Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

Classic Truck: Magnificent Seven

For those who travel the highways and byways of East Anglia, the smart blue and red livery of Rowell’s Transport will be a familiar sight. But company boss Trevor Rowell has another passion connected with road haulage besides his business, in the shape of a very well restored Volvo F7.

The vehicle is now recognised as a ‘real gem’ by those who visit events around the country, and after collecting 16 trophies in the last three years it has also obviously caught the eye of more than one judge!

I must admit, as one who does not normally get too excited about post-1980 lorries, there was something about this F7 that had me drooling over it when I first saw it. I had to know more about this ‘Heaven Seven’ so I visited Trevor and his wife Jody to find out more.

I often wonder why someone who is very busy trying to run a haulage business would choose to dedicate so much of their spare time to lorries, when they have a chance to chill out. But Trevor's roots with lorries are deep and go back to his father Alf, who has been a lorry driver and owner operator all his working life.

Trevor admits the diesel in his blood was there at a very young age, as he recollects, with great affection, the hours he travelled with his father in a Leyland Super Comet delivering the Fens’ finest produce to wholesale markets.

From a young age, Trevor's involvement with lorries was an everyday event and when he left school his first five years of employment were spent with local commercial engineer Ivor Sutton, of Benwick, Cambridgeshire. However, through his teens, Trevor was marking time for the day he reached 21 and got his Class 1.

Working as a commercial fitter was as close as he could get to lorries, until then.

It was as a fitter that Trevor became a lover of the Volvo marque. His first encounter with them came when he had to rebuild a Volvo F86 engine, as one of Ivor Sutton’s customers was the farming co-operative Fenmarc, which operated several Volvos from the 1970s/80s era.

Eventually, Trevor reached 21, and as soon as he had passed his Class 1 he started working with his father. Trevor's favourite lorry was an F7 Volvo and his passion for the vehicle was such that more than 20 years later he decided to restore one.

Fortunately, he knew the whereabouts of an F7 locally. Trevor contacted its owner, Simon Irwin, and a deal was done. The vehicle was then brought to its new home at Carters Bridge, Chatteris and Trevor could then take stock of what he’d bought.

Trevor was pleased to find a lot of work had already been done by Simon, particularly to the cab. However, Trevor said the engine “was blowing and breathing a bit heavy", and as he intended to drive the lorry all over the UK, he decided to completely rebuild it himself. He also decided to strip all the brakes out and renew them as well.

Once happy that the F7 driveline was in A1 condition, and the cab was sound, Trevor then started on the cab interior.

It was always his intention to restore the F7 to its original state, and so he removed later additions such as the marker lights and vertical exhaust which Simon had fitted to it. Originality was the order of the day, and it was this insistence that bought Trevor many headaches.

For those who have restored a vehicle there is always at least one pitfall, and for Trevor's ‘Seven’ it was his decision to replace the roof lining, engine cowl-cover, seats and bunk to how it would have been when delivered in 1985.

Unfortunately, after all the usual enquiries to people he thought could help, followed by hours of browsing on a certain auction website, Trevor decided the only way to get the correct period bunk was to buy an entire Volvo F7 six-wheeler as a donor!

This came from Preston, and proved to be a good source of other original parts, as well as the elusive bunk!

It has to be said, though, that all this effort was worth it because every detail in the cab is accurate to the original specification for this model and year. And it is without doubt, this attention to detail, even to such things as the engine auxiliaries and brake system valves, has been the reason why the lorry has impressed the judges so much at events.

Once Trevor had satisfied himself the engine and driveline were sound and the cab was accurate inside and out, the lorry was then taken to Kirk Coachworks at Guyhirn, near Wisbech. And the decision as to what colours the vehicle would be painted in was a ‘no brainer’ – it was always going to be the distinctive livery of Trevor's first F7, and the livery of which the current eight-vehicle fleet share to this day.

Trevor has managed to trace the history of the Volvo, and also been able to produce photographs taken at various times in its working life, showing varying liveries.

It started life in 1985 with Dawson Rentals and it’s thought to have been there for about two years, until being sold to Warwick Concrete.

The lorry then became semi-retired and was used as a shunter with Duffields,
running trailers to, among many places, the MoT station.

The fourth owner was Dick Sworders (Bythom) who eventually sold it to Simon Irwin, who then carried out some tidying work and generally used the lorry as a project.

Enthusiast Simon would often pop to his local shop to do a bit of shopping in it, and generally just enjoyed driving it.

And, of course, Trevor bought the lorry from Simon, making him owner number six.
The finished F7 rolled out of the paint shop, complete with signwriting, compliments of Andy Moden, just in time to make its first appearance at Truckfest 2008, at Peterborough.

That was the first of many outings in the F7, and now the Rowells are regular visitors to virtually all the truck shows around the UK.

For comfort and home-from-home accommodation, the F7 has been fitted with a towing ball so a luxurious caravan can be towed. However, Trevor has deliberately held on to the original tri-axle Wilcox tipping trailer which was coupled to his first F7, and he has plans to completely restore it as a perfect match for his current F7.

The Volvo boasts an eight-speed gearbox and 240hp which makes it an economical lorry to show and use on road runs. Trevor particularly enjoys road runs as they give him the opportunity to put the F7 through its paces, and north of England runs to Scotland are on the Rowells’ list of favourites.

After travelling around, and visiting shows, Trevor has become a member of the evergrowing and much travelled ‘Steel Boys’ group, and while at a meeting with this bunch of gear jammers he decided to organise an event at the Rowells’ residence.

The couple decided the venue for ‘Trevfest’, sponsored by No Hope Promotions, would be their home and some 20 plus, mainly Volvo owners, attended this ‘mini trucking spectacular’.

Volvo even had a presence, and a mention in its publication spoke most highly of the event. Of course not all those at the event displayed Volvos, and were therefore victims of humorous verbal abuse for most of the event!

However this was all done in the best possible taste, and despite plenty of beer drinking and a hog roast, the event also raised hundreds of pounds for a breast cancer charity, through the auction of two Volvo models. Future ‘Trevfests’ are hoped to be even bigger and better.

Trevor Rowell’s prize winning Volvo really is a ‘Seven from heaven’.

However, I don’t think it will be the last Volvo this Fenland-based bulk transport specialist restores – I have heard through the grapevine, or should I say, ‘among the fields of barley’, that an F12 Globetrotter is likely to be the next project to roll out of the Rowells’ stable!

Whatever comes next there will be many classic enthusiasts looking forward to its arrival on the ‘classic’ scene, as the F7 has set such a high standard it will be a hard act to follow.

Trevor admits he was lucky to find an F7 with such a good cab, and he also sings the praises of it previous owners; but what is not to be underestimated here, is all the tedious replacement of the cab interior and the gut-busting heavy work of rebuilding the engine and brakes was done by Trevor – and this was in addition to having very often done a day’s work on top.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Trevor for the loan of his photos and the time for my interview. A special thanks also to his devoted wife Jody, who is very supportive of Trevor, makes a nice cup of tea and also shares a passion for the little Volvo. These qualities are seldom found in the female of the species!

Words & photographs: Paul Fox