Scottorn Bushmaster Fire Tractor
The Land Rover half of Scottorn's Bushmaster outfit, as pictured in the 1960s with the powered trailer behind it: a Series IIA 109 stripped to an open, doorless fire tender in deep bronze green with its tub cut down to a low flat tray, with a pump set, hose reel and extinguishers in the back, a rear-facing bench and an orange beacon on a pole — the trailer itself, with its PTO-driven axle, is not modelled.
Factory colours
- Deep Bronze Green
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
History
Scottorn Trailers Limited built the Bushmaster in the 1960s: a trailer with its own driven axle. A power take-off on the back of the Land Rover's transfer box turned a propeller shaft to a differential on the trailer axle, so the trailer pushed as well as followed and the outfit became, in effect, an articulated six-wheel drive carrying a 1,500 lb load over ground that would have bogged a towed trailer. Scottorn, like its rival Rubery Owen, sold the idea for cargo, generators, tanks, welders and compressors; how many were built is not known, and the company is long gone.
The photograph the queue supplied shows one application: a fire-fighting outfit, with the trailer carrying a water tank and the Land Rover a pump. The Land Rover is a Series IIA 109 cut down to a bare tender — no doors, no roof, just the windscreen — with the pump set and its hose reel across the back of the tub, extinguisher bottles, suction hoses hooked along the sides, a rear-facing bench seat for the crew and a beacon on a pole. Per the queue's instructions the vehicle is modelled alone in deep bronze green with an orange beacon, and the powered trailer is left out. The operator, date and registration of the photographed outfit are not given in the source; the photograph is black and white, so the colour is the one requested rather than one recorded.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Series IIA 109); fire-tender fit and Bushmaster trailer system by Scottorn Trailers Limited
- Manufactured
- 1960s (Bushmaster trailer era); vehicle date not recorded
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Scottorn Trailers Limited
- Engine type
- Series IIA 2.25 L petrol inline-four (assumed; not stated)
- Production run
- Unknown — Scottorn's Bushmaster production is not recorded
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series IIA
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 109″
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.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- British engineers designed a trailer that could tow itself over 50 years ago — Scottorn Bushmaster and Rubery Owen powered trailers (PTO drive, 1,500 lb payload, production unknown; fire-fighting outfit photograph) ↗ — The Autopian (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.theautopian.com/british-engineers-designed-a-trailer-that-could-tow-itself-over-50-years-ago/ https://www.theautopian.com/british-engineers-designed-a-trailer-that-could-tow-itself-over-50-years-ago/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T06:49:04.353Z · status: researched