RE: Shed Of The Week: Leyland Convoy
Discussion
Utterly awful vans.
Building company I worked for had a fleet of Transit tippers and one LDV. They all had the same engine, but LDV managed to make it so much slower than all of the Transits and horrendous to drive in comparison.
The rear window kept popping out, the driving position was terrible, the interior fell apart and it was just an unpleasant, dated POS!
That said, it's huge value for money and would make an excellent van for a band, or even taking bikes to track days.
Building company I worked for had a fleet of Transit tippers and one LDV. They all had the same engine, but LDV managed to make it so much slower than all of the Transits and horrendous to drive in comparison.
The rear window kept popping out, the driving position was terrible, the interior fell apart and it was just an unpleasant, dated POS!
That said, it's huge value for money and would make an excellent van for a band, or even taking bikes to track days.
In the late 1990s, a brand new pair of these things in minibus form were delivered to my school. Despite having experienced them only as a passenger I can state with some certainty that they were not up to anything more ambitious than urban plodding.
They were used to transport us on the Duke of Endinburgh Award expeditions. Loaded up with 14 teenagers and a pile of camping gear, they barely clattered their way to 70mph on the motorway. There's a stretch of the M18 north of Doncaster that's on a gentle incline; this would slow the Convoys down to the point that articulated lorries overtook us. Once in the Peak District, they struggled up the hills in first gear and broke down on every other journey, although one one occasion the white one was kind enough to die in Skipton rather than miles away from civilisation and/or a mobile phone signal (as this was 1998/1999 those were few and far between too!). One lad started singing "We all live in a white s
tty van" to the tune of Yellow Submarine; the rest of us soon joined in, much to the annoyance of the teachers who were arguing with the RAC over the provision of a hired minibus, as ours was evidently beyond repair. At least it gave us opportunity to nip for a bag of chips, and to fail in an attempt to buy alcohol. And an all-day walk across the Peaks was made much more tolerable just by the absence of the noise and vibration generated by a wrung-out diesel engine powering a tin box on cart springs.
Good times! But the LDV Convoy is a turd. A rough, noisy, gutless, unreliable heap of steaming dung that should have been axed while it was still called a Sherpa. Park it up, strip the mechanicals for scrap and use the remains to keep chickens in until it dissolves.
They were used to transport us on the Duke of Endinburgh Award expeditions. Loaded up with 14 teenagers and a pile of camping gear, they barely clattered their way to 70mph on the motorway. There's a stretch of the M18 north of Doncaster that's on a gentle incline; this would slow the Convoys down to the point that articulated lorries overtook us. Once in the Peak District, they struggled up the hills in first gear and broke down on every other journey, although one one occasion the white one was kind enough to die in Skipton rather than miles away from civilisation and/or a mobile phone signal (as this was 1998/1999 those were few and far between too!). One lad started singing "We all live in a white s
tty van" to the tune of Yellow Submarine; the rest of us soon joined in, much to the annoyance of the teachers who were arguing with the RAC over the provision of a hired minibus, as ours was evidently beyond repair. At least it gave us opportunity to nip for a bag of chips, and to fail in an attempt to buy alcohol. And an all-day walk across the Peaks was made much more tolerable just by the absence of the noise and vibration generated by a wrung-out diesel engine powering a tin box on cart springs.Good times! But the LDV Convoy is a turd. A rough, noisy, gutless, unreliable heap of steaming dung that should have been axed while it was still called a Sherpa. Park it up, strip the mechanicals for scrap and use the remains to keep chickens in until it dissolves.
Ah, happy memories of Uni mountaineering club trips (in the 90s) to the Highlands in a (possibly...) over-loaded one of these borrowed from the Archaeology dept. I remember an Aussie post-grad driving it and complaining about the "lack of pull from the V8". He was shocked that such a big bus only had a 2.-odd litre diesel 
Travelled all over the country in an early 90's one of these as a scout, don't remember much about it, but safe to say that loaded with 14 lads, all their gear, and towing a trailer, it was probably awful. Eventually got replaced by a transit on an 04 plate, which (obviously) shat all over the 400 Series.
My school also had a high roof model that had once been decapitated by car park barrier. Instead of writing it off and buying a new one, they had it repaired, badly.
The roof collapsing had obviously creased much of the body, so much so that the rear doors didn't shut properly, meaning that when it rained, anyone in the back got soaked. Happy days
My school also had a high roof model that had once been decapitated by car park barrier. Instead of writing it off and buying a new one, they had it repaired, badly.
The roof collapsing had obviously creased much of the body, so much so that the rear doors didn't shut properly, meaning that when it rained, anyone in the back got soaked. Happy days
A Sherpa with a Rover V8 could be moderately fun, but this...
Someone in these parts runs one of these: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8... - and I can't help but feel that it's an infinitely cooler (if rarer in the UK) way of hauling a lot of stuff around.
Someone in these parts runs one of these: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8... - and I can't help but feel that it's an infinitely cooler (if rarer in the UK) way of hauling a lot of stuff around.
Valgar said:
As a PO worker (harsh stereotyping) I have driven about 100,000 miles in these, the gearshift was always vague at best, was utterly gutless, leaked through the windows (all of them) when it rained, the rear brakes had a habit of locking on with the slightest tap when cold and in summer the heat soak from the engine was murderous.
However for space per £ they couldn't be beat, had a decent payload of around 1300kg aswell, I used to load one up with 1300kg daily and climb very steep hills in it, no matter what you threw at it, it managed.
Immobilisers were often an issue for us too, one day it wouldn't start whilst I was parked next to a plane that wanted to take off, poor timing.
You forgot the rear shutter door would jam shut, normally when it was fully loaded with mail.However for space per £ they couldn't be beat, had a decent payload of around 1300kg aswell, I used to load one up with 1300kg daily and climb very steep hills in it, no matter what you threw at it, it managed.
Immobilisers were often an issue for us too, one day it wouldn't start whilst I was parked next to a plane that wanted to take off, poor timing.
The one the mail claimed to buy because of it's width was the smaller and even sttier 200/pilot
The convoy was "only" cheap and st, the pilot was a absolute joke- on every level they were like some throwback to the 70's, even the engineering of parts wasn't to modern standards (we had several crash because the propshafts were unbalanced, hit a reverberant frequency and seized causing the gearbox to either explode or fall out the bottom of the van..)
Nasty, horrible, hateful things, too many faults to list. I did a fking dance the day LDV went bust.
ttier 200/pilotThe convoy was "only" cheap and s
t, the pilot was a absolute joke- on every level they were like some throwback to the 70's, even the engineering of parts wasn't to modern standards (we had several crash because the propshafts were unbalanced, hit a reverberant frequency and seized causing the gearbox to either explode or fall out the bottom of the van..)Nasty, horrible, hateful things, too many faults to list. I did a f
king dance the day LDV went bust.hairyben said:
The one the mail claimed to buy because of it's width was the smaller and even sttier 200/pilot
The convoy was "only" cheap and st, the pilot was a absolute joke- on every level they were like some throwback to the 70's, even the engineering of parts wasn't to modern standards (we had several crash because the propshafts were unbalanced, hit a reverberant frequency and seized causing the gearbox to either explode or fall out the bottom of the van..)
Nasty, horrible, hateful things, too many faults to list. I did a fking dance the day LDV went bust.
70s technology? You are way out, the Sherpa/200 van was a direct development of the 1960 J4 van, the only major change was the J4 was a cab forward design. The 2 litre petrol was quite quick, for a van that is.ttier 200/pilotThe convoy was "only" cheap and s
t, the pilot was a absolute joke- on every level they were like some throwback to the 70's, even the engineering of parts wasn't to modern standards (we had several crash because the propshafts were unbalanced, hit a reverberant frequency and seized causing the gearbox to either explode or fall out the bottom of the van..)Nasty, horrible, hateful things, too many faults to list. I did a f
king dance the day LDV went bust.hora said:
Ex Royal Mail van with only 53k?
They used to replace them every 3 maybe 5 years.That's stopped now they get replaced when it's no longer economic to fix them.
Things aren't repaired until they break, so if I put a fault report in for a slipping clutch or turbo smoking it won't be fixed until the clutch snaps,the turbo blows and the van has to recovered by the rac.
My current van is a bashed up knackered 55 plate that replaced a half decent 53 plate.
My old explorer scout group hired an LDV Maxus minibus for a summer trip down to Cornwall a few years ago, and that was pretty poor even from a passengers perspective; slow, noisy, uncomfortable, flimsy and it managed to break down twice in 5 days! Dread to think what its predecessors were like...
These bring back ghastly memories. The firm I work for always buys decent vans but we had a fleet of ldv convoys. By an absolute mile the worst vehicle I've ever driven. Ours were petrol engines with LPG conversions. Not one of them ever ran properly. They would lurch and stall at junctions, stank of fuel inside, they had awfull awfull handling and the most uncomfortable seats I've ever had in a van. I think I had one for 3 years, and pretty much hated my job at that time.
They also averaged 13mpg.
They also averaged 13mpg.
Shed, what have you been smoking?
An LDV Convoy was the cause of the biggest accident I never had - I was so desperate not to have to drive the works Convoy on a 150 mile round trip delivering 4 22.5/70/295 tyre and rims to a coach dealer that I loaded them into the Citroen Berlingo we had instead. I tackled a particularly tight left-hander in the usual fashion for a 25yr old with too many tasks and not enough working hours to do them. The load shifted right instantly, I nearly shat myself as the nearside wheels briefly became airborne and my arse didn't stop twitching for the next ten miles. I eased off a bit after that.
All because I couldn't face the prospect of 4 hours in that bloody Convoy.
An LDV Convoy was the cause of the biggest accident I never had - I was so desperate not to have to drive the works Convoy on a 150 mile round trip delivering 4 22.5/70/295 tyre and rims to a coach dealer that I loaded them into the Citroen Berlingo we had instead. I tackled a particularly tight left-hander in the usual fashion for a 25yr old with too many tasks and not enough working hours to do them. The load shifted right instantly, I nearly shat myself as the nearside wheels briefly became airborne and my arse didn't stop twitching for the next ten miles. I eased off a bit after that.
All because I couldn't face the prospect of 4 hours in that bloody Convoy.
We had a couple of these on the fleet when I started working full time. They felt like a proper van, from times gone by. More and more, modern vans seem to be trying to be more car-like in ever aspect they can manage; be it a better drive or more toys and gadgets.
The LDV's were unapologetically shocking and borderline agricultural but I found them quite charming in a sense.
The LDV's were unapologetically shocking and borderline agricultural but I found them quite charming in a sense.
My mate is a Postie, he had one of these.
It didn't have a straight panel on it. Even the roof was bent and bashed, back doors were broken and didn't open.
The engine noise was biblical, the gearbox had a mind of it own for where the gears were located and the heater had jammed on full.
He loved it for being totally ste beyond words but still ran, everyone backed up to let him past and as the article says, no kerb, pothole, tree, fence or car was safe from being hit by it. Would practice clutchless gear changes with it.
They have moved onto Fiat things which are small and like the break down lots. He doesn't like them as much as they don't take the abuse the same.
It didn't have a straight panel on it. Even the roof was bent and bashed, back doors were broken and didn't open.
The engine noise was biblical, the gearbox had a mind of it own for where the gears were located and the heater had jammed on full.
He loved it for being totally s
te beyond words but still ran, everyone backed up to let him past and as the article says, no kerb, pothole, tree, fence or car was safe from being hit by it. Would practice clutchless gear changes with it.They have moved onto Fiat things which are small and like the break down lots. He doesn't like them as much as they don't take the abuse the same.
A.J.M said:
My mate is a Postie, he had one of these.
It didn't have a straight panel on it. Even the roof was bent and bashed, back doors were broken and didn't open.
The engine noise was biblical, the gearbox had a mind of it own for where the gears were located and the heater had jammed on full.
He loved it for being totally ste beyond words but still ran, everyone backed up to let him past and as the article says, no kerb, pothole, tree, fence or car was safe from being hit by it. Would practice clutchless gear changes with it.
They have moved onto Fiat things which are small and like the break down lots. He doesn't like them as much as they don't take the abuse the same.
We've got 2 fiats, so far they need the dpf regening twice a week and have Bern off the road due to needing a headlight bulb that wasn't in stock It didn't have a straight panel on it. Even the roof was bent and bashed, back doors were broken and didn't open.
The engine noise was biblical, the gearbox had a mind of it own for where the gears were located and the heater had jammed on full.
He loved it for being totally s
te beyond words but still ran, everyone backed up to let him past and as the article says, no kerb, pothole, tree, fence or car was safe from being hit by it. Would practice clutchless gear changes with it.They have moved onto Fiat things which are small and like the break down lots. He doesn't like them as much as they don't take the abuse the same.
And there's no storage space around the driver either, on the plus side the high driving position is better than the Vauxhalls.
Very annoying.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff