Vehicle Options: Bedford MT

 

Another bigger variation of the Bedford MJ. This replaced the TM and was the last of the Bedfords (Marshall). Sadly, although it looks to be a very capable truck, there are some drawbacks.

I have some pros and cons listed – and this list will be updated as and when new things are discovered – or if anyone out there has anything that they’d like to add – and I’d really appreciate that help.

Pros:

• Simple to operate.
• 4×4
• Winch option.
• Basic kit – Less to go wrong.
• Tough as old leather. Proven in the battlefield.
• Bigger version of the MJ – More to love!

Cons:

• Can’t find one anywhere…
• Spares availability is therefore an unknown.
• Concerns over registering and modifications to make civilian road legal.

• Back to ‘Vehicle Options: Overview’

 

Vehicle Options: Bedford TM

 

A step up from the older Bedford MJ I am looking at. The bigger Bedford TM.

This has the power okay, but it has a big drawback that currently leaves it dead in the water (unless I can get a really cheap one to offset the fuel costs of this 10 mpg beast.

I have some pros and cons listed – and this list will be updated as and when new things are discovered – or if anyone out there has anything that they’d like to add – and I’d really appreciate that help.

Cons:

• 10 MPG… Dead in the water idea.

 

• Back to ‘Vehicle Options: Overview’

 

Vehicle Options: Bedford MJ

I’ve always liked the old Bedford trucks. They are hard-working, simple beasts (I guess we have a lot on common).

The older Bedford trucks don’t have the power or strength to do the trip in question (without me worrying all of the time…), but the MJ has that little extra power over the earlier MK and it’s predecessors. They are simple (no electronics) and have a good proven track record in military service.

I have some pros and cons listed – and this list will be updated as and when new things are discovered – or if anyone out there has anything that they’d like to add – and I’d really appreciate that help.

Pros:

• Simple to operate.
• 15 – 20 mpg on a long trip. (The TM only does about 10 mpg…)
• 4×4
• Winch option.
• Currently spares are not a problem.
• Reasonable price – but rising fast. You could get a good one for £2000 in 2007. Now you are looking at £5-6000.
• Basic kit – Less to go wrong.
• Wealth of knowledge on the internet. (e.g: Buyers tips)
• Tough as old leather. Proven in the battlefield.
• I’ve always liked them… Yeah, the heart needs to be ignored…

Cons:

• Becoming harder to find.
• Spares availability is finite at present.
• Concerns over registering and modifications to make civilian road legal.
• Prices going up.
• No power steering (can cause fatigue over a long journey).
• Only a 2 seater (up front).
• Small cab.
• Load size.
• Tricky engine access. No tilt cab.

• Back to ‘Vehicle Options: Overview’

 

Floating the idea…

When plans become more solid, I’m thinking of raising funds for ‘Help for Heroes’. The drive in an old army truck from the South of England to the Arctic north of Sweden is not a simple one, and I’m doing this way to get to know the country & have a bit of an adventure during the move – but it occurred to me that in using an old army truck I could also help those who used to drive them, for us, in ‘less idyllic’ locations.

It’s just an idea at the moment, but it feels right.

Ulysses

It’s a thought still to be fleshed out, but a thought with some grit and adventure to it.

Drive to the Arctic Circle from the south of England.

The idea that is forming is to take an old army Bedford MJ 4 ton truck and drive all of our gear to the land beyond the sunset (it’s in the Arctic… think about it). It’s a old truck and I’m not as young as I was, but as Tennyson put it in the :

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world…
…for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset,

If the truck idea is to be used, then the truck cannot simply be called ‘the truck’.  It would be deserving of a much greater name.

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

And there you have it. Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses‘ sums it up and gives the truck it’s moniker.

Ulysses is the Roman translation of Odysseus. It was used by Tennyson for the poem of the same name, and in a twist, it was ‘Odyssey’ that was used by Finnish author Thomas Warburton in his Swedish translation of Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’..