Hi Carl…hope you are keeping well !
My experience over the years …Marsden … Vanplan head and shoulders above the rest…never found a aluminium body that stayed water tight like a Marsden or a Vanplan…,…the lookalike version today nowhere near the hard wearing as the Marsden/Vanplan
Carl Williams:
“DEANB”.Hi Dean, you really find some excellent articles and brochures of vans. This one uses a cab front obviously purchased from Duple.and making a real eye-catcher. Its interesting to see new vehicles but I thought you might be interested in this comparison I wrote three years ago comparing the life of a Bedford Marsden compared with an Albion with alloy bodywork by Arlington showing how they performed through a lifetime of work. Like many bodies shown in brochures Arlington specialised in the use of light Alloy frame with Aluminium panels riveted unto place. In the case of this vehicle and its older sister only partly visible to its left we experienced rivets popping loose as ware and tare and oxidation of the aluminium surrounding them caused regular maintenance problems and the alloy back-frame on both vehicles cracked needing plating. The Marden with the fibreglass body required nothing and I believe only had one re=paint in our time with us when it adopted our traditional livery after about 5 years use and anyone looking at it could be confused into thinking it was a new vehicle
Tale of 2 vans
On the left Albion Victor (Passenger Chassis) Chassis supplied and body built by Arlington in light Alloy. Engine Albion Diesel
On Right Bedford SB Passenger chassis. Chassis supplied by Adams & Gibbon Ltd Main Bedford Agents Durham City Body built & supplied by Marsden Coachbuilders Ltd body, cab & roof in glass fibre. Engine Bedford 330 cu in diesel 5 speed David Brown Gearbox Single speed axle
Albion new 1965 Bedford 1966 about 8 months apart. Neither involved in any accidents lasting natural lifespan.
Both pantechnicon bodies 1800 cu ft
Cost New: Bedford aprox 2/3 of Albion.
Road fund Licence: As Bedford was lighter Unladen weight aprox £50 per year cheaper
Fuel Consumption: Bedford 12 mpg Albion 10 mph
Reliability: Bedford excellent Albion Fair
Maintenance costs Bedford aprox 2/3 of Albion.
Lifespan before joining Scrapyard in the sky. Albion 7 years when both chassis and body were beyond economic repair Bedford 12 years with us then sold for further use to Richardsons Removals Ltd Stockton on Tees who got several more years use.
Mileage achieved in working life: Albion aprox 250,000 miles Bedford 650,000 plus with us plus Richardsons further use
There was a lot of snobbery about Bedford’s being the poor cousins of more Premium trucks but many of us made a lot of money out of the reliabilty & quality of Bedfords
Intresting to read about those 2 different motors Carl. Like you say the fibreglass bodies were a huge improvement
over the alloy bodies. The alloy bodies could be easily creased damaged by trees etc.
I agree with your comments about the Bedford ,they were money making machines in my opinion.The beauty of a
Bedford was they were nice and simple so any garage could do running repairs,plus part’s were dirt cheap compared
to alot of manufacturers. Bedford were also the largest UK exporter of truck chassis for along time,sold huge numbers
around the world. 
marktaff:
“DEANB”Nice to see Mark back.
Lewis’s Removals from 1975.
Hi Dean…hoping your keeping well !
Been catching up on some of the wonderful stories and adverts you been posting…that’s some van there …that’s a Duple coach conversion by the looks of it.
Nice to see you back Mark. 
marktaff:
Hi Carl…hope you are keeping well !
My experience over the years …Marsden … Vanplan head and shoulders above the rest…never found a aluminium body that stayed water tight like a Marsden or a Vanplan…,…the lookalike version today nowhere near the hard wearing as the Marsden/Vanplan
Well Mark i am going to disagree with you about who built the best removal bodies. 
Marsden Vanplan were BAR members and advertisied alot in the BAR magazine which gave them
a strong following.I could never understand why alot of people raved about them to be honest.
In my opinion i think Vancraft were much better and built a very strong body. I did have a Vanplan but replaced that
with a Vancraft. There bodies could be swapped onto a second chassis when the original chassis was sold on and even a
third chassis.
Anyway we all have different opinions,but here’s a Vanplan brochure.
Click on pages twice to read.
Dean,Mark, John , still busy lads .
The Hoff transshipping a load off his truck on to the big wheeler,next stop Iceland ,loading at our other warehouse .
- i never ordered the container the client did ,so there was a bit of space ,he should of ordered a 20 footer .
I was on "Mags " motor Tuesday ,small on off from Headington to Wantage ,re load from one of our Kitchen showrooms bound for our store ,quick 45 then up to another Headington address and load a heavy 500 ft bound for a village near Chelmsford on Wednesday , had to take the battery tree loppers and a ladder to get in the bloody road though .
The Hoffs and Mags motors are fully compliant with Cameras etc for London ,even though at this very moment its 18 ton onwards that need this permit but i sticker-ed them both up and both have a warning sound as well as the camera system .
JAKEY:
3. i never ordered the container the client did ,so there was a bit of space ,he should of ordered a 20 footer .
It might be going at part load (LCL) rate rather than dedicated as the difference in cost is significant.
Hello Dennis,
I think the client wanted a 40 footer even though his items came over in a 20 footer two years ago ,he loaded it his self and we unloaded it at residence ,but as he went back in January before the lockdown ,we had the keys to go in over the last four weeks to get it ready for its trip back ,without it getting in the way of our busy schedule , if some one got back early i sent them to the house for the odd hour as it was local .
JAKEY:
The Hoffs and Mags motors are fully compliant with Cameras etc for London ,even though at this very moment its 18 ton onwards that need this permit but i sticker-ed them both up and both have a warning sound as well as the camera system .
Hi Jakey,
It is over 12 ton gross that you need to be DVS compliant,
Hello Pete,
I know but i want that truck to be compliant any how , its ready for when they drop the weight limit .
Regards Steve
Abels 1982.
Great photo Dean , love there fleet .
When i was on Habitat ,they use to do the home deliveries around Norfolk area for us , we use to drop our drawbars at there depot then go off to Norwich to do a shop delivery and then come back to a unloaded trailer ,happy days .
Hi Steve ,there’s an interesting vid on you tube about brs taking on the mothercare contract showing from start to finish I found it interesting how’s your brothers foot now ,are you busy mate
Hello John ,
Yes i have seen the video ,its spot on mate ,we did have some of those wagons at Wallingford for a bit when it was called STOREHOUSE , i was not on the road then but later i was .
My brother is still off mate 
was told another four to six weeks last week but my lad saw him at home and he said he back next week .
JAKEY:
Hello John ,Yes i have seen the video ,its spot on mate ,we did have some of those wagons at Wallingford for a bit when it was called STOREHOUSE , i was not on the road then but later i was .
My brother is still off mate
I bet your brother is climbing the walls I know I would be hope he back soon ,you got any West Country runs planned
Hello John ,
Had to say know to two connected loads to Devon as we were to busy to take on ,also long story but the JOB with tranship both ends to Barnstaple went ■■■■ up ,after we loaded 200o ft on The hoffs motor , got paid though and took it back ,another mover doing the job today as we could not fit it in , they were 3k more than us though and we supplied the packaging ,and every thing from a 5 bedroom house was down stairs !!!
