grill is not originally off this TL.
If I’m not mistaken Power Bodies went out if business
Gregory’s of Uxbridge advertised regularly in Commercial Motor and were well known for building bodies on the Bedford CA 15 cwt chassis scuttles.We had one new in 1957 exactly like the one on bottom left hand of their advert, which we ran until 1964.
Sadly like so many of our vans I have no photo, as we never seemed to think of taking photos to look back on, and I’ve been fortunate in over the years receiving so many that have been taken by others, and I live in hope that one of this CA or the 1964 Morris FG that replaced it turns up.
However I remember travelling down to Uxbridge by train with my parents and the journey back in the CA and als sitting in the cab a year or two later admiring the craftmanship of Gregory’s bodybuilders where every screw was countersunk and filled with woodfiller so you could hardly see where the wood framed cab had been joined
Jakey this picture just came up on a FB site guy called Chris Gandy takes a lot of photo’s of vehicles one of his usual positions is on the A19 north of Newcastle, a few years go probably now.
Thank you buddy for the phot, looking at those wheel trim ,i say she was fairly new then , the vehicle has since been sold three years ago but it it still working , was a good truck .
Nice drawbar Suedehead
JAKEY:
Nice drawbar Suedehead
Must have struggled a bit though, being an F6
Yes it would of mate 
Carl Williams:
robthedog:
CFATThe problems of using the Bedford VAL chassis for pantechnicons was considerable.
As a coach with the use of twin wheels on front enabled the use of smaller wheel size to keep the floor height lower making it easier for passengers to board and the blurb put out by Bedford at the time was that it was a safety feature in the event of a tyre blowout at high speed on a motorway, the coach could carry on in relative safety with a flat tyre, until a convenient place to stop was found with no risk for skidding. However I have known two operators in our area who experienced a wheel coming loose with drivers continuing without knowing and when they made their next stop finding they had a missing wheel.
The problem on commercial use was whereas on a usual van that size would be fitted with 900x20 tyres with 4 on the rear axel the VAL had smaller tyres which meant Gross Vehicle weight when Plated was less than 10 ton and because of the extra front axle and being 36 foot long the unladen weight was slightly over 5 ton, so unless they were used to carry feathers they were often overloaded with a full load.
And when fully loaded (as a lorry), because the wheels were quite small the brakes (drums) were too small and overheated. Not fun.
ParkRoyal2100:
Carl Williams:
robthedog:
CFATThe problems of using the Bedford VAL chassis for pantechnicons was considerable.
As a coach with the use of twin wheels on front enabled the use of smaller wheel size to keep the floor height lower making it easier for passengers to board and the blurb put out by Bedford at the time was that it was a safety feature in the event of a tyre blowout at high speed on a motorway, the coach could carry on in relative safety with a flat tyre, until a convenient place to stop was found with no risk for skidding. However I have known two operators in our area who experienced a wheel coming loose with drivers continuing without knowing and when they made their next stop finding they had a missing wheel.
The problem on commercial use was whereas on a usual van that size would be fitted with 900x20 tyres with 4 on the rear axel the VAL had smaller tyres which meant Gross Vehicle weight when Plated was less than 10 ton and because of the extra front axle and being 36 foot long the unladen weight was slightly over 5 ton, so unless they were used to carry feathers they were often overloaded with a full load.
And when fully loaded (as a lorry), because the wheels were quite small the brakes (drums) were too small and overheated. Not fun.
I wonder what the unladen weight was when it was fitted with a coach body then as presumably it would have been a lot more due to the weight of the body, seats etc. Can’t have been much fun with 53 passengers as well albeit most people weighed a bit less then than nowadays.