Bedford Car Operator's and Maintenance Manuals PDF

 Bedford cars belong to the most famous British-made vehicles for transporting goods, despite the fact that among all the cars created, they did not differ either in appearance or in the presence of original elements in the design.

In reality, such machines were “workhorses”, characterized by versatility and unpretentiousness, such as could only be found in the British Isles. During the first years of its existence, the company was inextricably linked with the Vauxhall cast iron company, which was founded in the middle of the last century in the London quarter of the same name.

History of creation. In 1905, the company moved to the city of Luton, located in Bedfordshire, where it opened the production of passenger cars. The 20s turned out to be a difficult time for it and General Motors, which had been planning for a long time to create a platform in Britain to enter the European market, showed interest in Vauxhall. In 1925, it was decided to make it its own unit. The planned expansion into the European market also included trucks. It was decided to act in this direction by importing Chevrolet trucks into the UK. At the end of the 1920s, a line for their assembly was already launched at the Hendon plant.

In 1931, the US government decided to open its own enterprise on the territory of this state to produce light cars for transporting goods that met the requirements put forward by the British car market. They were produced under the Bedford brand, the name of which was taken from the nearby town, as well as the entire county where the enterprise was located. The open production facility was a cargo division of the Vauxhall company. The vehicles were distinguished by their reliability and speed of movement, due to which they enjoyed great success and were involved in almost all types of transportation. This is where the company motto comes from: “You can see them everywhere.” This actually happened. The first to be produced were vehicles weighing 2 tons, “WHG” and “WLG”, with wheelbases of 3330 and 3990 mm. For that time they were very cheap - only £198. They were followed by the production of light vans "VY" and "VX", the "WS" series weighing 1.5 tons and the three-ton "WT" truck.

 Cars of this series were equipped with a six-cylinder engine with overhead valves, a volume of 3733 cc and a power of 44 to 64 hp, paired with a 4-speed synchronized gearbox, rare in Europe at that time. The first Bedford vehicle, which had a load capacity of 600 kg, was for its time the best representative of a vehicle for delivering cargo in this class. Subsequently, based on passenger cars of this series, several lightweight versions with a carrying capacity of 250-600 kg were produced.

In 1939, three updated car series were introduced with a flat hood and a two-axle design with a more modern type of appearance - the flat radiator trim and rectangular cab were replaced with rounded lines and streamlined shapes.

The vacuum brake booster was used only on vehicles carrying more than three tons of payload. Even before they had time to start producing these vehicles in series, they were forced to change them to suit the needs of army units. After the end of the war, civilian trucks began to roll off the production line of the enterprise again.