Cut my teeth on MK’s like every other squaddy in the UK; when I got back into civvy street much of my work was on TK’s and Ford D-series.
TK was a good workhorse; yes it had its faults but bear in mind the design dates back to the very early 1960’s and it was considered very advanced when it first appeared.
A lot of today’s operators would give their hind teeth for the payload ; when I was working for Rainbows of Southwell we had a 7.5 tonne TK box van, 20’ body which could carry 4.2 tonnes. Nowadays you’re doing well to get 3.25 tonnes on a 16’ flatbed with a modern chassis.
They could shift too. I used to do a bit for Andrews Ballantyne out of East Midlands Airport, their TK dropside would reach and hold 80 on the level unladen. Stopping the bugger was another matter though!
Served my time on them at Bridges transport.
Wonderful machines.All was well until they introduced that tilt cab piece of garbage the TL
Who the hell thought of a cable/hydraulic clutch.
Ahhh TKs… Fond memories started around 1978/79…use to run from Whitby/Scarborough through the night delivering fresh fish to the wholesale markets…log books were on the way out…spy in the cab on the way in…thinking about it boss was a ■■■■ and it was all bed n work, so maby not so fond memories…
These what we had at my dad’s firm, were some more, just not got all the pics. I remember going with him out in these if wasn’t needing an the artic. bloody freezing, but good times
The day after my 21st birthday i took a TK 8 wheeler from Bedford to Herne Bay. As far as i know there were only 13 of them ever made . Mine had a Perkins 354 engine and an extra steering axle and trailing axle which were both made by Primrose . Its reg was BTM 676 C and i drove it for a year till i got an Atkinson 8 wheeler with a 150 Gardner . No more brakes catching fire or the cab filling with smoke on hills .
How many squaddies learnt on these at Church Crookham? I did in 1979 and did my test round Aldershot. Then posted to Mill Hill where the Posties had them for mail runs into London and the airports. Thought the steering was heavy until I had a go in an MK!
Thanks for the memories - and the pics are great, too.
I owned one of these, a 1977 7.1/2 ton, until I retired and moved out to Spain two years ago. She was called Rosie - because she was red - and I WAS tempted to load her up and drive her out here,but chickened out in the end!
I bought her several years ago, sight unseen, from a chap in Penzance on t’internet and it took me a whole day to drive her back to Derby at 45 miles an hour. My daughter went with me to collect her, and when she got in the cab, her first comment was ‘where’s the radio?’ - (clutching a fistful of cds!)
When I’ve worked out how to do it, I’ll post a photo.
I drove an ex Army 4x4 (m type?) TK when I was 17,almost 30 years ago,it was a weekend job on an opencast at Scotts Gap near Newcastle £15 a day. I was a Y.T.S. mechanic at the time on £25 a week so I wasn’t complaining,my Dad was loading the coal at the face I was just leading up to the stockpile I thought it was great doubt Health &Safety would let you get away with it now hadn’t even passed my driving test at the time.
Great pics, 1978-79…nights out in one nationwide, i couldnt get on the back shelf at 6ft.4, so had to make do across the seats with a bit of foam over that horrible gear lever, winter was a nightmare wakeup with ice on the inside…but i did it and thought it was great back then…the gaffer then bought some new Ford cargo’s with a drop down bunk and real curtains luxury !
Started driving commercially at 18 in 1977. Used to do some casual for a friend who had a dairy produce and wholesale cheese business. Kirkham to Lockerbie Creameries and back with a York engined Transit and twin axle wooden cattle trailer (bought new for the job) every Tuesday. (don’t think about the weight with 40lb boxes of Scotch cheddar stacked waist high throughout van & trailer )
About 1978 or 9 got promoted to an ex fleet 4cyl TK box. Can’t remember the reg but it was a good few years old. As ExpressPete said, flat out at 47 on the level with a tail wind. The transit offered more comfort and more speed … until you came to a hill.
I’ve also driven several TK cattle wagons over the years.
kickstart:
Why oh why has nobody who has posted about the TK not mentioned that the windscreen was about six inches too low for anyone with a reasonable body length to drive without feeling like Quasimodo and having to stoop when driving them because of the top rail being too low and restricting long distance forwards vision. I am not tall, but have a long body and short legs. I used to hate having to drive our firms rigid TK box vans when my Mastiff artic unit (yes, I know, not exactly the bees’s knees, but all they ran!) was in for service, plating, or 18 monthy engine rebuild (Perkins V8s!!!- good pullers but not good reliability and crap fuel consumption). Also, because they were max length rigids the turning circle was bigger than a cruise liner’s, with about 10 turns lock to lock. Such a shame that a good truck was spoilt from being produced by lack of proper design.
Heheh, you’re so right.
First contact was with my dad’s fleet of 3 TK furniture vans. I was single-figure age then so only got to sit behind the wheel.
Then took TKs and MKs for “road tests” working at 42 Cmd Wkshp REME in the 80s.
Then drove a HORRID G-reg 4-cyl 4-sp diesel (must’ve been a 220?) dropside on marquees. Going up Parbold Hill one day loaded, crawling up, went for 2nd and whoops - gear lever came off. Somehow found neutral and rolled it backwards into the chuchyard just below us and rang the gaffer.
A few years later we took over a firm of sailmakers and inherited their TK. It was a C-reg gem! A 6-cyl petrol! A 3.3l Cresta engine, it made a lovely noise and went well. Until one of us many young ‘drivers’ blew the head gasket - backache for a week getting the head off under the cab. It was so light - alloy flat bed and no rear shocks as I recall, so a lot of cab-nod. It broke my heart scrapping her and I wish she was on the drive now.
The first wagon i drove legaly at 17 a TK 7.5 tonner delivering pop round Yorkshire for Gommersals magpie minerals WWX 481L and then next one got brand new on a T reg Wms carnt remember rest loved both motors
I’ve just been on holiday to Geneva (no, I didn’t drive there…I flew…well, the pilot did!) and one day I hired a car & drove to Montreux. On one of the side roads on the way into Montreux there was a 7.5 tonne TK, flat bed, right hand drive (I think, I passed it before I realised what it was!) all liveried up as Swiss and selling what looked like craft items and such like off the back. Unfortunately because I was driving I didn’t get chance to get a photo, and on the way out I drove around where i thought I’d been but there was no sign of it.
It is hard to believe that this very clean and tidy Bedford TK is over 45 years old .
The TK is regularly seen at rallies throughout the north of England, - photographed here
at the ■■■■■■■ Steam Gathering, a couple of years ago.
Trev_H:
Bloody awful things, terrible to drive, steering was always vague at the best and they were a nightmare to work on. I always felt sorry for the poor sods that had to drive them.
My encounter with one was when someone had parked one in the yard and it rolled away down a slope (the poxy transmission handbrake gave way ), I was standing by a tractor with my back to it, never heard a thing and was crushed against a wall.
Since that day I developed a hatred for the things !
+1
We had loads of those heaps on the council and I hated them with a passion.Zb brakes and their laughable low geared steering which would break your arm when it self centred.Stupid driving position and the worst of the worst synchro boxes even worse than 16 speed Eco split/Merc synchro boxes.
I much preferred the TJ and Leyland WF and even the FG and ironically the old 1940’s Matador was nicer to drive.How anyone could think that the TK was progress v those is anyone’s guess.
Hateful POS that’s only improvement would have been 5 gallons of petrol and a match and that would have been too good an end for them.Up there with the Renault G290 and the Volvo F7 for me.Oh and the TL was more or less as bad.
Engine access looks great- just enough room to stand, everything at hand height, nice and dry for working outdoors.
That ain’t how I remember it exactly …all that room under the cab… and everything so clean.
I remember always banging my head getting back out of there…maybe all those bangs on the head are part of the reason I’m still in this game after all that time.
Makes me wonder why I was as happy as a pig in ■■■■ driving one of those, in those days,.
I looked inside a one a couple of years ago and was amazed how tiny the cab interior was…3 to 4 nights out a week.
Think i only drove a TK only a few times, a renter, but cut my teeth as an 18 to 20 year old mainly on Ford D and A series 7 tonners, yes they actually did a Ford A series that could carry 3 tons with the 2.4 York NA Diesel straight out of the Transit, gave a whole new meaning to underpowered (they also did a 6 pot, same engine with 2 more cylinders nailed on, much better but i sadly had the 4 pot ), until i got me first Gardner 180 in me first artic when that underpowered A series seemed like a flying machine in comparison.
Ford D series made a decent enough makeshift sleeper due to the double passenger seat and driver’s seat being near enough the same height.
None of the sods had power steering, though the A series didn’t steer badly to be fair.
A hell of lot better way to learn the ropes and the country, especially that London, in a little motor, when i made the jump to artics i already had a good layout of the country in me mind.
)
…all that room under the cab… and everything so clean. 
), until i got me first Gardner 180 in me first artic when that underpowered A series seemed like a flying machine in comparison.