Bedford TK tipper bought new in 1963 by C W Griffiths and ran at 14 ton gross.
Didnt see to many of these in the UK!
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how about the j series they where common in finland but hav not seen meny pic,s of british ,was it mainly a export motor 
seen aussies NZ finns afew others in west,and in all former colonies 
A firm I drove for in the late 60’s had four J series Bedford SWB tippers on hire to the council.They were good little lorries for snow-ploughing because they had plenty of traction with a couple of ton on the back end.
Cheers Dave.
My neighbour had a J series drawbar outfit (quite rare) in the late 50’s which he drove for Tarmac construction, it was when they had just finished building the Preston by-pass, I used to go with him to operate the in cab mounted trailer brakes !
I remember they were comfortable and very reliable.
Even large Hauliers ran TK Bedford’s, when I worked for Cawthorn & Sinclair’s on the thorn contract out of Brimsdown we had a fleet of 20 odd Leyland engined 5 speed gear box with Eaton 2 speed back axle TK’s plus many more at the Sunderland depot, pulling BTC four in line trailers, nice motor to drive but you had to take it easy on bends as we were loaded sky high with television tubes could tip over very easy as one or two did, no sleeping in the cab as we always used digs, the fleet was then changed to Dodge’s with Bowden twin axle trailers much more stable, still sky high loads the head board’s were 8 ft high with a ladder attached and with fitted sheets made easier to climb up and sheet sorry no pictures. Happy days.
Ossie
No pictures, just memories. When I was young, (when Pontius was a pilot ), I drove several TKs. Two I particularly remember were: a LWB 7-1/2 tonner fitted with a Harvey Frost double lift crane for recovery, 4 cylinders and four speeds, would do all of 35mph with a run up! And at the other end of the scale a little tilt van, about 6 tons gross, ex-newspaper van, had a petrol engine in it, I got it up to 70mph with more in hand, but scary, it must have had the steering gear from a bigger motor in it, huge wheel and about 7 turns lock to lock, couldn’t get round the bends fast enough to keep up with the speed.
Bernard
Here’s a few of the Bedfords we had over the years. They were always very popular for coal merchants, including us. The autobagger was brand new in 1966. It was a new design Charrold body with three cells for different commodities and the scales on runners along the side.
The little tippers were on regular hire to Gateshead council. It was impossible to keep them tidy with the road patching gangs jumping in and out of the cab all day.
Another Tanker John, presuming this fits here as I’ve no idea what differences there were across the model range, I cant remember ever working or driving one
Frank Philips Sheffield ,
Bedfords to the end .one on order every month ,
Gordon (rip) the body fitter would turn them out with pride ,
the first firedefender on our isle was a petrol 8 tn 6cyl 1963 model tk.i,ll was working halftime in the non regular firedepartment,so it eas my work(from late 70,s.) to serv, repair and when avalebul drive the best´,a sympatic thing,but not very fast (4 gears) not very realiby(standin to long ,when sold in 2004 only 8000 km) that time a hated it(not for real)now it,s aglory memory bma.by the way how did you get the sixweelers to move the parts of UK where i,ll have wisited are no auctualy flat 
OssieD:
Even large Hauliers ran TK Bedford’s, when I worked for Cawthorn & Sinclair’s on the thorn contract out of Brimsdown we had a fleet of 20 odd Leyland engined 5 speed gear box with Eaton 2 speed back axle TK’s plus many more at the Sunderland depot, pulling BTC four in line trailers, nice motor to drive but you had to take it easy on bends as we were loaded sky high with television tubes could tip over very easy as one or two did, no sleeping in the cab as we always used digs, the fleet was then changed to Dodge’s with Bowden twin axle trailers much more stable, still sky high loads the head board’s were 8 ft high with a ladder attached and with fitted sheets made easier to climb up and sheet sorry no pictures. Happy days.Ossie
Seen pics of them in one of Bob Tucks books “A transport heritage” ill have to dig em out and scan them
comersial of a nice little tanker from finland
This was the only Bedford I ever ran and was a bit long in the tooth when I bought it as a run about, but it got pushed into regular runs and stood up to it well. Only drawbacks were it,s rather short body at only 20 ft and non tilt cab. Think they definitely missed a trick there with that one, as anyone who had to repair them, I’m sure, would agree. I never did so much work with a spanner in my left hand as when working nearside of that engine and what a struggle to reach under the cab to the front end! 
Can remember another haulier we had subbed to, loading it with small cartons on pallets and found, because of the short bed, had a pallet left over. Not to be beaten he stacked the cartons on the passenger side, in the cab, right to the roof, then when the driver complained that he couldn’t see out of the side window, he pulled 2 cartons out at his eye level and put them behind his seat! I doubt you’d get far like that today.
is this familiar to any of you,cheers bma
here’s me south of france, TK, drawbar , leyland engine , 4 speed box , no speedo , let alone no tacho, thermostat thrown out at Dijon,boiled up again at Aix, 35 mph top whack all the way . Couldn’t take me F86 cuz it was an artic and we went out with 3 drawbars, but loaded everything up to make 2 rigids to come home. over 60mph going back home on the back of our Ford D1114 6 speed 2 spd axle, flying machine .
good thread this , used to see laods as sunday only horse boxes , unfortunately the only one i seen lately is this little chap
MOC:
Didnt see to many of these in the UK!
hi, united carriers used to use a lot of km wagon and drags at one time on night trunks. in their day they wernt a bad lorry, cant remember having too much trouble with them,they also had loads of tk,s, they must have been one of the easiest lorrys to work on, you could drop the cab off for major engine work in less than an hour, mind you , im still S shaped from squeezing in under that engine flap after years of servicing them
cheers diesel
Hi, Does anybody remember I Beer & Sons, Wholesale Grocers? I worked at their Ashford (Kent) depot from 1961-1970, and they had other depots at Crewkerne, Downton nr Salisbury, Norwich, Birmingham, Smithfield Market and Hainault The pic is of my Brother in Law standing by 3196 UR around 1966 I think. Sorry about the quality, but it’s a photo of a bad photo, if you know what I mean.
The other nice little TK was on the car park of a local pub one Sunday recently. I took these pix on my phone as I passed, but when I went back it had gone, so “I know nothing!!”
Hope they’re of interest to someone, Cheers, Cliff
Is this any clearer?
