Ihave to admit to a personal interest in the heavy haulage firm of Sunters, who were based in Northallerton for many years. I was born in the North Yorkshire town, and from my childhood can remember Sunters’ vehicles slowly negotiating roundabouts on the High Street with their enormous loads. A few of their vehicles have made it into preservation, so when I heard about Simon Howard’s superb Scania 110 6x4 tractor unit which has recently come onto the rally scene in their colours, Ihad to have a look.
This particular Scania was never actually part of the Sunters’ fleet. However it replicates day cabbed 110 6x4s DPY185L and OAJ288M that were. Simon’s Scania is registered XMJ 891L and was ordered on October 17 1970 by Les Searle &Son of Horsham.
Searle, however, refused to accept the Scania as it was, they said, already rusty.It remained unsold for some time but was bought eventually by Biggs Wall, a civil engineering and drainage company based in Arlesey, Bedfordshire. It was painted in their yellow and white livery. It was first registered on September 11 1972 as XMJ 891L, and was probably used with a low loader to transport heavy equipment around. Seven years later, it moved again, this tine to Nissan dealers JS Holmes of Wisbech St Mary where, in 1980, it was converted to a recovery vehicle. “The conversion was possibly carried out by Wreckers International,” Simon said. And there it stayed, with the Scania’slastMoT in 1994, while the recovery gear was last tested by Dave Cosby on October 17 1998.
XMJwas eventually parked up in a corner of Holmes’ yard
