Rotinoff

3 of the surviving Rotinoff trucks in Britain at the Great Dorset Steam Fair

The Tony Jordan collections Rotinoff UAS 407 at Belvoir Castle Steam Festival in 2007

Rotinoff Motors Ltd was a British builder of commercial vehicles that specialised in Heavy haulage units. Founded by the son of a Russian engineer in 1952.

History

Gear shift pattern plate on the Sunters Rotinoff in the Dave Weedon collection

George Rotinoff, son of a Russian engineer set up Rotinoff Motors Ltd at Colnbrook near Slough in 1952 to build heavy haulage tractors. He developed the 140 tons gross "Atlantic", and the 330 tons gross "Super Atlantic". The trucks were fitted with Kirkstall axles. Also built were 2 long wheelbase "Viscounts" which were of a lighter construction and went to Australia for use as cattle hauling roadtrains for the Vestry meat company. The company also built a one-off dumper was built known as a "Pacific" which it is believed was built as a prototype. George Rotinoff died in 1959 when only 35 vehicles had been built bearing the Rotinoff name, after which no more vehicles were built.

The Swiss army had 12 for pulling tank transporters and the only one was sold new into UK heavy haulage to Sunter Bros of Northallerton.

Several were re imported into the UK and sold on by dealers Walkers Machinery of Oxford.

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Models Built

Dave Weedons Super Atlantic Q43 GFR and Atlantic UAS 347

8 cylinder Rolls Royce supercharged engine in the Super Atlantic

Inside Atlantic cab (Sunters)

• Rotinoff Atlantic - 140 tons gross, 275hp tractor powered by a 6cyl Rolls Royce C6SFL engine, David Brown 12 speed Gear box, Kirkstall rear bogie with twin axles.
• Rotinoff Super Atlantic - 330 tons gross, 366hp Tractor powered by a 8cyl Rolls Royce C8SFL engine. Fitted with a 15 speed box.
• Rotinoff Viscount - long wheelbase tractor (Only 2 believed built)
• Rotinoff Pacific - a Heavy duty Dumper ( one prototype believed built)
• The gear box is a 6 speed with a 3 range transfer box giving 18 forward and 3 reverse. It is the same box in the Atlantic and Super Atlantic.

Preserved machines

Out of the 35 built apparently 11 still survive including the 2 sold to Australia.

• The photo above (top) is of Tony Jordans Rotinoff that was at the Belvoir Castle show 2008 in the Vintage trucks section.
• A Sunters livery machine was at GDSF in 2008 Photo here on the CMN web site This is not the 'Actual' Sunters machine as that one is in a museum.
• The Sunters Rotinoff reg no RPY 767 now resides at the The Science Museum Large objects store at Wroughton Airfield near Swindon. (some of the collection is displayed at special events).
• A Military version is in a Swiss museum.

• The 11 trucks known are:-

• • 2 in Yorkshire Dave Weedon collection, UAS 347(in Sunters livery) and Q43 GFR- Excalibur(ex Parnabys)
  • 2 at Walker Machinery, ?
  • 1 UAS 407 with collector Tony Jorden, (ex Swiss Army)
  • 1 SBS114 is in Malta (ex JCB), (Malta reg no)
  • 2 In Australia, (Viscounts) built for the Vestry meat empire. Both are in the National Transport Hall Of Fame at Alice Springs, Northern Territory. 1 is fully restored.
  • 1 In The Science Museum, RPY 767
  • 1 In Jamaica,
  • 1 In a Swiss Museum

Gallery

The Australian Rotinoff's

Other Rotinoff's

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Scale models

• Matchbox produced a version of the Rotinoff as No.15. One was sold recently for £2400 on E bay.

See also

• List of Engine Manufacturers
• List of Heavy Haulage Contractors
• List of Collections
• Shows and Meets

External links

• Photos of a military Super Atlantic
• The Australian Viscounts Photo and spec
• B&W Photo of truck under test / demonstration
• www.calassictracksandtrucks.co.uk - Lots more photos of Sunters Rotinoff and Parnebys Super Atlantic & other Heavy haulage trucks.