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AFS Bedford RL Petrol Carrier


Duncan76

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Having bought a green goddess in 2011 and having said firmly that would be quite enough, a friend and I have now purchased an ex-AFS Bedford RL Petrol Carrier, GYL 32C.

 

It's a relatively rare beast - only one of I think 5 RL petrol carriers made and one of about 10 in total (the other 5 were Commer Q4s) - they were made to carry pack fuel in jerry cans for AFS fire columns. Sold out of Home Office service in 1988, it then made its way to Clywd Fire Brigade as a foam carrier (and possible later a LPP carrier) where it had a tail lift fitted. Then it eventually passed via another owner or two to the RAF Firefighting Museum at RAF Scampton from whom we bought it as although in good condition, it was non-core and taking up space that is badly needed for their ever-expanding fleet of RAF appliances.

 

As it has spent much of its life indoors with the Home Office (most of the other petrol carriers sold that year had less than 2,000 miles on the clock) then Clywd Fire Brigade then the RAF Firefighting museum, it's in remarkably good condition so much of the restoration work is cosmetic.

 

The delivery voyage was last Saturday although by the time we had it running properly after a long period of inactivity, it made the journey south from Scampton under cover of darkness before the snow hit on Sunday.

 

As with my goddess, we will blog progress: http://afspetrolcarrier.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Here it was on Saturday:

 

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Work commenced on Monday with removing the tail and side boards to dry them, removing the headlining to remove the redundant wires and bolts in the roof (and knock out the large dent!) and removing the truck-style wing mirrors to be replaced with slightly more suitable items. There are a fair few holes in the cab roof to fill though! A new tilt frame and tilt will be required too.

 

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As a petrol carrier, whilst the rear body is very similar to the AFS GP vehicles, there are a few oddities such as the shrouded wiring, fire / blast wall behind the cab, extended front bumper to accommodate foam extinguishers and shielded fuel tank:

 

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Eventually, the extinguisher holders and perhaps a jerry can rack or two will need remanufacturing but this is difficult as only photographs now exist although there is another petrol carrier - GYL 29C - that was running around in Scotland I believe until recently (DVLA show it as SORN now) which does have the extinguisher holders.

 

Cheers,

 

Duncan

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Thanks Ted (and everyone else for the nice comments). Hopefully, in the not too distant future, it will look something like those photos again! In lieu of getting hold of a genuine tilt frame, we'll have to have one made up in the coming weeks and months. The extinguisher holders are interesting - we have a few photographs and are getting closer but really could do with seeing the real thing, hence why we have tried (unsuccessfully) to find the ownder of GYL 29C.

 

N.O.S. - as you can see, the low-profile 'sproting' tilt was a Clywd FB addition some time in the 90s.

 

Duncan.

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Hello Duncan

 

Are you going to have all the metal work fabricated as in the picture for the jerry can Holders, looks like a lot of fabricating , is the canvas on the truck a 3 piece, looks like it might be from the front picture of the truck. Its certainly one of the most solid rust free RLs that I have seen.

 

Regards

 

Howard

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Hi Howard,

 

Yes - it certainly seems to be in good condition! I did have a really good crawl all over it when it was up at RAF Scampton last November but if anything, I think it's better than I thought!

 

The tilt should be in three parts - roof and sides, front and back - as is normal for an RL; I think Tony has some contacts there for that. The tilt frame - unless we can find an original, he has access to a genuine frame to act as a pattern to have the frame made up from scratch.

 

In the medium - long term, yes it would be nice to have at least one section of can racking made up. It would be fairytale to find one lurking in someone's garden or shed but I think that's unlikely and they would have gone for scrap long ago. Given the time and cost, it's a much lower priority. Having the extinguisher holders made up is a higher priority! We only have photos so far but GYL 29C (a sister vehicle) is on SORN according to the DVLA and was on the road until recently. We have tried to track the owner, so far without luck......

 

Cheers, Duncan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Duncan probably a stupid question but have you asked on the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RSOLES/ site about the owner? Nice looking machine would be good for you to be in touch for diagragms, sizes and photos. Hope you manage it. Good luck. Ernest

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Howard,

 

Yes - it certainly seems to be in good condition! I did have a really good crawl all over it when it was up at RAF Scampton last November but if anything, I think it's better than I thought!

 

The tilt should be in three parts - roof and sides, front and back - as is normal for an RL; I think Tony has some contacts there for that. The tilt frame - unless we can find an original, he has access to a genuine frame to act as a pattern to have the frame made up from scratch.

 

In the medium - long term, yes it would be nice to have at least one section of can racking made up. It would be fairytale to find one lurking in someone's garden or shed but I think that's unlikely and they would have gone for scrap long ago. Given the time and cost, it's a much lower priority. Having the extinguisher holders made up is a higher priority! We only have photos so far but GYL 29C (a sister vehicle) is on SORN according to the DVLA and was on the road until recently. We have tried to track the owner, so far without luck......

 

 

Cheers, Duncan.

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Hi Duncan,

 

Regarding the Scottish RL, it might be worth contacting the Scottish Military Vehicle Group to see if anyone knows about it. There isnt a big movement of "military" vehicles up here, and assuming that it is in preservation rather than being used as a working vehicle, theres a good chance that someone in the group will have encountered it.

 

Dave.

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Thanks Ernest and Dave, always good to have ideas! I have publicised the acquisition on RSOLES but I haven't asked specifically about the Scottish petrol carrier. I know that word has been put out on other fire groups but the SMVG sounds like something worth a go!

 

Duncan.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Well some progress recently. I went down to do a few days sanding and lend a hand over Easter. The rear body has been removed to allow the chassis to be blasted and painted. The side boards and tail board have been sanded and repaired and the numerous holes in the cab roof and doors have been filled. The indicators on the wings have also been removed and the holes filled in preparation for the re-fitting of the indicators where they were originally fitted onto the cheek panels, quite unusual for RLs. In recent days, the clutch has been removed and replaced and the exhaust is the next in line for attention. The cab has been sanded in readiness for repainting.

 

Duncan.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Well after a few weeks of hard graft by Tony, 32's co-owner, it's back together and almost ready to set sail again under its own steam!

 

There are still a few things to tidy up here and there and as yet it has no canopy. But over the recent weeks, the list of jobs is quite staggering:

 

After painting, the vehicle is now back together again and looks fantastic! Although not exhaustive, the list of things to be done was large and included:

 

 

 

  • New tyres - we've fitted 12.00 x 20 Goodyear G388s which are slightly larger and more modern
  • The wheels have been painted
  • Carburetter cleaned and rebuilt
  • Manifolds cleaned and re-attached, a difficult job as the exhaust manifold is in three pieces and you need an octopus to help hold it and re-attach!!
  • Exhaust painted in high temperature black
  • The rear body has been re-attached
  • The steps have been fitted to the tailboard
  • Mudflaps fitted
  • Radiator canvas cowel replaced (the last one was missing)
  • The new indicators are fitted in their original position on the cheek panels (rather than on the wings as with the vast bulk of RLs) together with the complex backing plates
  • The headlining has been painted
  • New wipers and arms fitted
  • Tilt frame painted and fitted
  • Flashing amber lights fixed and wired up
  • Headlining painted

 

 

Hopefully, the first outing of the newly restored 32 will be next weekend (15th-16th July) at Derby Emergency Services Show....

 

Duncan.

 

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  • 9 months later...

Spring time wash and brush up followed by a very enjoyable test drive:

 

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Also found out why the sidelioght circuit keeps burning the fuse out - one of the front sockets has a double pole fitting rather than all the rest which are singles! Now to find another single pole one - predictably, there were none on eBay when I looked yesterday!!

 

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That's one good looking RL Duncan, how does it drive on those Goodyears?

 

Thanks for your kind words! The front exhaust and fire wall behind the cab give's it a certain presence as does the revised early 60s Bedford grille! The front indicators mounted on the cheek panels as opposed to the wings gives it a more distinctive look, too.

 

It drives very well on the 1200 Goodyear G388s, actually. They're a good tyre and having managed to lock up the wheels with the previous 1100 bar grips in the wet :wow:, I can testify to the much improved grip!! It cruises comfortably in the low 50s on big roads. They do just fit within the front wheel arches as you can see from the attached pic...

 

 

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Duncan.

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Always had a liking for the RL ever since I bought 6 when the AFS units were being sold off in the late 1980s. The cross country ability is amazing as the chassis is designed to flex about 10 degrees front to rear. I originally thought the floor timbers had shrunk but apparently they were built with small gaps to prevent the body tearing itself apart when the chassis flexed.

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