{{Infobox automobile , image = 1948 Bedford MSD (LSU 544) dropside, 2012 HCVS Tyne-Tees Run.jpg , name = Bedford M-Series , manufacturer =

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, aka = {{ubl , , production = 1939-1953 , predecessor =

Bedford WL The Chevrolet Series AE Independence (or Chevrolet Independence) is an American vehicle manufactured by Chevrolet in 1931 to replace the 1930 Series AD Universal. Calendar year production slipped by about eight percent to 627,104 cars as the Gre ...

, class =

Medium-Duty truck Truck classifications are typically based upon the maximum loaded weight of the truck, typically using the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and sometimes also the gross trailer weight rating (GTWR), and can vary among jurisdictions. United ...

, platform = , related = , body_style = 2-door

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

, engine = {{convert, 214, cuin, L, 1, abbr=on

OHV OHV may refer to: * Overhead valve engine * Off-highway vehicle, aka off-road vehicle * Off-roading * California State Parks California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the C ...

6-cylinder , successor =

Bedford TA The Bedford TA (also called Bedford A) is a medium-duty truck produced by Bedford Vehicles from 1953 to 1958, as a replacement for the older Bedford K/M/O series. In total around 200,000 TA trucks were built, until it was eventually modernise ...

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FR layout A front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout (FR), also called Système Panhard is a powertrain layout with an engine in front and rear-wheel-drive, connected via a drive shaft. This arrangement, with the engine straddling the front axle, was the tra ...

The Bedford M series is a line of commercial vehicle

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

, the first variants of which were made in 1939 by

. It is a normal control 4-wheel chassis designed to carry loads of 2-3 tons. There were two wheelbase lengths offered – 10' 0" or 11' 11" – and each was fitted with the standard 6-cylinder 76 bhp

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American and Canadian English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends ...

. A 4-speed

gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

with single dry plate

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...

delivered power to a floating rear

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

with spiral bevel

final drive A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) or transmission system, is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivet ...

. Brakes were Lockheed

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

type and Clayton Dewandre vacuum assisted operating on all four wheels.

Variants

Lorry

Seven variants of the M-series chassis were offered. Their designations were: ;MS - short (10'0") wheelbase *MSZ : chassis only *MSC : chassis and cab *MSD : dropside lorry *MST : end tipper ;ML - long (11'11") wheelbase *MLZ : chassis only *MLC : chassis and cab *MLD : dropside lorry

Bus

In the years between the deletion of the WHB small bus in the mid 1930s and the introduction of the

Bedford CA The Bedford CA was a distinctive pug-nosed light commercial vehicle produced between 1952 and 1969 by Bedford Vehicles, Bedford in Luton, England. It was manufactured in short-wheelbase and long-wheelbase forms, each form available in eithe ...

, the limited 12–16 seat bus market demand was met by examples of the M series, either MLC or MLZ.

Plaxton Plaxton is an English builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Eastfield, North Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton, it became a subsidiary of Alexander Dennis in May 2007. In 2019, the maker was acqui ...

converted some of the latter to forward control in the 1950s using the same scaled down Consort body as fitted to similar

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Karrier Karrier was a British marque of motorised municipal appliances and light commercial vehicles and trolley buses manufactured at Karrier Works, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Clayton and Co. (Huddersfield) Limited. They began making Karrier moto ...

buses, whilst an MLC converted to a 12-seat school bus by Lee Motors for Dorset County Council survives in preservation.

External links

The Bedford Truck Legend Register
M Series Vehicles introduced in 1939