Rotinoff Motors Ltd was a British commercial vehicle manufacturer based in

Colnbrook Colnbrook is a village in the Borough of Slough, Slough district in Berkshire, England. It lies within the historic counties of England, historic boundaries of Buckinghamshire, and straddles two distributaries of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, England. The company was founded in 1952 by the

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian émigré George Rotinoff. The Rotinoff company specialized in the production of

ballast tractor A ballast tractor is a specially weighted tractor unit of a heavy hauler combination. It is designed to utilize a drawbar to pull or push heavy or exceptionally large trailer loads which are loaded in a hydraulic modular trailer. When feasi ...

s and heavy transport vehicles. The vehicles of Rotinoff were widely used in Europe as tractors for

tank transporter A tank transporter is a combination of a heavy tractor unit or a ballast tractor and a mating Trailer (vehicle)#Full trailer, full trailer, hydraulic modular trailer or semi-trailer (typically of the Lowboy (trailer), "lowboy" type), used for t ...

s. In the

Swiss army The Swiss Armed Forces (; ; ; ; ) are the military and security force of Switzerland, consisting of land and air service branches. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are ...

, the Rotinoff Atlantic GR 7 was used from 1958 - 1991 by the tank troops to haul

Centurion tank The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing comba ...

s. More Rotinoff transporters were in use as

road train A road train, also known as a land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a semi-trailer used to move road freight more efficiently than single-trailer semi-trailers. It consists of one semi-trailer or more connected together with or wit ...

s in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

for the transport of cattle. George Rotinoff died in 1959, and the brand name Rotinoff was then discontinued. Worldwide there are still Rotinoff vehicles in operation today and they are coveted collectibles.

Types

* Rotinoff Atlantic * Rotinoff Super Atlantic * Rotinoff Viscount, cattle transporters (2 examples built) * Rotinoff Pacific * Rotinoff Atkinson

Locations of preserved vehicles

Schweizerisches Militärmuseum Full The Swiss Military Museum () is located at Full-Reuenthal in the Canton of Aargau. History of the museum The origins of the museum go back to the ''Verein zur Förderung eines wehrtechnischen Museums'' ("Association for the Promotion of a Mili ...

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

* Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Sources

Data of the Rotinoff Super Atlantic on militärfahrzeuge.ch

Schweizerisches Militärmuseum Full: Werksammlung Mowag GmbH Kreuzlingen

External links

Video Rotinoff Atlantic

Photo Rotinoff Atlantic

flickr photo group on Rotinoff Trucks
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Former defence companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Slough Heavy haulage