Whatever Happened to Multidrive?
Share by EmailThose of a certain age will remember the Bedford MK 4 Tonner, if you are really crusty you might even remember the RL. Although Bedford was ultimately owned by General Motors it was always considered a British make, starting production in 1929. Skip forward to the late sixties, the RL went out of production and the iconic MK entered service with the British Army, followed by the larger TM. The end of the road for Bedford in British Army service came when it lost the contract to replace the 4 Tonne GS, the lamented Leyland DAF was the ultimate winner, a politically driven solution if there ever was one. Mrs Thatcher wanted Leyland to survive and the partnership with the Dutch DAF to prosper so that what that. The British Army has always been beset with politically driven equipment decisions that disadvantage capability. The DAF was not as robust as the Bedford and certainly not as good off road. After this, Bedford withdrew from the large truck market and concentrated on vans.
The MK was simple to maintain, tough as coffin nails, great off road and eminently versatile, spawning hundreds of variants and saw more action than a policemans torch.
In 1987 Bedford was sold to AWD.
Multidrive was formed in 1983 as a division of the Brown Group of companies by David J.B Brown. The Group comprised four companies namely BDE , Artix , DJB and Multidrive Ltd, all of which specialised in the design, development, production and support of a range of on/off road heavy haulers using Caterpillar components. With the exception of Multidrive, the group was purchased by Caterpillar.
AWD was also formed by David Brown. The AWD brand continued with Bedford trucks, the TL and TM range were purchased by the British Army but in 1992 the company went into receivership, picked up by Marshalls of Cambridge.
Combining the experience of dealing with the MoD through AWD and high mobility on road conversions from Multidrive an urgent operational requirement for the Army was rapidly fulfilled for operations in the Balkans. The requirement was for a medium mobility fuel and water tanker using a variety of tractor units (Bedford TM and Foden) combined with the powered multidrive trailer.
The Multidrive bulk fuel tanker was based on the Thompson/Multidrive bulk fuel tanker of which 34 were supplied to the UK MoD in two batches late in 1995 (12) and early in 1996 (22), for use with SFOR in the Balkans. Another variant, the Multidrive 20,000L heated potable water tanker was also based on a similar system, a total of 7 were supplied.
The Future Cargo Vehicle and Future Fuel Vehicle projects were of great interest to Multidrive.
The Future Cargo Vehicle (FCV) and Future Wheeled Recovery Vehicle (FWRV) projects were also proposed as PFI programmes. FFV was advertised as a PFI in January 1998, with FCV following in August 1998 and FWRV in September 1999. FFV and FCV went through a pre-qualification phase in order to select a shortlist of potential bidders who would be invited to submit outline proposals. There were three endorsed staff requirements for the trucks: SR (SLA)4096 for a 9-tonne truck, SR (SLA) 4100 for a 4-tonne truck and SR(SLA) 4120 for a 14-tonne truck.
Multidrive produced a number of prototypes between 2000 and 2001.
Around this period the USA also had a similar set of requirements and in 2002 Multidrive were awarded a 6 demonstration contract with the National Automotive Centre for their FCV and feedback was reportedly excellent.
The Multi-Purpose Mobility Platform (MPMP) was a really innovative vehicle, it could be carried by a C-130 or slung under a Chinook yet had a payload of 6 tonnes. Other innovations included a central tire pressure system, all wheel steering, modular construction and a power pack carried within a space frame on the left-hand side between the two axles. For replacement or maintenance the entire frame slid out on rails for easy access.
In addition to the automotive innovation the jewel in the crown was the cargo handling versatility, it has a built in system to handle cargo modules on the flat bed and was designed to carry standard ISO 20 foot cargo containers. Increasing the payload to nine tonnes shifts the vehicle into the only slightly less agile Improved Medium Mobility category. Demonstrating yet more innovation was its ability to increase the payload to fifteen tonnes by the addition of what was called a `pulse propulsion load system’, a trailer with an extendible towing arm that can be varied in length to suit the load. The trailer had a hydraulic drive to the two wheels while the ability of the towing arm to be extended as required allows it to act as a `pusher’ should the base vehicle become bogged down. 6×6, 8×8, protected and DROPS variants were also planned and the suspension also allowed the vehicle to kneel and tilt to facilitate loading, unloading and tyre changing.
As fiendish as a bloody fox.
At the time of the outline proposal assessment (early 2000) the projected in-service date for FFV was 2003.On 21 March 2001 the government announced that PFI options would not be pursued for the FFV, FCV or FWRV programmes because it was unlikely to provide best value for money. Oskosh announced in 2003 that they had been selected as preferred bidder for the Wheeled Tanker programme, which can be traced back to the FCV and FFV. The equipment and 15 year support contract was worth about £160m. The tanker requirement was split out from the general Support Vehicles programme which was ultimately won by MAN. Multidrive had partnered with Stewart and Stevenson, supplying the bid team with their pulse trailer technology.
These two contract losses were serious blows for Multidrive.
At about the same time as the US demonstration contract Multidrive partnered with QinetiQ on their Hybrid Electric Drive (HED) demonstrator vehicle. Under the Applied Research Programme (ARP) contract, QinetiQ were to act as systems integrator for the design and build of a 6-wheel, 18-tonne technology demonstrator, with individual wheel control. The 6×6 HED demonstrator built on the smaller High Mobility Demonstrator (HMD) vehicle.
There is a good video of HED in action here
In 2004 David Brown was killed in a car accident and the company failed to recover from this heavy blow, calling in the receivers in 2006.
By 2008 all the Multidrive tankers had been withdrawn to be replaced by the Oshkosh Close Support Tanker (Fuel and Water) and Tactical Air Refueller .
The Kelland Group stepped in and rescued Multidrive Tractors. Multidrive Trucks was also purchased by an individual in order to carry on supporting the significant Bedford market, especially in Africa.
Multidrive Tractors continue to innovate in their sector and have supplied vehicles to the Halo Trust and US Army for demining purposes.
So Multidrive changed but they didn’t entirely go away, they were certainly at the cutting edge and maybe their innovative zeal has been carried on by TMV, Supacat, Creation, Ricardo and Universal Engineering.
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i’m sure we had AWD tankers on granby? I’ve got a photo somewhere, I only remember because they came flying past us off road on one of the moves towards the basra MSR!
I think I read that they were on Granby Paul, never drove one myself but they were supposed to be as fast a greased weasel
RLs are super. Their hidden secret is chassis flex. One of my earliest memories was walking (being carried more like) down a row of K9s. And Santa always came on the back of SIIa 109 FFR…
I have a hazy memory of seeing a Multidrive vehicle in an old 4×4 magazine twenty odd years ago. It was photgraphed, front wheels six feet off the ground, traversing the knife edge at a military display of some sort with, to quote, “ten tons on it’s back”.
A little googling came up with this;
http://cs538.vkontakte.ru/u16600561/61374435/x_3ebd50c3.jpg
which seems to be what I remember.
A Multidrive TM, nice picture
the only reason our VE’s (vehicle electricians) weren’t allowed to take their RL repair wagon on granby was due to fuel issues as it was petrol 1990! mind you we had only just got rid of the RAOC’s knocker trucks, and they think we’re slow replacing kit nowadays
There is something poetic about vehicle electricians have a petrol truck. I suppose it was the combustible nature of petrol and not a shortage that was a problem?
Well they managed to fuel a few Centurion AVRE’s you’d think they could have done a Bedford while they were at it.
it was the same unit that took cent ARRV’s so dunno why they cuffed it off the VE’s were miserable as they had spent ages “tweaking” the inside for a comfy tour!
2 of them are my mates on facebook i’ll see if they have a photo
what a good thread. I had the pleasure of driving every variant of the mil Multidrive. The first one had the TM cab, with MDrives patented powered/steered rear bogie.
http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae34/sniffy2009/mjThompson_0060b.jpg
Didnt exactly meet noise regs at the time with its Caterpillar engine and with no speed limiters could get up to pretty scary speeds. There were actually 2 types of this model, but both carried fuel. One had single fuel tank, some had 2 10000ltr tanks that were actually earmarked for Saddam Husseins Air Force as ground tanks but didnt quite make it there! The 2nd variants were for Bosnia and were Foden 4380 tractor cab’d ones.
http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/IMGA0009.JPG
Slightly improved rear steer characteristics as the TM version would crab steer terribly.
Then towards the end of Bosnia start of Telic there was the newer Foden cab’d ones, 4400 if i remember rightly. Improvements were rear steering again and better gearbox.
I did trials on all of them and have to admit, the best to drive was the later variant, but for sheer power and the fact back then 1991/92, the TM version was pretty cool to put your foot down in….just get ready for that corner at speed!!!
It is good to find some history like this pieced together. I was lucky enough to have used/worked on the equipment in the Gulf in Op Granby. I later went on to supply the engines to Multidrive for the tractors (John Deere) and then was asked to join the company in 1999. I worked closely with David JB Brown in the design and build of all the vehicles including FFV and FCV and it was a shame the UK government could not see their way to buy British as the story may have had such a different ending! Instead, it was a very sad ending culminating in the death of a very wise and ingenius man whom I had the utmost of respect for, DJB Brown.
The company never recovered from some bad decisions by his son to strip out and move to Gloucester and coupled with the military order let down that was the final straw.
The vehicles were superb and out performed the competition so we may see some of the DJB legacy live on in new designs of the future in some way.
Welcome to Think Defence Smudge and Denis, its a real shame that we seem unable to capitalise on our engineering genius
Denis Ford, is right in his remark about being lucky enough to have worked for my father David J B Brown, Very lucky I’d say!
When I took over the company Multidrive Ltd after my fathers death I took on an underperforming company that was debt ridden to the tune of £3.5million to the bank had warranty claims in the order of £250,000 and further debts to creditors of £300,000 plus. It had a couple of trucks in the forward order book and three tractors. The debts to the bank had increased over the years due to failed tenders to the MOD and poor sales of tractors and commercial trucks combined with reliability issues, warranty claims and a Build of Material Cost which was just shy of the selling price!!
This company was a shambles when I took it over and unfortunately due to the immediate bank pressure had to be put into a ‘sustainable recovery of debt program’ as the previous management had failed to lower the build cost to a profitable level on product and failed to fulfil a sustainable forward order book. The company would have been immediately insolvent after my father’s death if it were not for my efforts and personal support to the bank, that I might add that was already monitoring the non-performance of Multidrive Ltd before my late fathers death!
The Bank demanded that if the debt to them was not paid off to an acceptable level immediately that they would have to withdraw support of the borrowing. I agreed that the company would only be sold as a ‘going concern’ and put forward my financial support for this period (about a year) the company was put up for sale with PWC & Grant Thornton. There were no serious offers for Multidrive Ltd all were put to the bank and rejected… The company had no option but to sell its assets in order to settle the debts or be made/declare insolvent and call in the receivers. It was more than very obvious that after a year of trying to recover the company and sell the business it was only worth its stock & asset value to the bank, with little for goodwill, thus the sale of the Thirsk based plant which was owned with a charge to the bank and some stock which had little value. The sale bought Multidrive Ltd time! There was no option but for the company to relocate and only six staff were needed for its continuance at that time, four of which relocated to Andoversford which was a move supported by the bank due to low associated cost and free outside secure vehicle storage!
The move to Andoversford, cost less than 8k and Multidrive Ltd was located in 3500sqft of economic factory space which was more than adequate to build the forward order book and grow the remnants of a loss making business into a sustainable company. However, Multidrive Ltd had still over 1.5 million of debt to the Bank and £250,000 to other creditors and to reduce the debt it relied heavily on the sale of parts kits to South Africa which I had negotiated to be built into trucks there. The parts would be assembled into Multidrive Ltd trucks in a factory near Capetown and sold into African and world markets under licence. This move was made to ensure continuance of the ‘truck mark’ as unfortunately, the cost of the build for the Multidrive ejector body truck in the UK was in excess of the exported market price and would never meet any overhead or make a business here!
The tractor had a slightly better gross margin about 7k but after dealer margin 4k then with warranty claims a contribution of 2k per unit! I managed to improve the reliability of the tractor but when I took over the business Multidrive (thirsk)Ltd were only selling/making 35 to 40 tractors per year! With the dealers I appointed I doubled that and after clearing the debt down the tractor business would have been sustainable at Andoversford.
Unfortunately, the 1st shipment of parts to South Africa to the value of £240,000 was released by the shipping agent without Multidrive Ltd(Andoversford) knowledge/permission. The bills of laden should have never been released and payment taken before shipment as is the norm and had always been so at Multidrive Ltd. The individuals concerned know whom they are as do the bank!
The Kits of parts arrived in South Africa, unpaid for despite my best efforts and that of the Multidrive Andoversford, team to halt the cargo in Antwerp. The parts that arrived in Capetown, SA would not be released until payment was made. Unfortunately, the bank decided that as they no longer held a pursuable charge over the outstanding Kits of parts they would withdraw their support unless more money was forthcoming.
There were no takers (including me) for Multidrive Ltd as it was effectively a loss making development company (save for the tractor) with £13million sunk costs!! A company that needed hefty investment had tendered for orders with the MOD and had failed to realize them at a huge cost not necessarily due to product issues but rather political I think! The commercial truck product line up was too expensive to produce in the UK, a loss maker and unreliable as the warranty claims lay testament to. The inherited dealers exasperated the company with worthy warranty claims and had to be kept on due to contractual issues. An investor to take on the company and debt would never be found and indeed an asset sale was the only way for the Bank to recover debt and indeed for the company to move forward.
All through the period I was involved and just before my fathers death the recovery team from the Bank, PWC and latterly Grant Thornton, were tasked/employed to advise on the value/recovery of the company, (not just debt) which is well documented. We all tried very hard indeed to secure its future but it could really only ever succeed with somebody buying up the intellectual property and assets and starting again with a clean piece of paper approach without the debt burden!
I wish the new owners the very best of luck and hope that they are able to make a true success from my fathers talent and effort. I could not afford to take it further!
I hope that the foregoing goes some way to outline, “What Happened to Multidrive Ltd” prior to its insolvency. It’s a sad ending to a great man’s legacy. I do feel that without Government politics playing a part at Bedford and at Multidrive Ltd both companies would have been a great success! Its easy for a jobs-worth to have a
groundless opinion of what was a good or bad decision but at the end of the day with Multidrive Ltd all decisions were taken using the industries best advice and support which will not always please everybody!
It is a real shame that we are unable to capitalise on engineering genius in the UK due to the shrinking economy on a national and world scale.
I had and have a lasting massive respect for my father who was a brilliant engineer and great friend and knew him better than anybody. I have also a great deal of respect for those people that worked with him in the early days at DJB engineering Ltd and Artix Ltd as he did also. The Caterpillar articulated trucks and material handler are of his creation and brand excellence.
John B Brown
Thanks John, nice to see the additional background information.
John – absolutely fascinating, thank you very much for providing all that details, and good luck to you in future business ventures !