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Supply of Sankeys drying up?


UdderlyOffroad

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All,

Whilst browsing Witham's website I noticed this at the bottom of an auction list:

We are now very close to the end of our Sankey trailers. Get one while you can!

Can this be true? Are we coming to the end of the MOD's lot of sankeys? Or is there some hidden warehouse full of these things waiting to be cast?

Problem is, my truck is mid-rebuild and nowhere near ready to tow a Sankey home. Should I try to scrape together the cash and stump up for someone to deliver now? Already people are asking silly money* for them on fleabay

*Compared with Witham's price...

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Yes it is very true I posted about it a couple of weeks ago...Linky the Tender sale in March should see the last lot go with a few going through auction before then but the prices have started to creep up already, there was something like 2000 MK111 made and all have now been cast so except for a few sat around in reserve/cadet units which will not be replaced for years that's it... Where are you based, you may be able to get someone on here to help you out picking one up.

Jason.

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I need one and so does a mate of mine, better get our asses into gear then. What sort of price is right now then?

The last one I got was a disk braked MK111 unit, I brought it for £165 + Vat from the Withams auction site in Feb, I watched loads and bid on a few at the last minute but set my maximum so didn't pay too much one I bid on went for over £250+vat!!! be careful there are some MK11 trailers (Drum Braked) still being cast they are worth far less at the moment although they seem to go for the same money....

I know that MadMatt on here brought a MK111 from the tender sale he picked one up with a dinted tub for a great price as he didn't need the tub it was a very good deal and I believe he sold the tub on ebay despite it being damaged but as I say it's likely to be the last Tender with them in so the prices may go up a bit.

The process for the auction is really easy they send you an invoice after purchase which you have to pay within 3 days and then collect within 7 days I got mine on Saturday as they are open until 12:00, oh and clearly you need a NATO hitch. I have brought a few things from Witham's over the years and I guess you take a risk that it will be OK as they don't do anything to the trailers after they are cast so brakes etc may not be working the shocks were damaged on my first one, however given the price they are going for I don't know how much of a risk that is.

It turned out that when I stripped down the last trailer I found small problems with the brake system, and one of the back legs I sold the Tub and wheels and got back some money but figured out it was cheaper to get a second one rather than pay £69 for another leg. I was lucky with the second one as it is in very good condition but as above I don't think that is a big risk as I can easily break it for parts and get £200 back and you can easily sell them on for £300 if Mrs S would let me I would think of buying a few and sit on them for a year.

There is no extra costs with the auction except if you don't collect within 7 days where they then charge you £25 per day storage, although I got some bits last year and because of the snow couldn't (not worth the risk) getting there I spoke to them and there was no charge/problem and they understood so I have never had a problem.

Cheers, Jason.

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I echo all of Jason's comments I was at withams 18months ago and there were hundreds if not thousounds of trailers when I was there last month there were probably less than 50 kicking about. even the ones cropping up on their online auction site are rough dented ones now. A lot depends on what you want it for?

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Well the supply of Sankeys is now one less; I've just bought one for £202.00 :D

In case anyone's wondering how I propose to get it to home when I have no Landie in a roadworthy condition, I went on www.anyvan.co.uk, www.uship.com and www.shiply.com and asked for quotes; £80 to ship a Sankey from Grantham to Bristol.

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Well the supply of Sankeys is now one less; I've just bought one for £202.00 :D

In case anyone's wondering how I propose to get it to home when I have no Landie in a roadworthy condition, I went on www.anyvan.co.uk, www.uship.com and www.shiply.com and asked for quotes; £80 to ship a Sankey from Grantham to Bristol.

Is that £202 plus VAT? £80 to get it to Bristol is a great deal, I bet it would cost that in fuel for a return journey.

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Just looked up where Withams are and its not far from my daughter near Spalding so that makes it an even better trip for me, day out with kid, overnight stay and collect in morning :D .

Im sure it will fit but I'l ask here first. Will one Sankey fit into another for the return journey if I collect 2?

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Will one Sankey fit into another for the return journey if I collect 2?

I've certainly seen it done when collecting other parts from Withams, I've seen them done with the top one the right way up and the wrong way up, the right way up was easier to load, but looked less stable.

I'd believe what Withams say too, when I bought my Tavern there must have been 30 left up there, two weeks and 1 tender later a Tavern popped up on the auction saying 'last one' and I thought 'ner can't be, I'll buy another one next week' but it was the last and I missed out. I really wanted two of them....

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Just looked up where Withams are and its not far from my daughter near Spalding so that makes it an even better trip for me, day out with kid, overnight stay and collect in morning :D .

Im sure it will fit but I'l ask here first. Will one Sankey fit into another for the return journey if I collect 2?

Yes one Sankey would fit inside a second one, the difficult bit would be getting it out again, these are not light and I would think that unless you have a large hoist or similar you would struggle it's more than a two man lift!! I thought about this before I would think the easiest way for you that is to have them turn the second trailer upside down and get them to stack it on top of the first tub sliding it back a foot and removing the hitch (4 bolts) would give you enough clearance to tow it, once home you could slide it off and flip it over with a rope, flipped mine over when taking the tubs off and know it can be done with a rope and a 110 on your own!!! The only thing to note is when I flipped my first one the brake fluid leaked out although the latest one was fine so you may want to take something with you to empty it into and cover it.

Jason.

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or if you find one with a nato jaw hitch on the back crossmember like they used to have, you can tow 2 or more home, al a airport baggage train. :ph34r:

You could do but unless you had a showman's licence it would not be legal, if you did it would be a long ride home as IIRC you are also speed limited. It was covered on here a while ago.

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Yes one Sankey would fit inside a second one, the difficult bit would be getting it out again, these are not light and I would think that unless you have a large hoist or similar you would struggle it's more than a two man lift!! I thought about this before I would think the easiest way for you that is to have them turn the second trailer upside down and get them to stack it on top of the first tub sliding it back a foot and removing the hitch (4 bolts) would give you enough clearance to tow it, once home you could slide it off and flip it over with a rope, flipped mine over when taking the tubs off and know it can be done with a rope and a 110 on your own!!! The only thing to note is when I flipped my first one the brake fluid leaked out although the latest one was fine so you may want to take something with you to empty it into and cover it.

Jason.

Thats ok just so long as they would lift one on top of the other for me as I have a fork lift at work and can unload it there easy.

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Yes, and they're one more less as of last week. I bought a good MK3 for £175 + vat. i've just changed the wiring plug for a standard one today. I also fitted one of My link these to the Lady to bring it home with, no problem! now it kills two birds with one stone!

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Yes, and they're one more less as of last week. I bought a good MK3 for £175 + vat. i've just changed the wiring plug for a standard one today. I also fitted one of My link these to the Lady to bring it home with, no problem! now it kills two birds with one stone!

Hi Biffo,

Your hitch although a nice piece of equipment but I don't really suitable for towing a MK3 Sankey as it does not look like it rotates and could in fact be very dangerous, the MK3 has a fixed hitch and therefore should be towed by a tow jaw that can rotate otherwise the trailer could actually flip your Land Rover as neither Pintle could rotate. There should be a warning plate on your trailer stating this.

Jason.

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Jason, as per your post above does that mean that my nato hitch should always be unlocked (ie, allowed to swivle)when towing a Sankey type trailer?

I assumed that on-road you would use it locked and off-road unlocked so too allow for the uneven ground?

Neil

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Jason, as per your post above does that mean that my nato hitch should always be unlocked (ie, allowed to swivle)when towing a Sankey type trailer?

I assumed that on-road you would use it locked and off-road unlocked so too allow for the uneven ground?

Neil

Hi Neil,

In the case of a MK3 then yes it should always be allowed to rotate on or off road if it didn't and for some reason the trailer jackknives it has the potential to turn over the land Rover if it is allowed to rotate otherwise "in theory" it could fully turn over without taking you with it. If you left it locked the trailer would only need to mount a kerb loaded to put a turning force on the pintle.

The reason the pintle locks is MK1 trailers and some other NATO trailers had rotating hitches and the swivel would not be required.

Jason.

post-15513-0-33747000-1300132865_thumb.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi

I have a Sankey MKII packed away in the barn for use with my 88", but i wonder if anyone as fitted a normal 50 mm trailer hitch coupling to a Sankey ? it has a Bradley coupling fitted and it seems to me that the NATO ring could just be bolted of and a 50 mm head fitted instead.

if yes - how and which parts was needed ?

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Somebody was selling a conversion on Ebay, which included a fabrication that bolted directly in place of the damper to drop down the height of a standard tow ball hitch, for use behind a ‘normal’ car. I did watch this item, but can’t find any pictures for it, sorry.

I was contemplating fabbing something like this myself so I could use the Sankey behind my regular car, just until my 110 was back on the road. Now that I’ve taken delivery of my Sankey though, I’ve realised that the nose weight is way too much for my poor little 306 to cope with – especially as Peugeot, in their infinite Gallic wisdom, decided that springs on the rear axle weren’t required, only dampers.

In your case however, presumably you only wish to tow the Sankey behind your 88”, which means the height of the hitch would be more or less correct. This means you could fabricate a suitable plate to bolt in place of the damper, weld on a bit of 50mm box section, and bolt a standard hitch to that. Question is though, why would you bother? Surely it would be easier (but probably not cheaper) to source a NATO hitch and bolt that straight on to your 88” rear crossmember? In addition, you would lose the brakes on the trailer.

Obviously you're in Denmark so sourcing a hitch from the UK isn't really desirable. Danish Military Surplus? Your local friendly agricultural supplier?

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  • 1 month later...

It depends really! If the pintle is, then in theory the trailer will "roll" and the towing vehivle will not, thats good. BUT, if it is in and not allowed to rotate, then the weight of the towing vehicle(if significantly higher)than the trailer could stop the trailer from rolling?!

As the driver, you need to make a mini risk assessment each time you tow depending on load & terrain to be traversed.

I hope that made sense, it did to me :blink:

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