The Willeme LD was the forward-control line of the French maker’s post-war heavy range. The TL and LD series could be had with Willeme or AEC engines, and the LD 201 with its cab over the engine was one of the best-known Willeme trucks of the period.
Willeme LD at a glance
| Maker | Willeme, Nanterre, France |
|---|---|
| Series | TL and LD |
| Layout | forward control (cab over engine) |
| Engines | Willeme or AEC diesels |
| Known versions | LD 201, LD 610B |
| Related heavy model | 5741-CG eight-wheel wrecker with AEC engine |
| Marque founded | 1919 in French sources, 1923 in the English article |
| Marque closed | 1970 |
There is no Wikipedia article on the LD itself; this page uses the marque’s article in English and French (based on the marque source only).
History of the Willeme LD
The post-war programme
After the Second World War the Pons plan gave Willeme the job of building two trucks, the 10-tonne L10 and the 15-tonne R15, both with Deutz engines and sold between 1945 and 1953. From these two models the company derived a whole family of ever heavier and more specialised vehicles: a tank transporter, a heavy tractor for abnormal loads, rigid and articulated quarry dump trucks and a forward-control version. The 610 and 615 series followed, sold from 1953 to 1963.
The TL and LD range
The TL and LD series formed the heavy lorry branch of that range and were available with either Willeme’s own engines or AEC units from Britain. The AEC-engined 5741-CG was sold as an eight-wheel heavy wrecker, and the same section of the marque’s history lists models such as the W8SA oilfield truck. The LD name covered both the LD 201, a cab-over-engine lorry, and the LD 610B. In 1950 the works at Nanterre employed 1,240 people and turned out about seventy trucks a month, a third of them exported to Mexico, Czechoslovakia and Iran.
The shark nose and the AEC years
Falling orders pushed production down to twenty-five vehicles a month and cost three hundred jobs. To recover, Louis Willeme commissioned the designer Faget-Varnier to create a new cab, the famous ‘shark nose’ that appeared on the LC 610N. Output edged up from 316 vehicles in 1954 to 426 in 1955 and 495 in 1957. Louis Willeme died in 1958 and his son Pierre took over with Jean Schorestene and Robert Klotz. A first partnership with UNIC in 1961 lasted eighteen months; the contracts signed with AEC and BMC in June 1962 brought the Willeme-BMC light trucks of 1.5 to 7 tonnes and the Willeme-AEC heavies of 16 to 35 tonnes in 1963. The AEC engine proved short of power and the BMC trucks unreliable, yet a clause obliged Willeme to keep building them. Output collapsed to 150 vehicles a year and the workforce from 600 to 150, and in 1970 the company was liquidated and taken over by PRP.
Design and features
- Forward control: the LD 201 put the cab over the engine for a short wheelbase and a long load deck.
- Two engine families: buyers could choose Willeme’s own diesel or an AEC unit.
- Heavy-duty relatives: the same range included the 5741-CG eight-wheel wrecker and the W8SA oilfield truck.
- Post-war workhorse: part of the range that kept the Nanterre works building some seventy trucks a month around 1950.
Willeme LD versions
- LD 201: forward-control lorry with the cab over the engine.
- LD 610B: later model of the LD line.
- 5741-CG: AEC-engined eight-wheel heavy wrecker of the same family.
- W8SA: oilfield version listed with the TL and LD series.
The LD series is described together with the Willeme W8, and the marque’s later heavy-haulage trucks are the PRP-Willeme TG range. More vehicles are in the Willeme collection.
Sources
- Willème, English Wikipedia: TL and LD engines, wrecker, post-war models
- Willème, French Wikipedia: Pons plan, LD 201 and LD 610B, output and AEC years
