The Bedford CA was a distinctive pug

Pug

The pug is a "toy" breed of dog with a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, and a compact square body with well-developed muscle. They have been described as multum in parvo , referring to the pug's personality and...

-nosed light commercial vehicle

Light commercial vehicle

Light commercial vehicles is a commercial carrier vehicles with a Gross vehicle weight of up to 3.5 tonnes. The formal term within the European Union is Light commercial vehicles. Vehicles which qualify in this category are pickup trucks, vans and 3 wheelers all commercially based goods or...

 produced between 1952 and 1969 by Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...

 subsidiary Bedford Vehicles

Bedford Vehicles

Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a subsidiary of Vauxhall Motors, itself the British subsidiary of General Motors , established in 1930; and constructing commercial vehicles. Bedford Vehicles was a leading international truck manufacturer, with substantial export sales of...

, in Luton, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

It was manufactured in short-wheelbase

Wheelbase

In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...

 and long-wheelbase forms, each form available in either a 10–12 cwt

Hundredweight

The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...

 or a 15 cwt version.

Generally it was supplied as a light delivery van with sliding doors, but it was also available as a chassis

Chassis

A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 with cowl upon which specialist bodywork could be added. The Bedford Dormobile

Bedford Dormobile

The Bedford Dormobile is a 1960s-era campervan conversion, based on the Bedford CA van, and subsequently on the Bedford CF. It was manufactured in Folkestone in Kent, southern England, by Martin Walter....

 was a Campervan conversion

Campervan

A campervan , sometimes referred to simply as a camper, or a caravanette, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term mainly describes vans that have been fitted out, often with a coachbuilt body for use as accommodation...

 based on the Bedford CA van.

In its day, the vehicle was ubiquitous; the Ford Transit

Ford Transit

The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe.The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term...

 of its time. These vehicles are now rare.

Dimensions

	|details
overall width	70 inches (178 cm)
overall height (unladen)	74.75 inches (190 cm)
axle track Axle track The axle track in automobiles and other wheeled vehicles which have two or more wheels on an axle, is the distance between the centreline of two roadwheels on the same axle, each on the other side of the vehicle...	53.25 inches (135 cm) (front)	54.5 inches (138 cm) (rear)
	short wheelbase	long wheelbase
wheelbase Wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...	90 inches (229 cm)	102 inches (259 cm)
overall length	154 inches (391 cm)	166 inches (422 cm)
kerb weight Curb weight Curb weight or kerb weight is the total weight of a vehicle with standard equipment, all necessary operating consumables , a full tank of fuel, while not loaded with either passengers or cargo.This definition may differ from definitions used by governmental regulatory agencies or other...	2245 pounds (1,018.3 kg)	2345 pounds (1,063.7 kg)
turning circle Turning radius The turning radius or turning circle of a vehicle is the size of the smallest circular turn that the vehicle is capable of making. The term turning radius is actually a misnomer, since the size of a circle is actually its diameter, not its radius. The less ambiguous term turning circle is preferred...	34 feet (10.4 m)	37 feet (11.3 m)

Body

The overall profile and architecture of the CA changed little during the vehicle's seventeen year life. There were, however, three distinctly different version sold. The first CAs featured a two-piece windscreen

Windshield

The windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and are glued...

, comprising two separate flat sheets of glass separated with a central vertical metal divide. As curved screen glass became available in the UK at an acceptable price, the two piece windscreen was replaced with a single slightly curved windscreen in approximately 1958. At the same time the painted front grille

Grille

A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.-Spelling:In the United States, "grille" is used to differentiate the automotive...

 of the original, which had featured a central split reflecting the split windscreen, was replaced by a smaller unsplit front grille, still painted in the van's body colour. The third version of the Bedford CA, sold from late 1964, featured a deeper windscreen and a corresponding reduction in the width of the painted metal scuttle panel directly below the windscreen. The 1964 vans also reflected general trends in car design of the time in featuring, for the first time, a pressed

Machine press

A machine press, commonly shortened to press, is a machine tool that changes the shape of a workpiece.-Servomechanism:A servomechanism press, also known as a servo press or a electro press, is a press driven by an AC servo motor. The torque produced is converted to a linear force via a ball screw....

 aluminium alloy

Aluminium alloy

Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc. There are two principal classifications, namely casting alloys and wrought alloys, both of which are further subdivided into the categories...

 front grill.

Powertrain

The CA utilised a contemporary powertrain

Powertrain

In a motor vehicle, the term powertrain or powerplant refers to the group of components that generate power and deliver it to the road surface, water, or air. This includes the engine, transmission, drive shafts, differentials, and the final drive...

 layout

Automobile layout

In automotive design, the automobile layout describes where on the vehicle the engine and drive wheels are found. Many different combinations of engine location and driven wheels are found in practice, and the location of each is dependent on the application the vehicle will be used for...

. This consisted of a front

Front-engine design

A front-mounted engine describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the vehicle passenger compartment.Historically, this designation was used regardless of whether or not the entire engine was behind the front axle line...

-mounted longitudinally

Longitudinal engine

In automotive engineering, a longitudinal engine is an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, front to back....

-oriented internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

, and rear-wheel drive. The transmission

Transmission (mechanics)

A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...

 was mounted immediately behind the engine, and torque

Torque

Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....

 was transmitted to a live rear axle

Live axle

A live axle, sometimes called a solid axle, is a type of beam axle suspension system that uses the driveshafts that transmit power to the wheels to connect the wheels laterally so that they move together as a unit....

 via a tubular prop shaft.

The engine and three-speed gearbox, were also used in the Vauxhall F-series Victor. The four-speed gearbox from later FC-series models could be easily retro-fitted to any three-speed Bedford CA, and later was offered as a factory option.

Engine

The vehicle was powered by an inline four cylinder petrol engine

Petrol engine

A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....

of 1508cc at first with pushrod operated overhead valve

Overhead valve

An overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...

s and a three-main bearing

Main bearing

In a piston engine, the main bearings are the bearings on which the crankshaft rotates, usually plain or journal bearings.All engines have a minimum of two main bearings, one at each end of the crankshaft, and they may have as many as one more than the number of crank pins...

 crankshaft

Crankshaft

The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...

. The fuel pump

Fuel pump

A fuel pump is a frequently essential component on a car or other internal combustion engined device. Many engines do not require any fuel pump at all, requiring only gravity to feed fuel from the fuel tank through a line or hose to the engine...

, oil pump

Oil pump (internal combustion engine)

The oil pump in an internal combustion engine circulates engine oil under pressure to the rotating bearings, the sliding pistons and the camshaft of the engine...

 and distributor

Distributor

A distributor is a device in the ignition system of an internal combustion engine that routes high voltage from the ignition coil to the spark plugs in the correct firing order. The first reliable battery operated ignition was developed by Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. and introduced in the...

 were driven directly off the camshaft

Camshaft

A camshaft is a shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part.-History:An early cam was built into Hellenistic water-driven automata from the 3rd century BC. The camshaft was later described in Iraq by Al-Jazari in 1206. He employed it as part of his automata,...

. A Zenith 34VN

Zenith Carburetters

Zenith Carburetters was a British company making carburettors. In 1955 they joined with their major pre-war rival Solex Carburettors and over time the Zenith brand name fell into disuse...

 downdraft carburetter was fitted. The engine was available in either a low compression or a (less frequently specified) high compression version. Later models also benefitted from the slightly larger 1594 cc engine, as fitted in the Vauxhall Victor FB post 1964. A 1622cc (99cu.in) Perkins diesel engine was also available.

The engine extended back into the vehicle's passenger compartment, and was covered by a removable cowling

Cowling

A cowling is the covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles and aircraft.A cowling may be used:* for drag reduction* for engine cooling by directing airflow* as an air intake for jet engines* for decorative purposes...

. The vehicle thus had a very short bonnet

Hood (vehicle)

The hood or bonnet is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment for maintenance and repair. In British terminology, hood refers to a fabric cover over the passenger compartment of the car...

, giving it its distinctive look. This configuration meant that the driver and passenger were travelling with their feet alongside the engine, but allowed a good proportion of the vehicle's overall length to be used for its payload

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

. Access to the engine for routine checks was via the tiny bonnet flap, or the interior cowl. For major overhaul of the engine, the front panel containing the headlights

Headlamp

A headlamp is a lamp, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car or a motorcycle, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as darkness or precipitation. Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by...

 and grille, and the chassis

Chassis

A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 front crossmember

Crossmember

A crossmember is a structural section of steel, usually boxed, that is bolted across the underside of a monocoque / unibody motor vehicle, to support the internal combustion engine and / or transmission...

 had to be completely removed.
A popular aftermarket conversion of the time was the use of the Perkins 4/99 diesel engine. This was low on power (40 bhp) but was capable of superior fuel economy.

	|details
engine configuration Engine configuration Engine configuration is an engineering term for the layout of the major components of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine. These components are the cylinders and crankshafts in particular but also, sometimes, the camshaft....	inline four overhead valve Overhead valve An overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...  petrol engine Petrol engine A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....
engine displacement Engine displacement Engine displacement is the volume swept by all the pistons inside the cylinders of an internal combustion engine in a single movement from top dead centre to bottom dead centre . It is commonly specified in cubic centimeters , litres , or cubic inches...	1508 cc
cylinder bore	3.126 inches (7.9 cm)
piston stroke	3 inches (7.6 cm)
	low compression	high compression
compression ratio Compression ratio The 'compression ratio' of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity...	6.8:1	7.8:1
max. motive Motive power In thermodynamics, motive power is an agency, as water or steam, used to impart motion. Generally, motive power is defined as a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover. The term may also define something, as a locomotive or a...  power Power (physics) In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit...	52 bhp @ 4,000 rpm Revolutions per minute Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...	54.8 bhp @ 4,200 rpm
max. torque Torque Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....	81.7 ft.lbf @ 2,400 rpm	84.5 ft.lbf @ 2,400 rpm

Transmission and final drive

The vehicle initially had a three-speed manual transmission

Manual transmission

A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...

 driving the rear roadwheels

Wheel

A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...

 via a semi-floating live rear axle

Live axle

A live axle, sometimes called a solid axle, is a type of beam axle suspension system that uses the driveshafts that transmit power to the wheels to connect the wheels laterally so that they move together as a unit....

. Later models had a four speed transmission option.

Front suspension

The front suspension

Suspension (vehicle)

Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...

 comprised double wishbones

Double wishbone suspension

In automobiles, a double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. The shock absorber and coil spring mount to the wishbones to control...

 and coil spring

Coil spring

A Coil spring, also known as a helical spring, is a mechanical device, which is typically used to store energy and subsequently release it, to absorb shock, or to maintain a force between contacting surfaces...

s atached to a front axle

Axle

An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...

 crossmember. An anti-roll bar

Sway bar

A sway bar or anti-roll bar or stabilizer bar is a part of an automobile suspension that helps reduce the roll of a vehicle that is induced by cornering or road irregularities. It connects opposite wheels together through short lever arms linked by a torsion spring...

 linked the two lower wishbones. A similar arrangement was later used on the Vauxhall Viva

Vauxhall Viva

The Viva was a small family car produced by Vauxhall Motors in a succession of three versions between 1963 and 1979. These were known as the HA, the HB and the HC series....

.

Rear suspension

The rear suspension comprised semi-elliptic

Ellipse

In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...

 leaf spring

Leaf spring

Originally called laminated or carriage spring, a leaf spring is a simple form of spring, commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles...

s, 2.25 inches (5.7 cm) wide, mounted on the chassis and shackled to the rear axle. The 10–12 cwt

Hundredweight

The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...

 version had seven leaves, and the 15-17 cwt version had eight leaves. Each leaf was 0.25 inch (0.635 cm) thick.

Steering system

Steering

Steering

Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. which will allow a vessel or vehicle to follow the desired course...

 was effected by a Burman

Burman and Sons Ltd

Burman and Sons Ltd, of Ryland Road, Birmingham, England, manufactured Burman-Douglas steering gear.Their recirculating worm and ball design of steering gear was fitted to pre-war vehicles such as the Ford Eight and the Ford Prefect, the Bedford CA, plus many other vehicles - both pre and post-war....

 recirculating ball

Recirculating ball

Recirculating ball, also known as recirculating ball and nut or worm and sector, is a steering mechanism commonly found in older automobiles, and some trucks...

 type steering gear, a four rod linkage system and two relay levers. This design is unlikely to have been precise, because of all of the linkages it involves. In practice, the system was reasonably precise, and a CA actually handled better than the early Ford Transit due to the independent front suspension

Independent suspension

Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...

.

Operating controls and instruments

The gear change was mounted on the steering column

Steering column

The automotive steering column is a device intended primarily for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism or transferring the driver's input torque from the steering wheel.-Secondary functions:...

. The direction indicator switch was mounted in the instrument panel. The headlamp dip switch was foot operated. The starter switch was push-operated and mounted on the floor panel below the handbrake.

Instruments were limited to a speedometer

Speedometer

A speedometer is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a land vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the 1900s, and as standard equipment from about 1910 onwards. Speedometers for other vehicles have specific names...

, a fuel gauge

Fuel gauge

A fuel gauge is an instrument used to indicate the level of fuel contained in a tank. Commonly used in cars, these may also be used for any tank including underground storage tanks.As used in cars, the gauge consists of two parts:...

 and a water temperature gauge.

The Bedford CA was designed in an era when semi-conductor devices were state-of-the-art, and not affordable for automotive applications. Water temperature was thus measured mechanically, via a capillary tube connected to capsule containing a volatile liquid. The capsule was screwed into the body of the water pump

Pump

A pump is a device used to move fluids, such as liquids, gases or slurries.A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into three major groups: direct lift, displacement, and gravity pumps...

. Any change in temperature of the engine coolant evaporated or condensed

Condensation

Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....

 the volatile

Volatility (chemistry)

In chemistry and physics, volatility is the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatility is directly related to a substance's vapor pressure. At a given temperature, a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure.The term is primarily...

 liquid, altering the pressure

Pressure

Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...

 on a mechanical linkage in the water temperature gauge, which moved the position of the needle. Later models used an electric gauge.

The fuel gauge was electrically controlled, as is the case in vehicles today. The sensor unit in the fuel tank could use the electrical resistance

Electrical resistance

The electrical resistance of an electrical element is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that element; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels with the mechanical...

 of a float-variable rheostat to measure the level of fuel, and was therefore not dependent upon the new semi-conductor technology.

Braking system

The braking system

Brake

A brake is a mechanical device which inhibits motion. Its opposite component is a clutch. The rest of this article is dedicated to various types of vehicular brakes....

 comprised a cast-iron detachable brake drum

Drum brake

A drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....

 on each roadwheel, with the retardation provided by asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

-lined brake shoes mounted in a leading/trailing

Leading/trailing drum brake

The leading/trailing drum brake is a type of drum brake design. It is typically found on the rear of automobiles, though it has appeared on the front of some older models such as the Bedford CA. Its advantage is that is equally effective whether the vehicle is travelling forwards or in reverse...

 arrangement. The shoes were operated by double-acting Lockheed

Automotive Products

Automotive Products, commonly abbreviated to AP, was an automotive industry components company set up in 1920 by Edward Boughton, Willie Emmott and Denis Brock, to import and sell American-made components to service the fleet of ex-military trucks left behind in Europe after World War I.In 1928,...

 hydraulic cylinder

Hydraulic cylinder

A Hydraulic cylinder is a mechanical actuator that is used to give a unidirectional force through a unidirectional stroke. It has many applications, notably in engineering vehicles.- Operation :...

s, fed by a single hydraulic circuit

Hydraulic circuit

A hydraulic circuit is a system comprising an interconnected set of discrete components that transport liquid. The purpose of this system may be to control where fluid flows or to control fluid pressure...

 connected to the brake master cylinder

Master cylinder

The master cylinder is a control device that converts non-hydraulic pressure into hydraulic pressure, in order to move other device which are located at the other end of the hydraulic system, such as one or more slave cylinders...

, which was mechanically linked to the brake pedal

Automobile pedal

An automobile may have two to four foot pedals. The arrangement is the same for both right- and left-hand traffic. From left to right:* normally operated by the left foot:**clutch pedal, not in the case of automatic transmission...

. This design was normal for that time, but had some inherent problems, and is inadequate by modern standards.

External links

• Bedford-World.com — the international owners club for all Bedford types is The Bedford Register & Drivers Club International. Special section for CA ice-cream vans.
• bedford-ca.com — information, manuals and links to parts suppliers for Bedford CA models