I reckon you’re taking the p*ss a bit, Dennis. Just wait until I finish rebuilding my Trader with the Dorman engine.
Retired Old ■■■■:
I reckon you’re taking the p*ss a bit, Dennis. Just wait until I finish rebuilding my Trader with the Dorman engine.
And all your going to succeed in achieving ROF is encouraging that ■■■■ “CF” to stick his “two penarth” of verbal ■■■■■ onto the post to explain that you are wasting your time with the Dorman engine,you should stick a DD Two stroker into it Blah blah ■■■■■■■ blah !!! 
Cheers Dennis.
Suedehead:
Bewick:
I know it’s not a Trader but still a shot of a popular motor in it’s day,taken with the same camera,same Kodak film, around the same date but IIRC this shot was taken on a saturday afternoon whereas the Trader was taken on a weekday.Same HP scanner as well,50 years after the shots were taken ! Cheers Bewick.The drivers of those lorries were privileged . . radio aerials!!
Also like the bit of rag as a wide load marker
From memory “Suedehead” they both had the old (well they wern’t then) Phillips valve sets,the Seddon 6 wheeler parked next to the S Type was a new motor and the Phillips was a “push button” model IIRC.I had one of those valve sets in my Mini van and boy could they drain the battery !! Those “rag” side markers were state of the art for a wide load in those days !! Same as a pile of rags or a gallon tin in the road behind a brokendown motor! Other drivers knew exactly what it meant,happy days,Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Suedehead:
Bewick:
I know it’s not a Trader but still a shot of a popular motor in it’s day,taken with the same camera,same Kodak film, around the same date but IIRC this shot was taken on a saturday afternoon whereas the Trader was taken on a weekday.Same HP scanner as well,50 years after the shots were taken ! Cheers Bewick.The drivers of those lorries were privileged . . radio aerials!!
Also like the bit of rag as a wide load markerFrom memory “Suedehead” they both had the old (well they wern’t then) Phillips valve sets,the Seddon 6 wheeler parked next to the S Type was a new motor and the Phillips was a “push button” model IIRC.I had one of those valve sets in my Mini van and boy could they drain the battery !! Those “rag” side markers were state of the art for a wide load in those days !! Same as a pile of rags or a gallon tin in the road behind a brokendown motor! Other drivers knew exactly what it meant,happy days,Cheers Dennis.
Is that a Croppers of Kendal Seddon Dennis I spy in the corner of that picture?
David 
Yep! dead right David,it was a James Cropper Seddon 6 wheeler which had the 400 Leyland engine,it was driven by Colin Veevers who lived at the other side of that building.The ground the motors are parked on belonged to Andrew Brown Ltd. the,then,Lucas agents in Kendal on which in later years they built a workshop but for many years it was just spare ground and I used to park my D1000 there at times.Colin’s next motor was the first 32/4 steel cabbed Seddon Croppers got with RR220( IIRC the Reg no was FJM 422F) engine then finally a couple of Volvo F10’s,when he retired from driving he then became a night watchman in the Mill.His son John was actually Kendal town mayor a couple of years ago.I will say that I knew Colin from been a lad so I counted him as a pal and he was always very kind towards me from the time I ran the one motor through to when the Bewick fleet had grown substantially,unlike a few of the other Cropper drivers who always had a “downer” on Bewick !! Colins good mate at Croppers was another Kendal chap called Frank Forrest another grand bloke who was also a good pal of mine for many years.When Croppers had replaced all their ridgid Seddons with artics in the late 60’s they kept the last one which Frank drove until his retirement in the mid 70’s,this 6 wheeler was the only one at Croppers to have the Leyland 600 engine which was the same as the coachbulit units at Croppers had prior to the 32/4 being introduced in '68.Enough info I think about long gone happy days !! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Yep! dead right David,it was a James Cropper Seddon 6 wheeler which had the 400 Leyland engine,it was driven by Colin Veevers who lived at the other side of that building.The ground the motors are parked on belonged to Andrew Brown Ltd. the,then,Lucas agents in Kendal on which in later years they built a workshop but for many years it was just spare ground and I used to park my D1000 there at times.Colin’s next motor was the first 32/4 steel cabbed Seddon Croppers got with RR220( IIRC the Reg no was FJM 422F) engine then finally a couple of Volvo F10’s,when he retired from driving he then became a night watchman in the Mill.His son John was actually Kendal town mayor a couple of years ago.I will say that I knew Colin from been a lad so I counted him as a pal and he was always very kind towards me from the time I ran the one motor through to when the Bewick fleet had grown substantially,unlike a few of the other Cropper drivers who always had a “downer” on Bewick !! Colins good mate at Croppers was another Kendal chap called Frank Forrest another grand bloke who was also a good pal of mine for many years.When Croppers had replaced all their ridgid Seddons with artics in the late 60’s they kept the last one which Frank drove until his retirement in the mid 70’s,this 6 wheeler was the only one at Croppers to have the Leyland 600 engine which was the same as the coachbulit units at Croppers had prior to the 32/4 being introduced in '68.Enough info I think about long gone happy days !!
I feel as though I have just sat through a history lesson Dennis,thanks for that!!
David
5thwheel:
Bewick:
Yep! dead right David,it was a James Cropper Seddon 6 wheeler which had the 400 Leyland engine,it was driven by Colin Veevers who lived at the other side of that building.The ground the motors are parked on belonged to Andrew Brown Ltd. the,then,Lucas agents in Kendal on which in later years they built a workshop but for many years it was just spare ground and I used to park my D1000 there at times.Colin’s next motor was the first 32/4 steel cabbed Seddon Croppers got with RR220( IIRC the Reg no was FJM 422F) engine then finally a couple of Volvo F10’s,when he retired from driving he then became a night watchman in the Mill.His son John was actually Kendal town mayor a couple of years ago.I will say that I knew Colin from been a lad so I counted him as a pal and he was always very kind towards me from the time I ran the one motor through to when the Bewick fleet had grown substantially,unlike a few of the other Cropper drivers who always had a “downer” on Bewick !! Colins good mate at Croppers was another Kendal chap called Frank Forrest another grand bloke who was also a good pal of mine for many years.When Croppers had replaced all their ridgid Seddons with artics in the late 60’s they kept the last one which Frank drove until his retirement in the mid 70’s,this 6 wheeler was the only one at Croppers to have the Leyland 600 engine which was the same as the coachbulit units at Croppers had prior to the 32/4 being introduced in '68.Enough info I think about long gone happy days !!I feel as though I have just sat through a history lesson Dennis,thanks for that!!
David
As long as you paid attention David !!
I know this isn’t a Trader either but it is an interesting shot all the same,this Seddon could possibly be one of the first,or the first maybe,of a James Cropper Seddon and Boden tandem axle trailer at the bottom of Archway Road in London.These Cropper Seddons had the Leyland 600 engine and IIRC the first one had no power steering and on the first day the driver, Arnold Nicholson,got the outfit up against the side of the loading bay wall and couldn’t get it off !! I believe all the units that followed the first one were fitted with power steering,I think Arnold was close to retirement at the time but I can’t re-call if he carried on with the artic or returned to one of the 6 wheelers.By the looks of this shot I would hazzard a guess that the driver may be Noel Richardson another long serving Cropper driver.Oh! and during the '90’s Arnolds grandson drove for Bewick Interantional,it’s a small world ! Cheers Dennis.
Why did lorries have such small derv tanks back then . . to keep the tare down 
Suedehead:
Why did lorries have such small derv tanks back then . . to keep the tare down
At least on the British built motors of previous years the standard tanks always seemed to be small although all the manufactures offered larger tanks as an optional extra so maybe it was just a way of screwing more money out of the buyer,I know from first hand experience !! In the case of tipper operators they obviously wanted as low as possible tare so these operators wouldn’t be bothered as they filled up,usually,at the end of every day.However if you were a long distance operator you normally wanted enough derv to get you back to base on a round trip as years ago derv was much cheaper to carry your own stock rather than use an agency card.Unlike to-day where it is cheaper to buy fuel from filling stations,and the cost of keeping bulk derv at base is more costly,plus I believe there are enviromental problems now with the storage of derv.Cheers Bewick.
in the film “get carter” with michael caine the remains of a trader cab can be seen lying at the waterside in the final chase scene!!
Trev_H:
I really loved the trader, I liked the driving position and they cornered like a train on rails. They went for more comfort with the D series but what a backwards step putting the trader engine inclined.
Unless it was a Spanish train.
Bewick:
Suedehead:
Why did lorries have such small derv tanks back then . . to keep the tare downAt least on the British built motors of previous years the standard tanks always seemed to be small although all the manufactures offered larger tanks as an optional extra so maybe it was just a way of screwing more money out of the buyer,I know from first hand experience !! In the case of tipper operators they obviously wanted as low as possible tare so these operators wouldn’t be bothered as they filled up,usually,at the end of every day.However if you were a long distance operator you normally wanted enough derv to get you back to base on a round trip as years ago derv was much cheaper to carry your own stock rather than use an agency card.Unlike to-day where it is cheaper to buy fuel from filling stations,and the cost of keeping bulk derv at base is more costly,plus I believe there are enviromental problems now with the storage of derv.Cheers Bewick.
When I was hauling aggregate to South Wales and loading slag back from Margam with a Bedford TK with a 20 gallon tank back in 1969.
I carried a 5 gallon drum of diesel on top of the load which I had to lift off the top of the load before tipping, then raise the body and pour it into the tank through a tun dish. Quite often I had to call at a garage on the way home and buy about 3 gallons to get back to the yard.
Much better when I had a Bedford KM with a 70 gallon tank.
Cheers Dave.
Ford Thames preserved in France.
Hi all I was out with me brother on our motor sycles stopped off at Goodwood and this old Thames was in one of the car parks !!
Regards Jimski
My dad drove a Trader box for a firm with their offices in Manchester by the name of G.P. Vickers.He was based at their east London factory.The memory I have of this funny looking truck was the amount of times it broke down on the recently opened Motorways and in particular the M1.I was only about 10,when he used to take me to South Shields to one of their factories and I can never remember getting there or back without a breakdown truck being called on the journey.This was invariably an electrical fault,usually the alternator or starter motor,but it was always an adventure for me.
This firm gave up on the Trader a couple of years later,after some little toerag tried to set it alight in the middle of the night and they changed to Bedfords instead.There were quite a few companies in east London that used the Trader,one of which was Spurlings of Silvertown,who used them in artic configuration with twenty foot trailers and the local paraffin man had a tanker that he used to flog his esso blue(or was it alladin pink)from,door to door.This Trader was still parked up under railway arches,although in a very dilapidated condition,until a few years ago.The other big user of Traders was the Tolly Cobbold brewery in Walthamstow.I also seem to remember Blue Dart from Enfield using a few Traders,but I can’t be sure,but no doubt someone will confirm or contradict this.There were also a few rare conversions,such as a crew cab and even a sleeper cab.
All in all the Trader was probably a good little truck from the guvnors viewpoint,as it was a very easy truck to maintain,although most drivers wouldn’t agree,given the antiquated design and mechanics at the time,i.e,vacum brakes(on an artic,aarrrgghh),no insulation,etc,but then there wasn’t a lot more to compete with them at the time.Ford obviously eventually decided they were lagging behind with the Trader and decided the D series(which I believe originated from the USA)was going to boost their fortunes.They were probably right,but it was still a neat little truck,even if it was damned ugly.
Who was the firm from Acton that ran a whole fleet of dark blue 4-wheeled Traders?
Greetings,All.Re.Traders with Scammell couplings and vacuum brakes,we,on UCC had a fleet of them pulling York and CF insulated trailers, sometimes loaded with hanging beef, in the Sixties.They were driven carefully I might add.I’ve attached a photo of the coupling.All the best,regards,900x20.
bill m ex y@d:
in the film “get carter” with michael caine the remains of a trader cab can be seen lying at the waterside in the final chase scene!!
One of my all time favourite films but i thought that was the remains of a Bedford dormobile
nope deffo an old trader n/s footwell with air vent flap missing!!!