ROCON TS14

[footsfitter]

Yes Graham they sold out to gambles in the late 80,s/early 90,s. The firm had always been owned by R Holford &co builders and their yard was opposite Dragons yard in walnut tree close They had everything from small plant to D6 and box, track shovels hymacs ,coles and smith mobile cranes,backhoe loaders,tippers,low loaders,rollers and at one time an early concrete pump mounted on a mercedes unimog. their lorries and cranes were painted orange.In the 60,s and 70,s they were the biggest plant firm around guildford. tim

Thanks to Tim for pointing a newbie to this thread! Tim must of spotted my registration on here and knew my username from another forum where I had posted some Rocon photos.

Rocon was where I did my apprenticeship and worked for a while afterwards (1974-1980). It was an old fashioned firm from my point of view, as soon as you passed your driving test then you were thrown out in the deep end repairing plant on your own!

Re Dragon plant.
There was always keen competition between Rocons and Dragons as there was only one machine difference in their respective CAT fleets. Both were customers of Levertons at Windsor and for a long time Rocons had the one extra machine!! Back then the ironic thing was travelling the M3 or roads like the Hogs back and seeing a Dragon machine or fitters van going our way (Basingstoke) or us heading for jobs around the "enemys" Guildford area!

TS14/Foden picture
Apart from the obvious Euclid with the company name on it, there are a couple of other Rocon links there. The driver of the TS14 looks like a young Ronnie Coventry. That machine was I think the only one in that drab colour, the others (5 in total IIRC) were a more lime green colour. Can't say where the site is, it doesn't look too familiar, the main jobs I remember were Basingstoke and Andover ring roads, Butser Hill A3 widening, Liphook and a few other small jobs.

The Photo shoot for the advert looks to of been before I started in '74. The Foden usually worked a Woodhall 4-in-line all steel low-loader. The trailer in the picture would of needed a large 3" fifth wheel pin which was a bit unusual even in those days as that was what the Woodhall had until the late 70's when it was converted to the standard 2" pin and the foden got shipped to Rocons "southern depot" at Wickham nr Fareham. The Woodhall was then hitched to a Scania 110 that had been bought new together with a KING low loader with manual knock-out swan neck for moving the Euclids, this moving around was because of the arrival of an ex demo MAN V10 unit to go on the king


Here is the combo in the yard at basingstoke with a D6c being loaded (had 2 of these, this one PS & straight blade, the other DD and angle blade, both with CCU's for Vicker-onions scraper boxes)


URL of the original image: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b31/footsfitter/rocon/kinglowloader.jpg


ff



.

[Neversweat]

I think this is ex- Rocon from when Claude Fentons bought them..............

ROCON0001.jpg

Ended up like this

19-04-2009 13;18;41.jpg

Anymore pics Peter

Steve

[footsfitter]

Steve,

1st picture is the powershift model with straight blade thats on/off the lowloader in my picture.

I reckon the Fenton Green machine is the direct drive model Rocons also had, also a D6C but with the angle blade

Anymore pics Peter

Got a few more, but wondering if there ought to be a general "rocon" thread or just keep sticking it in here??




.

[Neversweat]

Steve,

1st picture is the powershift model with straight blade thats on/off the lowloader in my picture.

I reckon the Fenton Green machine is the direct drive model Rocons also had, also a D6C but with the angle blade

Anymore pics Peter

Got a few more, but wondering if there ought to be a general "rocon" thread or just keep sticking it in here??




.

Start a Rocon thread - You never know what might turn up

Steve

[tim]

Yes Graham they sold out to gambles in the late 80,s/early 90,s. The firm had always been owned by R Holford &co builders and their yard was opposite Dragons yard in walnut tree close They had everything from small plant to D6 and box, track shovels hymacs ,coles and smith mobile cranes,backhoe loaders,tippers,low loaders,rollers and at one time an early concrete pump mounted on a mercedes unimog. their lorries and cranes were painted orange.In the 60,s and 70,s they were the biggest plant firm around guildford. tim

Thanks to Tim for pointing a newbie to this thread! Tim must of spotted my registration on here and knew my username from another forum where I had posted some Rocon photos.

Rocon was where I did my apprenticeship and worked for a while afterwards (1974-1980). It was an old fashioned firm from my point of view, as soon as you passed your driving test then you were thrown out in the deep end repairing plant on your own!

Re Dragon plant.
There was always keen competition between Rocons and Dragons as there was only one machine difference in their respective CAT fleets. Both were customers of Levertons at Windsor and for a long time Rocons had the one extra machine!! Back then the ironic thing was travelling the M3 or roads like the Hogs back and seeing a Dragon machine or fitters van going our way (Basingstoke) or us heading for jobs around the "enemys" Guildford area!

TS14/Foden picture
Apart from the obvious Euclid with the company name on it, there are a couple of other Rocon links there. The driver of the TS14 looks like a young Ronnie Coventry. That machine was I think the only one in that drab colour, the others (5 in total IIRC) were a more lime green colour. Can't say where the site is, it doesn't look too familiar, the main jobs I remember were Basingstoke and Andover ring roads, Butser Hill A3 widening, Liphook and a few other small jobs.

The Photo shoot for the advert looks to of been before I started in '74. The Foden usually worked a Woodhall 4-in-line all steel low-loader. The trailer in the picture would of needed a large 3" fifth wheel pin which was a bit unusual even in those days as that was what the Woodhall had until the late 70's when it was converted to the standard 2" pin and the foden got shipped to Rocons "southern depot" at Wickham nr Fareham. The Woodhall was then hitched to a Scania 110 that had been bought new together with a KING low loader with manual knock-out swan neck for moving the Euclids, this moving around was because of the arrival of an ex demo MAN V10 unit to go on the king


Here is the combo in the yard at basingstoke with a D6c being loaded (had 2 of these, this one PS & straight blade, the other DD and angle blade, both with CCU's for Vicker-onions scraper boxes)


URL of the original image: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b31/footsfitter/rocon/kinglowloader.jpg


ff



.

Thanks for your input on the scraper pics Peter-I think Rocon had the advantage on Dragon in that you had heavier tackle ie D8's and 955's,6wheel tippers whereas dragon had D6's,941's and 4 wheel 7cu yd tippers-it was said of them that they didn't move with the times,but it was sad to see the name disappear all the same .
Tim

[GIZZY]

Nice photos everyone

[footsfitter]

Thanks for your input on the scraper pics Peter-I think Rocon had the advantage on Dragon in that you had heavier tackle ie D8's and 955's,6wheel tippers whereas dragon had D6's,941's and 4 wheel 7cu yd tippers-it was said of them that they didn't move with the times,but it was sad to see the name disappear all the same .
Tim

Wasn't much of an advantage, Old Mr Rope was forever the spendthrift. When everyone was getting out of Scrapers and into DJB, Volvo & Moxy's he was buying into scrapers!! Worst of all they were the early ones with Leyland 600/680 engines and plenty of hard work under their belts! When we escorted them, or rather the police in front & one of us in the service van/crew bus picking up what shook off, it was normal to put the one with the best brakes in the front and the worst at the back. Seen quite a few cats eyes taken out where the bowl is down on the tarmac in a vain attempt to slow down!!

One of my older brothers was an apprentice at Rocons several years before me and got involved in the learning curve with their leyland engines. they rebuilt one just before I started in 74, it did less than a mile down to the AA building near the motorway before a piston picked up at full chatt, taking out the piston,rod,liner and block/crankcase either side and throwing it several 100yds across the fields. Then they found out that for these high revving engines you needed "tropical pistons" ie extra clearance spec!. Our answer in the end was to stick in an old ex london bus engine. A nicely run in routemaster lump was nicely bedded in and would take the thrashing quite well. From our fitter point it meant pulling out hte engine and then swopping everything except the block, crank, camshaft, & heads. Everything else had to come off and the TS14 spec manifolds, hydraulic governed pump, flywheel housing & flywheel wnt on. Used to make a nice bit of tea money from all the alloy that we used to take off though.

Finally the worse memory I had of these horrible machine was being talked into roading one we had fixed by the new plant manager. He assured me that it was all kosher and pleaded with me to take it from Basingstoke to Andover where they were trying to do the Charlton bit of the andover bypass. The low loader driver had refused to do it so being young and green I jumped at the chance and did it with Dave Michell the low loader driver escorting me with my land rover service van. All went well untill we got to Weyhill and then turned in on the old road where I found that the air operated throttle to the rear engine had jammed open and as I throttled back to turn into an industrial estate road the back was pushing like mad, and I was loosing steering quickly as the front engine started idling.
At least I never hit any cars, but the bowl side cutter took out a cotswold stone type wall, a give way sign, and a twin head concrete lamp post went over the bonnet between me and the exhaust pipe My escort got out of the land rover almost wetting himself with laughing. Best thing was the plant manager got me to do it knowing that I had to be 21 for insurance.............so he had to take the rap and the company paid for all the damage

It was a good apprenticeship though


ff



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[tim]

The Photo shoot for the advert looks to of been before I started in '74. The Foden usually worked a Woodhall 4-in-line all steel low-loader. The trailer in the picture would of needed a large 3" fifth wheel pin which was a bit unusual even in those days as that was what the Woodhall had until the late 70's when it was converted to the standard 2" pin and the foden got shipped to Rocons "southern depot" at Wickham nr Fareham. The Woodhall was then hitched to a Scania 110 that had been bought new together with a KING low loader with manual knock-out swan neck for moving the Euclids, this moving around was because of the arrival of an ex demo MAN V10 unit to go on the king


Here is the combo in the yard at basingstoke with a D6c being loaded (had 2 of these, this one PS & straight blade, the other DD and angle blade, both with CCU's for Vicker-onions scraper boxes)




ff
The King trailer looks to have a fair length bed on it ff-I bet that was a joy around tight bends and roundabouts.
Here's a pic of the V10 MAN pre-Rocon-in the colours of C Morgan who owned the MAN dealer Rosehill Garage

man3.jpg

Tim

[footsfitter]

The Photo shoot for the advert looks to of been before I started in '74. The Foden usually worked a Woodhall 4-in-line all steel low-loader. The trailer in the picture would of needed a large 3" fifth wheel pin which was a bit unusual even in those days as that was what the Woodhall had until the late 70's when it was converted to the standard 2" pin and the foden got shipped to Rocons "southern depot" at Wickham nr Fareham. The Woodhall was then hitched to a Scania 110 that had been bought new together with a KING low loader with manual knock-out swan neck for moving the Euclids, this moving around was because of the arrival of an ex demo MAN V10 unit to go on the king


Here is the combo in the yard at basingstoke with a D6c being loaded (had 2 of these, this one PS & straight blade, the other DD and angle blade, both with CCU's for Vicker-onions scraper boxes)


URL of the original image: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b31/footsfitter/rocon/kinglowloader.jpg


ff
The King trailer looks to have a fair length bed on it ff-I bet that was a joy around tight bends and roundabouts.
Here's a pic of the V10 MAN pre-Rocon-in the colours of C Morgan who owned the MAN dealer Rosehill Garage

man3.jpg

Tim

Sorry for the long delay in picking up the baton..........

Yes it was quite a long one, it could only of been a year or two old when I started at Rocons in '76. IIRC they bought a Scania 110 with a day cab at the same time. The scania had an electric range-change that used to come to grief every 18-24 months for some reason and it was the 1st item we had with these new fangled metric bolts!! Back to the King trailer, with old Mr Rope being naturally tight the trailer ame with a manual knock-out neck & because it was so much agro to get it off it didn't happen very often!. Nearly everything went over the side using 8x4 ply sheets to save the flooring. Only the D8's 463 boxes and the Euclids went over the beaver tail. I used to get the job as driver mate so soon got the hang of driving up & onto the outriggers while watching the drivers handsignals. If you trusted him and did as signalled I would work well, start looking yourself and you get into all sorts of trouble!

The King had 15 or 16" tubed tyres that were a tight fit over the brake drums, the tyres ran hot and the drums had a cast slot for the tyres valve to run in which was the weak spot and always cracked like hell!. Although the tyres ran pretty hot blow-outs weren't too many, just a few.

On one of the early driving lessons we ran back to basingstoke empty & I used to go pretty much the route I fancied, this time I went up Winchester street into the middle of town, as we headed into what was known as winton square I asked if we would get round what was know as "giffords corner, a former cross roads that was by then a left turn onto the small inner ring road round the top of town, the driver replied "don't know, never been round it!!". As we approached it I virtually used all the corner to get the unit right up there opposite the metal railings I had to get around, swinging down the hill past Giffords, the trailer scrubbed round the kerb with the ramps brishing he railingss!!.

Re Morgans, just before Xmas I was down there after some wheels for an old farm trailer and dealt with Dereck Morgan, there is just him one labourer and the office girl, all the rest have gone and the yards are in limbo waiting to see if he can get planning on it all. Very sad to see.

ff


.

[tim]

Very sad to hear of Morgans decline ff a chap I know used to deal with them and always spoke well of them.
It was the same with low loaders at Dragon -they would normally load over the side.I think the first hydraulic neck trailer they had was a late 70's single axle Tasklift pulled by a Ford D series Cummins or Perkins V8 powered unit which replaced a 67 AEC Mercury with an even older 4-in-line trailer.At the time they also had a Guy Big J with a Tasker manual knock out neck tandem axle trailer.In the 80's these were replaced with just one outfit as things declined-a Volvo F10 with tandem axle King hydroneck.
When you were at Rocons did you get to work on the tippers often ?
Tim