A book was written about sunters called ‘high wide & mighty’. I think it’s available on amazon.
SB.
I remember when I was at school the metalwork teacher used to have sunters company calendar for some reason hanging on the wall in the metal work class !! I don’t remember why he had it Im pretty sure i asked him, but it was the best thing about school !! There where some fantastic photos on there as I recall.
One of my pals drove a Rottinoff at Sunters in his younger days, Of course his long retired now & lives at Reeth in Yorkshire, Perhaps some of you lads might remember him Bernard Alderton, he is a cracking bloke, I think he was related to the Sunters some way along the line, Regards Larry.
There is a bit in Heritage Cmmercials, re John Robinson, and Sunter’s, very interesting as is the book High Wide and Mightey.
That is a good read by Bob Tuck,
I did my bit for Hills of Botley, so can relate to the heavey stuff as its called
the book about sunters is called sunters high-wide a mighty and was written by tony eaton from northallerton.in may 2001.and is about the family of sunters from buses to trucks.from the 1890 to 1986. ive got a big collection of photos of sunters trucks taken in the depot from the early 1970 to 1986 when they closed.ive also modeled there depot in 1.87 scale.and trucks and trailers.ive hand built all the scamells and most of the trailers and buildings in the depot.the size of the depot is about five ft by three ft.i will post some photos soon. 
ragamuffin:
ive also modeled there depot in 1.87 scale.and trucks and trailers.ive hand built all the scamells and most of the trailers and buildings in the depot.the size of the depot is about five ft by three ft.i will post some photos soon.
Can’t wait - even in the ‘best’ scale too 
Hi Marcus, interesting to here about your meetings, I can well imagine how interesting that talk was given Peters history !
I was at romanby just a couple of weeks back giving a slide show to the North Riding tractor club at the Golden Lion, I also do a heavy haulage show about Elliotts of York amongst others.
Regards Tony H.
Hi ragamuffin, big sorry on my part, my fault, in saying Bob Tuck wrote the book High Wide & Mighty, when of course it was Tony Eaton.
Sorry to all concernd , hope ime forgiven
cheers trunker 08
Thanks very much Peter for sharing that i was always in awe of Sunters capabilities & drivers expertise marvelous to see them outfits on the road i started driving lorries late fifties and went thru Northallerton quite often hopeing to catch a glimpse of that diamond T just had a look at the photos good old days hard work never hurt anyone, all the best regards Ray
Another Sunters Driver John Barton, from the 70s, He ran a Taxi after he left Sunters ,regards Larry.
Last night I was at a 2h 30m presentation on Sunter Bros of Northallerton by Peter Sunter. Peter’s father was Len, one of the four brothers who originally set-up Sunter’s before the war.
The IAM group that I am a member of (Northallerton) had invited Peter along to our monthly meeting; it was a return invite following a presentation ‘we’ had done on advanced driving (and the IAM) to the 46 Club (ex Rotary Club members), of which Peter is a member. There are only a couple of us in this group who are qualified ‘Commercial’ advanced drivers/observers but everyone who attended was engrossed.
To be honest I’d struggle to cover even a fraction of the tales etc that Peter told us, suffice to say, you’d never say that he, or anyone involved with running such a company, had it easy! Some of the jobs he recounted to us were really impressive, even more so taking into account how long ago it was and with such ‘basic’ kit compared to modern equipment.
I was frantically making notes during his presentation but to be honest, I don’t really know what would be of interest to folk on here. I’ll ‘bullet point’ a few things below and if there’s anything you want to ask me, don’t leave it too long - my memory ain’t what it used to be!
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In 1957 Sunters moved 2 x Heat Exchangers from Head Riseon in Teeside. These weighed 250 ton each. They were floated to bradwell-on-Sea where Sunters had built a concrete ramp. At low-tide the bogies were reversed down the ramp, the tide came in, the exchanger was floated above the (now underwater) bogies and secured to the quay. As the tide went out the exchangers were guided onto the bogies and pulled up the ramp for the onward journey. Peter did state that that job was the making of Sunters and it ‘put them on the map’.
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He didn’t have anything very nice to say about Wynn’s Transport at any time that they were in existence! He did tell a funny story about how one of the main contracts they lost was due to one of Wynns slagging off a potential customer while he was stood at the urinal at some posh industry do. Pity he didn’t check the stalls as in there was said big customer who the next day cancelled the big contract and gave it to Sunters!! You know what they say about ‘walls have ears’ and ‘loose lips sink ships’ and all that!!
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All bridges/roads were, and still are, designed to a specification that equates to 44 ton per axle!! I didn’t know that.
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He mentioned one of his one-time lead drivers - Jonny Robinson. Anyone know him?
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Virtually all of his bogies used solid tyres. Also, the many of the jobs, irrespective of how big they were, required a maximum (trailer) deflection of 30mm!! He told of a tender process (in Saudi IIRC) for a BP job that stated a maximum deflection of 30mm. He was up against the top companies and biggest players in the field at the time (Pickfords amongst others?) and at the main tender meeting they put forward their proposals/costs etc. Peter planned to use barges (more expensive) but the rest of them were going to use RORO ferries as it was much cheaper. It wasn’t looking good until Peter pointed out that none of the RORO ferries could ensure a maximum deflection of 30mm, nowhere near in fact, but he could with the barges. The others kicked-off and asked for time for a re-think etc. I think they were given some time but Peter got the job anyway as he was the only one thorough enough to have looked into RORO ferries deflection.
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When the National Railway Museum was relocated from Clapham to York, Pickfords were offered the job of moving Mallard. They stated that it couldn’t get out of the door as it was and that it would take 2 days to load onto a ‘trailer’. Peter was approached; he said he could do the job (he said he had invested in better kit than Pickfords) and that it would take 4 hours to load. He got the job, Mallard did get out of the building without any demolition and he loaded it in 3h 51min!!
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Also part of the National Railway Museum move; the Royal Coach was relocated. It is a pristine piece of rolling stock, some would describe it as irreplaceable and/or priceless. Anyway, there is a Guest Book in the carriage; Signature number 1 is Queen Victoria, signature 65 is Peter’s wife and signature 66 is Peter’s. I guess it depends if you’re into that kind of thing but it’s rather unique all the same!!
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Sunters was bought-out in 1964 (by Bulwalk United Transport) but the name was still in existence until 1980.
Sorry I can’t remember any more just now but like I said, if you ask a particular question it might jog my memory.
I did ask Peter if he spent much time on the Internet and pointed him in the direction of this part of Trucknet. It would be good to see him on here and I’m sure he could make many valuable contributions to the Old Time Lorries, Companies and Drivers Forum.
I’m too young to remember much before the eighties 
but I must admit, last night was one of the most interesting nights we’ve had at the IAM meetings, be it Bike, Car or Commercial meetings.
Hope this write-up was of interest to you too.
I enjoyed reading that, Thanks for sharing it.
All bridges/roads were, and still are, designed to a specification that equates to 44 ton per axle!!
I never knew that either, interesting.
Well done Marcus , let’s hope that Peter takes up your advice and we hear some more of Sunters interesting storys on here.
tc trans:
I enjoyed reading that, Thanks for sharing it.
Glad you enjoyed it; I just wish I could remember more of the many tales he told.
mushroomman:
let’s hope that Peter takes up your advice and we hear some more of Sunters interesting storys on here.
Yes, it would be good if Peter found time to post on here, however, I suspect he’s far too busy enjoying his hard earned retirement!! 
For some pictures of Sunters in times past, the website below is a good resource.
Peter told us about this job. The height of the CoG was the problem here so to lower it down to a more manageable level, they loaded 60 ton of steel onto the trailer, between the legs of the dockside crane.
You just see some of the steel ‘ballast’ in the picture below.
■■■■ missed that one I only live ½ hr away and used to go thru Sunters yard to load out of Farndale Road cold store - remember seeing their trucks all over
I was fortunate enough to work for Sarens when Peter was a consultant there. he has an incredible ability to look at complex problems and see the simple solution, while others are still scratching their heads with excell spreadsheets and technical drawings.
For some pictures of Sunters in times past, the website below is a good resource.
Welcome to Life Of A Driver - OLD SUNTER BROTHERS IMAGES
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Came across that link this morning and lost an hour or so looking at some of the great pics.
Copied it to a mate of mine in Yorkshire and he came back and said the father of a mate of his used to work for Sunters and has models of all their lorries in a big showcase in his house.Still waiting for the guys name but maybe someone here knows who I`m talking about.
Mark.
Found these in an old Heritage Commercial Magazine,Hope they are of interest.
