Workshop 6x6

Workshop bodied Defender 6x6s

Details: Category: 6x4 and 6x6; Last Updated on Friday, 29 April 2011 17:42; Written by Ersasatz Soubriquet; Hits: 3839

SVO 6x6

'Ersatz Soubriquet' says:-

In so far as I can remember, these were two of a batch of six originally commissioned by Bristol Water as off-road workshop units. They were possibly used on a brecon beacons pipeline contact for Welsh Water.

The one labelled Subscan was owned by a pipeline and underground utilities company in Leeds, the Land Rover was borrowed by me on various occasions, its on-board generator was invaluable when working on remote sites, and setting up off-road events, such as as the Yorkshire Land Rover Owners Club's Langley Farm 4X4 show, each September, near Denby Dale.

I got a bit of a ribbing for bringing a 200tdi-powered electric kettle!

The pictures below were taken at a Land Rover Owner magazine show at Bramham Park in Yorkshire (May 2003), where, by chance, two of the beasts came together. The blue one is in fairly original trim, and was for sale by David Spirett's in Aberford, near Bramham. A third sibling is in the Leeds area, carrying at one time, a cherry-picker, but now possibly, a tipper body. They were built as 110 HCPUs, on the normal Land Rover line, then driven around to Special Vehicles, where the chassis were extended and a third axle added. The middle axle is a Reynolds-Boughton unit with a drive-through diff and a short propshaft to the final axle.

'Ersatz' believes the supply agent might have been Wadham Stringer. The chassis-cabs left SVO and went to London for pto-driven compressors and generators to be fitted.
Controls and pressure guages were situated in the hatch behind the nearside door, the offside hatch accessed tool racks. SVO rebuilt the cabs somewhat randomly, with a mix of panels. For instance, the 'Subscan' vehicle had bits that belonged to the blue one fitted. The vehicles were fitted with 200tdi engines, which left them a little underpowered for their size and given the fact that they were often towing. However they were more than capable off-road, with mud tyres (and Wolf rims fitted by Subscan).

When the 'Subscan' vehicle came up for sale, it was purchased by Foley Specialist Vehicles, who planned to fit it with a long game-viewing body, and send it off to Africa.

Defender 6x6
The Subscan Defender.