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KL Bedfords of Luya Julius

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2 years 5 months ago - 2 years 5 months ago #226748 by raafy

Hard to imagine now Paul, but in the 60's and early 70's the dolly steer axle wasn't permitted brakes.
Not sure if that applied to tandem dollies but was certainly the case with single axle jobs which were pretty common back then.
I'm still amazed when thinking back to the petrol KL Bedfords of Luya Julius with 1-sugar bin on the truck and towing a short dog with 2-sugar bins. Only brakes on the whole show were the pathetic vacuum/hydraulics on the 7t Bedford and 7" vacuum mechanical on the rear axle of the dog.
28 ton gross too.
After the sugar season finished Luya Julius deregistered all of the sugar trucks bar the dogs. They were kept registered so that they wouldn't have to fit brakes to the front axles. I have bad memories from my apprenticeship in the 60's & 70's of doing the wheel bearings of every sugar truck & dog in the month before sugar season started. At the time they were running Leyland Super Comets, AEC's & TK Bedfords.




MOVED FROM CAIRNS TO VICTORIA & STILL TRYING TO WORK OUT WHY
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2 years 5 months ago #226752 by JOHN.K.
Replied by JOHN.K. on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
I well remember the Luyas AECs,and the Bedfords .......Its quite amazing what the 300 petrol and the little 4 speed box and a 2 speed diff would do......the 4 speed would easily outlast the rubbish Turner 5 speed also fitted to Bedfords.........
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2 years 5 months ago #226755 by jeffo
Replied by jeffo on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
We’re you around when they went to 4-bins? Still those old dog trailers but 8x4 prime movers with 2-bins on the truck.
The purchasing officer had strange ideas, or perhaps he knew better than us.
They ordered a fleet from Leyland, but they wanted the AEC chassis/running gear and Leyland 680 turbo engine with semi auto box. Leyland at rocklea built these up from their yard stock, was a hell of a mess when they finished.
Do you remember the “rods out the side “ episodes?
They had one after the other throw rods at the passenger side, no one could work it out. Eventually truth came out.
Driver would reach across for his lunchbox and bump the air split button, knocking her back a cog.
They had very slow diffs and the drivers kept them flat to the boards just to maintain speed so a bit of over rev didn’t go down too well,
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2 years 5 months ago - 2 years 5 months ago #226758 by JOHN.K.
Replied by JOHN.K. on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
I always thought they built their own trucks out of second hand parts......which wasnt uncommon in those days......I knew one driver from the Bedfords,and he told me one time the truck suddenly slowed to a crawl ,he thought the motor had seized,but when he stopped ,it was a mob of bicycle riders had grabbed onto the dog......and the Bedford couldnt pull the extra weight.............Actually wasnt uncommon in those days for bicycles to hitch a ride on a semi as it climbed a long hill .
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2 years 5 months ago - 2 years 5 months ago #226761 by raafy
Replied by raafy on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
The main problem we had with the Bedfords was dropping inlet valves. My father & I got good at replacing pistons & heads on the side of the road after dropping a valve.
When I left in 74 they had standard tipper Bedfords, standard alloy tipper body, without the hydraulic ram, on the Leylands & mounts for side tip bins on the AEC's (from memory the mill in Maryborough supplied the bins).

I remember a driver telling a tale about when he was going from Murwillumbah to Broadwater in a Leyland over the Burringbar Range when the truck started to pick up speed. By the time he got to the top he was in 3rd low instead of the usual low low. He stopped at the top & another driver appeared from the back of the truck. Apparently (in his words) a Mack from Nicholsons was behind him so the driver turned his lights off, nudged up to the back of the dog & pushed him up the hill. True or not I never found out.

MOVED FROM CAIRNS TO VICTORIA & STILL TRYING TO WORK OUT WHY
Last edit: 2 years 5 months ago by raafy.
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2 years 5 months ago - 2 years 5 months ago #226764 by raafy
Replied by raafy on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
At one stage the company bought a 2nd hand Leyland Super Comet with a brand new Freighter trailer with 2nd hand axles. We all looked over the trailer & found that the brake drums looked like corrugated iron.
This truck was used to carry Rocla pipes & all was good until it was coming down the Toowoomba Range with a full load of pipes on board. When the driver put his brakes on he lost his trailer brakes & the truck went over the side of the range (after the driver bailed out)
Apparently, according to the report by Queensland Transport, when the driver put his brakes on, the drums were so thin that they expanded & the S cams went over centre so he had no brakes on the trailer.
The funniest part was the Toowoomba newspaper reported that the driver crawled out of the damaged cab. This was not likely as the cab was completely flattened.

MOVED FROM CAIRNS TO VICTORIA & STILL TRYING TO WORK OUT WHY
Last edit: 2 years 5 months ago by raafy.

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2 years 5 months ago #226765 by jeffo
Replied by jeffo on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
Some lucky drivers though. One Maryborough truck went over the edge of the bridge, think it was Gregory river. He got the whole show in the creek, bank to bank.
The only part not destroyed was the driver’s seat. Everything else was crumpled up like alfoil.
John K that’s a good yarn. Those KL’s went pretty well and I couldn’t round them up in my AEC Monarch.
In fact I couldn’t even do the “S” types that Bingera mill used for carting molasses. They were a tanker towing a single axle tanker dog, loaded to the max, dripping from the valves.
The KL’s on sugar chewed gearboxes at a good rate pulling up the big hills around Childers. All bottom gear of course, fortnight jobs.
Hayden Kenny (Grant’s dad) drove from Maryborough for a short time. He said they were death traps and bolted pretty quickly. Never looked back.
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2 years 5 months ago #226767 by jeffo
Replied by jeffo on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
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2 years 5 months ago #226940 by xspanrman
1974 Mackay Queensland , sugar cane carrier Zarb Transport had this Leyland with its trailer permanently attached . The photographer, Rufus Carr noted that the connection between truck and trailer resembled a tail shaft universal joint. Has anyone seen this type of setup.
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2 years 5 months ago #226941 by jeffo
Replied by jeffo on topic KL Bedfords of Luya Julius
Never seen it on trucks. Some off road caravans have a universal joint style with a barb that spears into the receiver. Bloody complicated.
Wonder where all those LAD Octopii ended up?
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