Sunbar

Bedford TD Tipper Truck image

The Bedford truck shown is an A-type and pre-dates the Bedford D-Type (also known as the Bedford TD).

The truck '533DHK' has a Date of First Registration according to the DVLA of 16 06 1955.

The D-type/TD truck was first produced at the Bedford truck plant in Dunstable, Bedfordshire in 1957.

The previous model was the similar Bedford A-type first made in 1953 and renamed the D-type when the engines used were changed to the new Bedford 'in-house' diesel.

Post war Bedfords were originally designated A-type, D-type (normal-control) plus the "Big-Bedfords", S-type and C-type (forward control with the cab over the engine).

Later with the introduction of the popular 'TK' truck the 'D' type was renamed the 'TD' and itself in time was superseded by the 'TJ'. The 'T' indicated truck, differentiating the codes from Vauxhall's passenger cars (E, F, FB, FC, HA, HB etc.) and the Bedford Vans (CA, HA, CF).

I hope this information is useful. Sunbar (talk) 11:27, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I finds this interesting and useful. However, I just got back from Snetterton (touring car racing) with the kids and need to sleep. I'll come back to it latdr in the week and see if it means I need to correct any captions I entered. Unless you already did?

Best wishes Charles01 (talk) 22:55, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

(Later) Thank you. I've now uploaded the image in question with a corrected name and nominated the wrongly labelled version for delation. (As far as I know one cannot oneself delete images one had previously uploaded: this is some sort of obscure wiki-safeguard which I may have misunderstood, but if I have correctly understood it then, I guess, it makes some sort of wiki-sense.)

Out if interest, are you aware of any reliable source one can use for identifying these older (say 1940s-60s) trucks? Those Bedford Tippers were so popular in UK when I was a kid we barely gave them a second glance, and these days they still turn up occasionally at class car shows. But whereas I have various "sources" from which I can identify old cars (old contemporary motor magazines, The Complete Catalogie of British Cars by Culshaw and Horrobin, even old copies of The Observer's Book of Cars) I am aware of no equivalent oracle covering commericial vehicles. Often googling provides a reasonable answer. That's how I (think I) identified one or two lighter commercial vehciles from other UK manufacturers like the Morris J2. But with the Bedford trucks, a cross section of googled sources left me almost as confused as I had been at the start....and uploading a (n otherwise) reasonably useful image with the wrong name into the bargain Thank you if you will have any thoughts to share on this.

Someone might even be inspired to kick off a few more wiki-entries on some of these vehicles.

Thanks again & best wishes. Charles01 (talk) 08:15, 3 August 2009 (UTC)