Yes agree Mark.The RJ Wood at Teynham had a very slick livery.Unfortunately ( in my opinion ) the A Wood at Detling really let themselves go after the split with regard to appearance.The lorries were essentially white truck and trailers with transfers/stickers applied for the logosâŚvery bland.A far cry from the old A&RJ Wood livery.
Incidentally you will be able to advise - why did A Wood set up again and why did they disappear again so quickly, who did they sell out to ? 
Its a very long and complicated story, but in a nutshell when Alf & Roy went their seprate ways Alf ( A Wood ) kept all the lorries and went to Detling and Roy ( RJ Wood ) set up at Teynham. Roy soon aquired Mitchell & Robertsons fleet and the rest as they say is history!.
The new blue A Wood livery looked awful. The trucks that had the tag axle fitted were the Y reg units. One had been delivered in red and the other five in white, I was told they were testing new liveries. When they decided on the shade of blue, the Y regâs were fitted with the tag axle and sprayed blue. All of the older trucks were hand painted.
Most of the old vehicles went when the C & D reg Mercs came with the EPS gearbox. These were all plain white units. Later the Albert Fisher Group took over and an entire new fleet of Merc units, and SDC trailers were delivered.
Today there are thousands of plain white trucks on the road, but RJ Wood was ahead of the game with their simple livery, as shown by Marks line up of Mercs.
Here is PKR733R in the new blue colours.
Yes, iâm affraid 733 is looking a bit rough in that photo. I dont recognise the day cab unit parked next to it. I dont remember Woods having any day cabs ( except the rigids ). Do you remember the two ERF 6 wheelers they had?.
Mark, the day cab unit was JKJ79V, Iâll post a picture of it at some point.
The ERFâs were E217&218WKL and were both E6âs. They had twin steer axles, and looked like they were destined for a brewery company. Do you think they were a cancelled order? I have never seen any others like that, it must have been a special order. Woods had run Mercs from at least R Reg. (along with some other odds & sods) but never ERFâs. They had run some Merc 1617 tautliners which I think these ERFâs replaced. If anyone worked for Dutton Forshaw at the time and knows about these two let me know.
JAMIE10:
hi dose any one remember t brady and son they had a depot at Northfleet in kent has any one photos .
i used to work for t brady at northfleet they used to load pulp at northfleet and send it overnight to barrow in furness the shunter who worked for brady was known as the vicar for some reason there depot was in northfleet paper mill the managers name at the time i worked there was nobby clark with two drivers myself and a driver named phill i dont know his last name the last i heard of him he worked for swains in strood
do you have any photos of your time at t brady as i am a collecter of brady photos
Just keeping the thread going,here is another good Kentish company.Here is LKN352W at the Kent Show circa 1980 before the number plates were added.
The vehicle details for LKN 352W are:
Date of Liability 01 03 1989
Date of First Registration 01 08 1980
Year of Manufacture 1980
Not a bad life considering it lasted about 6 months to a year with Ashby, he got rid of it as it was unreliable,only to be replaced by another unreliable one! Paul
The vehicle details for LKN 352W are:
Date of Liability 01 03 1989
Date of First Registration 01 08 1980
Year of Manufacture 1980
Not a bad life considering it lasted about 6 months to a year with Ashby, he got rid of it as it was unreliable,only to be replaced by another unreliable one! Paul
Nice pic Paul. My dad drove LKN 350W also on the Leyland stand at the 1980 Kent Show. Ours was an eight wheeler tipper but sadly no pics im affraid.
Hi Mark,
I have no photoâs of that either,I was to busy trying to look for the Volvo stand! Paul
Good point PaulâŚsomebody must have some photos of the Leyland stand at the 1980 Kent County Show.
Another Kent firm that have been around for years. EH Nicholls from Sittingbourne.
SEAS ran out of Chatham Docks. Ran mainly Scanias but did have a couple of ex Ashby Volvo FHâs. They had some Scanias with special numbers as seen by R5EAS
ITT ran a few, possibly six, of these 22ton GVW DAF F1600 tractor units. From a driving point of view they werenât too bad, they handled the 36ft box trailers better than the 19 ton Bedford KGs, but then virtually everyone who ran KG units always stuck an enormous trailer behind it and wondered why it struggled. The DAF had the period Gorilla steering wheel and a back to front constant mesh ZF AK 6/80 gearbox and a large lever behind the seats to release the cab for tilting, which was a case of breathe in and heave. They were put to use on trunking between Paddock Wood, Kearsley, East Kilbride and the factories at Hastings and Basildon along with the bulk deliveries. Two units would run 24/7 doing a change over at the Rendevous at Rugby on the A5 day and night. Every six months these vehicles would have to be swapped with others to keep them within contract mileage.
The senior management had over-ruled, as too expensive, a request for AEC Mercury units, which had been trialled and found to eat the job. After a year in use based at Paddock Wood and Kearsley, the DAFsâ reliability was awful, being a fringe model, the dealers never held any stock of parts and practically everything had to come from Holland; VOR took about three days. The rear axle was a double reduction two speed unit which suffered frequent change motor failures, the tachograph triplex boxes or their wiring failed regularly as did the flasher units. Brake drums wore out rapidly because the linings were too hard, there were constant complaints of brake squeal or imbalance, but worst of all the vehicles had a DC charging system and the dynamos just werenât up to the job, they not only stopped charging, but seized or melted and threw the belts off. On more than one occasion all the DAFs were off the road at once, they would it seemed, wait until one was off for MOT and another for service at the other depot, have a union meeting and arrange to pack up together. We had two go off at the same time with engine failure while another was day two in the paintshop. They not only caused immense difficulties for the traffic office, they also caused disruption to the vehicle servicing schedule - which was all done by contractors. Last minute cancellation of a Bedford service due to go in or a dash to bring back one taken in the day before, tended to upset the very people you were relying upon to get you out of the trouble you had. Not only that, but getting hold of a 24 ton unit to hire at short notice was next to impossible. Maximum weight units had problems coupling due to landing legs fouling the rear lights and virtually no hire company had any idea of the swing clearance dimensions of their units from pin to rear lights.The DAFs were plainly awful. The Bedfords certainly had their problems, but they still managed to do the job.
The company ran into trouble with its 36ft box trailers too. Having previously had 30 ft single axle trailers with the axle at the extreme rear, it had been decided to benefit from the increased payload a longer trailer would bring. All went well for several years until the introduction of the very popular 16 inch television. Because the dimensions of the packaging were smaller, it was possible to get an extra layer inside the trailer. ITT had never had problems with weight before, the 19 ton KGs were inside their gross limit and the DAFs even more so, but a 36ft trailer axle was 9 feet from the rear and now found to be half a ton over the top. Trunking runs were virtually unaffected, but factory collections required careful planning in despatch. Other product had to be kept back in order to make up a mixed load even if 16 inch production was in full swing.
ITT also ran a drawbar unit which went each week to East Kilbride from Paddock Wood then returning and going out solo on day work delivery. UCW 591V, seen at the Hempstead Valley heat of the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition - which the company supported enthusiastically, was a much better DAF 2100; giving next to no trouble at all.The vehicle was shared by two drivers week or fortnight about: Don Simpson and John Thompsett. During the alternate weeks the other driver would usually be on day change overs in an artic or factory collections. The DAF replaced a KG Bedford which had put up with the work admirably, only being replaced when its contract hire expired by the 2100, because of assurances from the leasing company that the 1600s were unrepresentative of DAFâs product and from a desire to modernise the trunking fleet. Both the Bedford and the DAF had a system installed to prevent damage and sound the horn if the drawbar touched a rubber pad attached to the rear of the chassis frame. The lorryâs rear marker board was also hinged.
Iâm pretty sure this Bubbleman photo is an ex-Barrio motor. Any ideas?. Not many Kent reg F16 tags about.
I donât think F494GKK was ex Barrio. F32CKM, F816FKK & F640HKN were Barrio F16âs though.
You may well be right Paul. I cant remember who else had F16s though. It dosent look like it was new to the operator in the photo ( although it could have been ) so Barrio was the only firm i could think of who had them.
This looks to have gone straight to an owner driver, as you say not many F16âs were sold in the area. Gallagherâs had a G reg one, Cliffe Construction had a 4 axle tractor unit that was quite impressive, and there were about 6 others. There werenât that many FH16âs either.