Because the Miles appliances all had a light alloy frame for the bodywork instead of the (then) more common timber framing, the resulting weight saving meant that a smaller truck - as illustrated here - could meet the required 400 gallon water tank capacity to qualify as a JCDD specification water tender. The best exemplar was after Miles was acquired by Dennis and the alloy framed bodies were built on F8 chassis. These also qualified as water tenders, while the original Dennis bodied F 8s with traditional wood framed bodies were limited to 300 gallon tanks, and in a few cases, such as Derbyshire, stretched to 350.
Added by Rob Johnson on 08 June 2023.