The Bates of Evesham forward-control pump: a Land Rover 1-ton 109 chassis with the six-cylinder engine, rebuilt as a cab-over appliance with a four-seat crew cab, roller-shutter lockers and roof ladders after Land Rover stopped building its own Forward Control — commissioned by the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade, which took 44 of the 52 built.
BASE VEHICLESeries III 109″CONVERTERBates of EveshamIN SERVICE1972–79OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTION52 vehicles, 44 of them to the Northern Ireland Fire BrigadeLAYOUT4 wheels · 109″
The record
When Land Rover ended the Series IIB Forward Control in 1972 it left the fire trade without a compact cab-over four-wheel-drive, and the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade, which liked the format for its rural stations, went to Bates of Evesham for a replacement. Bates built one: a 1-ton 109-inch Land Rover chassis with the 2.6-litre six-cylinder engine, re-engineered to put the cab over the engine with Series III-style short wings, a crew cab seating four, roller-shutter equipment lockers along the body and ladders on the roof — the L4P, a light four-wheel-drive pump.
Total production was 52, of which 44 went to Northern Ireland, making it in effect the province's own appliance. The vehicle behind this record, KIA 6916 — a Northern Ireland registration of the 1970s — is an ex-NIFA example photographed by Steve Prosser on The Stray at Harrogate in August 2000, just after completing the HCVS Trans-Pennine Run. One of the final examples of the run was offered at Bigwood auctioneers in 2017.
MANUFACTURED1970s, after the factory Forward Control ended in 1972
ENGINE2.6 L petrol inline-six (1-ton 109 chassis)
PRODUCTION RUN52 vehicles, 44 of them to the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSpreserved
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries III
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE109″
CATEGORYSpecial · Fire
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Renders & references
Front three-quarterRegistry renderThree-quarterRegistry renderSideRegistry renderRearRegistry renderFrontRegistry renderPhotographSteve Prosser ↗
