Bed-Ford 6D Gives 16.3 m.p.g.
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SLIGHTLY better than 16.3 m.p.g.
was returned by a Bedford 7-tortner in which a Ford 6D oil engine had been installed, when tested by a representative of The Commercial Motor. The most notable characteristic was the excellent top-gear performance over relatively arduous main-road gradients.
Some trace of vibration was evident in this gear at speeds below 20 m.p.h., but this was possibly caused by sympathetic vibration of the cab floor and panelling.
Originally a 1952 long-wheelbase forward-control 7-tonner, the Bedford had had its wheelbase increased by 3 ft. 4 in. by its owners, John A. Dickson, livestock transporters, Stoke Mandeville, Bucks. This, together with the use of 9.00-20-in. (14-ply) tyres, enabled a 22-ft. 6-in.-long cattle-container body to be fitted, giving an overall vehicle length of 30 ft. and a width of 8 ft.
Chambers Engineering, Main Street, Weston Turville, were responsible for the conversion; the cost is about £450. No drastic modifications were necessary. The original front cross-member is retained, but is provided with feet to carry the forward end of the 6D, whilst mpunting brackets for the rear were fabricated.
The original Bedford gearbox has been retained -and connected• to the engine with an adaptor plate produced by Pratt of Sutton and modified to suit. To compensate for the difference in the length of the primary shaft between a Ford and Bedford gearbox, an adaptor has been fitted into the end of the crankshaft to carry a standard Bedford spigot bearing.
The right-hand bonnet side has been altered to clear the injector pipes and fuel filter, the resulting protrusions making it necessary to offset the hand brake slightly. Other changes include the fitting of a vacuum tank and gauge.
Running at a gross weight of 10 tons 164 cwt., the vehicle was taken on a test run from Weston Turville to Brentford, in the company of Mr. W. A. Chambers and Mr. J. A. Dickson. Fuelconsumption tests were carried out on an eight-mile undulating stretch of the Aylesbury-Amersham main road. Standing-start acceleration figures of 0-20 m.p.h. in 19+ seconds, and 0-30 m.p.h. in 45 seconds were obtained on a level section of the main A40 road, adjacent to Northolt Airport.
Because the vehicle was being used to deliver cattle food, time did no: permit a proper hill-climb test to be made, but a l-in-8 gradient in the vicinity of Chalfont St. Peter was climbed easily in second gear with no signs of an appreciable temperature rise.
It was possible to talk in substantially normal tones, even when the engine was pulling hard on a gradient. Although first gear was normally used when starting from rest, second could he employed without adverse effects on level ground, the transmission take-up being free from judder on all occasions.