In 2010 my Dad (Tim Rigby) decided that he needed a new ride. He was watching 5 ex Soonius Transport BV Scania R620’s 3 of them were 2007 and the other 2 were 2008. In december 2010 there was one left, Dad decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and buy a 2 year old Scania R620 from VSB Holland.
The truck soon started work, by having the headlights changed from normal ones to xenon headlights. In the new year Dad had the truck in VSB’s workshop to have work done on it, they first started off by cutting the diesel tanks and making them smaller because when we put mega wheels on it the tanks would be dragging on the ground. When VSB put the tanks back on they looked like cheese blocks so we had them curved to the mudguards so it looked flush. Week by week the lorry started to take place, with its new red and cream leather interior, its checker plate over the cat walk to make it all smooth. A big design of the truck was the front grill. When Dad brought it, it had the first R series front grill, but Dad wanted to be different so he decided to have a new shaped front grill fitted to give it that brand new look. So in mid 2011 dad took his Scania 164 and his trailer out to bring the truck home, unfortunately it didn’t quite fit in the trailer, but was it unfortunate? So the lorry had to stay at VSB but Dad thought he would have more work done to it. We added a Swedish spec bumper with more lights than black pool illuminations!!! People who know dad he likes his lights. To finish the truck off we had air horns fitted, but instead of a 6mm air pipe we had a 8mm pipe fitted for extra noise!!, Alcoa wheels and a vision alert light bar, but this wasn’t an ordinary light bar, when you flashed the lights the beacons would come on as well.
Nearly at the end of the year we decided to drive out there and drive the truck back. Dad brought it home to show my mum and the rest of the family, they loved it. It was time to paint it, the truck was white anyway so we decided to go with black and white. We had the grill and other bites and pieces painted white that were green. The writing was in black also the checker plate and some few other things. We had to re register the truck as well because it was on dutch plates. What a job that was, first we had to change the speedo because it was just in miles but they wanted miles and Kilometres, then we had to measure the the wheels bases and other sorts of annoying things. Finally we were ready to roll after nearly 2 years all the hard work we put into it we were ready to hit the road and see the faces turn. One more thing we had it remapped to 700hp and 3000nm of torque, for people who know Dover, we came out of Dover coming up Jubilee Way with 44ton on….we never left the limiter, when you are going along like that you know you have a good truck.
But after 740000km my mum was diagnosed with cancer again, Dad was forced to sell his truck and trailers to send mum to a private clinic in Germany. A quote from Dad:
“I was in a bad way when my wife got cancer again because she had just got the all clear, i had to sell my truck to send her to germany for private treatment, my heart was broken when i had to sell my new lorry because i haven’t even been driving it for a year yet and all the hard work that me and my son and VSB put into it. I was heartbroken. So i phoned up Simon Wilson and offered it to him and sure enough he accepted the offer and that was it, my dream was gone. I bought this lorry because i knew that it would last me 10 years or so and i had designed it the way i wanted it and because of the front air suspension it drove like a car, this was going to be my last truck. But you cant put a price on a life. I am glad my pride and joy went to a good place and i hope that i will see it again”
By Jack Rigby
www.truckblog.co.uk 