ParkRoyal2100:
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.
I honestly can’t say cos I’ve never driven one, but I have read more than a few accounts from coach drivers who cooked the brakes on a VAL without trying that hard.
The 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.
If it helps, I think 53 passengers at about 10 stone apiece weighs in at about four tons.
In the early 1970s whilst I was driving Class 1 HGVs, I did an occasional days work on a Saturday for a local coach firm,
to York or Wetherby racecourses, carrying a coach load of boozers, cash whip round on the way home and cash wages
from the coach firm. Several of the journeys were with a Bedford VAL 6 wheeler with bodywork by Duple, and I seem to
recall that one of the Bedford VAL coaches had a Leyland engine. Perhaps I am dreaming, I thought the VAL coaches were
a nice machine to drive.
The 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.
[/quote]
And when fully loaded (as a lorry), because the wheels were quite small the brakes (drums) were too small and overheated. Not fun.
[/quote]
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.
[/quote]
If it helps, I think 53 passengers at about 10 stone apiece weighs in at about four tons.
[/quote]
If they were all 10 stone it must have been an outing for the Jimmy Clitheroe lookalike agency.
