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Phil Cook

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  1. Hi, I’ve just stumbled across this 3 years later. Don’t know if you still have the crane or if you’ve already found more info about them. I was a driver in the RAF in the late 70’s/early 80’s and was a crane operator. These were operated by the RAF. From my memory I believe there were a total of 55 of them came into service, being hydraulic and state of the art at the time, they were a huge step forward compared to the previous cranes in service especially with a weigh-load meter so you could see what weight you were lifting. The truck part was manufactured by Jones Crane Travellers and the crane fitted was a Smiths. I don’t know a lot about the mechanics of them being an operator rather than a mechanic but the Bedford 500 does ring a bell with me and not the 10% load safety bell. I also remember the heater in the crane cab was a diesel fed heater, which if it went out and is wasn’t allowed to fully cool down before reigniting, it had the potential to go bang, and being essentially sat just above and in front of it wasn’t the most enticing thing to do, the line between bravery and stupidity became very thin when you went to press that igniter button! If you see this I hope my memories have been of some use. Phil Cook.
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