RE: NOW: old vans. WAS:TV licensing legality of a SlingBox ??

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I never actually got to drive one of those wonderful vans, sat in
> the passenger seat a few times... Being as I was working in City
> (of London) area we used to walk everywhere.
>
> I do remember the Vans being very poorly made and towards the end
> I think the PO / BT where the only people buying them. Even the
> dashboard looked homebrew with none of the switches or dials
matching...
>

They used to have "Walking Fitters" in Norwich as well.

I only drove a Commer a few times. Horrible things to drive. They were a
van
body on a car width chassis and used to roll like mad. They had drum brakes
all round and if you got them wet they were impossible to dry out. Once you
thought the brakes were OK again you would suddenly find out that you had
no
brakes at the next juction !!!

I had six vans in the time I was at PO/BT

2 Yellow Bedford HA Vivas  NVF 508 P, YCL 236 X
1 Yellow Austin Maestro	  F 34 UPU
3 Grey Ford Escorts	J 406 VOP, M 270 00X, S ??? TDA

Even though I was a business systems engineer I never got a dark blue van.
They didnt respray any Vivas blue and by the time I got the Maestro they
had
gone back to all yellow vans. I did drive a blue one once and tried to move
out of my own way going round a roundabout when I saw this blue van in the
mirror, I was so used to seeing yellow :)

The Vivas were horrible, the first one used to fill up with water due to a
leaky windscreen. The mechanics solution to the problem was to drill some
holes in the floor to let the water out !!!

The only reason the Viva stayed in production so long was due to BT/British
Gas and many local authorities buying them. Other companies tended to buy
Ford Escorts or Morris Marinas

The Maestro was OK as it was one of the last. They first came in at B reg
and lost of the early ones suffered ignition problems.

The Escorts were definately the best although my second one suffered quite
severe damage due to a faulty bulb. I noticed that one of my rear fog
lights
wasnt working so I headed off to the garage to get it fixed. I decided that
as there was a car wash there I would give the van a clean. I put removed
the ladder, shut the ladder tie rope in the back doors and started the car
wash. As the wash progressed I noticed that the ladder tie had come loose
so
I ran for the emergency stop button.

Slight problem.... the button was on the moving gantry which had obviously
moved!

Before I could get to the button, the rope was picked up by the brushes and
wrapped itself round them. I watched as the rope tightened. The back of the
van sank towards the ground and the front started to lift. Then with an
almighty crash, the ladder rack parted company with the van, went over the
brushes and slammed into the rear doors!!!

The really ironic part is that I DIDNT have a faulty fog light. The
"J" reg
escort had two fog lights but by "M" reg, Ford were only fitting
a single
offside lamp even though the rear light clusters were the same.

Keith