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Got a real soft spot for the old "Beddy".
Used to run 3 of them as a woodgetter, a lovely old 1948 MS 3 tonner did the daily small load work, a nice easy to drive J1 (ex DCA) was the "work ute", and an updated A5 tipper with the bigger J series motor did the wood yard deliveries. Never once did any of them let me down.
Never really became fond of the newer cab over models, real mongrels to do any repair work on, no tilt system so you had to lift the entire cab off for any work on them.
I believe the J series continued to be built with modernised running gear for the Pakistan and Afghan markets right up till the time when the Bedford plant in the UK closed its doors, and may have continued for another year or two under the AWD banner when they bought the production rights from Vauxhall in 1987. AWD themselves folded in 1992.
Bill.
Not sure what it was like here back then but in NZ the J1 and J2's were the predominant lite tow truck for several decades through to the late 70's or so and they did the job exceptionally well.
The tow truck scene in Auckland at that time was often pretty agressive with a 'first in first served' mentality which lead to some interesting races to crash scenes, most Bedford tow trucks were fitted with hotted up small block Chev's or if you weren't as well off then you fitted a Holden V8. As I said some of the races to crash scenes were pretty crazy as were the occassional brawls between drivers from rival firms.
It might be hard to believe but you can make a lowered J1 with fat low profile tyres and fitted with a decent V8 go and handle like stink compared to how they went and handled when standard.
Argh those were the days! ...;)
cheers,
Terry
Sounds just like ****ney
The South African Defence Force (pre-1994) had Bedford RLC's in service until well into the mid - 1980s.