ERF-Continental:
I strongly doubt if Van Twist (mind the fact that they assembled the Seddon-VanTwist, however without full cab, only the
hood and fenders were there) did the bodywork. On the other hand, why would a distributor and user of AEC go to Belgium
where only a hand full of body-workers had the possibility, meaning that 80% was involved in coaches, like Van Hool, L.A.G.
and Jonckheere…as been said by Eric (TIPTOP) and Coovi was far too small, physically and business-wise.
Camerman did teh job themselves, with quite a bunch of surplus-items to produce a cab, to say the least a chassis.
Perhaps…a very small chance…the Miesse (Deraedt-VanNeste) was in charge for also the same cab-maker?
Food for thought there. Happy new year!
Ro
Did some digging in books/archives of Van Twist (established more than 180 years ago!!!) and unfortunately nothing
on the mystery AEC with an unknown cab.
Here some history…
Better image than the one earlier on 
Buzzer popped this LHD Mk 5 on another thread this morning. Could this be an earlier attempt by Bollekens to locally cab an AEC? The characteristically peaked roof certainly suggests that this might be the case. It also has the single-piece windscreen. The lower half of the cab is much more faithful to that ‘Park Royal’ look though.
Even as a wrecker in “St Job in 't Goor” really the name of the place, near Antwerp
Interesting thread. Slightly related - Some of the photos show a number, prefixed by a ‘V’, usually about 5 numbers in length on the rear lower section of the cab, I.e. V-12345. I have seen this before on some Belgian trucks, and I’m curious what it represents?
Is it a licence number of some sort?
Thanks for any info!
It’s indeed a registration referring to each vehicle registrated in terms of the granted license to carry goods.
Sometimes the last number (afterV12345-) was the vehicle-number to have an immediate check.
vwvanman0:
0
Fb spot in colour.
Steve
Nice one Steve 
. Not many colour pics of Bollekens AECs on here.
Not a Bollekens cab but Transit was a loyal user of AEC’s in Belgium
Again, not necessarily a Bollekens cab but LHD nonetheless, and almost certainly one of the Belgian Whitbread brewery fleet.
The Mammoth Major 6 with the Bollekens cab is an interesting one. There are several pictures on this thread of 6x4 tractor units with various day and sleeper versions of the Bollekens cab, AV680 and TET 203 ‘box.
After all, just compare a UK MM6 with a Belgian one:
I’ve been reading up a bit more on the LHD Bollekens-cabbed export AECs. It seems that the Mammoth Major Six and the Mandator tractor units were offered with much the same drive-line, offering some advantages over the standard domestic UK versions.
Both were offered with the AV690 and later the AV760 AEC lump. Both were offered with the TET D203 6-sp constant-mesh ‘box.
In the case of the 4x2 Mandator you got the Bollekens sleeper cab and a longer wheelbase, which of course gave a much better ride. You could, optionally, have the Timkin rear axle in what was called the ‘Super Mandator’.
In the case of the 6x4 MM6, you could have quite a short wheelbase, again giving good handling characteristics. The AV 760 was a good deal of power in the ‘60s. You only have to watch the various vids online of AV 760-powered MM6 dump-trucks operating on motorway construction sites to see what formidable beasts the 6x4s were!
TBH I just can’t think of anything I would have rather driven in say, 1966, on Continental long-haul work even though these AECs were pretty noisy beasts.
But hold your breaths: just three or four years later, everything was about to change massively with the introduction (in UK at least) of the big Cummins 14ltr and the Fuller Roadranger gearbox.
And this is where, for me, ERF swept AEC off the board even before Leyland absorbed AEC…
But alas, we’ve been here before. Happy New Year to all!
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Being pedantic again Ro, the E290 wasn’t introduced until 1978.
You are right! But the 14-litre NH and NTC was in ERFs at 335 bhp in 1969.
