JAKEY:
The very smallest and oldest in our fleet X5HVJ (recently pulled out of the warehouse and recommissioned) and the largest and second newest motor on the fleet ,loading out of Robinsons self storage .
Hi Steve,
Your Dads van looking good mate…as is the MAN.
You busy mate ?
Not seen John for a while !
Hello Mark , No i was wondering where our old pal was ,most likely hiding in a nice south west hiding place on a night out 
We are steady enough mate , most jobs seam to be a last min booking at the moment which is frustrating 
The “guvnor” dads van is performing well as always ,handy little van for my son to drive ,he looks after it , he bollocked me yesterday as i moved it and he reckons i got crap on the floor mat !!! 
Great advert DEAN , we never ran a JU but we ran two EA’S .
DEANB:
Heres one for Carl, hope you are on the mend.Advert from 1970.
0
Hi Dean, i’m on the mend, thanks for asking. It’s mainly the weakness & tiredness at the moment, but time will put me right.
The JU does bring back so many memories. In 1965 we bought a new J2 the forerunner of the JU with a very similar body to the JU in the photo, built by Bluebell Caravans Southampton, which I suspect is the same Co as the advert.
Like n the photo it was a very basic lightweight body & the chassis cab had a 1.6 litre diesel engine. My dad went down to Southampton to collect & got a big shock when a side wind nearly turned it over on the way home. We put it on road 1st Jan 1966 & I drove it a lot. It certainly earned its keep as it was never off the road, but me & all others who drove it hated it & cursed every mile, which really we shouldn’t as it was always overloaded and flogged & misused, but we couldn’t kill it.
I don’t know how many reading remember the ‘A licence’ system before de-regulisation & operators licencing? Well there was a period of about a year when vehicles under 3.5 ton GVW was allowed to use without a licence… At that time we had this J2 a couple of petrol standard Transits , two 3.5 ton GVW Transits & a Bedford CF all with Marsden 600 cu ft bodies (The Transit by the way were much better than CF) which overnight didn’t need licences & we quickly replaced on our ‘A Licences’ with full size vans.& were able to run these 6 vehicles licence free. It was like a gift from God to a business that was rapidly expanding & constantly needing more ‘A licences’
Probably seeing the ad you published we thought why not add another little BMC as they were as cheap as chips & could run unlicenced. So we bought a new JU, although not the same body, but a little better. By that time I didn’t have the pleasure of having time to drive so much & so never had the ‘pleasure’ of the JU. However I remember standing in our Garage as the two vans were parked next to each other & asked a driver ‘How do the compare’? ‘its just as bad’ came the rely.
Here is a memory, one of quite a few I have of my trips with the J2. I was delivering a load of Yarn suitable for making ladies Nylon stockings to Huddersfield, Oldham area. My first delivery was just one box to a manufacturer just off the main road out of Huddersfield leading to Oldham > I turned left down a very steep bank till I came to the factory & delivered the box. Returning up to the junction to rejoin the main road to head for Oldham. I had to stop until there was a gap in the traffic. I went to pull away in bottom gear & sadly I needed another horse power or two as it would not move. I reversed down the bank again & headed back up & same again.
It would have been useless to ring up Spennymoor (100 mile away) to ask for help for if I had managed to find a phone box (No mobiles in those days) as the response of being a useless idiot (I translate into acceptable language) & the phone would have burnt in my hands as the abuse came through. I thought the only option would have been to unload about 20 boxes & stack at on the pavement, get the van onto the main road & then carry the boxes onto the van again, but I would have one last go and fortunately as I came to the top the road was clear & without pausing round I went on my journey.
I worked at a BMC dealership and the early 250 JU’s had problems. Throttle cable breakage on the petrol versions (BMC later issued a kit to modify the throttle pedal/cable/ washer pump positions and that cured the problem. Exhaust downpipes coming away from the manifold due mainly to the angle of the tilted engine (never REALLY cured) and the nylon bushes in the kingpins wore rapidly which I thought would be a pretty obvious thing to occour but what do fitters know? Also propshaft U/J’s wore and were replaced by ones fitted with grease ■■■■■■■. Mk 2 versions were much improved.
The EA was decent enough, a big square box really and plenty of storage area. They were virtually the same mechanically as the earlier LD range except the engine was tilted of course. I went on week long factory courses at Cowley for both vehicles and still have all the paperwork and folders somewhere! 
Pete.
Hi lads ,call of the search party 
been on jury duty last week and this week we even dismissed as case got complicated and going to be a long trial so new jury being sworn in today van looks nice Steve stop making a mess in it mark how’s the family mate hope all ok
Nice to see your post John !!! how is work ? Mark are you busy ?
Hi Steve ,van looking tidy mate just had mine washed down earlier it was black it’s now clean it’s quiet in work I had 8 drops local finished by 12 noon happy Friday
Thank you John ,this is Mattys motor now ,my 6t is in for safety inspection ,and the bloody silencer fell on the way !!! pure luck only trouble is ,its on order from germany ,non in stock.
JAKEY:
Thank you John ,this is Mattys motor now ,my 6t is in for safety inspection ,and the bloody silencer fell on the way !!! pure luck
Hi Steve,that’s the trouble nowadays all foreign,we got loads of trouble with our mercs always breaking down then that truck puts us down one vehicle pity we couldn’t go back to proper British trucks ,would be good then ,how’s your nephew now mate
Hello John , we never had any problems when we ran Dodge or Commer ,Nephew has left us and is a dustman.
Hello lads,
Family are fine John baby doing well thanks for asking…you been on Jury service mate been there to bloody boring …i went though a patch back about 15 years ago they were calling me up every other year…not herd anything since thank god.
Steve yes busy mate done another Yorkshire run this week…London South Coast this week coming…that 6 tonner looks sweet mate she is amaculate.
Me up at Britannia Willis in Skipton this week
Carl Williams:
DEANB:
Heres one for Carl, hope you are on the mend.Advert from 1970.
0
Hi Dean, i’m on the mend, thanks for asking. It’s mainly the weakness & tiredness at the moment, but time will put me right.
The JU does bring back so many memories. In 1965 we bought a new J2 the forerunner of the JU with a very similar body to the JU in the photo, built by Bluebell Caravans Southampton, which I suspect is the same Co as the advert.
Like n the photo it was a very basic lightweight body & the chassis cab had a 1.6 litre diesel engine. My dad went down to Southampton to collect & got a big shock when a side wind nearly turned it over on the way home. We put it on road 1st Jan 1966 & I drove it a lot. It certainly earned its keep as it was never off the road, but me & all others who drove it hated it & cursed every mile, which really we shouldn’t as it was always overloaded and flogged & misused, but we couldn’t kill it.
I don’t know how many reading remember the ‘A licence’ system before de-regulisation & operators licencing? Well there was a period of about a year when vehicles under 3.5 ton GVW was allowed to use without a licence… At that time we had this J2 a couple of petrol standard Transits , two 3.5 ton GVW Transits & a Bedford CF all with Marsden 600 cu ft bodies (The Transit by the way were much better than CF) which overnight didn’t need licences & we quickly replaced on our ‘A Licences’ with full size vans.& were able to run these 6 vehicles licence free. It was like a gift from God to a business that was rapidly expanding & constantly needing more ‘A licences’
Probably seeing the ad you published we thought why not add another little BMC as they were as cheap as chips & could run unlicenced. So we bought a new JU, although not the same body, but a little better. By that time I didn’t have the pleasure of having time to drive so much & so never had the ‘pleasure’ of the JU. However I remember standing in our Garage as the two vans were parked next to each other & asked a driver ‘How do the compare’? ‘its just as bad’ came the rely.
Here is a memory, one of quite a few I have of my trips with the J2. I was delivering a load of Yarn suitable for making ladies Nylon stockings to Huddersfield, Oldham area. My first delivery was just one box to a manufacturer just off the main road out of Huddersfield leading to Oldham > I turned left down a very steep bank till I came to the factory & delivered the box. Returning up to the junction to rejoin the main road to head for Oldham. I had to stop until there was a gap in the traffic. I went to pull away in bottom gear & sadly I needed another horse power or two as it would not move. I reversed down the bank again & headed back up & same again.
It would have been useless to ring up Spennymoor (100 mile away) to ask for help for if I had managed to find a phone box (No mobiles in those days) as the response of being a useless idiot (I translate into acceptable language) & the phone would have burnt in my hands as the abuse came through. I thought the only option would have been to unload about 20 boxes & stack at on the pavement, get the van onto the main road & then carry the boxes onto the van again, but I would have one last go and fortunately as I came to the top the road was clear & without pausing round I went on my journey.
Hi Carl,
Hope you are recovering well…your posting here realy made me laugh trying to climb that hill and exit the junction
I remember a similar situation my self when i first started driving …i would of thought the Marsden body on the Bedford CF you had would have been a lot heavier than the aluminium body on the JU.
