Pain and a Thames Trader? For any driver who has driven one in the middle of winter (or in Australia up over the Great Dividing Range) the agony of waking up from a fitful sleep, with your pillow on the steering wheel, opening the door and stepping down onto that stupid rim around the front wheel. Overnight, whilst you’ve been getting a couple of hours rest, the rim has of course iced up and as you put your weight on to it your boot slides off and you graze your shin from ankle to knee. You don’t scream “ouch”, you use a lot more unpleasant words. But after taking care of business and checking the load you’ve got to get back in and drive, and of course it only hurts more each time you push the clutch in. When you’re grossing 22 tons that’s about every minute for the next several hours.
My brother-in-law worked for WD and HO Wills up in Madang, Papua New Guinea for 7 years, a coastal fishing town on the north coast. He always said the twon wasn’t too bad to live in as it didn’t have a road to the Highlands where it wasn’t that long ago the locals used to eat each other. But further down the coast there was a road, of sorts, called the Highlands Highway. that took you up and over the mountain ranges. The road was basic and mud always a problem, almost as bad as the ‘rascals’ that used to stop the traffic and demand money from drivers and/or the goods they were carrying. Geoff recently found an old photograph from the mid 60’s of the Highland Highway needing repairs and a couple of Thames floundering in the mud. Recently there was a couple of posts talking about 4x4 Thames. These two look as if they were 4x4’s, particularly the front one that has the mud lug tyres on the steer axle, and the fact they were trying to put tree branches under the front wheels to assist drive. There’d be no need if it was just a steer axle.
Trader in Aus…still working on a farm delivering fuel to the tractors and combines out in the fields…
Recently I needed to renew rego on the Thames, everything ok except the wipers. The old Trico vacuum wipers were not working at all. Last year the inspector said “We haven’t had any rain for 5 years so they’re not that important but if you could get them to move just a little it would be good” So I tried every combo of spare parts I had from three old wiper motors without success. After looking at the mechanism I thought an alternative could be electric wipers. Searched the internet for wreckers photos and selected a rear wiper motor from a Suzuki Swift 2004-11 model. Most wiper motors are set up to drive via a circular motion. Rear wipers are simple swipe of about 140 degrees, slightly more than the original Thames wipers. After a fair bit of engineering, trial and error, luck and epoxy glue I got them installed and they work beautifully.
Tunnels:
My brother-in-law worked for WD and HO Wills up in Madang, Papua New Guinea for 7 years, a coastal fishing town on the north coast. He always said the twon wasn’t too bad to live in as it didn’t have a road to the Highlands where it wasn’t that long ago the locals used to eat each other. But further down the coast there was a road, of sorts, called the Highlands Highway. that took you up and over the mountain ranges. The road was basic and mud always a problem, almost as bad as the ‘rascals’ that used to stop the traffic and demand money from drivers and/or the goods they were carrying. Geoff recently found an old photograph from the mid 60’s of the Highland Highway needing repairs and a couple of Thames floundering in the mud. Recently there was a couple of posts talking about 4x4 Thames. These two look as if they were 4x4’s, particularly the front one that has the mud lug tyres on the steer axle, and the fact they were trying to put tree branches under the front wheels to assist drive. There’d be no need if it was just a steer axle.
Thats a great pic ! 
dashman:
My Dad bought a new Trader in 1958,reg 487 BKA. a good wagon in its class.I bought one in 1968? from Holt Lane Transport in Prescot / St Helens area, It was a
Creg 1965 model ,ran it as a flat for a year then converted it to a tipper, had it on for Norwest Sand in Liverpool.Any Thames Trader buffs out there?
here you go.
Suedehead:
01Not my pics
Two cracking shots of a couple of immaculate Traders ! I wonder what GVW the artic run at ? 20 or 24 ton GVW ? Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Suedehead:
01Not my pics
Two cracking shots of a couple of immaculate Traders ! I wonder what GVW the artic run at ? 20 or 24 ton GVW ? Cheers Bewick.
Hiya,
Dennis does the Trader pulling a four in line trailer make it’s GVW
in excess of 24 tons, just asking for a not very bright and very
long retired owd git.
harry_gill:
Bewick:
Suedehead:
01Not my pics
Two cracking shots of a couple of immaculate Traders ! I wonder what GVW the artic run at ? 20 or 24 ton GVW ? Cheers Bewick.
Hiya,
Dennis does the Trader pulling a four in line trailer make it’s GVW
in excess of 24 tons, just asking for a not very bright and very
long retired owd git.
Hi Harry its nice to see you on this thread , Once again, The Ford Traction Units could run st 20 Ton Gross IM0, Regards Larry.
Hiya H & Larry. Thinking about it I reckon Larry is right that 20 ton GVW would be correct because lack of air braking on the Traders IMO. I recall that the later T. Brady Comets that pulled the 4 in lines were all air braked and they ran at 24 ton GVW ( more often than not in excess of 24 ton gvw )
Cheers Dennis.
I reckon I should load that Trader/4 in line with 5 drops for London , “hand bowl” , and set “H” off with it What do you reckon ? Anon 1.
PS but I would like to bet that he would still be tipped, parked up, into the digs, washed and changed and in the Brown Bear at 7 pm to see what talent was about 
And that would be on the first day down ! 
Aye Dennis the good old days in London, Ive had some good times in The Brown Bear in the early 60s Kippping at Toneys in Mansell Street, Or camping out if he was fully booked, Goodmans Yard , Or St Katherines Way, 
, Regards Larry.
The later D800 Series units were also maxed at 20 Ton GCW, you had to go up to the D1000 for 24 to 28 Ton GCW. The 800’s also being Hydraulic with air assisted servo, so unlikely the Trader units grossed over 20 Ton either. Franky.
Hi Franky, Your spot on once again about the Fords, My pal from Seaton Burn had a D series with a Perkins V 8 in it , The overheating problems with it was because the radiator was too small, When that was sorted It was a good motor to drive, Hope you are keeping well, And hope we can all meet up in the Labour Club later this year, Regards Larry.
This one is preserved in Belgium.
how about this for a load for a trader, my embarrased dad in a white coat and cap with his trader and a load of real life rosebud dolls , outside selfridges for a promotion , you can just see the chairs inside where they sat while intransit, oh thats a young version of me by vxj746 by the way
