PIONEER AND EXPLORER TWO OF THE BEST OF BRITISH RECOVERY TRACTORS

Another honour for a Pioneer went to Mick Price of Wolverhampton whose recovery tractor was selected as one of the main vehicles to be on parade at the VE-Day commemoration event in London in May 2015. The Pioneer SV/2S, H4782576, called ‘Invincible’, became a gate guardian along with an M18 Hellcat tank at the entrance to St. James’ Park from the Mall. In 1949, a new system of registration was brought in and at the same time the Ministry administration decided on two channels of military vehicle classification, one would denote a commercial design adapted for military use (CL or GS), the other would be a military-specific vehicle combat type from the outset (CT).

Having said that, Scammell produced the Pioneer’s successor, the Explorer, fitting it into the GS range, rather than its CT range, although it wasn’t seriously offered as a commercial design outside of its military contracts. In 1950, the British Army signed up the first contract, 6/V/3724, for what would be more than 1,000 of these new 6