I worked at Ford of Britain and sold the first 11 D series appliances, which were supplied to Gloucestershire County Fire Brigade on the standard D series tilt cab chassis in 1967. The crew cab was integrated with the rear bodywork, with a rubber grommet around the hole where original cab's the back window had been, so the OIC could talk to the crew. Ugly, but cheap to build and quite practical!Because almost all UK brigades wanted petrol engines in those days, our Special Vehicle Operations team sourced a five litre straight six petrol engine from Ford of Canada, and this later became our standard offering for what turned in to our SVO fire engine chassis, along with other modifcations to meet JCDD specifications. Later D series were also supplied with turbo diesel six litre sixes and Perkins V8 diesel engines, which were also used at that time by Dodge, Dennis, ERF and - I believe - Shelvoke and Drewery. When the D series was replaced by the Cargo, Ford of Britain decided not to develop a fire engine chassis, due to the low volumes involved. If British brigades had been allowed to buy canopy crew cabs, instead of completely enclosed trucks, as was happening in the US and Canada at that time, the D series story in service to fiefighting in the UK might have equalled the C series story in North America, but it was not to be!
Added by Bomba Boy on 28 March 2010.