Bedford VAM

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Bedford VAM with Bella Vega body by Duple

The name Bedford VAM refers to a bus chassis made by the British manufacturer Bedford Vehicles . It was built from 1965 to 1971.

In 1950 Bedford had released the SB , which the company believed was required by the market. The bus was able to establish itself successfully, but was only partially suitable for the one-man operation, which is now permitted in Great Britain, in which the bus driver also took on the role of the conductor, due to the entrance door located far back. With the FE44 project, Yeates had already presented a bus with 44 seats and a front door. The FE44 was based on a modified SB chassis. However, the conversion was carried out without the consent of Vauxhall Motors , the parent company of Bedford , and was not subsequently approved. Vauxhall feared that the chassis would be overloaded and the frame would break as a result. The FE44 , however , made Bedford aware of the demand for such a bus and introduced the VAM in 1965 , the name standing for VA series medium . The shorter and longer versions were consequently called VAS and VAL . Both the VAM and the VAL had a large front overhang, which allowed the entry to be positioned in front of the front axle.

The chassis of the VAM allowed bodies of 36 feet in length, which was the maximum length allowed for two-axle buses in Great Britain at the time. The wheelbase was 4.9 m. Depending on the structure, this resulted in a capacity of 41 to 45 seats.

The engine was arranged upright in front. There were initially three six-cylinder engines to choose from: a 4.9 l petrol engine , a 5.4 l diesel engine , both from Bedford , and the O.400 from Leyland with a displacement of 6.6 l . From 1967 a 7.7 liter Bedford diesel engine was optionally available as the most powerful version. The petrol- engined buses could optionally be equipped with a manually shiftable, synchronized four- or five-speed gearbox ; vehicles with diesel engines were only available with five-speed gearboxes. The braking system also differed in both engine variants.

The superstructures came from Duple , Plaxton , Strachans , Willowbrook and Alexander . Based on the Bella Vista structure designed for the VAS , Duple designed the Bella Vega for the chassis, whose clear lines corresponded to the zeitgeist of the early 1960s. The buses were produced as touring, regular and multi-purpose buses.

After more than 9,000 chassis were manufactured, the VAM was replaced by the Bedford Y , which with its underfloor engine offered more seats for the same size.

variants

VAM
designation engine annotation
VAM3 Six-cylinder gasoline engine with 4.9 l displacement from Bedford
VAM5 Six-cylinder diesel engine with 5.4 liter displacement from Bedford
VAM14 Six-cylinder diesel engine with 6.6 l displacement from Leyland (O.400)
VAM70 Six-cylinder diesel engine with 7.7 liter displacement from Bedford

Web links

Commons : Bedford VAM  - collection of images, videos and audio files