I used to drive a Mercedes cartransporter with a coffin on he dack, sleeps well ones you got in.
Dont dream of nacked ladys thou, than you got stuck.
Spiers of Melksham ran loads of these right up into the early `90s note the bucket hung from the bumper something you dont see anymore
Had an Iveco with a coffin for me first couple of years on transporters, hateful things, you really wanted a fork truck to lift you up and slide you in, about 2’ 6" width and height if i recall.
One of our old workmates managed to get a friendly lady in with him and the ensuing vibrations brought the whole thing down onto the bonnet of the car nosed in underneath, both trapped and wedged, wish i’d witnessed that.
Niall:
Does anyone agree though, that the Ford Transcontinental was a wagon before it’s time?
Introduced in ( I think ) 1975, compared with the trucks of that time, it was a bit too big ‘for it’s boots’
Niall.
It was a great tool…until it came to stopping. The brakes were not that good on them.
My fondest memory of a “Coffin Cab” was one night in the early 70’s. I was staying in the BP truck stop at Carlisle soon after it opened. The digs on London Road were closing down and the girls from Carlisle used to come up to the truck stop in mini buses. One driver took “Big Bella” a very heavy weight lass back to his coffin cab and soon afterwards she reappeared covered in grease. The coffin had broken away from the cab and deposited Bella on to the greasy suzies. The Jock driver never lived it down.
You might think your on memory lane,but coffin sleepers are still available from Peterbilt and Kenworth,complete with rubber gasket to keep the rain out between the cab and coffin…their marketing department calls then “Flat top sleepers” though. 
Longwayround:
You might think your on memory lane,but coffin sleepers are still available from Peterbilt and Kenworth,complete with rubber gasket to keep the rain out between the cab and coffin…their marketing department calls then “Flat top sleepers” though.
What wimps the Yanks are, wanting to keep out the rain! S’pose that’s they have trucks whilst we had real lorries and wagons!
steveo999:
If I remember rightly, Tolemans had a load of these strapped to the back of their Ivecos in the early days.
Tolemans car transporters at Bathgate. Repaired the Ivecos with the pods on the back, used to leak like a sieve, drivers were well paid.
depablo:
steveo999:
If I remember rightly, Tolemans had a load of these strapped to the back of their Ivecos in the early days.Tolemans car transporters at Bathgate. Repaired the Ivecos with the pods on the back, used to leak like a sieve, drivers were well paid.
Tolemans, ahhh there’s another old company. The family lived near Bury St Edmunds, where was the company based?
They were into racing cars and also powerboat racing as well as car transport.
The family sold up and moved to South Africa to farm bananas some years back, I heard that they were planning to return but tragedy struck and one of the sons was killed recently in a petrol station hijacking in SA. A sad story.
chorcheela:
depablo:
steveo999:
If I remember rightly, Tolemans had a load of these strapped to the back of their Ivecos in the early days.Tolemans car transporters at Bathgate. Repaired the Ivecos with the pods on the back, used to leak like a sieve, drivers were well paid.
Tolemans, ahhh there’s another old company. The family lived near Bury St Edmunds, where was the company based?
They were into racing cars and also powerboat racing as well as car transport.
The family sold up and moved to South Africa to farm bananas some years back, I heard that they were planning to return but tragedy struck and one of the sons was killed recently in a petrol station hijacking in SA. A sad story.
Ted Toleman started the Toleman F2 and subsequently F1 team that became Benetton in 1986 and subsequently the Renault F1 team. They had big South African connections in the 1970s with Rad Dougall in F2 as a driver and their designer Rory Byrne, who now works at Ferrari F1 and has designed all Schumonekys winning F1 cars. Most of which have been bent, but thats another story.
Toleman went out of business because he bought those trailers that could take an extra car. They were computerised state of the art but didn`t justify the price…£500,000 each was the price bandied about…?
berisford from stoke mates they were allways in italy with,ERFs with coffins on the back of the cabs,they had 1 scania 110 then he got a 111
Surprised nobody mentioned Killingbecks from Blackburn.They had a rake of Atki Borderers with the old “dog kennel” on t’back’
By the way,whats a sleeper cab?
Yeah yeah I know-another old ba-----!
I think a firm from Sandbach called Jennings put coffins on back of AEC Mandators and prob other makes as well.
Never had a wagon of me own with a sleeper cab but god knows I could have done with one just to keep out of bug huts that were called transport digs.Finished up putting some curtains up and a mattress across floor of my Marathon.You could disconnect gear lever and lie it on the floor but stll froz to death over t’winter even with TL12 running all neet.
Question.-----------what’s a night heater?
Chris Webb:
I think a firm from Sandbach called Jennings put coffins on back of AEC Mandators and prob other makes as well./quote]Jennings made “pods” for Atkis and ERFs, as well as the Ergo cab: here are a couple from the W. H. Bowker fleet
This A-Series ERF was one of a pair that they ran on Continental work, and is shown here in later life as the wrecker for the Blackburn Corporation bus fleet. Sadly it was cut up only a couple of years ago after almost making it into preservation.
This Borderer was the only sleeper-cabbed Atki that Bowker ever had, and was based in Cardiff when new. It is pictured near the end if its life, when working as the garage shunter in Blackburn.Coincidentally though, for anyone who reads Practical Classics magazine, the Golf GTi behind the Atki is alive and well with one of their staff writers, regularly featuring in the magazine. It turned red before it left Blackburn.
Thanks for that 240,great pics,takes yer back,eh?
Chris Webb:
Thanks for that 240,great pics,takes yer back,eh?
Oh yes! And also Jennings made a very tidy conversion for the B Series ERF, distinguishable from the factory version only by its flat roof. When I worked at Pandoro, a regular job for me was to do a weekly changeover at Jenings in Crewe on a Friday afternoon for a weeks: day cab ERF in and sleeper out. They did 30 for Pandoro: 2 at a time, each taking a week. I don’t have any pics of those, 'cos they’re not Atkis!!
This was the second incarnation of Jennings coachbuilders: the original company was actually bought out by ERF.
Nowt really to do with coffins,but remember having to move an Atki that some t— had left in offloading bay in Albright and Wilsons Whitehaven(if yer can see Isle of Man from Whitehaven it’s going to rain and if yer can’t see it is doing!)Anyroad could I hell as like get handbrake off - it was at back of cab on yer right and I was brought up on AEC’s with air assisted type.Got it off in end after a lot of cursing as it was a sunday morning with a 0200 start from Sheffield and wanted to get up to BP Grangemouth and load same day.
Chris Webb:
Nowt really to do with coffins,but remember having to move an Atki that some t— had left in offloading bay in Albright and Wilsons Whitehaven(if yer can see Isle of Man from Whitehaven it’s going to rain and if yer can’t see it is doing!)Anyroad could I hell as like get handbrake off - it was at back of cab on yer right and I was brought up on AEC’s with air assisted type.Got it off in end after a lot of cursing as it was a sunday morning with a 0200 start from Sheffield and wanted to get up to BP Grangemouth and load same day.
Ah yes, you do have to know how to operate them! I think that the Foden S80/3 had the same valve, if I remember correctly. They’re not difficult, but you just need to know how they work.