The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot International Zone Hello Gents - Bedford Man - UK

Been an occasional browser of the site for a few years - not a Stovebolt owner, but a longtime Bedford owner and enthusiast.

If you don't already know, Bedford are the Brit equivalent of Chevrolet trucks, GM built as well and you'd be surprised how similar they are, particularly the normal control models.

An ulterior motive, in the shape of a late '40s COE I have to do some work on, has finally kicked me into signing up, but now I have joined I'll be here for more than just that - so hello all from the UK!

Welcome to the Stovebolt. You will soon find some other bolters from the UK...maybe some close to you. Some great guys here and folks who have tons of knowledge and willing to share. Spend a little time getting to learn your way around. There is just so much info here..... now, post us up some pics when you can. We love pictures.

Welcome aboard I learnt to drive in a J 2 Bedford in New Zealand in th e form of a milk truck very similar to a chevvy never knew what the engine was but it was fun going to do the milk run and backing it up to the loading dock

Pictures you say...

Our 'Big Bedford' in the mud...

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/BedfordR/media/Public%20album/RL%202.jpg.html

TPR, would that have been a 214 petrol in that J type?

Welcome from up north Bedfordman,like you say the J series was the nearest the Brits got to their Chevy cousins.

Mainland Europe got the Opel Blitz which was the closest to the AD (Advance Design) series of Chevy trucks which as you may know was never officially imported to our little island to my knowledge.

Nice shot of the Big Bedford in action. (Ex Military I presume?)

A belated Welcome, as well.

Great shot of the Bedford! They're GM built?? No kidding ... Well guess what? By our (admittedly loose ...) "daffy-nition", that makes it a Stovebolt! And you a fully vested Stovebolter!

So tell us more about the Bedford!

I have to go update the "What's a Stovebolt?" FAQ now .... cool! So what else does GM build over there and down under??

Cheers,
John

John,Bedfords were a favourite of many organisations be it Military,Fire and rescue and commercial transport.

Here's a little UK 'Firebolt'
The Military versions of the firetrucks are known as 'Green Goddesses',they were used up until fairly recently during Fire service pay disputes.
Bedford were the leaders in all wheel drive trucks so as a consequence they were a firm favourite for their off road abilities.

Hello John, thanks for the welcome and sorry for the delay replying.

So tell you about Bedford...

Well, I guess you know GM took over Vauxhall in the UK and Opel in Germany very early - 1925 for Vauxhall and 1929 for Opel, if I remember right.

After GM bought Vauxhall, they started importing Chevrolet 2 and 3 ton trucks - I think as kits to be assembled in Britain - and selling them as 'British Bedford'. After the first few years they started building British designed trucks, just called Bedford.

The first British designed range was the W type, built from 1931 to 1939. 30 cwt, 2 and 3 ton, and at first very similar to the Chevrolets. They were revised in the mid '30s when a short bonnet semi-forward control version was introduced. Known as the 27 hp, as the RAC horsepower rating of the straight six engine was 27 hp.

In 1939 they were replaced by the 28 RAC hp (214 cu in) K, M and O type. K type was single rear wheel 30 cwt normal control, M type was 2 ton twin wheel (duals), O type was 3 - 5 ton semi-forward control duals, all in long or short wheelbase. Very popular trucks, and an austerity version with a square front was built in huge numbers for the military during WW2. Still many of them about in preservation.

In 1950 the forward control (cabover) 5 - 7 ton S type, known as the 'Big Bedford' was introduced. Same cab as our four wheel drive R type in the picture - the R type came out in 1952. S and R type had a 300 cu in straight six petrol and later a Perkins R6 diesel, then finally Bedford's own diesel of 300 (later 330) cu in.

1953 the K / M / O types were replaced with the A type normal control, which looked very like the AD Chevrolets and was probably as close as Bedford came to a direct copy of the Chevrolet design. The A type was replaced in 1957 with the D type, again very AD looking, and Bedford introduced a small cabover called the C type.

In 1959 all these were replaced with the cabover (in fact, cab forward) TK range and the normal control TJ (or J type) range. Lots of flavours - anything from 1 ton to 7 tons (TJ) or 30 cwt to about 18 tons (24 tons gross)(TK,KM), in many different wheelbases, with 214 cu in or 300 cu in petrol engines or 200 (later 220) cu in, 300 (later 330), the Leyland 400 cu in, and 466 (later 500) cu in diesels.

In 1974 Bedford introduced the TM range heavy trucks for 16 to 44 tonnes gross, using the 500 cu in diesel or Detroit 6V-71 2 stroke.

Bedford also made a lot of specialist chassis - they were very big in bus, coach and ambulance chassis, and specialist (particularly 4x4 and 6x6) vehicles for the military; a lot of Bedfords are still in military service today.

The Bedford name was also used for light and car based vans built by Bedford, Vauxhall and Isuzu (GM Japan).

The 'Green Goddess' that Jockbolter posted, more properly known as the Self Propelled Pump, were built on S type and R type chassis for the Home Office Auxiliary Fire Service, a government run national fire service held in reserve during the cold war in case of national emergencies. Many civil fire services also had fire appliances of all types built on Bedford chassis.

GM sold Bedford to AWD in 1988 - unfortunately, they didn't make a success of it and they went bust in 1992, in part because GM hadn't invested in Bedford in the 70s and early 80s, so by the time AWD took over the trucks were out of date and it was too late to catch up.

Although the development lines separated, there's a lot of common GM family design and parts in Bedfords - you'd be amazed how similar they are particularly to the AD, and how much like a Stovebolt the 28 hp, 214 and 300 engines look.

Opel also built their own, similar truck range known as the 'Blitz', but I don't think ever got into bigger trucks, and stopped building commercials in 1975. Hindustan in India built Bedfords under licence for many years. I don't know that Holden in Australia ever built trucks of any size. For the most part where GM wanted to market trucks in other countries they tended to export Bedfords. As a result Bedfords were common in Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, India and Pakistan - in fact their slogan for a while was 'you see them everywhere' (another slogan was 'the truck for a 50% overload', which you'd never get away with these days!)

Like your NAPCO conversions, a lot of companies did all wheel drive and other conversions of Bedfords, including AWD (All Wheel Drive), Reynolds-Boughton, Armstrong-Vickers-Onions and others.

Our 'Big Bedford' is an R type (RL) 4 ton 4x4 with the 300 cu in straight six petrol, 4 speed gearbox, 2 speed transfer box (2wd high range, 4wd low range) and hypoid axles, 152" wheelbase on 11.00 x 20 tyres (singles rear), air over hydraulic brakes; we've also got a J type ambulance on the 30 cwt chassis with the 214 petrol engine.

Is that enough to be going on with?!!

Wow. That was interesting. maybe an article...

Thanks for the info!

Agree John, think we need to archive Bman's very informative post. Another thing I love about the Bolt, I just learned a ton of old truck history in 15 min's with Jock's post, Tim's wiki, and Bman's thesis !!

Before we send the hare's running regarding GM's involvement in pre-WWII Germany(Wiki), I would guess our administration supported GM's effort to help rebuild their economy right up until we realized a madman was in the wheelhouse. Can you imagine the surprise when the first serviceman's officer pointed to the abandoned Nazi truck and said can you get the dang thing running?

Thanks for taking the time gentleman.

Here's a little Breakdown truck I found local to me,it belongs to the local Leyland/GM/Vauxhall agents.
Bedford breakdown truck.

Jock -- That's a cool looking truck. And now we know ... it's a Stovebolt!

Allen -- Concur! The things you learn around here are what keep us motivated. Someday, I want Jock to teach me to drive a Bedford breakdown truck as we go on a scotch tour. How cool would THAT be?? BTW, I was in traffic behind one of those Ford commercial van things with ladders on top and it made me think of Jock for some reason.

So in the meantime, I will keep posting to this thread until I can remember to grab B'Man's info and make an article out of it.

That recovery truck's really tidy, Jock.

I'll take issue with your photo caption, though - I don't think it's a K-type, it's an RL - in fact, it looks like a modified Truck 3 Ton 4x4 Recovery Light, which the Army had from the '50s through to the '80s.

http://www.rememuseum.org.uk/collections_view.aspx?id=24

Definitely a Stovebolt though!

Vauxhall did a nice magazine style promo brochure for Bedford back in '78 called 'You see them everywhere' - Bedford history in lots of photos. It still pops up on eBay and the like now and again.

John, Allen, glad you enjoyed my brief summary. Somewhere I have an article and road test on the RL I did years ago...

I stand corrected Bedfordman.
Like many here am a bit of a newbie when it comes to these trucks,despite the fact i'm in the UK.
I do believe that one had a Military past though.

Old (and very rusty) TKs are more my era.
I fit automotive glass and I've had a few nightmares with the TKs water soluable windscreen aperatures.

Thanks for the edumacation!

John,I know you can deal with three pedals but the left hand gearshift might initially be a challenge.

I'm not wanting to get too far O/T but I live near Prestwick Airport and it's quite easy to spot the tourists who hire a car that haven't done RH Drive before,just to add insult to injury we force them to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road!

In fact many of the rural roads on the popular tourist trails here have "KEEP LEFT" emblazoned in three feet high letters painted on the roads surface.
Sadly that's not always sufficient.

I tailed a fella in a F*rd Focus last year and he had hit the curb 5 times in the space of a mile,serves him right for hiring a F*rd....

The tyre supplier to the likes of Hertz do a roaring trade in wheels and tyres....coincidentally mostly on the LH side.

I see them looking on enviously as I breeze by in my LHD Chevy!

Jock, Peggy and I were stationed in Japan (Okinawa) for three years, and we had an '81 Toyota Liteace van with a three on the tree on the left. I found it to be no problem and actually think, even now, that it makes more sense that way anyway. For some reason, the whole shift with the left, steer with the right just seemed more logical.

I miss that van ... It was so underpowered, it was like driving a much bigger vehicle ... with a diesel ... It sure rolled some coal like a two-cycle Detroit in need of a tuneup... But we had a lot of fun with it, and when we had it packed full of family, camping gear, scuba tanks, etc, it went a lot of off-road places... Fun days.

So I say to you this: Ha! Let's go! I'm drivin'

My first experience of a column shift manual was coincidentally a Toyota HiAce van.
I quite liked it.

I'd imagine most non American vehicles would feel underpowered to you John.
The European equivalent of say a Chevy Dayvan here gets by with a pokey little 152c.u. Turbo diesel!
Very few commercial vehicles here have petrol engines let alone a V8.
Even my Vauxhall Movano was rated at 3.5 ton and had a 152 c.u. motor......the 6 speed manual helped utilise the torque available though.

We've got the Bedford story in the Gallery. Have made a note about the history page!

The brochure that Bedford attached is really cool. About 50 pages of history and great images.

Peg

Welcome Bedfordman, its great to see a little diversification here

I too have a Bedford , a 1958 SB3 , a long and rambling thread on it in my signature. I bought it in 1990 and have done about 70,000 over the years , it is currently sleeping while I fix the dead 330 diesel (repower)