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Let's buy a Bedford Val car transporter together


Dick Longbridge

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41 minutes ago, HMC said:

Wow That’s great fleets you guys had / have @cms206 @busmansholiday . Does being in the industry make a big difference with handling bills/ sourcing bits?

I wasn't in the industry, the only break we got was that a mate's dad had a scrap yard where we kept them and we knew the chief engineer for the company they were new for. Even then, in the very early 80's, they were money pits.

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"... alledgedly with others, but it was always me that bought them etc."

That sums up my experience. My last one was the only one we actually completed, and I ended up giving my share away as the bloke I owned it with and I literally couldn't be in the same room.

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1 hour ago, HMC said:

Wow That’s great fleets you guys had / have @cms206 @busmansholiday . Does being in the industry make a big difference with handling bills/ sourcing bits?

Yes and no... my Dennis Lancet worked for it's keep and was maintained by the company. It was an ace little thing and is definitely one I regret punting on.

Sourcing bits... that was harder. Obviously having contacts at various suppliers helped some way but stupid things - wheel studs for some Leylands, for example - are NLA. They're also not just sided, but cornered - drive and steer axles are different, and they're sided. Anything like that we used to go through a bloke called Keith at Chatfields DAF in the north east of England. Our last ones came from Australia ISTR.

One thing that being in the industry was, as a hinderance. I was working six twelve hour days back to back on stage carriage at one point in particular, the very last thing I wanted to do was work on my own after that.

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This would be a Duple Viceroy, wouldn't it? Always get this and the Commander muddled up.

I remember visiting Plymouth Navy Days back in about '93, and the sea cadets had one of these. I was 12 and I think this was the first time I'd seen one in the flesh. With those quad headlights behind glass panels, the glazed cove panels and the VAL axle configuration, there's a distinctly Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds look to it. I had no idea where it came from in time and space.

Probably my favourite old Brit coach body, and I'm ashamed that I get its name confused.

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To be a motorcaravan the whole of the interior has to be made over to living space.

The minute you add an area to carry a car for example, it becomes an HGV., same as all the horse boxes with split living accommodation and horse carrying area. 

Many old buses converted to car carriers and living accommodation are been wrongly driven as motor caravans.

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would love a spin in a coach, started doing my D licence - then got offered a job driving wagons...

the front screen would be a sense of panic every time I used it though, i expect they're NA by now - or way expensive if you could find one"

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  • 2 years later...

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