The best in the south west

[mushspeed]

Last weekend saw a Trucking show  in the South west of the UK  with over 800 trucks  on display  from  trucking companies  from throughout the west country  the quality standard was very high... making the judging for the various categories very difficult to choose the outright winners ...

The weekend was  initially raining but cleared up with bright sunlight and attracted large crowds of visitors... 

The Tow Truck and Recovery section  had 58 different  vehicles  entered  to include light and heavy duty's,  rotators,  low loaders, service Van's and support vehicles 

Each day,  a series of recovery demonstrations were  enacted in the main arena in front of large crowds, to include....   the rollover of buses  and truck's and cars and the subsequent recoveries....  I was honoured to assist with the commentary on the second day ...with the Recovery  display organiser...  and the head of the Professional Recovery Drivers Club  (PRDC) Stan Gallears ,    Stan and I gave an important message across  to the audience about the importance of   "SlowDown Move Over " and the dangers tow men face at the roadside 

 

 

A very compact lift and tow truck specifically designed to work in confined spaces, multi storey and underground  car parks  where height is very restricted  supplied by Boniface  Engineering  it has a French made  Jige lohr  underlift... Jige  is part of the Miller Corporation in Europe.

 

This neat unit is owned and operated by  Hinton Recovery  based in Bath  and Bristol ....

Check out the overhang beyond the rear axle ...that is short !  Making manoeuvring with vehicles on tow a lot easier. 

 

 

A smart little lightweight transporter  from  J & W  Recovery    a  recent newcomer to the towing industry  and very well presented and a hard working  business.

 

 

The truck is an Iveco   3.5 tonner  and has just undergone a complete restoration 

It can carry a load of about a tonne ...

 

 

Probably the heaviest and most powerful  Rotator in the western region  standing on 5 axles  and weighing nearly 40 tons...   88,000 lbs 

Has a self steering rear axle,  twin steer front axles  and 2 drive axles . 

Based on a Scania  megaspace chassis  with a  640 hp V8   and hydraulic gearbox retarder this truck has all the bells and whistles !!

 

 

Equipped with the NRC  sliding Rotator   owned by  prominent operators   Ashley Wood Recovery  and driven by my old friend  Dave Hankey , owner of Bride Valley Recovery.

 

 

A Scania  4 axle rotator  operated by prominent South Wales  operators,   John and Jamie Walls 

The equipment is NRC  and  sporting 4 winches on the crane plus a drag winch  and driven by  " nappy "

 

 

Another truck from Walls Recovery 

 

 

 

 

The business end of the two Walls Trucks ...

 

 

A smart 3 axle Mercedes  unit from Bride Valley Recovery.

 

.

A novel display by Rivermead  Recovery , using the knuckleboom crane of their accident unit  dangling a motorcycle over 30 feet in the air.

 

 

A 6x6  Foden off road winching truck and Recovery crane, equipped with  a  powerful drag winch  and a front mounted  winch 

Operated by  the highly respected Slades Garage of Chard ...

 

 

A medium duty rollback  based on a MAN chassis fitted with a 6 seater crew cab with a payload of over 4 tons,  owned and operated by  Unity Garage,  the owner is  the legendary John Rogers, one of the most highly respected companys  in the UK.  

Check out the reg no     3 TOW .....

 

 

An NRC slider on a 3 axle daf  chassis   very well presented by  R S  Recovery 

 

 

A well presented  3 axle  Volvo  fitted with Boniface Recoverer equipment, operated by prominent  southern operator ...  Ray Avery ....

 

Ray  has a large fleet of heavy and off road equipment,   his manager is  Colin Ryan  who is an expert in difficult recoveries ...I have  had the  pleasure in working  on several  big  jobs with Colin and is a clever operator. 

Note the additional side stabiliser legs. 

 

 

The old timer of the show,   an original  Diamond  T....    owned and still operated by Lanes Recovery ...now only used for severe off road winching  and the occasional shows 

 

 

A view of the working end is  now mostly redundant,  but is  I am told, it all still works ok, but a bit of a finger nipper  !!

 

 

 Boniface Recoverer and maxi reach equipment,   operated by ND Services,  a prominent Wiltshire operation.

 

9h

 

The business end of a few of them ....  check out the  reflectivity of the rear facing panelwork ...sorry about the quality of the picture, my battery went flat ...

Apologies to those I have not included....I have missed lots of superb trucks  but....no battery left..

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by mushspeed
Spelling mistakes

[mushspeed]

A  continuance of the above post ....not tow trucks  but these were stunning  !!!

 

 

A  tipper truck on regular tarmac planing work,  in and out of job sites all the time,  not a mark on it.

 

 

 

The chassis is Volvo the 4th axle is self steering   the engine is  a mighty 760 horse power   a mega space sleeper cab  with custom paintwork ,

Operated by Charlie Doyle.

 

 

A 3 axle tractor  with custom paintwork and airbrushing   from Charlie Doyle 

 

 

A T cabbed Scania  tractor   fabulous paint  job and air brushing   again by Charlie Doyle 

[yoBdaBenO]

Thanks for sharing, some very interesting equipment on that side of the pond.

 

Hope to make that jump some day to experience one of the UK Shows.

[Guest OZBAZ]

Yes that RS Recovery Daf is well presented as i'm pretty sure it's 17 years old it was always just one of them great trucks