As per the title, no development on cabs ? ie TK +TL, fitting Detroit engines in the KM TM ?
Who’d want to put a thirsty gas guzzling 2 stroker in a lorry when you could have a more reliable fuel efficient British engine installed■■?
gazsa401:
Who’d want to put a thirsty gas guzzling 2 stroker in a lorry when you could have a more reliable fuel efficient British engine installed■■?
It was a shame about the TM as it should have been a seller with a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and Rockwell driveline, going back to the Detroit engined TM’s there was an operator of bulk tippers form Kidderminster, D.E.K Dixon and he had a few TM’s with Detroits fitted, plain white units anybody remember them?
I drove several Bedford’s TK’s and KM. They were OK short term, but like a lot of other makes at the time, just a cheap motor and not in the same league as Leyland, Commer or Albion.
Cheers Dave.
I only ever drove the odd TK and TL. I even did a Continental run with a TL artic! Personally, I found them to be tinny things and I didn’t like them much (always glad to get back into an ERF, Foden or Seddon-Atkinson). Robert
No height in the cab of the TK or KM. Anyone over 5’8’’ driving them would have a bad neck or back. I found them uncomfortable and I am just 6’0’'.
Dave the Renegade:
No height in the cab of the TK or KM. Anyone over 5’8’’ driving them would have a bad neck or back. I found them uncomfortable and I am just 6’0’'.
My Uncle had two TK’s and I had to crane my neck to see out of windscreen also I found them very low geared 35/40 mph was flogging them!
robert1952:
I only ever drove the odd TK and TL. I even did a Continental run with a TL artic! Personally, I found them to be tinny things and I didn’t like them much (always glad to get back into an ERF, Foden or Seddon-Atkinson). Robert
Just to qualify my remarks above (rather than just write them off out of hand), I would add the following observation.
As a boy in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I went very much by the SOUND that commercial vehicles made. It always seemed to me that CVs fell roughly into two camps: the quality sound that AECs, Leylands, ERFs, Atkinsons, Seddons, Guys, Fodens etc made; and the tinnier, shriller bleat of Fords, Bedfords, BMCs (Austin, Morris) and Commers etc made.
To level the playing field, I could tell the difference in buses and coaches, which tended to have one-size-fits-all bodies; so that by my mid-teens I could certainly tell whether a bog-standard Plaxton Panorama Elite had an engine from either of those categories, just by listening.
It may have more to do with engine size, of course, rather than quality; but the result was that by the time I got behind the wheel of a lorry, I had already become an inveterate engine/badge snob! The only bit of me that was partially ‘cured’ of that snobbery was the discovery that a Ford Transcon with a 14-litre ■■■■■■■ 350 in it was deffo not a ‘tinny’ motor!
Robert
Had a KM unit, my first unit as a young owner driver around 1972/3, H Reg 1970 that cost me £450, that was less than my 40ft spread axle tandem cost if I remember correctly.
As said not good if you were tall, I was 6’2” but I suffered fairly happily as it was earning well for me. Only problem I had with it was it burned a gallon of oil every 70 or so miles.
Put in a lot of miles and hours in it in a short space of time - as was possible then!! After about 9 months sold it for a bit more than I paid for it and bought a 1972 reg Merc 1418 at £4,500.
So whilst it wasn’t that pleasant to drive it was a great stepping stone and also taught me patience on hills when loaded, a real bonus as this was a pre-requisite to anyone with a 1418.
The KM was a cheap basic motor that was surprisingly reliable, but then as it was so basic there wasn’t much to go wrong, more suited to the 3rd world.
Dave the Renegade:
No height in the cab of the TK or KM. Anyone over 5’8’’ driving them would have a bad neck or back. I found them uncomfortable and I am just 6’0’'.
Yes Dave, at 6’4" I had similar problems. However I only drove TK’s/TJ’s/KM’s as a fitter so didn’t spend a long time behind the wheel. Working on them I found them well constructed and easy to repair but no way could you compare them to something like a Leyland/Albion/ERF/AEC etc, but then I would imagine that there was quite a difference in price. They did what they were designed for (urban deliveries, council and medium distance work) very well I thought and, before anybody says, I realise that many firms also ran them on long distance and overseas journey’s but usually changed an engine somewhere on route!! 
Pete.
For several months inthe 70’s I did about 1300 miles a week in a Leyland Terrier 4 speed. I am 5ft 10in but I would have much preferred the TK. It was more driver friendly and smoother, quieter and had more status. Mind you, MAN, Saviem and Magirus were there if you were brave enough to go Foreign, but Oh how I wish the boss had bought Ford D Series. Jim.
Had for three years a TK Bedford with a Leyland engine, Eaton two speed axle, on for Cawthorns on the Thorn’s contract, pulling a BTC four in line, as is said not to much room but a great deal more comfort and better than some that where around at the time, the Leyland engined motors I think where a good set up, like the old whistling S type Bedfords couldn’t fault them. Why did they fail…That I cannot answer, I had no problems.
Ossie
I fully understand the question and as Ramone’s question earlier asked why did British Leyland fail, I think the question should be why did British motor Industry as a whole fail? From cars to lorries and in such a short time, now that is a whole new can of worms.
Can’t call Bedford a British motor,as they were owned by General Motors along with Vauxhall.
Ultimately for similar reasons as Leyland.IE an in house manufacturer facing ( in this case unjustified ) market resistance to its in house engine range.Thereby no business case for its continuation.Bearing in mind the TM cab combined with turbo 92 series ( not 71 N ) engine range was as good an in house product as any if not better in the day.
While unlike Leyland we can obviously count out the financial investment angle and being tied to an unsuccessful car division like BMC.
Dave the Renegade:
Can’t call Bedford a British motor,as they were owned by General Motors along with Vauxhall.
You are right maybe I should have said produced in Britain, but if we go down that road we have to include Ford as mass producers of medium weight motors, but at least we have to remember they employed many thousands of Brit’s
OssieD:
Dave the Renegade:
Can’t call Bedford a British motor,as they were owned by General Motors along with Vauxhall.You are right maybe I should have said produced in Britain, but if we go down that road we have to include Ford as mass producers of medium weight motors, but at least we have to remember they employed many thousands of Brit’s
Quite agree OssieD, both were made in larger numbers than most of the British motors. Up until they stopped making the TK, Bedford were churning a lot of medium weight lorries out. They seemed to loose interest after that and the rest of their models seemed half hearted attempts to gain customers in the UK and Europe.
Dave the Renegade:
Bedford were churning a lot of medium weight lorries out. They seemed to loose interest after that and the rest of their models seemed half hearted attempts to gain customers in the UK and Europe.
There’s no way that the TM’s design and production could be described as ‘half hearted’.
Didn’t they try to buy Leyland before the daf merger.
I’m sure I read the loss of a milatry contract that went to Leyland perhaps to sweeten daf up was the final straw for GM.
I guess by that time the TM which was never as successful as Bedford hoped was coming to the end of its life and the TL was been overtaken by more modern rivals.
It’s intresting that Ford got out of truck building at the same time.
My first wagon was a TK WWX 481L delivering pop locally for Gomersalls Magpie minerals in Tingley, I thought it was a good motor for what we needed it to do, at the time was considered to be best wagon for local deliveries, a lot of the big company’s had them esp the parcel people like Atlas and United carriers, as another thread states you used to see them everywhere