Thames (commercial vehicles)

1948 Ford E83W van

The Fordson E83W and was the brand's light commercial van offering, being offered on the 10 cwt (1,100 lb; 510 kg) segment. It was built at Ford's Dagenham plant where the brand's tractors were also being produced. The E83W range was offered as a van, pickup truck and many special bodyshops produced various other bodies upon the chassis, such as mobile canteens, fire trucks and ice cream vans.

The Fordson E83W pre-dated the name Thames. It was produced between 1938 and 1957. The van was sold in Australia as the Ford Ten-Ten, and the E83W was available in various forms around much of the world as Britain strove to export after World War II. In some countries, the 'cowl and chassis' only was imported and local bodies built.

The E83W range was powered by Ford's sidevalve engine which produced 30 hp with a 3-speed gearbox, and was heavily geared down in the rear axle. This made the van much slower than a contemporary saloon with an effective top speed of not much over 40-50 mph. The E83W had a mostly unique body and shared few parts with other small Fords, although some parts were based on the larger Ford Pilot while the headlamps came from Fordson tractors. Since 1952 the van was also sold under the Thames brand.

1943 Fordson Thames 7V

The Fordson 7V or Fordson Thames 7V, depending on the dealer network, was a medium/heavy-duty commercial truck range. it was first introduced in 1937 as the successor to the Ford Model BB (while still being based around the same chassis and mechanicals). Available with a payload of up to 5 tonnes, the then very modern truck in cab-over-engine design enabled greater manoeuvrability in urban environments.

Until mid-1949, the model series was produced in Dagenham and replaced by the Fordson Thames ET. One disadvantage of the 7V range was its somewhat cramped cab, something that its successor greatly improved upon. A copy of the Fordson 7V was produced in France by Ford's local subsidiary and partner Matford as the F917WS in their Poissy factory, mainly for the French Army.

Fordson Thames ET bus in Malta

In 1949, Ford of Britain presented its new post-war truck range, this time under the Fordson Thames brand only (instead of offering a vehicle by both brands separately), replacing the previous Fordson 7V models while still retaining the same chassis and Ford V8 flathead engine. A version with a Perkins engine was also offered. The conventional cab with a hood muzzle and split windscreen had more space than its predecessor.

Production in Dagenham ended in 1957 and its successor was the Ford Thames Trader. Ebro built the Fordson-Thames ET models under license from 1956 to 1963 as the Ebro B series.

1959 Ford Thames Trader

The Thames Trader was presented in 1957 as the successor to the Fordson Thames ET range. It shared almost nothing with its predecessor and was a completely new model, although it still shared some styling with the contemporary 1950s Ford F-Series model line. It was offered all around Europe except for Germany (like its predecessor) because the mechanically similar Ford FK range was already sold there and it was feared that offering both model lines would cause in-house competition between the models. The Trader was also exported to South Africa, Malta, Morocco, Indonesia and Australia. From 1963, the Trader was also produced by Ebro in Spain as Ebro C-400, C-500 and C-550. Also from 1963, production began at Otosan in Turkey and at the Ford plant in Rhodesia – Egypt. Additionally, like its predecessors, some vehicles were also exported to Canada but did not find much success there because Ford was also offering its more popular American products there and the British vehicles were quickly withdrawn from the market. Overall, the Trader was replaced by the Ford D series range as Ford removed the Thames name from its products.

Additionally, a normal control version using the cab of the discontinued Ford FK range was also offered under the NC designation and was later renamed the K series.

It was available at up to 7 tons as a rigid truck and 13.4 tons as a tractor. At that time Ford had Thames rigid models from 1.5 to 7 tons. In 1962 The Trader II was introduced, available as a 7.5 tons rigid and 17 tons tractor.

Production of all variants ended in 1965.

A light car derived van based on the Ford Anglia / Prefect 100E saloon range. It shared its bodyshell and 1172 cc sidevalve four-cylinder engine with the Ford Squire estate car versions of the line. It was available as a 5 cwt version and a deluxe model alongside a 7 cwt one was also offered. All three offered the same 66-cubic-foot (1.9 m3) load volume. Production totalled 196,885 examples comprising 139,267 5 cwt, 10,056 Standard 7 cwt and 47,562 Deluxe 7 cwt units.[1]

Similar to the 300E, it was a small car-derived van based on the recently introduced Ford Anglia 105E. it was marketed again as the Thames 5 cwt or the Thames 7 cwt van. These names defined, in Imperial measurements, the recommended maximum load weights (approximately equivalent to 250 and 350 kg respectively) of the vehicles. Advertised load space was 73 cubic feet (2,100 L) including 12 cubic feet (340 L) beside the driver. From October 1962 the 5cwt and 7cwt vans were also offered with the 1198cc engine from the Ford Anglia Super and these were designated as Thames 309E. In March 1965 the use of the Thames name was discontinued and from that time Anglia-based vans were marketed as Ford Anglia Vans.

Production ended in 1967 with over 200,000 having been produced by then.