Truck Shite

[Dyslexic Viking]

2 minutes ago, warch said:

British people were a bit suspicious of foreign vehicles in the 70s, so people who bought vehicles from overseas were generally regarded as mavericks. They were generally regarded as sub par too, so French cars were considered to be hard to work on, Japanese cars shoddily built (the irony!), Italian cars were rotboxes (again...)

This sort of thinking persisted well into the 1980s as well. My mum bought a rhd Opel Kadett as a grey import in 1984 (basically a Mk2 Astra). One day, shortly after buying it she came out of a meeting to find an older gentleman standing next to it spluttering with rage;

'Bloody German cars! I didn't fight in the war so people could go and buy bloody German cars!'

 

 

It's a strange thing about German vehicles because Norway had equally bad experiences with the Germans during the war and perhaps even more so since we were invaded and they stayed here for 5 years. But I have never heard of anything like that in Norway ever against German goods and cars, and German cars sold well in the 50s and were bestsellers in the 60s, when people still remembered the war well. 

So can one say that people in the UK are a bit strange?

[danthecapriman]

5 minutes ago, warch said:

British people were a bit suspicious of foreign vehicles in the 70s, so people who bought vehicles from overseas were generally regarded as mavericks. They were generally regarded as sub par too, so French cars were considered to be hard to work on, Japanese cars shoddily built (the irony!), Italian cars were rotboxes (again...)

This sort of thinking persisted well into the 1980s as well. My mum bought a rhd Opel Kadett as a grey import in 1984 (basically a Mk2 Astra). One day, shortly after buying it she came out of a meeting to find an older gentleman standing next to it spluttering with rage;

'Bloody German cars! I didn't fight in the war so people could go and buy bloody German cars!'

 

 

That buying foreign mentality was definitely a big part of it. But it was a hangover from WW2 which at that time was still recent history. 
Buying the products of what were ‘the enemy’ was a big no no. German and especially Japanese were definitely not a good look back then. Part of it being of course what those two nations did to people in WW2 and the buyers of cars etc were the generation that suffered from it and saw it with their own eyes. 
I know my grandad was a WW2 veteran and he did not take kindly to the German or Japanese products. It’s understandable in a way.

[Metal Guru]

3 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

It's a strange thing about German vehicles because Norway had equally bad experiences with the Germans during the war and perhaps even more so since we were invaded and they stayed here for 5 years. But I have never heard of anything like that in Norway ever against German goods and cars, and German cars sold well in the 50s and were bestsellers in the 60s, when people still remembered the war well. 

So can one say that people in the UK are a bit strange?

There were loads of Beetles around in the 60s, never heard anyone castigated for having one. Similarly bubble cars and even Messerschmidts ( people mainly laughed).

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

The only British truck brand that sold well in Norway was Bedford. And from what I've read, price and high payload were the main selling points, and over time were mostly bought by fleets. I have read that in fleets with better trucks such as Scania and Volvo, the Bedfords were mostly reserved for the new drivers who were at the bottom of the ranks.

Norwegian Bedfords

 

Jarlsberg Miniralvann truck fleet

 

Mustad Margarinfabrikk 1968

 

Both pictures below are from Oslo Renholdsverk's fleet and among the Bedfords there are still several US trucks.

[quicksilver]

21 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

That buying foreign mentality was definitely a big part of it. But it was a hangover from WW2 which at that time was still recent history. 
Buying the products of what were ‘the enemy’ was a big no no. German and especially Japanese were definitely not a good look back then. Part of it being of course what those two nations did to people in WW2 and the buyers of cars etc were the generation that suffered from it and saw it with their own eyes. 
I know my grandad was a WW2 veteran and he did not take kindly to the German or Japanese products. It’s understandable in a way.

My late grandad was an interesting case. He was a Polish refugee who survived the concentration camps so he could be forgiven for hating all things German, but in 1966 when memories of the war were still fairly fresh he bought a brand new VW Beetle. He was obviously prepared to overlook its origins and the negative comments and appreciate it on its own merits as a decent car, and it served him well for 15 years.

[warch]

21 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

So can one say that people in the UK are a bit strange?

Definitely.

I've linked an article about the changing landscape of the 1970s commercial marketplace El ecade of change In the 1970s, European truck manufacturers | 7th March 2013 | The Commercial Motor Archive

 

[willswitchengage]

On 20/08/2025 at 06:05, Cavcraft said:

Looks a bit Volvo-ish to me. Take it they're not in bed with Iv*co any longer, as you think it'd make more sense to have a badge engineered S-way?

Nope. I don't believe Ford and IVECO have been related since ~2000. Ford Turkey is a completely independent company and they've done a terrific job imho in a very competitive market.

[EyesWeldedShut]

8 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The only British truck brand that sold well in Norway was Bedford. 

Having owned/broken/repaired a 1970 (petrol) TK**, a later (diesel) TK and then a 1989 (AWD badged) TL all I can say is that the earlier comments regarding how the UK dropped the ball 100% applied to Bedford.
The late (AWD) TLs came with a better engine, five speed gearbox but, underneath, were still the 1950's design (drum brakes all round, noisy and so on) BUT they had a chassis made out of old railway lines and a very basic (thus easily worked on) mechanicals. Parts compatibility across the years too.
This meant they were great for the UK armed forces and off the beaten track places like Kenya, Borneo and, err, Norway.
Meanwhile there's the Ford Cargo and other suchlike modern stuff arriving on the market but, Bedford? Still making the equivalent of the Ford D Series.

**this one was a right laugh. Hydraulic foundation brakes (no air). Handbrake was a drum brake on the propshaft (like the Series Land Rovers). Flat out it could get up to 45 mph (phorrrr!) - an emergency stop involved standing up on the brake pedal, pulling down on the steering wheel for extra leverage. And praying.

[danthecapriman]

Another thing that was definitely true of the UK was that over here we could buy products of our own manufacturers. Until the 80’s really the UK was a big manufacturer of all sorts of things. People here had always bought British because we could, and most of the things people needed were made here. Literally everything from fabric, clothing, paint and chemicals, timber, building materials, right through cars, trucks, trains, ships, heavy manufacturing for a massive range of items etc etc it was all made here and all sold for export too. 
There was a pride in buying our own products. 
Germany and France were the same. They did much the same making things and selling them for export, but also in their home markets the overwhelming majority of cars or trucks (as an example) were from their own manufacturers. Many countries also incentivised buying their own stuff. French utilities and government bodies for example were expected to be procuring a very high percentage of domestically produced vehicles. Much the same in the UK.

The biggest changes came about in the 80’s though I think. That seems to have been the decade where things turned and suddenly there were an awful lot more foreign vehicles around. I guess by then people here had become fed up with all the political and managerial incompetence within British companies and the militant unions had done their part on the opposite side too. Constantly warring sides inside industry is only ever going to drive down the quality and eventually everything will collapse. There was a consumer will get fed up of buying crap that falls apart and look elsewhere. 
If the foreign companies aren’t suffering the same issues and their products are good, reliable and well made then that’s what people start buying instead. 
We were our own worst enemy in many cases and for the most part only have ourselves to blame for the decline of our manufacturing industry. In many cases it destroyed communities too where the factories closed down and the workers laid off many never got new jobs afterwards. Obviously if your a trained vehicle builder and there’s no more car factories around what do you do!? Part of that is also that the skills those people had don’t get passed on to the next generation either so coming back from it in future becomes harder. 
The same thing happened with the mining industry in the UK. Government and management were at war with the unions and eventually something had to give. Unfortunately it meant the real losers were the miners themselves who all lost their jobs and the community they lived in became filled with unemployed miners. Obviously this goes into politics and social issues too!

The only thing this country really does now is financial bollocks and making cups of coffee (for foreign owned companies!). 
It’s sad really what’s happened here but like I said, it’s mostly our own fault.

 

[danthecapriman]

2 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Having owned/broken/repaired a 1970 (petrol) TK**, a later (diesel) TK and then a 1989 (AWD badged) TL all I can say is that the earlier comments regarding how the UK dropped the ball 100% applied to Bedford.
The late (AWD) TLs came with a better engine, five speed gearbox but, underneath, were still the 1950's design (drum brakes all round, noisy and so on) BUT they had a chassis made out of old railway lines and a very basic (thus easily worked on) mechanicals. Parts compatibility across the years too.
This meant they were great for the UK armed forces and off the beaten track places like Kenya, Borneo and, err, Norway.
Meanwhile there's the Ford Cargo and other suchlike modern stuff arriving on the market but, Bedford? Still making the equivalent of the Ford D Series.

**this one was a right laugh. Hydraulic foundation brakes (no air). Handbrake was a drum brake on the propshaft (like the Series Land Rovers). Flat out it could get up to 45 mph (phorrrr!) - an emergency stop involved standing up on the brake pedal, pulling down on the steering wheel for extra leverage. And praying.

Don’t forget the unkillable Bedford TJ. Used heavily here in the UK but also incredibly successful and still popular now in places like India and Pakistan because it was so durable and easy to keep going.

Despite what the politicians and press would have everyone believe, we did build some absolutely brilliant stuff. It’s just a shame we never capitalised on it or built on it.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Now will one of Norway's most legendary trucks finally be restored. A 1947 Mack 6x4 known as Ormen Lange named after a large Viking ship. This was Norway's largest truck for a long time and was massive compared to the typical smaller Norwegian trucks at the time. It had a total weight of 24 tons and a payload of 16 tons and with trailers over 40 tons total weight, it had 6x4 and a 200hp Hercules engine if the source is correct. It transported fuel among other things to military airports and oil and had 2 trailers.

 

Present time

 

And for comparison this White was a typical Norwegian fuel tanker at the time which shows how massive Ormen Lange was.

[500tops]

Spotted at the Honiton Hill Rally last weekend 

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, 500tops said:

Spotted at the Honiton Hill Rally last weekend 

South Western Electricity Board. I wonder if it’s actually one of their old trucks or just painted up like one?

Love the Leyland Clydesdale chassis cab too. Looks like a restoration in progress.

[Metal Guru]

8 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Another thing that was definitely true of the UK was that over here we could buy products of our own manufacturers. Until the 80’s really the UK was a big manufacturer of all sorts of things. People here had always bought British because we could, and most of the things people needed were made here. Literally everything from fabric, clothing, paint and chemicals, timber, building materials, right through cars, trucks, trains, ships, heavy manufacturing for a massive range of items etc etc it was all made here and all sold for export too. 
There was a pride in buying our own products. 
Germany and France were the same. They did much the same making things and selling them for export, but also in their home markets the overwhelming majority of cars or trucks (as an example) were from their own manufacturers. Many countries also incentivised buying their own stuff. French utilities and government bodies for example were expected to be procuring a very high percentage of domestically produced vehicles. Much the same in the UK.

The biggest changes came about in the 80’s though I think. That seems to have been the decade where things turned and suddenly there were an awful lot more foreign vehicles around. I guess by then people here had become fed up with all the political and managerial incompetence within British companies and the militant unions had done their part on the opposite side too. Constantly warring sides inside industry is only ever going to drive down the quality and eventually everything will collapse. There was a consumer will get fed up of buying crap that falls apart and look elsewhere. 
If the foreign companies aren’t suffering the same issues and their products are good, reliable and well made then that’s what people start buying instead. 
We were our own worst enemy in many cases and for the most part only have ourselves to blame for the decline of our manufacturing industry. In many cases it destroyed communities too where the factories closed down and the workers laid off many never got new jobs afterwards. Obviously if your a trained vehicle builder and there’s no more car factories around what do you do!? Part of that is also that the skills those people had don’t get passed on to the next generation either so coming back from it in future becomes harder. 
The same thing happened with the mining industry in the UK. Government and management were at war with the unions and eventually something had to give. Unfortunately it meant the real losers were the miners themselves who all lost their jobs and the community they lived in became filled with unemployed miners. Obviously this goes into politics and social issues too!

The only thing this country really does now is financial bollocks and making cups of coffee (for foreign owned companies!). 
It’s sad really what’s happened here but like I said, it’s mostly our own fault.

 

Japanese cars got established for being reliable whereas most European cars of that era weren’t. They were mostly ugly and were even worse rust buckets than all but Italian cars (although TBF all 60s and 70s cars were rust buckets).

Mining in the UK peaked in 1903 and only lasted as long as it did due to two world wars and British Rail using steam until 1965. Thatcher and Scargill might have finished it off, but it was dying long before they came along.