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[MWAD7]

For my part....

The PO of my vehicle offered one for sale at the time - but I couldn’t (then) see any use for it. But it set a seed....

I wanted to start to learn to weld, a little later - and I learn best when I’ve a practical problem to fix rather than some arbitrary practice piece for the sake of practice. NathanGlasgow had one for sale locally, but I decided it was a bit too much of a project for me at the time...

Very, very few come up for sale in Scotland - so I leapt on an eBay item within collection distance. The body virtually fell off on the way home...

Renovated that chassis, scrapped the body and taught myself how to use one of the CAD packages to design a replacement tub - but found it tricky to source a supplier who could laser cut and fold parts. And the materials cost would’ve been eye watering anyway.

Managed to buy another eBay special locally a year or so later - much of the body looked recoverable - and I always planned to replace one end with a tailgate solution anyway. Stripped the chassis of bits I wanted and sold it on...

Fixing the body turned out to be a big task - fortunately I still had many salvageable sections of the first body to use as patches (the trailer is now called Patch....) but ended up having to fabricate almost all of the underbody brackets as well as the new back end.

It has cost me a fortune - but did give me the welding challenge I wanted. Now it’s finished, I do love the whole giant Tonka feel. Fitting a decent nose wheel assembly had transformed manoeuvres when uncoupled and I can also (just about) heave it up our sloping drive.

So an interesting personal project - but financially it would’ve been well worth snapping up a mint condition one down south and paying a fortune to courier it up here....🙄

[MrTDiy]

Ha...yes the NATO hutch does stop neighbours from borrowing!

[oddjob]

Sankeys are far too small for my camping firewood requirements.

[agg221]

Sankeys are far too small for my camping firewood requirements.

Why haven't you got a pile of old fence panels stacked on top of the hood sticks?

Alec

[GlenAnderson]

If you need an extremely robust and compact trailer for off-road work a Sankey is hard to beat, but for me they’re too small, too heavy, too awkward to load stuff into and too prone to rot.

I have a small, light, Ex-GPO Pitt toolbox for small stuff, and a twin wheel Saris for big stuff.

[oddjob]

Why haven't you got a pile of old fence panels stacked on top of the hood sticks?

Alec

Because then I wouldn't be able to top up my tan on the M40.

 

[Exile]

I like the ex-GPO trailers as posted by GlenAnderson.

But way back in 1972 I bought a 1953 Brockhouse (they weren't all made by Sankey!)

Found it quite heavy (it was, after all, a combat trailer, designed by committee to do everything they could think of, just like the Champ.) Eg. the double-barrelled drawbar, designed to rotate to match the tow hook of different height vehicles.

It has 4.5" split rims, and I think from memory, fitting 5" or wider rims put the wheels outside the body enough to not cover the tread pattern entirely.

The lack of a tailgate was a nuisance, but they were designed to deep-wade/float (all the external hardware was bolted to top-hat brackets, welded to the body so no fixings penetrated the body).

Didn't use it much. It has spent all these decades in the back of a shed.

Took it out once to re-fit some of the stuff I took off and stored years ago, spray it with diesel/old oil and take some photos.


Can't bring myself to sell it.

[w3526602]

The lack of a tailgate was a nuisance, but they were designed to deep-wade/float

Hi,

I understood .. but happy to be corrected ... that the "floaters" were intended for use by the Royal Marines. 

My Sankey was a floater,. and had obviously been parked, in the rain, for a long time, without the drain plugs being removed I replaced the remains of the tub with a wooden box.

Every bit of the braking linkage was rusted solid, so I removed the lot, including back-plates, and skimmed the drums down to spacing discs.

I removed the complicated tow-hitch, and cobbled a "draw bar stub" out of scaffold pipe and 50x50 angle, hung it under the chassis, and fitted a simple 50mm hitch. A visit to the Amenity Centre's weigh bridge indicated I had 300kgs of payload available. That was enough. It did two trips from Swansea Valley, via the Chunnel, to our place near Dinan, say 600 miles each way, behind my S1 2286cc Bitsa.

Warning. You do not want to one-man-handle even an empty Sankey up or down a slope, or over rough ground. I think mine weighed 400kg empty, with the dregs of the original body.

602

It's just possible that Wittsend has some of my photos on file ()

[w3526602]

Hi again,

Try a Google for FEU254 SANKY IMAGES

602

[oddjob]

Here’s Mr 602’s Sankey.
 

[w3526602]

Hi Oddjob,

Thanks for that.

Note the "home-brewed" bulkhead. All the steel was 3mm thick. Sheet and box section.

The wider out-riggers on the S3 chassis allowed me to bolt through the A-posts, rather than add "feet".

I did not bother cobbling "vents".

All mechanicals were S2.

602

[w3526602]

PS.

Note the folding ladder in the Sanky ... we were obviously "loaded for France".

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

I've just re-read this thread, and have some more comment/questions.

I found the Sanky difficult to man-handle over rough ground, and grass, no problem on a hard flat surface. I'd hate to be in charge if a Sanky made a break for freedom on a 1:8 slope.

I first towed my Sanky, complete with the NATO "ring coupling" using a "pin hitch" from my local caravan shop. Yes, it clunked, but it's supposed to. A ring hitch pulls on the pin, but brakes against drop-plate.

I converted my Sanky to a 50mm socket, by removing the entire sliding ring hitch (heavy) and replace with tubular "stub" drawbar that bolted onto the same holes. It worked OK ... apart from not having any brakes, so visit to weighbridge to learn that I only had 300kg load capacity. I have a photo on Photobucket, but that is incomunicado (sp?) until I sort out my pass-word. Can anybody post a picture of howb their Sanky was converted to ball-hitch, pretty please?

602

[guysattley]

Interesting thread.   A small trailer is an essential tool to use with any Land Rover.    I’ll try to post a couple photos of mine, unfortunately neither is a Sankey which could use my Rover wheels.   But they both have the original Luna hitch, for a normal pintle hitch on all my Rovers.
    One photo is two each Korean War 1950s vintage M100 trailers.   Incredible simple design, total weight is under 500 lbs, when empty it can be moved around like a wheelbarrow.   No tailgate, as it was designed to float across rivers, and also for strength of the box.   Happily hauls incredible loads, I have filled up the green one with steel tire chains, to the edge of the box, who knows what weight!
Tires are 7.00-16.
    Other photo is the modern M1100 designed for the Humvee.    All aluminum, beautiful construction, tie down points all over.   Weighs around 1400 lbs, has nice cubic size.    Hauls full size plywood sheets,has a full width tailgate.  Cost the military around $8000 each, sells surplus for perhaps $1500 or less.
   Bring a Sankey to my driveway in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I’ll probably buy it!

[GlenAnderson]

My twin-wheel Saris.