The Luton Truck

Below is a photo of the Luton Truck to be decorated by the Youth Team, myself and Haider Ali in time for Spring 2011.

As you can see it's a standard TJ Bedford lorry looking very much like it did when it rolled off of the production line all those years ago, with it's dropside rear load area.

So what is the difference between this truck and the Pakistan Bedfords?

The answer: Quite a lot really.
The Bedford TJ in Pakistan has been modified to suit the needs of the country, the roads, the loads it is carrying and materials used to modify the truck, in fact the truck is so modified that the original design is barely recognisable other than the front wings, bonnet and windscreen.

You can see the height difference between the two trucks; the Pakistan truck has a much higher road clearance through the use of larger springs, so that it can take a heavy load over rough terrain. Extra clearance of the load area is gained by fitting a 6 inch/150mm piece of mahogany timber running the length of the chassis; this is clamped with large U clamps to the chassis and the bed of the lorry is then fitted to the timber. The bed is also concave in shape so as to accommodate a large and tall load of 50Kg sacks, this design enables the load to be more stable when stacking sacks beyond the height of the truck.

The other striking difference is the cab, it's gone! The only parts left are the wings, bonnet and half of the metal holding the windscreen in place. These remaining Bedford items are bolted to a mahogany frame to which the carved wooden doors and taj or crown board are also fitted. This new cab carries most of the heavily decorated woodwork picked out in coloured paint or inlaid with bone. The cab is then bolted to the steel load area behind, making for a very strong structure and one that can carry loads from the Arabian Sea to the Chinese,Iranian and Afghan borders. These trucks locally are called "Rockets" although they plod along very slowly with the standard Bedford engine pulling all that extra weight even before they are loaded with tons of barley, sugar or silk.

What will the Luton Truck look like?

It would be great to reconstruct the Luton Truck and turn it into one of the Pakistan Rockets. Unfortunately this will not be possible, due to cost, height restrictions at the museum where the truck is to be displayed and I'm sure the Department For Transport might have some questions about it too!

We will have to compromise in the design by building the load area higher, constructing a smaller taj which will allow the truck to get into the museum, fitting all the bright steelwork and covering the whole truck in decoration which reflects Lutons' cultural heritage. It's not going to be a replica of the Pakistan Rocket, more a truck which has a wheel in the UK and a wheel/hubcap in Pakistan!