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Bedford J Series

Sept 1958–1998 · J0 to J6 · the last bonneted Bedford · and 1,600 of them in the NZ Post Office fleet

The number after the J is a weight class, and the weight class decides the brakes, the wheels and the front sheet metal. Get the J-number and you have your answer.

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Not listed? Plenty of parts suit several marques and never get the model name in the title — ask us and we will check the books for you.

About the Bedford J Series

Start with the number, and know that it runs one behind the payload. J0 is a 1-ton pickup and van, J1 is 30cwt, J2 is a 3-tonner, J3 is a four-tonner, J4 is five, J5 is six and J6 is seven — with the J4A an 8-ton tractive unit rather than a rigid. Gross weights run from 3.25 tons for the J1 to 10.75 tons for the J6. The reason the numbers are offset is that they carry on from the TA range — A2 at 25cwt, A3 at 3 ton, A4 at 4 ton, A5 at 5 ton — shifted down one place, so the old A4 four-tonner became the J3. “It’s a four-tonner” means a J3, not a J4, and that is the commonest identification mistake on this range. The line itself runs TA 1953–58, renamed TD on a 1957 update, then TJ from September 1958 — and the TJ kept going, for export, to 1998, long after Dunstable had stopped. It is the last bonneted truck Bedford made.

The brake rule follows the weight class, and the trade press states it plainly. Every petrol chassis, at any weight, has vacuum assistance on a split-circuit hydraulic system — and so do the diesel J1, J2 and J3. Only the diesel J4, J5 and J6 go to air-assisted hydraulic. So a petrol J6 and a diesel J6 do not have the same braking system, and the fuel matters as much as the weight. Two more things worth having at the counter. The J parks on its rear wheel brakes, mechanically — it is not a transmission handbrake. That is the opposite of the TK, which has a transmission brake on every model, so do not cross-sell TK handbrake parts to a J owner. And the split-circuit master cylinder is not a late addition: a 7-ton J6ST1 tested in April 1959 already had a Lockheed tandem master cylinder and a Clayton Dewandre 5.25in vacuum servo, with leading-and-trailing shoes on both axles and 497.9 sq in of friction area.

For glass and rubber, September 1958 is the hard line. The TA and the TD have a split windscreen; the TJ has a deeper one-piece screen with clap-hands wipers. Screen glass and screen rubber do not cross that changeover. Inside the J range itself the split is by weight rather than by year, and it is all in the front sheet metal: J0 to J3 have vertical grille bars, peaked headlamp “eyebrows”, faired-in sidelights and 16in wheels; J4 to J6 have horizontal bars, no eyebrows, sidelights below the headlamps and 20in wheels. The cab shell, the doors and the glass look to be common across every weight — only what sits ahead of the cab changes. One detail that saves a phone call: there are three pieces of glass behind the driver, a rear screen plus two rear side screens, so “the back window” is an ambiguous order. And in New Zealand this was not a rare truck: by 1973 the New Zealand Post Office ran 1,600 Bedford Js, from the J0 pickup up to the J5, most of them on the 214 petrol six and most of them carrying canopies built in the Post Office’s own workshops.

Bedford J Series — specification & changes within the model

What the J number means
J0 1 ton, pickup and van only · J1 30cwt · J2 3 ton · J3 4 ton · J4 5 ton · J4A 8 ton tractive unit · J5 6 ton · J6 7 ton. The number runs one behind the payload from the J2 up. Gross weights 3.25 tons (J1) to 10.75 tons (J6).
Reading the chassis plate
The code is built up. Weight class is the J number. Then C = factory cab and chassis · Z = bare chassis for a coachbuilt body · S / L = short / long wheelbase · A = tractive unit · T = tipper. The last digit is the engine: 1 = 300 diesel, 2 = 214 petrol, 3 = 300 petrol, 5 = 330 diesel. So J2Z2 is a 3-tonner supplied as a bare chassis with the 214 petrol six, and J6ST1 is a short-wheelbase 7-ton tipper on the 300 diesel.
July 1967 — the J prefix stops
They are not all J models. From July 1967 the codes changed to meet the new Construction and Use Regulations and a C prefix took over: J1 → CDD/CHD · J2 → CDJ/CHJ · J3 → CDL/CHL · J4 → CFM/CJM · J5 → CFN/CJN · J6 → CFQ/CJQ. In the new code the second letter is the engine — D = 214 petrol, F = 300 petrol, H = 220 diesel, J = 330 diesel — and the third is the weight class. Same truck, new code. The trade kept saying “J” for years afterwards and so does everyone else.
Brakes — the rule
Every petrol chassis, any weight: split-circuit hydraulic with a vacuum servo. Diesel J1, J2, J3: the same. Diesel J4, J5, J6: air-assisted hydraulic. So the fuel matters as much as the weight — a petrol J6 and a diesel J6 are not the same system.
The handbrake — not a transmission brake
The J parks on the rear wheel brakes, mechanically. The TK parks on the transmission, on every model. Do not swap the parts. This catches people because the two trucks were built side by side.
Component detail we can stand behind
J3, 1958: 13in drums with vacuum servo, 16in wheels, 13ft 5in wheelbase, 51ft turning circle. J6ST1, 1959: Bedford leading-and-trailing shoes both axles, Lockheed tandem master cylinder, Clayton Dewandre 5.25in vacuum servo, 497.9 sq in friction area. Note what that means: split-circuit was there from 1959, and the heaviest J was still vacuum-servo then — the air system on the heavy diesels came later.
Which engine goes in which J
Light classes (30cwt, 3-ton, 4-ton): 214 cu in petrol or 220 cu in diesel. Heavy classes (5-, 6-, 7-ton): 300 cu in petrol or 330 cu in diesel. Six were offered across the range in all — 214 petrol, 300 petrol, 200 diesel, 220 diesel, 300 diesel, 330 diesel. The 466 does not go in a J at all — that is a KM engine, and it gets listed against the J constantly.
The J0 and its Vauxhall engine
The J0, from 1960, is a 1-ton pickup and van on the 2,651cc overhead-valve six from the Vauxhall Cresta — 113bhp gross at 4,800rpm, 148 lb ft at 2,400, 4,600lb GVW, 8ft 5in wheelbase, three-speed all-synchromesh column change, semi-elliptics and telescopic dampers both ends. It is the only Bedford truck with a Vauxhall car engine in it — everything above it runs Bedford’s own sixes, which descend from Chevrolet, not Vauxhall.
September 1958 — the glass line
TA and TD: split windscreen. TJ: a deeper one-piece screen with clap-hands wipers. Screen glass and screen rubber do not cross it. Two independent sources, and it is the highest-value glass fact on the range.
J0–J3 or J4–J6 — look at the front
Vertical grille bars, peaked headlamp eyebrows, faired-in sidelights, 16in wheels = J0 to J3. Horizontal bars, no eyebrows, sidelights below the headlamps, 20in wheels = J4 to J6. Grille, headlamp surrounds, peaks, sidelight housings and wheels split on that light/heavy line, not on a date. The cab, doors and glass appear common to all of them.
Three pieces of glass behind the driver
A rear screen and two rear side screens. So “the back window” is an ambiguous order — ask which one. A full TJ cab set also takes in the front screen, two moulded front door quarter-vent seals, outer and inner door seals, glass lifter seals, Bailey channel, door belts, guard pipings, bonnet lace, scuff plate seals, headlight gaskets and pedal shaft dust excluders.
New Zealand — 1,600 of them in one fleet
By 1973 the New Zealand Post Office ran 1,600 Bedford J trucks, J0 through J5. Most mail trucks used the 214 cu in engine; lines branch vehicles had the 214 or the 300. Most carried canopies built in the Post Office’s own workshops, because mail travels in bags — a 1963 J2 preserved at Ferrymead was supplied as a cab and chassis and bodied that way. Js were still being delivered new here in 1975, the year Britain stopped buying them.
The 1965 low-loading chassis, with a caveat
In September 1965 Bedford added three low-loading normal-control chassis at 30cwt, 2-ton and 3-ton, on the 214 petrol at 100bhp or the 220 diesel at 70bhp. The 30cwt and 2-ton have front disc brakes with Duo-Servo rear drums; the 3-ton has drums all round — called a first for the weight class at the time. But the trade press gave those three chassis no J codes, only load ratings, so we will not tell you every J1 and J2 has front discs. Ask us and we will work from your chassis plate.
Not claimed
Earth polarity. The only figure anywhere is a Danish Army J6 listing, which is not a UK or New Zealand specification. No chassis-number breakpoint exists for any change on any Bedford — we looked hard and everything is dated only. Also not established: drum sizes for the J4, J5 and J6; a TA or TD brake specification, so we cannot say whether TA/TD brake parts interchange; whether Perkins or Leyland was ever a J option (Perkins is TA, Leyland is TK and S type); and whether the J was assembled here — Bedford assembly at Petone is certain, the J specifically is not named.

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