I had a P reg Foden eight wheeler downplated to 31 tonne gross with the ‘Perkins’ 335 in it, it was still a Rolls-Royce with just a different logo! 
With all the emission crap on it it wouldn’t pull from low revs, we were resurfacing a hill in Darley Dale and it wouldn’t reverse up to the paver until I had tipped a couple of pan full’s off which didn’t exactly please the ganger’s!
Pete.
Perkins are at the old Dorman works in Stafford.A lot of folk use them paticularly in Fire engines.They were a bit uncomfortable driving as a chassis cab or an unladen Artic.I once brought a new 6 wheeler Cargo from Aberdeen and took a while to get used to it as they were just sorting the roads out. I remember filling up near the dealership at the time they were giving glasses with fuel and after 40 Gals the owner was that pleased I had some extra ones so that made the motor a bit heavier.Flew up fom East Midlands and should have been there in a couple of hours from 7.30 but diverted to Glasgow as they said there was a fault on the aircraft so didn’t get there until noon full of Coffee from vouchers for waiting.There was a chap with me who was going to a funeral.I don’t know if they waited for him.
Off the point again I am.I haven’t any pictures of their fleet.
Boring Tony
I do vintage shows with a lad who works on the development side of Perkins at Peterborough, he watches over the engines in the test shop mainly at weekends.
Pete.
Regarding Perkins at the old Dorman site.I remember a Ford truck of Dormans but I can’t remember which model but I don’t think it was the ET6 model but it might have been a Trader and this motor had a Dorman engine in it and it said so on the tailboard.Obviously on trial but the motor looked well used and got about a bit.I saw it a few times in Derby.Would like to know more if anyone can help.
Tony
Dorman engines were an option (by George Neville again I think?) in the O series Bedfords Tony, some were tested on the hills around Matlock including climbing up Riber! 
ERF used them as well pre war, there are a few petrol Dorman stationary engines doing the rounds on the vintage scene and my pal had one that came from Middleton Mine!
Pete.
Dorman diesels were fitted in some M series Erf ,not sure about the B series though ? I removed a Large Dorman engined generator from Jersey about 10 yrs ago which the BBC used for back up .
I serviced a Dorman 6LE generator just before Christmas gone. What a racket they make. 
I don’t think I have come across anything quite as noisy. It really is ear defenders at a 100 yards.
This topic started with gb1 wanting pics of Perkins own fleet and look where we are now, Dormans at Stafford
Tony
I remember there were quite a few passenger cars converted to Perkins P6 at one time. Mostly belonging to lorry drivers and fitters for some reason! 
The racier models had the BMC 2.2 from the LD vans until the faster and lighter Mercedes diesels became available via the local scrap yards.
Retired Old ■■■■:
I remember there were quite a few passenger cars converted to Perkins P6 at one time. Mostly belonging to lorry drivers and fitters for some reason!
The racier models had the BMC 2.2 from the LD vans until the faster and lighter Mercedes diesels became available via the local scrap yards.
I remember a chap who put a Gardener in an Armstrong Siddeley and I did here that somebody had put a 4D in a R.R.
There was a lorry driver in Gloucester who had a P6 in a big Buick.
my dad ran Dennis maxims then dodge 308s and k 1050s on tipper work we really looked after them and they never let us down dad reckoned they were the best engines ever built and were good on fuel too…but i think his claims of 22 to the gallon was a bit far fetched. …mind you thinking about it i don’t think he ever went ovr 1500rpm.i reckon i could still service a k series with my eyes shut 35 years on bot it would have to be raining or snowing cheers jamie
An intermezzo…I found a nice illustration in a 1956 Perkins handbook, those were the days
with on the road-demonstrations, if the customer doesn’t visit you, you visit the customer
and not only the common sales-call.
I once ran a Bedford cf 35cwt pick up with a perkins (p4?) it started first time whatever the weather and would pull a load anywhere, it would only do 55mph but it didn’t slow down much going up hills 
also my old man had a few fishing boats (30ft-40ft smacks) fitted with p4 or p6 motors and he swore by them , very reliable and economical he measured economy in gallons per hour . in the days when there was fish to be caught in these parts these old motors (they came from broken trucks) worked hard .
I think that the smaller Bedford CF’s had the Perkins 4.108 engine and the larger twin wheel ones the 4.154 with the TK type gearbox. When I briefly worked at a Bedford dealership we used to service annually one fitted with the 4.154 that worked mainly internally at Heathrow, however once a year it travelled to Wokingham for a service! Well it developed a bottom end knock and I was given the job of sorting it, first job was to drain the oil haha. I took the sump plug out and no oil appeared yet the dipstick showed a full sump? Our foreman, who had encountered the van before, showed me an adapter that they used which was an oil filler cap with an airline adapter fitted which they used at oil change time to ‘blow’ the oil out as the engine never warmed up in use pottering around the airport and the oil went like tar! Got the oil out, removed the engine and found a badly scored crank so fitted a nice new one, I left the garage shortly afterwards but I wonder how long that crank lasted?
Pete.
I worked at a Seddon dealers for a while and the 4 wheel models were 99% Perkins,not much trouble except a bad run of crankshafts breaking,i think we did about 6 or so,as for the oil thickening in the smaller engines this was due to low quality oil and not being changed often enough,to this day I still have the engine oil and filter changed every 5,000 miles on my diesel cars or vans. 
Could somebody shed some light on the Perkins I’ll fated R6, My uncle bought 3 S type Big Bedford’s about 1953/54 time,from what I recall none of them were very reliable, we had to rescue one from Standedge with a big end knock.Unfortunately I was only 13/14 at the time and did,nt understand that much about diesel engines . cheers Alec
Standedge Derbys ?
Standedge, A62 Huddersfield to Mossely, my old man did this every night on trunk from Newcastle for a few years mainly in his 30:4:6LX Seddon which had no problems even in bad Winters but he wasn’t keen when he had to use another motor, especially one of the lighter Perkins models. Franky.
