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Bedford RLC Recovery Tractor


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As I mentioned in my post  to introduce myself, I have a '59 RL recovery truck.  I'm working on getting it road ready at present and have a number of manuals and other information to work from but I need answers to some bits of detail that are missing. If anyone can help with info regarding the following points I would be very thankful.

 

The truck has been fitted with a refurbished 330 engine. Can anyone advise which is the inlet and outlet to the compressor that is part of the engine?

As the compressor setup is different to the remote compressor I was intending to hook the compressor to the reservoir tank and simply using a blow off valve and a safety valve to control the air. This would do away with the remote unloader valve as the built in compressor has its own unloader.Any comments and/or suggestions to working it this way?

I did find a mention of a valve in the pipework (beside the brake master cylinder). I thought that I could just provide the air side of the master cylinder with an air supply from the tank, but I notice that there are two air pipes attached to the M/C any pointers as to what they are?

The belly winch needs new air pipework and contol valves. (the original items were lost in the cab swap) I intend to use industrial 3/2 air valves, any comments?

More specific to the recovery vehicle, the jib should slew by using a winder handle but at present the jib is free to slew as soon as it is lifted from its transport cradle. Is there a shear pin in the gearbox arrangement? I have heard that the jib could end up being able to move like this if it was used for pulling, without being lined up with the load being pulled (as opposed to llifting).

The feet for the stabilising legs are missing. I can make up something using a steel pipe socket and some heavy plywood. Does anyone have any details on what should have been there originally?

The suspended towing bars are missing. Again I can make something but does anyone have details of what they would have been used?

 

Thats all I can think of just now but I'm sure there will be more as I delve deeper into the restoration work.

 

Thanks

 

ZD

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/20/2024 at 3:24 PM, zebradriver said:

As the compressor setup is different to the remote compressor I was intending to hook the compressor to the reservoir tank and simply using a blow off valve and a safety valve to control the air. This would do away with the remote unloader valve as the built in compressor has its own unloader.Any comments and/or suggestions to working it this way?

If the compressor unloads itself, I can't see why that wouldn't work. Does the compressor have an additional port that takes a small pilot feed to actuate the unloader, that needs to be signalled by an external governing valve?

I did find a mention of a valve in the pipework (beside the brake master cylinder). I thought that I could just provide the air side of the master cylinder with an air supply from the tank, but I notice that there are two air pipes attached to the M/C any pointers as to what they are?

I could be very wrong, but if I recall correctly one of those pipes to the air servo should be your feed in, and the other might be brake-controlled air to the trailer connections? I can have a squint at the EMER when I have a moment.

The belly winch needs new air pipework and contol valves. (the original items were lost in the cab swap) I intend to use industrial 3/2 air valves, any comments?

That should work quite adequately, I would have thought.

On 9/20/2024 at 3:24 PM, zebradriver said:

More specific to the recovery vehicle, the jib should slew by using a winder handle but at present the jib is free to slew as soon as it is lifted from its transport cradle. Is there a shear pin in the gearbox arrangement? I have heard that the jib could end up being able to move like this if it was used for pulling, without being lined up with the load being pulled (as opposed to llifting).

As best I can tell, reading through the EMER supplement, the traverse worm wheel is attached to the pivot portion of the jib with a ring of bolts inside the traverse gear. If you'll forgive the poorly annotated manual grab:

Screenshot_2024-10-07_00-41-45.png.7f864a43fdf845195bd50ff80d8520fb.png

Unfortunately, the traverse gear looks to be quite well-buried in the equipment frame.

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Tamber, thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I can add some things to the points you have responded to:

The compressor built into the engine has its own built in unloader system, it has no external ports. I do have a workshop manual for a 300 series diesel engine that covers this but I have not studied it in depth yet to see exactly how it works.

 

Regarding the M/C it could be that there is a tee off for the trailer braking (I am not reconnecting any of the pipework for the trailer brakes as I can't see any way that I would ever pull an air braked trailer) I am going to leave the valves at the back and the operating valve on the steering column just for show. I could reconnect these valves but I figure its just more places for air leaks.  If it is just a feed to the trailer braking I will blank it off.

 

Regarding the slew gear for the jib. The drawing that you have shown answers a lot of questions. It may be that the bolts you indicate may have sheared. I'm guessing that the oil filling plug will provide access for a small camera to see if the movement happens without the worm wheel turning.  As you say the gearbox is well burried inside the chassis rails and it will probably need the jib stripping out as the jib seems to be located directly on top of it. There does seem to be a cover on the bottom of the gearbox that may allow access to the bolts that you have inducated, but if they are sheared getting the broken bits out will be fun.

 

I have a number of manuals and documents relating to the truck but none of them seem to give me the information that you have found (the drawing of the slew gearbox is most helpful). What is the EMER supplement that you are finding the info from? And any idea where I could find one?

 

Thanks

 

Martin AKA ZD

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