Pennineman:
My dad drove a luton bodied 4x2 rigid for Draka Foam registration GVT41J when he first started with the company. It only had single headlights as opposed to the dual headlight ones (I don’t know what model this was TS3 ?) and the floor was lined with concrete flags as ballast.
GVT41J was in a series of five registrations/wagons that Draka Foam bought.
Single headlights from the factory used with Perkins engine, twin on TS3s. But I know of TS3 versions that were retrofitted with singles as the dipped beam was better.
Bernard
windrush:
robinswh:
If you want to hear the sound of a commer two stroke engine look up Alfred Hitchcock movie “frenzy” 1972…theres one scene where a four wheeler commer loaded with fruit from convert garden leaves the city with a deceased lady on board . I m sure this would be on u tube.
Filmed just outside Slough near George Green one winters evening. We (my mates and me) were standing in the pub car park while the Commer did numerous trips along the road until ‘Hitch’ (who was standing next to me) was satisfied that the ‘body’ was falling correctly. He gave the thumbs up, put out his cigar and got back into his Rolls Royce and we went back to the bar!
Pete.
Pete, I’ve seen that film many times and always wondered whether Hitchcock chose the Commer for the sound effects. In particular, the bit where the killer is trying to get his pin back is probably more dramatic with only the sound of the TS3 in the background than it might have been with say, for the sake of argument a BMC 5.1
Bernard
albion1938:
Pennineman:
My dad drove a luton bodied 4x2 rigid for Draka Foam registration GVT41J when he first started with the company. It only had single headlights as opposed to the dual headlight ones (I don’t know what model this was TS3 ?) and the floor was lined with concrete flags as ballast.
GVT41J was in a series of five registrations/wagons that Draka Foam bought.
Single headlights from the factory used with Perkins engine, twin on TS3s. But I know of TS3 versions that were retrofitted with singles as the dipped beam was better.
Bernard
Thanks for that Bernard, I wish I had a camera at the time for posterity but alas like many on here, it is now down to our memories!
One of the vehicles was written off after a crash on the southbound M1 near Toddington services in thick fog.
My dad went on to drive UBA 534S (UBA 535S being its sister motor) and would I be correct in saying they had Mercedes engines in them and possible Eaton two speed axle’s? The last one Draka Foam had was a Dodge badged Commer TRE880R which had a Perkins engine and possibly a Eaton two speed axle - defiantly one of them did because I did an electrical repair on one of them!
Commer experimented with a 4-cylinder version of the TS3 opposed-piston engine, called the TS4. Only a handful were made.
The most famous opposed-piston engine or ‘knocker’ engine, with 2 pistons per cylinder, is the Napier Deltic. The 18-cylinder version had 3 banks of 6 cylinders, 3 crankshafts and 36 pistons. Originally a marine engine, these were fitted in pairs to the famous Deltic diesel locomotives. Spectacular! - see youtube.com/watch?v=yFX653WXTVY - the Deltic opens up to full throttle at the very end of the clip, which seems to have made the day for the man making the video!!!
2-stroke diesels don’t employ a total-loss lubrication system like 2-stroke petrols need, but one could be forgiven for thinking they do from the video!
Get yer tin hat on, caffeine, you’ll have stirred up the resident of Leatherhead with all that talk of Deltics. Now we’ll never get rid of him! 
robroy:
John West:
And as a small boy in the late fifties, ‘Cannonball’. I can still sing it -
The rumble of the diesel,
The shifting of the gears,
The rhythm when he’s rolling,
Is music to his ears…
Cannonball…
Sad or what?
John.
youtu.be/umvbqPUMoKg
Oh dear! Thank you. Suddenly I’m ten years old!
What on earth is attractive about a noisy dangerous workplace!
John
Retired Old ■■■■:
Get yer tin hat on, caffeine, you’ll have stirred up the resident of Leatherhead with all that talk of Deltics. Now we’ll never get rid of him!
Never mind 'im from Leatherhead, he’s stirred this old lad up. Deltics are mighty machines, 2 engines in one locomotive = 3300hp
And that’s ‘a lot’ of pistons, 
I watched a programme on the Deltic a little while ago, superb piece of engineering and although Caffeine says it was developed from a marine engine for motor torpedo boats, the idea was actually taken from an aero engine Napier had been involved with before the war with the Junkers Jumo aircraft company, they were experts with multi crankshaft and opposed piston design. Quite a heritage the TS3 engine had when all said and done! Cheers Franky.
Frankydobo:
I watched a programme on the Deltic a little while ago, superb piece of engineering and although Caffeine says it was developed from a marine engine for motor torpedo boats, the idea was actually taken from an aero engine Napier had been involved with before the war with the Junkers Jumo aircraft company, they were experts with multi crankshaft and opposed piston design. Quite a heritage the TS3 engine had when all said and done! Cheers Franky.
The TS 3 used a single crank with a multiple con rod and rocker set up.Instead of geared multiple crankshafts.
Meanwhile this is a much easier and less complicated way to get around 3,000 hp than the Deltic and sounds just as good.
youtube.com/watch?v=KB6ZcE-8-so
Carryfast:
Frankydobo:
I watched a programme on the Deltic a little while ago, superb piece of engineering and although Caffeine says it was developed from a marine engine for motor torpedo boats, the idea was actually taken from an aero engine Napier had been involved with before the war with the Junkers Jumo aircraft company, they were experts with multi crankshaft and opposed piston design. Quite a heritage the TS3 engine had when all said and done! Cheers Franky.
The TS 3 used a single crank with a multiple con rod and rocker set up.Instead of geared multiple crankshafts.
Meanwhile this is a much easier and less complicated way to get around 3,000 hp than the Deltic and sounds just as good.
youtube.com/watch?v=KB6ZcE-8-so
Rubbish.
And a Deltic had 3300 hp 
Maybe the Deltic and stationary Detroit engines, although sounding nice, would be a tad heavy/large to fit into a truck chassis.
Although if it were possible, a certain Mr. Tubbysboy would definitely like to drive one, of that i’m sure !!!
CF wrote; The TS 3 used a single crank with a multiple con rod and rocker set up. Instead of geared multiple crankshafts.
I’m aware of that CF I used to work on them, I meant the opposed piston idea as mentioned in my post! 
Franky.
grumpy old man:
Carryfast:
Meanwhile this is a much easier and less complicated way to get around 3,000 hp than the Deltic and sounds just as good.
youtube.com/watch?v=KB6ZcE-8-so
Rubbish.
And a Deltic had 3300 hp
Let’s just say that you’d be happy to lose the few hundred extra horses when the time came for any major work let alone complete over haul.If I’ve heard it right the job was so fiendishly complicated and time and money consuming in terms parts and labour,in the case of the Deltic,that they were usually either returned to the factory for any major engine work,or just treated as disposable units.
Sister Commer to my Dad’s first one spent many a day in it, BRS on contract to Rootes Group.
Re; Tolemans TS3’s I don’t think toleman had any, as they did mainly Fords and a Commer going in Ford’s would have been a big no,no. so they were probably BRS, Mortons, Canley Car Delivery or Progressive Group.
The TS4 was scotched by Chrysler, when they took over Rootes Group, as they already had a deal with Perkins and ■■■■■■■■ there is one running in New Zealand, it’s on you tube.
Frankydobo:
CF wrote; The TS 3 used a single crank with a multiple con rod and rocker set up. Instead of geared multiple crankshafts.
I’m aware of that CF I used to work on them, I meant the opposed piston idea as mentioned in my post!
Franky.
My point was that firstly all the opposed piston designs were really just unnecessary oddballs.With the TS3 design being slightly less,or even more,silly,depending on point of view,when compared to a Detroit.IE lots of unnecessary extra complication for no extra return in terms of output.In addition to the TS 3 obviously having no real connection with the multiple crankshaft Junkers type design.
Carryfast:
grumpy old man:
Carryfast:
Meanwhile this is a much easier and less complicated way to get around 3,000 hp than the Deltic and sounds just as good.
youtube.com/watch?v=KB6ZcE-8-so
Rubbish.
And a Deltic had 3300 hp
Let’s just say that you’d be happy to lose the few hundred extra horses when the time came for any major work let alone complete over haul.If I’ve heard it right the job was so fiendishly complicated and time and money consuming in terms parts and labour,in the case of the Deltic,that they were usually either returned to the factory for any major engine work,or just treated as disposable units.
Edit to add not surprisingly the 3,300 hp reference seems to be the ‘combined’ total of ‘two’ 18 cylinder Deltics so not even in the same league as the turbocharged 20 v 149.
Progressive had a few in fact Billy Horn’s first car transporter was a Commer, I’ve had a go in one or two(spare when mine was in for service) and the in the second pic I had that unit for a week (not the trailer it was replaced with a Mandator). Half pedal didn’t work with the TS3, happiest when pushed.
Oily
