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This vehicle is not currently on display at the Museum
The basic Bedford RL was the most common of the early post-war range of military trucks and has been described earlier. Over 70,000 were built for the Armed Forces and civilian customers. As more chassis became available, many were allocated for special purpose bodies. Earlier post war machinery vehicles, now all in house type or box bodies, were built on the Commer chassis but the Bedford chassis was selected solely for the MT repair truck. When eventually this began to reach units in the late 1960s the surviving wartime Type M Machinery Trucks were mostly in a poor state through age and frequent use on exercises.
The Bedford RL chassis was basically the same as that for the cargo truck. The box body featured rear and side doors and a full width locker at the front, over the vehicle's cab, giving it the appearance of a Luton van. Three windows on each side and one in each rear door provided light but could be blacked out for concealment when the internal lights were used. Provision was made for the attachment of side shelters, by now made in a PVC coated material rather than plain canvas. A cable reel was carried under the body for connection to a mains or generator current source. A set of steps was carried at the rear of the truck. The body was wired for mains power at 415/230 volts with secondary lighting systems at 12 volts.
The machinery layout was similar to earlier vehicles. During its service life the official designation of the vehicle changed at times to suit new NATO standards and it became Shop Automotive Repair Truck Mounted. The chassis was uprated to 4 tonnes capacity with no actual modification.
A few of these trucks remained in service into the early 1990s but in
some Regular Army units the bodies were transferred to the more modern
Bedford MK chassis until the official replacement became available. This
was a containerised machine shop carried first on a Bedford MJ platform
truck. In more recent times the containers have been carried on Leyland
Length |
6.35 m (20 ft 10 in) |
Width |
2.48 m (8 ft 2 in) |
Height |
3.14 m (12 ft 4 in) |
Wheelbase |
3.96 m (13 ft) |
Engine |
Bedford 6 cylinder petrol |
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Page produced by Peter Eldred - Last updated 24 July 2004