SEB Hotspur 6×6 Cherry Picker
The Southern Electricity Board's Hotspur six-wheel Stage 1 V8, SRD 819Y: a 1983 109-inch Stage 1 rebuilt by Hotspur to a 6×6 chassis to carry a larger Spencer B-28 cherry picker for overhead-line work from the board's Oxford depot — grey with a white roof, orange boom folded over the cab, yellow bucket parked at the rear.
History
The Southern Electricity Board ran one of the largest Land Rover fleets in the country, from the south coast up through Southampton, Reading and Swindon to Oxford, mostly on the 1-Ton 109 and Forward Control for its line gangs. In the early 1980s it turned to the Stage 1 V8 109 station wagon for its cherry-picker vehicles, and for a larger platform than a four-wheel chassis could carry it had Hotspur — the Neath firm whose six-wheel Stage 1 conversions also produced the Sandringham military range — stretch one to a 6×6.
SRD 819Y, registered in 1983, is that vehicle: a Stage 1 truck cab on Hotspur's six-wheel chassis with a bogie of two driven rear axles, a flat rear deck with outriggers carrying a Spencer B-28 insulated cherry picker whose two-section boom folds forward over the cab roof with the bucket parked at the back of the deck. It wore the board's scheme of the day — light grey with a white roof and 'southern electricity' in green and blue on the doors — with orange bumpers, red-and-white chevrons on the deck corners and white wheels, and worked from the Oxford depot. The Electricity Board Land Rovers archive records it; its later fate, and whether SEB had more than one six-wheeler, are not stated.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Hotspur Armoured Products ↗Land Rover (Stage 1 V8 109 station wagon donor); six-wheel conversion by Hotspur; access platform by Spencer
- Manufactured
- SRD 819Y, 1983
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Hotspur Armoured Products ↗6×6 conversion, Spencer (B-28 cherry picker)
- Engine type
- 3.5 L Rover V8 petrol (Stage 1)
- Production run
- Unknown — one vehicle documented
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series III
- Wheels
- 6
- 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
- Southern Electricity Board — SEB Land Rovers (Hotspur 6×6 Stage 1 V8 cherry picker SRD 819Y, 1983, Spencer B-28, Oxford depot; fleet colour schemes) ↗ — Electricity Board Land Rovers (eblrs.org) (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- http://eblrs.org/seb/ http://eblrs.org/seb/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T06:52:26.859Z · status: researched