THINK ITS TIME WE GET A FEW OLD DODGES UP HERE
old rott boxes not bad till u got near a hill even empty with head wind it would just slow down 
" Smith Brothers ( Whitehaven ) Limited" is the name on this (Commer) Commando .
Photographed at Kirkby Stephen & Brough Rally, last year.
Cheers, cattle wagon man.
great motors ,my dad loved his dodge commandos . here is part of the fleet in the 80s , my brother was very upset when we sent his motor to Rush greens in 2004 when we bought him a lf (brand new) , he had no sleeper but did have curtains and a night heater in the e reg dodge .
this shot was in Rush gren a few years after we sold her , shame because this wagon was great , Dad never did get round to fiting a sleeper .
I had a Commer Commando when I worked for Express Catering Foods out of Boreham. The seat was mounted higher at the back than the front which meant that by the time I’d driven to Ipswich the ■■■■ thing had given me a wedgie. One good thing about it though, the clutch was a lot lighter to use than the D series Ford I’d had previously.
Hey Fat Controller. dirty pants then after a long run , 
, ha ha ,yes the Clutchs were light and they were cable controlled ., two grease ■■■■■■■ as well on the bell housing .
The later models had a clutch cable, but before that it was hydraulic, master cylinder was in the cab - spent many an unhappy hour trying to bleed the the system until i learnt not to split the system for a clutch or gearbox change, changed that many clutch’s on them that I had it down to about an hour and half without any air tools. I could list the common faults and tricks we learnt to stop them happening - like cable tieing a peice of rubber hose over the main air pipe near the bellhousing as it would rub through and no air would go to the main tank.
I cant remember his name but the head mechanic at Firths transport in Stalybridge taught me a few and how to set up the timing on a Perkins 354.3 and .4 engine that were fitted into them.
Just remembered also that the 5 speed box with an add on overdrive gear at the back off it would throw the a bolt out of the back of the box leaving a neat hole in the casing and no oil in the gearbox - jeez the more I type the more it all comes back to me
They were flying machines when empty though - I drove one to the top end - 85 mph belive it or not, terrifying 
Dean
Passed my Class one in one
Got the early Commer version of this brand new in 1976. when they sold my Albion LAD cabbed Chieftain.
What a difference !!!
What a difference !!!
The building firm i worked for in the 1980’s ran three 7.5 ton with multi lift bodies which were always well over weight when you went to collect a bin that had been filled with builders rubble etc, nice to drive,only problems i can remember were going rusty after only a few years old and noisy thrust bearing on one of them,apart from the usual bent mishaps from loading over weight bins…Rich.
This is a shot of two of the three Dodges I had,the first one had been a V reg 7:5tonner I bought seconhand and I had a lift off 16ft Parkhouse container and flat fitted to it,I sold the first one, box and all, to a local Racehorse trainer and bought the C reg 13 tonner new,again I had a new Parkhouse container and flat fitted.This 13 tonner had the Perkins 6.354,6 speed ZF and single speed Eaton axle.The women grooms that looked after the horses couldn’t drive the 13 tonner so I put it into the haulage fleet and bought a new 7;5 tonner with the same spec as the 13 tonner but on the smaller wheels,new parkhouse flat, and transferred the box from the 13 tonner.IIRC I ran this 7:5 tonner for about two years before I sold to a farmer in Cornwall,with only about 12,000 KMs on the clock,the little bugger couldn’t believe his luck,I filled it up with derv,counted his readies,and off he set sail back to Cornwall as “Happy as a pig in ■■■■” !! These two new Dodges I bought were at a time when they were being knocked out for very handy money as they had stopped production when Renault had taken over IIRC.I then bought a new G reg 17ton Iveco and had a 25 ft Parkhouse flat and lift off container fitted I ran this until the mid 90’s and sold it with 14000 KMs on the clock when I stopped racing harness horses as my health had started to deteriate a bit.Cheers Bewick.
This is a shot of the 13tonner at work in the general fleet,mainly used for chasing about delivering or collecting small jobs.This particular load is a high value Paper machine press roll either on it’s way to be re-con’d(either Glenrothes or Bury) or on it’s way back to one of the Mills we served,some of these rolls were valued up to £100,000 and were rated and insured accordingly !!Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
The red & white livery, black lettering and chrome wheel trims go well together… nice & smart
Another shot of the 13tonner leaving the depot loaded with paper,prior to having a cab sheet rack fitted.Bewick.
Great looking Dodges Bewick , did they serve you well? , also Hardy44 yes I do recall our old t reg Dodge having the fluid filler under a flap on the dash .looks like it could of been a messy job .