Sherpa Freight Rover LDV alert

[Spottedlaurel]

39 minutes ago, grogee said:

That's peak Sherpa for me. New enough to have some snazzy bits on and looks a bit badass, but old enough to be basically pre-Christ underneath 

Don't know if it makes it more appealing but it's a 2-litre petrol.

[AnthonyG]

Freight Rover does seem to be the peak Sherpa era, judging by the fact most of the ones pictured here look better than LDVs, and they were all at least 10 years older.

[Rustybullethole]

Picture of a picture on the wall at work.

[quicksilver]

19 hours ago, grogee said:

Pretty sure I drove past this tonight, it was travelling east towards MK from Buckingham direction 

That's where it was going in my photo. It must be local although I don't remember seeing it before.

I got another beavertail going the other way yesterday, complete with bonus dusty Berlingo. 06 is even later!

[Cavcraft]

LDV Pilot Van 1.9 diesel Non Runner Spares Or Repairs | eBay UK

[grogee]

Jeep alloys fit... Who knew? 

[TMP_319]

At Rustival today.

If I could have any vehicle in the world, it would be this.

[grogee]

15 minutes ago, TMP_319 said:

At Rustival today.

If I could have any vehicle in the world, it would be this.

I can't be the only one that wants to bum this van's tits off. 

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, grogee said:

I can't be the only one that wants to bum this van's tits off. 

I agree with you but I may not have used exactly the same words. 

I started with Royal Mail in 1990 so this would have been new then. Complete with sliding doors. They got rid of those because we used to drive around with the doors open and no seat belts. 

These days we have two people in a small van or one person with a big trolley in which you can fit your whole delivery. Back then you had a bike or were on foot if you had a delivery near the office (actually here in Southampton we had a deal with the local bus company and had free travel as long as we were in uniform but I've never heard of that happening anywhere else, and indeed it stopped about two months after First Bus bought them out). Obviously you couldn't fit your whole delivery in one bag. We had a whole network of bag drops, it might be somebody's porch or garage or the back of a shop and they would get paid for us to use them. 

These vans were used to drop all the extra bags out to the postmen and take all the oversize packets that we couldn't fit in our bags. One van would usually cover about eight foot deliveries. 

I had a driver who thought he was funny. I usually got to the bag drop first, a dry cleaners in Bedford Place, and he would cruise slowly past and push my bags out of the open passenger door without stopping. Like I say, he thought he was funny. 

I also remember we had some 400s or high tops as we called them that had sideways facing bench seats in them that would take us all out to the start of our deliveries. No seat belts,or seat backs, just a long padded slab. Or windows for that matter, and all those sharp seams (there were no linings inside the van, just bare metal). So there would be six or seven of us in the back facing each other with all the bags between our legs and those lucky enough to get a front seat sitting there with the doors open. They were literally death traps. Happy times. 

[plasticvandan]

On the off chance anyone on this thread has any bits kicking about,I need a left hand front indicator unit for my other Half's convoy minibus.

[Saabnut]

1 hour ago, plasticvandan said:

On the off chance anyone on this thread has any bits kicking about,I need a left hand front indicator unit for my other Half's convoy minibus.

Put a picture up of what it looks like and I will check my 51 plate 400 tipper to see if it is the same

[Rustybullethole]

Another old work pic from back when Lewisham council were running Freight Rovers.

[plasticvandan]

@Saabnut here's a piccie

[Saabnut]

6 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

@Saabnut here's a piccie

Hmmm, this looks similar but not sure it is the same. If you think it is, let me know and I will try and remove it in one piece.

Also mine doing duty as control office at todays PCT

 

[plasticvandan]

@Saabnut yes it does look the same to me pretty sure her bus uses standard convoy front end 

[Saabnut]

What year is her bus and I assume it is a 400? If it is not horizontal rain tomorrow I will see if it will come off.

[500tops]

£6,000

https://share.google/lGiqPII4AqzAXXrwB

[plasticvandan]

2 hours ago, Saabnut said:

What year is her bus and I assume it is a 400? If it is not horizontal rain tomorrow I will see if it will come off.

It's 2001, and is 400 based,bonus pic for the thread

[catsinthewelder]

Saw this beauty near Inverness hospital 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, plasticvandan said:

It's 2001, and is 400 based,bonus pic for the thread

Big bus

[plasticvandan]

The decibels it can produce a when wound up to 55-60 are quite incredible.

2.5 banana engine,it's only done 70k but has a lot to lug about,chassis like new but a lot of the box section body frame underneath is distinctly missing,going to have to do something about that before too long. Ex Brum council minibus,used to have a wheelchair ramp in the back,now an IKEA mattress on a bed frame!

[D.E]

£650

LDV Convoy with Banana Engine and Gearbox

Spoiler

Date tested

25 April 2025

FAIL

Mileage

180,832 miles

Test location

View test location

 

MOT test number

2489 8019 0643

Do not drive until repaired (dangerous defects):

• Offside Rear Brake pipe leaking on a hydraulic braking system (1.1.11 (b) (ii))
• Offside Front Driver's seat insecure (6.2.5 (a) (ii))

Repair immediately (major defects):

• Brake performance unable to be tested (1.2.1 (g))
• Nearside Front Headlamp aim too low (4.1.2 (a))
• Offside Front Headlamp aim too low (4.1.2 (a))
• Nearside Front Suspension component mounting prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength floor pan (5.3.6 (a) (i))
• Nearside Rear Inner Vehicle structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Outer Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Offside Rear Outer Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Offside Rear Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Front Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Vehicle structure or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of a body mounting (6.2.2 (d) (i))
• Nearside Rear Parking brake inoperative on one side (1.4.1 (a))

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

• Rear Vehicle structure is corroded but structural rigidity is not significantly reduced (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• under body corroded and both front inner wheel archs corroded

 

[Rustybullethole]

21 hours ago, D.E said:

£650

LDV Convoy with Banana Engine and Gearbox

  Hide contents

Date tested

25 April 2025

FAIL

Mileage

180,832 miles

Test location

View test location

 

MOT test number

2489 8019 0643

Do not drive until repaired (dangerous defects):

• Offside Rear Brake pipe leaking on a hydraulic braking system (1.1.11 (b) (ii))
• Offside Front Driver's seat insecure (6.2.5 (a) (ii))

Repair immediately (major defects):

• Brake performance unable to be tested (1.2.1 (g))
• Nearside Front Headlamp aim too low (4.1.2 (a))
• Offside Front Headlamp aim too low (4.1.2 (a))
• Nearside Front Suspension component mounting prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength floor pan (5.3.6 (a) (i))
• Nearside Rear Inner Vehicle structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Outer Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Offside Rear Outer Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Offside Rear Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Front Inner Integral body structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced sill (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• Nearside Rear Vehicle structure or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of a body mounting (6.2.2 (d) (i))
• Nearside Rear Parking brake inoperative on one side (1.4.1 (a))

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

• Rear Vehicle structure is corroded but structural rigidity is not significantly reduced (6.1.1 (c) (i))
• under body corroded and both front inner wheel archs corroded

 

Ah, there's all the info that was missing in the advert. 

[Snipes]

On 27/08/2025 at 21:23, grogee said:

That's peak Sherpa for me. New enough to have some snazzy bits on and looks a bit badass, but old enough to be basically pre-Christ underneath 

I don't ever recall seeing the Black grille/round lights combination before though. I thought all they had square lights by then. 

[Heavyspanners]

6 hours ago, Snipes said:

I don't ever recall seeing the Black grille/round lights combination before though. I thought all they had square lights by then. 

Round headlights with the black Range Rover style grille, and indicators in the bumpers, was the look for the 1982/1983 model year. Royal Mail vans, campers, and sometimes mini-buses had body coloured grilles, but black was what you got as standard.

1985/1986 models went to square headlamps (also used on the Land Rover Discovery Series 1), indicators in the wings, and a one-piece steel bumper.

This relatively minor change so soon after the round-headlight version came out created a slight problem. All of a sudden, the brochure photos showing round headlight models were out of date. Taking a new lot of photos would be expensive. Easy solution: paint the new square headlights onto the photos of the round headlight models!

The painted headlights (I assume that was how it was done - things like Photoshop were several decades into the future at this point) don't look quite right. They seem to stick out, while in real life the headlights are recessed. I wonder if the artists in the retouching studio had actually seen one of the new models? All the brochures were treated like this, and only got a proper update when the next revision to the Sherpa range came along.

Here are a couple of slightly lo-rez photos to demonstrate. Once you see how weird the square headlights look, you can't unsee them...




From the 1987 model year (so actually from some point in 1986) the Sherpa got impact absorbing bumpers, with front wings and valance revised to suit.

60% of Freight Rover Limited - it always was a company in its own right - was sold to Daf in early 1987, and the new Leyland Daf company was created.  The Rover Group retained a 40% shareholding, and Graham Day, Rover's MD at the time, was also a director of Leyland Daf.

The Freight Rover name carried on for a while. I think there was an agreement to use the Rover name up to 1989, after which Rover wanted their brand name back. Freight Rovers made by Leyland Daf can be spotted by the new horizontal-slot grille with an indentation which is clearly designed for the bigger Leyland Daf badge. The smaller Freight Rover badge looks rather lost in it.

Leyland Daf went bust in 1993. For once, the Leyland side of the company was in good financial health. It was Daf that was going down the tubes: the Dutch government stepped in to wind the company up under controlled conditions. This led to the British management of Leyland Daf buying out the 60% Daf shareholding, and creating LDV.

Incidentally, the letters LD don't actually stand for Leyland or Daf. As an independent company LDV had no rights to the Leyland or Daf names and no money to licence them, so they created a set of initials that makes you think of Leyland Daf Vans, but doesn't actually stand for that.

I'll get my anorak...

[Heavyspanners]

This is on FB Marketplace at the moment. V8 racing car transporter, bespoke bodywork and custom-made front wheels, for some reason.

Needs a clutch...and probably quite a lot of other stuff, if the massive list of MOT advisories is anything to go by. MOT ran out last month, but it might scrape through another, if you're lucky. I suspect the reason it's for sale is that the owners have decided not to chance it - or do the work. DVLA have it as a 2 litre diesel, so not a factory V8, then. I wonder if that's why the clutch went bang?

It looks like a genuinely useful vehicle for anyone who wants to take a car to track days etc, although I suppose you could argue that you don't need a V8 for that. I would knock £1000 off the asking price and see what they say. It's such a specialist vehicle there's probably not too much of a market for it - plus a home-brew V8 will never be worth as much as a factory model. And that advisories list is very long...

Personally, I'd just like to know how they got such a shiny finish on that squishy rubber bumper.



 

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Heavyspanners said:

The painted headlights (I assume that was how it was done - things like Photoshop were several decades into the future at this point) don't look quite right

That is so tinpot and BL. I love it! 

[500tops]

On 18/08/2025 at 18:00, D.E said:

£375

LDV Pilot Van 1.9 diesel Non Runner Spares Or Repairs

Now £295 obo!

[Talbot]

7 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Now £295 obo!

Would be worth having the XUD and RWD gearbox plus a load of assocuated parts out of that and just scrapping the rest.  I am always amazed at how long the sherpa remained in production, given that it was just about adequate when it was first on the market, and outclassed so comprehensively within no time at all.  

Peak Autoshite Van.  And no, I do not want one!

[Rustybullethole]