Life in the slow lane

[wuvvum]

I've just got home from picking this beauty up from Cardiff.

 

 

It's a Dodge S46 with a non-turbo 4-pot Perkins Phaser engine. It's been down-rated to 3.5 tonnes and has had a half-arsed camper conversion carried out, which should mean I can get a class 4 MoT on it. It drives as one would expect - slowly and rather noisily. Cardiff is a bloody long way from Norwich at 50-series speeds... To be fair, it made it without missing a beat, and the engine compartment is quite well soundproofed, although there's a bit of a whine from the gearbox input shaft and of course everything inside the van rattles and bangs over bumps (of which there are many on the M4, especially getting close to London). It also has PAS, which is an unexpected bonus as it was quite an expensive option on these - will make it a hell of a lot easier to back into the drive.

 

I left home at 7.15 this morning and got in at 11.15pm, so it was a bit of an epic trip. Part of the reason for the epicness was that some wazzock had driven into a rail bridge just outside Bristol and buggered up one of the supports, so we couldn't get across and we had to turn round and divert via Gloucester. The silver lining to this particular cloud, though, was that when we eventually pulled into Caerdydd Canolog, this beauty was sat at the next platform.

 

 

 

It was pulling a train of rather lovely refurbished first-class carriages. I'm not sure where it was headed, but I did get to see it pull out of the station. Had my train been on time I would have missed it completely.

 

Quite a bit of interesting stuff on the M4 too, all westbound though - two Capris (a Calypso and a tidy E-plate Brooklands), a gorgeous metallic blue Saab 99, a very early white Lotus Esprit, a Bedford TK horsebox and a CF camper, and a Mk2 Jag. There may have been more but as I got near the M25 the weather turned so vile that I could barely see the opposite carriageway.

 

Anyway - not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the beast yet - whether I'm going to leave it as a camper or remove the bits and just use it as a van. Being a SWB it's short enough to park reasonably easily, and it managed around 28mpg on the run back which isn't too bad considering. It also has a towbar, and with its low gearing and 210 ft.lb of torque it should be GR12 4 shite hauling. We shall see...

[autofive]

whats the box on the front all about?a relic of its former life? or camper addition

[Minimad5]

That box ... Is it not for LOOOOOOONG ladders ?I only say that as i have seen a transit with that box thing, and it had ladders in the box.Great buy, looks a real monster

[wuvvum]

That box ... Is it not for LOOOOOOONG ladders ?

Yup.

[brammy777]

Ace purchase! I quite like these things and they look pretty mean. PAS must be a major bonus, I bet itd fairly heavy to say the least, without.

[Volksy]

Oooh! I do like that!!It looks like it should have SWAT or GENDARMERIE down the side of it.

[chester drawers]

They used to be everywhere – Alexander bodied minibuses, utility companies, shifty recovery outfits. Nice to see a survivor that isn’t a horsebox!

 

 

EDIT previously discussed in this parish

[Spottedlaurel]

Your day was spent going a little slower than last Saturday then?It looks to me like the electricity company ones that used to have a cherry-picker mounted on them.Is this a candidate for bringing down to The Angel this Wednesday?...

[garethj]

Fantastic thing Didn't they used to make a bigger version with the headlights blanked out and new ones in the bumper?

[carlo]

Why the Renault size badge, was there some sort of tie in?

[pogweasel]

Wowser that is mega-cool!

[ashmicro]

I'm strangely drawn to this. Autoshite Riot Control Unit.A very useful looking vehicle.

[nigel bickle]

Daft bugger.Love it. Marvellous

[Cavcraft]

Brilliant! Is it the later Renault badged variant as the grille appears to be missing the Renner badge?

There is (or was) a decent forum for these (Dodge50.com iirc) by the way.

 

 

*Edit: http://www.dodge50.co.uk/

[155V6]

GR8 4 becoming a traveller The ones with the lights in the bumper are the 4x4s,I still see Army ones every now & then.

[Milford Cubicle]

I'd be scared to see that thing looming in my rear view mirror. Luckily a light stab of the throttle in anything quicker than a Ford Granada 2.1D with retarded injection pump timing would lose it immediately.Do you know much about the 4x4 versions wuvvum? My boss is thinking of buying one for his business - most 4x4 pick-ups don't offer enough space for him, so it's either a Dodge 50 or a Unimog...

[155V6]

Do you know much about the 4x4 versions wuvvum? My boss is thinking of buying one for his business - most 4x4 pick-ups don't offer enough space for him, so it's either a Dodge 50 or a Unimog...

There's a tree-cutting business round here that has an Iveco Daily 4x4,that's probably a bit smaller than a Dodge or Unimog though.

[wuvvum]

Thanks for the comments all.This is actually an ex-Water Board van, so wouldn't have had a cherry picker.The later Dodge 50s were badged as Renaults and sold through the Renault commercial dealership network (as were the Dodge / Commer 100 series). Aside from the facelifted front end, the main difference is that they all came with 4-litre Perkins Phasers, in turbo or non-turbo form, as opposed to the indirect injection 4.236 fitted as standard to the earlier 50s (although other engines were optional, including a 75bhp 2-litre petrol ). I've driven both versions, and the Phaser has noticeably more grunt, but the 4.236 revs a lot better. My first 50 (spec lift recovery) had a 4.236 and no PAS, and yes that was fugging heavy to steer, until I put my LT40 van on the spec, which made the truck wheelie when pulling away. Most of the 4x4s that are left are ex-military RB44s from what I've seen. They're supposed to be pretty good in the mud (not as good as a Unimog, but then Unimogs are a lot more expensive) but as most have low-ratio diffs they tend to be hopelessly slow on the road. They do look mean though...

[Cavcraft]

Hey Wuvvum, was your spec lift that cool one that was pictured on Retro-Rides a couple of times, think it had chrome bumpers?

[wuvvum]

No, mine wasn't as nice as that one. I think only the proper early ones had chrome bumpers.

[CIH]

That's briliant. We use to see the odd (IIRC) Norweb LWB knocking about. To a 7yr old CIH they looked bloody massive (read cool)...

[trigger]

There's a red one of these knocking around my work with a luton back on it, I think it belongs to the engineering department, I wouldn't know what year it was as the plant at work aren't registered, They just have asset numbers like the Land Rover SL spotted in his thread.I keep meaning to get a photo of it but can never get close enough as it's normally half way down the quay whilst I'm up the crane.

[BrianDamaged]

That's an epic tool. One of my mates works at a garage who used to own a recovery-bodied 50-series..I borrowed it once, talk about a torque-monster.

 

I'd bet that's ex-British Gas, the roads were swarming with them in the early 90's.

 

The 4x4 version was built for the Military by Reynolds Boughton:

Still powered by Perkins too!!!

[Cavcraft]

Seem to recall they still had the military ones kicking about at ABRO (military repair base) in Telford about nine years back, along with a load of old Bedfords etc still in service.

[morris_ital_lover]

They've only been binned/started to bin themin the past five years, they have some reliabilty problems methinks and whilst they do have the dodge cab I don't think that they are anything similar mechanically... I might well be wrong though!m0rris

[Tayne]

.

[wuvvum]

I just overtook something in the Dodge! OK, it was an old biddy in a Suzuki Wagon R doing about 45, but it still counts.

[Milford Cubicle]

How about a Pinzguaer for your boss Milf?Or a Swiss Bucher, or a Land Rover 101, or a County Transit?

Needs to be cheapish, simple, relatively economical to run and reliable - and a pick-up with plenty of space in the cab, so Land Rovers are out, and 99% of Transit Countys seem to be panel vans.Pinzgauer is a bit 'exotic' I think.Iveco Daily 4x4 would be grand, but they are still newish/pricey.

[155V6]

The Iveco I see is the facelift of the old square shape.This was another one I used to see regularly,not sure if it's still there though.