The record
Harvey Frost of Letchworth made the hand-operated cranes that turned countless Land Rovers and light trucks into garage breakdown vehicles from the 1930s into the 1970s: a bolt-on A-frame with a winch drum and a jib that swung out over the tail to lift a car's front end for towing. HFW 370D, a Series IIA 109 supplied in 1966 with freewheel front hubs and 7.50x16 tyres, was fitted with a 3cwt Harvey Frost crane when new and spent its working life as a garage recovery truck. By 2016 it had been fully restored on a galvanised chassis, and Bonhams sold it at its Olympia sale in December 2017.
The Bonhams catalogue photograph is the reference: red Series IIA truck cab with a red roof, cream steel wheels, the red Harvey Frost crane at the tail of the bed with its jib over the back, a galvanised hoop behind the cab, the spare wheel standing in the bed, Rick's SALVAGE WOLVERHAMPTON signwritten in yellow on the doors and a galvanised bumper. The registry model reproduces that vehicle in the Breakdown group. The garage that ran it from new is not named in the catalogue; the Rick's Salvage signwriting is the livery it wore at the sale.
