Online since 2002: probably the biggest & most shambolic website devoted to one series of vehicle
 
just what your 50 series vehicle needs --------------Home Page
So who, what and how and why did this website happen?
Last 3 years a lot has happened (see last few updates, if you want to help please use this link Help Greg a bit with a coffee or two xxx
Hello :) My name is Greg and I am to blame for this totally shambolic yet informitive website, back in the winter months of 2001 I was bored, I had just finished an 8 month circus tour and had nothing to do, I had set up my circus website the previous year and that was all running great, I had done a whole bunch of searches on the web for dodge 50's and only found a couple of pics and the odd mention on some forums and nothing else, this was not right I thought, someone needs to do something about this........
2001 There were no social media sites, facebook no twitter, not much at all really, ebay had only just got going and I needed something to do, so I set up some pages on the back of my circus site, the first page is still there for all to see.
This was found by some dodge 50 owners who emailed me and sent me some pics, I put some more pages together and then had to leave it as I was back on tour again.
Jump forward to October 2002, quite a few people had now sent me emails about the dodge 50 pages, this made me realise I had to get a separate domain, so on
Oct 1st 2002 www.dodge50.co.uk came alive,
I copied some of the original pages over to the new domain and linked others, I then went looking for a workshop manual, the holy book of the 50 series, rare and not available from Renault unless you had £300 plus vat (tax) to pay for one!!
2002/03
So I started to buy data sheets and brochures off ebay and scan them in, the site was getting bigger about a month later there were around 60 pages (index page here) which I was well happy with, by Christmas Greg Taylor had sent me a copy and I started to scan it in, a daunting project with a dodgy slow scanner, a very slow connection and not much idea about how to put something so big together, the manual covers 6 engines, 4 gear boxes, an auto box and so many different brake systems the mind boggled, I only had a S75 with air over hydraulic brakes and had no idea about the others (xmas dated index here) now there was around 90 pages online.
Back on tour and off to Dubai in Jan 2003 I didn't get to update the site for around 8 months, when I did I scanned and made up pages as fast as I could, I was gathering much more info and contacts, more people were finding the site and I set up the owners forum in
Oct 2003,
membership rose to around 300 and there was also around 300 pages on the website at this point, Toby, who was one of the first people to find the original pages on the circus site typed out text files from images of handbooks I sent him as I was very slow at typing, he emailed me the text and I added to the site.
2004
On tour again but not before adding another 200+ pages from the workshop manual, when I returned I spent time trying to find someone at Renault Trucks to help me with more technical details, parts and general knowledge, I got passed from piller to post, no one wanted to help ......... until .....
2005
I was put onto Andy at Renault Trucks Head office in Dunstable, I rang him, he asked where I was, I told him I was living in Yorkshire, he said you don't sound like you are from that way, No I replied I am from a little Village, Plumpton Green near Lewes in Sussex, well that opened a bag of something, I am from Lewes he said and we started to chat about the place and came to realise that his dad knew my dad!!
I continued to build up the site as and when I could, by now it was up to around 600 pages.
Got Given a Mk2 crewcab S66 Tipper by local roofing contractor who I had helped keep his truck on the road, my 3rd dodge 50.
2006 / 07
On tour again...... Well we started to phone each other and he was very helpful, he sent me exl files with Renault Stock Lists and invited me to the Dunstable plant, I went in my second dodge, our circus tour bus, I parked up on the site where my bus was built, well the DAFE (drive Away Front End) for a few days and was given access to the manual archive and a photocopier and all the paper I needed, I scanned in all the parts manuals, 100's and 100's of pages, was given a workshop manual with bits in that no other had, then came the biggie...........
Andy managed to get Renault to fund getting all the parts manuals and over 15000 vehicle build sheets (all vehicles built between July 1982 and July 1990 ) which were in microfiche format and converted to jpeg at a cost of over £4000, this took a few months and in Feb I started to upload this goldmine, quite a few gigs of info never before available for owners and repairers to get their mits on, the build sheets took 5 days continuous uploading, we were in a village and on a very slow connection, the parts manuals also went up in Feb 07.
2008
This was the year that people really started to want me to supply parts, up until this point I had not been selling parts via the website, just some when people phoned me, circus was still my main income, small that it was, I kept just passing on contact info and guidance but I was getting fed up with touring 8 months a year, my health was suffering as was the whole family, so at the end of the season I decided to retire within the next year or so, having bookings well in advanced put the kybosh on just stopping there and then.
In Sept we were given Brian a 30ft 7 berth motorhome by Lou and Phill who emigrated to Australia and wanted him to go to a good home, our 4th dodge 50.
2009
More and more info was going up on the site, I was selling parts on ebay and over the phone but I was still circusing all over the UK, 10,000's of miles driving and it was getting harder and harder but I had to continue, I had been circusing for nearly 20 years, it was in my blood.
Got given Bertie a 1984 S35 uprated to S46 Horsebox (now my mobile workshop)
2010 /11
My last years touring, I cut it right down and spent many weeks at my yard with my trucks and parts plus adding more brochures and data sheets and manual pages to the website, I had also taken on a couple of vehicles to work on, an engine change and a 30% running gear rebuild on another.
2012 /13
Did a couple of circus gigs but mainly spent all my time at my yard, sorting out parts, finding parts from other vehicles that fitted or could be bodged onto a dodge, things really took off and I started to strip two old vehicles, the website didn't get updated much, I had by now added over 26,000 pages / images / build sheets etc and needed to give it a bit of a rest.
2014
And now, March and I am very busy, working on local dodge 50's and supplying parts as well as support and help and advice to people all over the world, this has been an exciting project, started as something to do and has ended up being my business with my circus being my hobby.
Throughout this time I have been visited by many dodge 50 and RB44 owners and many have become good friends, you know who you are, I would also like to thank my wife Shealagh for supporting and putting up with me and letting me have more vehicles than I should :-)
I have left so much out here but it gives you all a bit of an idea of how and why the site happened but not that much about me, I am sure I will add more to this page sometime soon.( # see below)
UPDATE!!!
Update August 2022
Well the last 8 years have been different.
In 2016 we moved onto a boat (kept the dodges) and continued to circus but locally in Yorkshire.
In Nov 2017 I seperated from my wife but we remained good friends.
In Jan 2018 I got my own boat, A 1970 Colvic Northerner.
I still have the yard and a bunch of dodge 50's.
Roll on to 2021 and there was a massive fire during the covid crap and my yard was just about saved, my son and ex were living there at the time in the dodge 50 motorhome.
The fire service saved everyting (just about) though the yards around us suffered big time.
The fire burnt underground from April to end of Sept 2021 so they both moved onto my sons boat which was moored 500 yards from mine.
Roll on to April 2nd 2022 and my ex (Shealagh) died, my son held her hand during the whole process, it was a very hard 6 months.
2022 has been harder than any other year even with the fire / covid / life.
I am not now supplying parts, still there for you when you need it.
Love you all.
keep it Dodgey 50 xxxxx
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Update Jan 2023
A lot happened (see above) and now I have to change my whole life, move on and get myself better.
Health problems are my main concern, also living by myself on a boat 300 miles from all my family is another,
I am not selling the boat, we are clearing the dodge 50 HQ and moving back to be with family after 23 years though.
So:
It has been a blast, made some of my closesest friends through the 50 series over the last 25+ years.
I am however still there for owners / repairers with advice and any help I can just not doing parts anymore..
Email dodge50@mail.com if you need advice, if I can help I will, the phone number is just that now and not really used, I will see texts on that original contact number that ends in 254 though.
I still have 5 x 50's at the HQ in different states, including Big Vern, the one that started it all for me (and you in a way) back in the mid 90's.
Ok maybe there is not much left of him BUT I recokon he helped keep over 50+ other 50 series lovelies on the road after he left it himself in the mid 2000's.
Thank you everyone for your support over the last 21+years online and for those who knew me before then.... the 80's and 90's were a blast too.
This website will continue to be here, after 21 years.... ummmm erm...... went live Oct 2002...... WOW. ( I also had the first online Circus with website and moble data connection in the UK (at £50 a month plus VAT for 50mb yes 50mb!!!), yeah let me try to sound cool lol )
The WayBack Machine has even taken a scan from when this website had only been online 51 days and has continued to do so.
https://web.archive.org/web/20021101000000*/dodge50.co.uk
The End...... for now, honest!!!!
Update Jan 2024 Yes another big one too!!!
About a month after posting the last update, well did it get worse, I will write a more detailed update soon but lets just say: It Started in Feb 2023 I had a full on Epleptic Seizure while driving to my mooring in my landrover, so (it was around 9pm), was a dark and a cold night,.
somehow missing two fence posts as I turned onto the towpath road which would probably have stopped me and I guess my foot went to the floor in 2nd gear and I must have sped up and left the towpath, skipping across the canal at an angle not straight across, hitting a tree on the other side smashing the windscreen, then was floating, only thing I remember is my left hand moving around on the passenger seat getting wet.
apparantly as it was kinda floating on the canal a police van happened to be 1000 yards up the road, one of them saw a car (not mine) on the little bridge over the canal, so drove down to see what was going on, they were on the phone to 999 at the time about me in the water, the two coppers got out and were looking at landrover and trying to work out how to get to it as there is no towpath on the side I had hit, then it just started to sink, so he just said to his mate, I am going in, help me get back out and so he dived in and got me out the by then fully submerged vehicle through driverside window.
He got me to the bankside (I do remember saying 'wow the landrover lights are still on') the other copper had climbed a 12 ft fence to get to us, helped get us out the canal and they just hugged me trying to keep warm waiting for fire service to cut the fence to get me out, 30 minutes it took and the fire station is honestly only 1 minute from the bridge and they waited till a second vehicle arrived, NO JOKE!
Police said they thought at one point I had died in their arms.
Bloody stars they both were and both around 30 years in age I reckon.
Ambulance arrived about same time a recovery vehicle did, a fellow boater has family in the business so he got it sorted and it was out the canal before I got a hospital bed too.
A video of part of the vehicle being recovered can be found Here on YouTube.
Now as all this was going on......
I had a dodge owner getting ready to over from abroad for parts arriving only two days later by boat (Not their own boat, a big sea going one) and no one could get in touch to tell them not to come
I was returning from helping a friend who's dad had just died a couple of days previously, so this dodge owner Bo got here a few days later at the port and.... well she tracked me down, she had 2 numbers for me and guessed something was wrong as she knew I wouldn't have let her down after coming over and as the phones got a 'bit' wet both just went to answerphone.
luckily I had sent her a google map image of the boats mooring and it also had a road name on it and she knew name of the town and with help of google maps she got to my mooring, met some locals and was told what had happened and then some boater friends helped her get into my boat, she grabbed some clothes for me and drove to the hospital, she totally surprised me at the hospital, we hugged and cried and my mate Spike had only arrived to visit 20 minutes or so before she did, was bloody lovely time that was.
She stuck around and then helped get me out of hospital a few days earlier than if I had been alone and took me back to my boat and looked after me. Then she went back on the big boat home a few days later..
We had never met before, only emails and messages and forum posts over the last 14 years or so, she was amazing, not phazed by it at all.
She has also been back since and happened to come over on my Birthday too :-) (Brilliant Birthday Present) we have become very close friends.
Around 3 weeks later, early evening I had a right pain in my chest, I put it down to the canal incident and exhaustion so went to bed, next day had hospital scan appointment in the morning and on my return around midday I had a pre booked call from my Doctor about the scan and medication etc.
I mentioned my chest pain the evening before and she said, get to hospital NOW!!! so a mate took me, I went into A&E and for 26 hours..... (turns out was a near heart attack)
Yes 26 hours I sat there and waited and waited and when I went to reception and said I was going home as I would be much better off there, within 5 minutes I was in a ward, OK the wrong ward to start with but I had a bed and it all started.
I don't remember how long I was there, maybe a few days and nights but is still all a bit blurry. At some point went back to boat.
Now
after returning from a trip to the shops about 3 weeks later....... (yes things go in 3's for me), as I came through the gate near where my boat was moored at the time, well apparantly I did as my bike, my keys and my phone were all on the floor and gate unlocked and I came 'awake' fighting to get out the canal, during this incident, which happened on the year to the day aniversary of Shealagh passing away and I really damaged myself. Was a very emotional and difficult phone call to our two kids, (ok they are adults but will always be our kids) which was not easy for any of us as you can imagine.
I only remember partial bits but do remember trying to get my right leg onto the back of a boat (This has got very painfull, 10 months later and I can walk maybe 30 yards without a stick at most), a major problem was thatI had a small backpack with shopping in it (Tins / milk etc) and that was pulling me down as it filled with water, somehow I got out, still no idea how, my hand prints were seen on the sides of a couple of boats.
I was covered in bruses all over from head to toe, some very large ones too.
So Turns out I have epilepsy, a heart condition as well as Fibromyalgia (that was diagnosed in 2015) and the Fibro has got really bad and on top of the pain from that, an example is both my elbows if touched hurt and if i knock either it is like a hammer hitting me, I have seizures, sometimes very quick ones and some longer scarier ones,(#so boat is coming out the water for the time being).
So there we go, now just into 2024, already been to hospital twice, as well as two calls on phone to heart and head specialists and one with my doctor and it is only the 11th day into the year.....doh!
(#So I didn't sell the boat, things changed big time, I will post more about it here but will be putting 'A Couple of Three' books together as I physically cannot do much at all and need to do something or just go madder than I already am, so on we go, a new year another adventure .........)
Site is maintained and owned by Greg who has
A 1982 30ft S56 Motorhome (Brian),
a 1984 S75 van (Big Vern),
a 1984 S35 Chassis Cab Luton Box Van (Bertie)
1990 S56 Converted Welfare bus (Bonnie Bertha
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