MILITANT

Rob photographed the rebuilding of his logging tractor well. Stripping the vehicle down to chassis cab, Rob fabricated a new rear body-frame and changed the straight-sided, wooden, chariot-style cargo area for a more upmarket step-side with flowing lines. The ‘raves’, seemingly, are the low bars on the side of a logging tractor which stops the bits and pieces on the cargo deck from falling off and are usually fabricated from a length of 50mm box section metal with a covering of 2mm sheet aluminium or steel.

A donor Mark One, 900 JHN, from a chap called Nathan Cooper, provided a lot of valuable parts and a weekend was spent removing as many bits as possible for the rebuild. Nathan’s donor Militant had a colourful past. Its last revenue earning job was as a recovery wagon with BVT Recovery company, it had then been acquired by traveller ‘Chod’ who took it to the Glastonbury Festival at Pilton in 2000.

Meanwhile, Rob had spent many happy hours with a grinder while fitting the crane structure to his Militant’s flat-bed base as bits of metal insisted on snagging the bodywork. Now registered 375 UXK, it took off on one of its first major outings, filling up in its hometown of Sittingbourne and heading for the AEC Gathering at Newark. It ticked along at 32mph for the 160-mile journey and got through £220 (nearly 200 litres) worth of petrol by the time it returned to base, posting a return of just over 10mpg. A run, in a later year when the fuel system