Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

Classic collection: Ayrshire Griffin

Bob Weir went to Cumnock to meet Iveco dealer Jim Smith and hear about his passion for old Bedfords.

Jim was born and raised in the area and is an engineer by profession. “My father was employed by the National Coal Board and was a chief engineer at one of the local pits,” he explained. “This was during an era when Ayrshire still supported deep mining, which was a major employer in the local community.”

When he left school it was only natural that he should follow in his father’s footsteps. He started a four-year apprenticeship with the NCB, and having completed it with flying colours looked set for a bright future. Unfortunately the storm clouds of redundancy were already starting to gather, and within a short space of time the deep mines had all closed leaving Jim no option but to seek employment elsewhere.

Fortune favours the brave, and still only just out of his teens Jim decided to go for broke. He started his own commercial vehicle repair business with long-time friend Bill Kerr. This was the beginning of a successful partnership that has stood the test of time.

Jim said: “We started off in humble surroundings, at the back of my father’s Dutch barn. We worked round the clock, seven days a week, repairing lorries until we landed a contract with the local council.”

This turned out to be the break the pals were looking for, and the business quickly grew from strength to strength. Having started off mending the authority’s refuse vehicles, the quality of their work soon came to the attention of the parks department. It was not long before they were in a position to open two Vauxhall dealerships in Cumnock and Ayr, and an Iveco franchise just outside Glasgow.

“By this stage I was taking more of a back seat and had handed my side of the business over to my two sons,” he recalled. This also allowed him to concentrate on his hobby, restoring old vehicles. His current tally includes several old tractors, fire appliances and his favourite commercial the Bedford RL.

He said: “My Bedford history comes from the early days of the business. We had been running things successfully for about five years when we heard on the grapevine that the existing local dealer was giving up his Bedford franchise.”

Jim decided to pick up the phone, and contact the dealer development department at Dunstable. Management was already on the lookout for a replacement, and arranged an interview for the following week.

“We had no capital or cash to speak of, but Bedford said we were the people it wanted and we could always borrow the money,” said Jim. “We opened in 1981, and our first target was to sell three lorries. We sold a couple to local farmers, registered the third as a demonstrator and managed to win ourselves a holiday!”

After this promising start the Smith and Kerr partnership quickly established a reputation for being one of the top Bedford dealers on the west coast of Scotland.
Jim said: “During our best year we managed to sell over 200 trucks, which was considered quite an achievement in those days. I used to work long into the evening bumping my head against the bonnet of TK and TLs, which is one of the reasons why Bedfords are in my blood.”

Not long after he started the business Jim also decided to join the local Cumnock fire service as a retained fireman, which explains his love of old fire appliances.
“Ironically the first fire appliance I ever drove was a Bedford,” he remembered, “because most of the local fire department vehicles were also wearing the Griffin logo. We eventually ended up supplying, converting and repairing most of the brigade’s fleet.”

Jim retired from the fire brigade in 2010 after 35 years on the job and was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal. At the same time he decided to turn his attention to restoring old fire appliances as well as the 1959 RL recovery vehicle, which is currently the pride of his fleet.

HSV 773 was originally commissioned by the War Department, and spent its service career recovering Army vehicles. According to Jim it was retired around 1985 and sold via auction. It then spent the next few years working in the Liverpool area, recovering old cars dumped in the local canals. Jim eventually acquired the vehicle in 2008.

“I bought the RL from the Roger Dyson Group in Birmingham,” said Jim. “They have been designing and converting recovery vehicles for over 30 years and are acknowledged experts in this field. Roger and I are good friends, and he had been keeping an eye out for me for some time.”

The lorry is equipped with the Bedford 300 petrol engine and four-speed gearbox coupled to a transfer box that drives both front and rear axles.

Jim said: “Being a 4x4 it also has a high/low shift, which allows it to move into ‘crawler’ mode. This driveline was particularly popular and is one of the main reasons why the Army continued to buy lorries equipped with this system, albeit with different cabs, well into the 1980s.”

The recovery gear on Jim’s lorry is to wartime specification. This includes an underbody drum winch that can work from the rear and is fitted with pulleys to the front and a seven-ton power winch that is used for the main lift and tow recovery system.

“In line with most War Department requirements, all the equipment that was purchased had to be capable of being removed by the recovery vehicles,” Jim explained. “The basic test was that the Bedford should be capable of lifting another recovery vehicle of the same size and weight.”

The lorry has since been painted by Jim in the original Kerr & Smith colours and in the same style of handwriting that they used when they first went into business. The lorry did not require any restoration, although he has since overhauled the brakes.

Jim said: “One of the reasons why the RL model was so popular was that they were very reliable and built to last. I’ve already taken it on two lengthy road trips, and it sailed through with flying colours.”

The Scottish climate is not renowned for its heatwaves, and according to Jim this is probably just as well. “I took my wife along on last year’s Ayrshire run down to Portpatrick and she was commenting about the heat,” he recalled. “The engine is right next to the occupants in the cab and things can get a bit warm, especially as the lorry was built in the days before air conditioning.”

But if a stiff breeze blowing in from the Irish Sea can help to cool things down a bit, one thing that is guaranteed to get the eyes watering is the Bedford’s fuel consumption!

Jim said: “Unfortunately the RL only averages 7mpg. This is a bit of a drawback given today’s fuel prices, but with petrol lorries of this size I suppose it comes with the territory!”

The Bedford is also still capable of putting in a shift, and was called into action last January during the harshest Scottish winter in 30 years.

“Our own business currently operates 20 recovery vehicles, and some of these cost in excess of £200,000,” said Jim. “But things got so bad last year that they were all fully committed, when suddenly out of the blue I got a call about an artic stuck on a local roundabout in minus 10 conditions. With nothing else to hand, I jumped into my trusty Bedford. Fortunately the lorry started at the first time of asking, and we had the artic shifted in no time. Just a pity I didn’t take along a camera to photograph the incident for my scrapbook!”

Words & Photography: Bob Weir