Harvey Frost recovery Land Rover

History

Harvey Frost & Co., founded in London around 1900 and later of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, was one of Britain's pioneer vehicle-recovery equipment houses - first distributing recovery gear, then manufacturing its own cranes, tow poles, winches and garage equipment. The firm became best known for the lightweight hinged-boom recovery cranes, in capacities from half a ton to two tons, that garages across Britain bolted to the back of light trucks and long-wheelbase Land Rovers to make compact breakdown trucks; a Land Rover with a Harvey Frost crane was for decades the archetypal rural garage recovery vehicle.

The registry's reference vehicle is VPB 28F, a 1968 Series IIA long-wheelbase pickup (chassis 25114123D, 2.3-litre petrol) supplied new with a Harvey Frost 30cwt pickup crane - catalogue number 21. It worked continuously as the recovery truck of Clacy & Sons, a family motor engineering business in Hampshire, remaining in that single ownership for 52 years until it passed to the Land Rover Heritage Collection. Along the way it gained the practical modifications of a working recovery vehicle: spare headlights set into the front wings for towing at night, a modern amber light bar, and an open-backed weather canopy over the rear deck made by an Andover body shop soon after purchase - fitted, the story goes, to stop the tub filling with leaves.

The collection presents the vehicle unrestored, valuing it as a wholly honest and genuine working survivor rather than a show truck - a document of how thousands of Series Land Rovers earned their keep in the recovery trade.

Registry record

Manufacturer

Land Rover (Rover Company)

Manufactured

1968 donor; crane fitted from new

Modifier / coachbuilder

Harvey Frost & Co. (30cwt pickup crane, catalogue no. 21) ↗

Engine type

2.3 L petrol inline-four

Current owner

Land Rover Heritage Collection ↗

Country of origin

United Kingdom

Status

preserved (Land Rover Heritage Collection, unrestored)

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

Series IIA

Wheels

4

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• VPB 28F - Series IIA with Harvey Frost recovery crane, WOR 13 (chassis, engine, Clacy & Sons history, modifications) ↗ — Land Rover Heritage Collection (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Harvey Frost and Co (company history: founded c.1900 London, later Bishop's Stortford; recovery equipment pioneer) ↗ — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Harvey Frost (hinged-boom recovery cranes ½-2 ton, fitted to light trucks and Land Rovers) ↗ — Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki (accessed 2026-09-10)
• A History of Modern Vehicle Recovery Part 2 (Harvey Frost's place in the British recovery trade) ↗ — vehiclerecovery.org (accessed 2026-09-10)

Catalogue references

• https://www.lrheritagecollection.org.uk/the-collection/vehicles/wor-13 https://www.lrheritagecollection.org.uk/the-collection/vehicles/wor-13 ↗

Development reference notes

• Harvey Frost recovery Land Rover — VPB 28F · HERITAGE-FLEET-REFERENCES.md

  Rear recovery boom; open-backed canopy; extra headlights and later beacon. Reference: https://www.lrheritagecollection.org.uk/the-collection/vehicles/wor-13