About Commer and the 2500 Van.
Commer was a British manufacturer of commercial vehicles which existed from 1905 until 1979. Commer vehicles included car derived vans, light vans, medium to heavy commercial trucks, military vehicles and buses. The Commer brand was exported widely, with examples, albeit collectors' vehicles, still running far from the UK manufacturing base.[citation needed] Commer designed and built its own diesel engine for its heavy commercial vehicles.
Commer became known in later years as a maker of vans for the British
Post Office—particularly the Commer FC which was introduced in 1960 with many body styles, including a 1500 cc van. After engine and interior upgrades it was renamed the PB "2500" in 1967 and the
SpaceVan in 1974. As noted above, it would be sold as a
Dodge and
Fargo model until 1976, when both Commer and Fargo names were dropped. These were rounded-front forward control vans with narrow front track—a legacy of their
Humber car-derived suspension. Utilising at first the
Hillman-derived 1500 cc 4-cylinder engine in the PA series, then the larger 1600 cc, and from 1968 onwards the 1725 cc unit in the PB, only the cast-iron-head version of this engine were used. A Perkins 4108 diesel was also available.
The "1725 cc engine" (as it is known; it actually displaces 1724 cc) was available in the 1970s with a
Borg Warner (BW) Model 35 3-speed
automatic transmissionwith a dashboard mounted selector. This was not a popular option and few were built.
An unusual feature of the model was that the handbrake operated on the front drum brakes.
One of the reasons that the van was less popular with fleet operators than the Bedford and Ford Transit models it sold against was that, as on the
BMC J2 and
J4 models the forward-control design restricted access to the engine and made engine changes labour intensive: the only way to remove the engine without dropping the suspension subframe was to remove the windscreen and crane the engine out through the passenger door. A 1974 road test of a motor caravan version fitted with the 1725 cc engine reported a maximum speed of 70 mph (113 km/h) and a 0-50 mph (km/h) time of 25 seconds, indicating a higher top speed but, in this form, slower acceleration than the
BMC competitor.
[15] However, the testers reported that at 70 mph the van was "plainly at its absolute limit, screaming away in a most distressing fashion":
[15] readers were advised to view 65 mph (105 km/h) as a more realistic absolute maximum.
[15]
Pop Facts
The Commer 1500 and 2500 vans were available in many different configurations including Milk Floats, Grocery Vans, Delivery, Light Buses, Ice cream Vans etc.
They were also widely used by British Telecom, Police, Army and other Government agencies.
Did you know?.
World famous tour company CONTIKI started business in 1962 with this Commer Light Bus.
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| The first CONTIKI TOUR Bus |
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| The first CONTKI TOUR Passengers. |
Some Commer Van variants.
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| Leisure |
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| Ambulance |
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| Buses |
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| Removals |
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| Fire Brigade |
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| B.T |
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| TV Detector |
