The Mighty Sherpa (LDV etc)

[Cavcraft]

Apologies if the title is click bait (I'm not altogether sure what that means exactly though) but I'd like to have a thread dedicated to the mighty Sherpa/LDV. Pictures, anecdotes, eBay spots, links to ones for sale or whatevs.

If this thread is shit, then it can sink to the bottom. It's just an idea. so don't shoot me.

 

The first van I drove was 1.7 'O' Series for a tyre firm. They also had one of these...

 

 

 

..but in a slightly lighter blue I think. It had a sort of slightly rounded rear end and was as rusty as bollocks, but just kept going. We then progressed to an LDV 400 pick-up with a 2.5 Peugeot engine which honestly felt like a Ferrari compared to the petrol ones.

 

 

 

Here's one for sale on eBay, need to find out what happened to the 4x4 one.

 

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Freight-rover-sherpa-panel-van-ex-bt-diesel-/112271596878?hash=item1a23e89d4e:g:wvQAAOSw44BYfVTj

[holbeck]

Good call. They're a bit shit, but I can't help but have soft spot for a Sherpa.

[DVee8]

All you 4x4 needs olli

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FRIGHT-ROVER-VAN-4X4-/262806013058?hash=item3d30758482:g:hUcAAOSw9GhYeKNZ

 

[Guest Hooli]

Had a late one, must have been about 2000-2005? time as a hire van when a works transit was broke. It was shite, slow & noisey. I loved it though as it went sideways better than the tranny did.

[Asimo]

The mighty SherPilot was descended from the mightily crap Austin J4 from which some panels, including rear doors and roof, were taken pretty much unchanged.

 

This was Mum's J4, after it had failed one MOT too many. I spent hours driving it back 15 feet and then forward again, waiting to be 17.

By which time she had bought a Transit.

Thank fuck.

[trigger]

Pogweasel would be literally FAPPIN his cock off if he was still on here. I love a early Sherpa me.

 

We had a Ex post office L reg LDV 200 where i worked once, it was awful, the clutch was so heavy you had to stand on the pedal and it had no power steering and it was seriously slow, horrible thing.

 

[doug]

Anybody want this? Not a Sherpa but nearly.

 

[UltraWomble]

[wuvvum]

Pogweasel would be literally FAPPIN his cock off if he was still on here. I love a early Shepra me.

 

We had a Ex post office L reg LDV 200 where i worked once, it was awful, the clutch was go heavy you had to stand on the pedal and it had no power steerinh and it was seriously slow, horrible thing.

 

 

 

Going on my experience of Sherpas I would estimate that he is taking that corner at between 7 and 8 mph.

 

 

There's a scruffy orange Sherpa appeared in someone's drive just up the road from me - looks like an ex-coachbuilt camper.  I'll try to nab a pic tomorrow.

[UltraWomble]

[vulgalour]

I've nearly bought a Sherpa.  Twice.  On purpose!  Insurance put paid to my dreams as nobody seemed willing to put it on a non-business personal policy and commercial policies were all £bumrape.

[UltraWomble]

[Richard]

V8 power.

 

DSC_1797 by RichardB5, on Flickr

[dollywobbler]

I've always loved Sherpas and the like. Had 200/400 brochures cut up and displayed on my bedroom wall as a teenager. In fact, I reckon these vans (and a liking for Land Rovers) are one of the reasons I love dreadful vehicles!

 

Even got to spend my college work experience at the Washwood Heath factory. What an experience that was. I was there just as they were testing the Pilot and Convoy ahead of production. Everything was so run down, but the people were ace.

 

Back in 2006, I thought it'd be a good idea to set myself up in the vehicle delivery business. I was quite wrong, but the vehicle of choice was pretty obvious.

 

Yes, it did always do my head in that the driver's wiper arm was actually a passenger arm. Should be cranked! Had the Peugeot 2.5 turbo diesel, so would sit at 70 all day. It often did. No power steering though, so could be hard work. I take my hat off to anyone doing vehicle delivery. It's a horrible job.

 

Would still love another. I reckon the 400 is one of the best looking vans ever made - utterly ruined by the Convoy facelift.

 

EDIT - bah! MOT expired 2008. Not surprising. She was quite crusty. After doing a job for Craig_Princess (I still have nightmares about that day!), the exhaust fell off on the M1 on my way home. It didn't seem to make any difference to noise levels or performance.

[eddyramrod]

I think I've only once driven an actual Sherpa, which was a friend's 1.7 minibus.  I have however driven a load of 400/Convoys and ok, they were slow and primitive, but I'm old enough to expect a van to be that way.  I worked for one firm at the end of the 90s, where they had three H-reg box vans and four K-reg panel vans, all refrigerated, which they had more or less replaced with ten lovely new P and R-reg TurboDaily panel vans.  Nobody wanted to touch the LDVs, but there was slightly too much work for the Ivecos alone, and often I was drafted in from the parent company to take over a run from someone who had left/gone sick/been sacked, all of which happened often.  I was perfectly happy with the old vans.  In fact I think I was the first person to give them any love and care!  They'd all been dreadfully abused from new, so you can imagine how they were by 99/2000.  During the 2000 fuel crisis I wangled one of the box vans as, effectively, a company car!   I didn't mind at all.

[Inspector Morose]

Amongst Sherpas I have known was this:

 

 

 

It was only ever used for crew shuttles and somewhere to sit when on your break in Walsall and not for public service....

 

Until my National broke down in the bus station next to it and it did an illicit 381 to Stonnal with my Setight ticket machine on my lap.

 

It got through a set of kingpins every year and a gearbox every two.

[garethj]

I know nothing about LDVs, never even sat in one let alone driven one.  I have a vague memory of trawling around the NEC Motor Show in the early '80s and watching a promotional video for the Sherpa where it was driven off a ramp and bounced nicely through a field.  Bizarre.

 

And when I worked for the Original Equipment division of Sercks in the mid '90s I think we supplied radiators to them, did the company have some kind of management buy out?

[greengartside]

There's a 1975 N-plate Sherpa that's sat at the bottom of my dad's/next door neighbour's garden, it's been there since 1986! Sadly there is a land dispute on the bit where it sits so unable to get PIKTURZ.

[UltraWomble]

Preston Zippy Sherpa - for a few years there were these minibus things ( they used Iveco's and Talbot's too)

 

[Craig the Princess]

 

EDIT - bah! MOT expired 2008. Not surprising. She was quite crusty. After doing a job for Craig_Princess (I still have nightmares about that day!), the exhaust fell off on the M1 on my way home. It didn't seem to make any difference to noise levels or performance.

I'm still sorry about that. Funnily enough I've recently cut out a repair section for whee I put a jack through the Allegro floor that day.

 

This is our 400, plugging away with us lugging all sorts of shite about. Needs brake work and welding for another MoT however.

 

[Felly Magic]

One of my mates is a full born Sherpa apologist, and has in his collection an ex demo Freight Rover Sherpa loaftin that is a long term resto project, AND an ex Postman Twat LDV Pillock with XUD in storage. Attached are the man and his van taken when he was on hols a few years back. And yes they are Rover P6 hubcaps on it. It's laid up with a borked steering box IIRC, and here is a link to his photos of his loaftin https://www.flickr.com/photos/21667585@N03/albums/72157629578693090

 

 

[Guest Lord Sward]

I could talk Sherpa all day.  

 

As a kid my dad ran a 1986 Freight-Rover 400 series.  2.5 Land Rover derv, no PAS, truckette body style. At the same time my uncle ran a 200 series panel van with a sliding door.  Both class, both shite.  

 

The last Sherpa I personally owned (I've driven a lot through work as a Rover Salesman) was a 55 plate XLWB Convoy with the 2.4 Twin Cam Ford TDCI diesel.  It drove miles better than our 2004 TD5 Discovery. 

 

A mate of mine was the chassis development engineer for a while.

[cobblers]

A mate of mine was the chassis development engineer for a while.

 

 

is this him?

[wuvvum]

Here are a few of mine:

 

 

 

 

 

I don't appear to have pictures of any of the three 200 serieseses I've owned, so here's a picture of my proto-Sherpa instead:

 

 

And an actual Sherpa I snapped at the BL day a few years back:

 

[Guest Lord Sward]

is this him?

 

For soft real 'compliant, benign, involving, inspiring and forgiving'. 

 

His last chassis was the MG 260 (and supercharged variant, 380) and the MG SV (which he wasn't that keen on).

 

The MG ZS incidentally was a borne of his 'hobby'.

[Felly Magic]

What about when the Sherpa was a film star? I has the diecast model of it. 

 

 

Electric Sherpa in Ipswich Transport Museum

 

 

Butchered tour bus thingy in Norwich

 

 

Still in use a little while back in Norwich by Postman Pat

 

 

Ex Kirkstall Brewery Sherpa, now sadly scrapped after it's idiot owner didn't pay rent for storage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dick Longbridge]

 

^ That's a proper Sherpa.

So's this beauty.

 

[Jikovron]

Our family had an M plate ldv 200 2.2T xud which was very endearing in the sense that it met the criteria for a van that felt solid and engineered in the school of simplicity as a sort of motorised box.

Im rather a fan of any of the vans before the facelift pilot as i think of those as a product lifecycle extension too far for a very much 1970s overall shape.

Ours had extremely vague steering not helped by power assistance, a longitudinal drag link working its own empire independantly of the leaf springs and a buggered steering column UJ, it also seemed to consume exhaust downpipes and front tyres due to OTT positive camber and the driveline vibrated at around 50ish but i cant recall if that was the prop center bearing or simply british excellence, other than that i would have one again in 280 form with a decent diff ratio, better engine and some method of improving the steering

[garethj]

Have a Sherpa-based kit car.  The Sherpley.

 

[Guest Lord Sward]

The Sherpa has lead where others have followed.  Witness air springs on the back axle; Discovery, Jaguar XJ, Citroen Picasso, need I go on? I'll not even mention modular build or power train sharing or ergonomic seats (current GM cars since 2005).