Hannah and I have been looking for a suitable truck to build another house on since selling the Hino. We wanted something a bit smaller than the 5 m wheelbase we had been used to. A bit more of a manageable size for little holidays plus the new house is to be removable so the truck can be used for work/play.
We'd been looking at a variety of different trucks- some ex-fire service, some at a local wreckers. We'd been offered another Hino at an OK price and it was a 4m wheelbase.
Then a couple of weeks ago a friend from oldschool.co.nz forum asked me if I could look over a Bedford TK listed on the book of faces that was local to us. No worries. I like looking at old trucks and it was a good excuse to go for a hoon in the Imp. Here's a couple of pics I took that morning of the viewing..
Upon viewing we promptly fell in love with it and since our friend wanted a tipper, which this wasn't, he very kindly let us have first refusal on his find. But we did had to have a little think about it...
At 3m the wheelbase was far shorter than what I have been planning the next house build on. I re-did some drawings and we sussed out some ideas. Deciding that with our mezzanine build giving us a huge amount of living space we realised we didn't need a massive housetruck. Also the idea of utilising some decent sized pop outs excited my designing itch.
Other bonus points for the fact the little truck would be so easy to move about the yard plus in and out from under the planned 'house on stilts' , the fact it was a proper classic, a model Hannah had owned for many years and we both lived in while in the UK.
Its rated at 6.5 ton with a current tare weight of 2.8. Ample allowance for a small house build plus its in a cheaper RUC bracket! (road user charges- a road tax that diesel vehicles have to pay in NZ- based on weight and wheel count. You purchase them at a minimum of 1000km at a time and a card is displayed in the window)
The fact the truck had a really neat bit of history and was a one family owned truck from new with the seller, Wayne, being a very friendly bloke who really loved his old truck. It had been bought new by his Grandad and then his dad used it eventually being passed onto Wayne when his Dad died. It was still being used to run out the hay etc and is pretty much always kept road legal.
The cab had been swapped in the 90s after an electrical fire had damaged the old cab beyond repair. The new cab was off a larger engined bigger KM model Bedford- hence the different grill and lights as fitted at the factory for those models.
They had the Nissan safari/civilian engine fitted in the early 2000s after the 4 cylinder Isuzu went pop. They wanted a much smoother 6 and loved this conversion.
A rust free cab, decent history and fitted with a 4.2 Nissan Diesel engine, all road legal for 5k. curse word it- lets just do it!
Last weekend we went back to collect the truck. It has been garaged most of its life...
Currently sharing a shed with a very cool old tractor..
While we were there we got a nice tour from Wayne of the old seed threshing machines his Dad had installed in around 1965 or thereabouts. They all still work and he showed us some of them running...
While we were out there Wayne let us nab a few spares from the old TK he had in a field. Some seats in better condition and some standard TK single headlights in case we decide to swap it back that style (although growing to like the twins..)
Said our goodbyes and promised to stay in touch as Wayne is interested in what becomes of his little truck.
I drove it home, soon remembering how low the windscreen top is for tall folk. The seat that Wayne had fitted to see it through more recent cof tests (certificate of fitness- like a truck MOT) is from a Morris marina and sits too high. That will be fixed asap I thought.
The throttle pedal was an awful design and sat almost vertical at idle. Tricky to moderate and my ankle had to contort heaps making the drive uncomfortable.
But otherwise it all went well. The engine seemed fine and pulled well up the hills on the way home, even seeming a bit faster than our van. No doubt things will slow down with a house on board - but folk should never race about in their houses now should they...
That evening we popped down to the beach and the carpark so Hannah could take it for a hoon. I took some pics...
Once home again we parked it in front of the shed and started planning out a few tidy up jobs and modifications to make it nicer to drive.
More on that soon...
We'd been looking at a variety of different trucks- some ex-fire service, some at a local wreckers. We'd been offered another Hino at an OK price and it was a 4m wheelbase.
Then a couple of weeks ago a friend from oldschool.co.nz forum asked me if I could look over a Bedford TK listed on the book of faces that was local to us. No worries. I like looking at old trucks and it was a good excuse to go for a hoon in the Imp. Here's a couple of pics I took that morning of the viewing..
Upon viewing we promptly fell in love with it and since our friend wanted a tipper, which this wasn't, he very kindly let us have first refusal on his find. But we did had to have a little think about it...
At 3m the wheelbase was far shorter than what I have been planning the next house build on. I re-did some drawings and we sussed out some ideas. Deciding that with our mezzanine build giving us a huge amount of living space we realised we didn't need a massive housetruck. Also the idea of utilising some decent sized pop outs excited my designing itch.
Other bonus points for the fact the little truck would be so easy to move about the yard plus in and out from under the planned 'house on stilts' , the fact it was a proper classic, a model Hannah had owned for many years and we both lived in while in the UK.
Its rated at 6.5 ton with a current tare weight of 2.8. Ample allowance for a small house build plus its in a cheaper RUC bracket! (road user charges- a road tax that diesel vehicles have to pay in NZ- based on weight and wheel count. You purchase them at a minimum of 1000km at a time and a card is displayed in the window)
The fact the truck had a really neat bit of history and was a one family owned truck from new with the seller, Wayne, being a very friendly bloke who really loved his old truck. It had been bought new by his Grandad and then his dad used it eventually being passed onto Wayne when his Dad died. It was still being used to run out the hay etc and is pretty much always kept road legal.
The cab had been swapped in the 90s after an electrical fire had damaged the old cab beyond repair. The new cab was off a larger engined bigger KM model Bedford- hence the different grill and lights as fitted at the factory for those models.
They had the Nissan safari/civilian engine fitted in the early 2000s after the 4 cylinder Isuzu went pop. They wanted a much smoother 6 and loved this conversion.
A rust free cab, decent history and fitted with a 4.2 Nissan Diesel engine, all road legal for 5k. curse word it- lets just do it!
Last weekend we went back to collect the truck. It has been garaged most of its life...
Currently sharing a shed with a very cool old tractor..
While we were there we got a nice tour from Wayne of the old seed threshing machines his Dad had installed in around 1965 or thereabouts. They all still work and he showed us some of them running...
While we were out there Wayne let us nab a few spares from the old TK he had in a field. Some seats in better condition and some standard TK single headlights in case we decide to swap it back that style (although growing to like the twins..)
Said our goodbyes and promised to stay in touch as Wayne is interested in what becomes of his little truck.
I drove it home, soon remembering how low the windscreen top is for tall folk. The seat that Wayne had fitted to see it through more recent cof tests (certificate of fitness- like a truck MOT) is from a Morris marina and sits too high. That will be fixed asap I thought.
The throttle pedal was an awful design and sat almost vertical at idle. Tricky to moderate and my ankle had to contort heaps making the drive uncomfortable.
But otherwise it all went well. The engine seemed fine and pulled well up the hills on the way home, even seeming a bit faster than our van. No doubt things will slow down with a house on board - but folk should never race about in their houses now should they...
That evening we popped down to the beach and the carpark so Hannah could take it for a hoon. I took some pics...
Once home again we parked it in front of the shed and started planning out a few tidy up jobs and modifications to make it nicer to drive.
More on that soon...
We both love Indian style trucks and tempted to have some fun going down that route too.
