Guy Military Vehicles

Multi-axle Outfits

Multi-axle outfits were always a speciality of Guy, and in 1931 an eight-wheel-drive military vehicle was put into service. This machine would go anywhere if four of its eight wheels could get a grip, and it could negotiate a trench six feet wide without dropping into it. It was, in fact, eight years earlier that Guy Motors had produced their first military vehicle – a pneumatic-tyred truck built under Government subsidy.

By the following year (1924) supply of special trucks to the Admiralty, War Office, and Crown Agents for the Colonies had begun. These vehicles had caterpillar tracks replacing rear wheels but, although adhesion was amazing, they had been short-lived due to mud and grit causing excessive wear on the track joints. Experiments had, however, been going on with rigid six-wheelers and, from 1926, six-wheeled chassis had been supplied as general service army wagons, artillery tractors, field workshops, armoured cars, and the like.

Wolf 2-tonner, Vixen and Otter

In the late 1920s and early 1930s the weight of commercial vehicles was often about the same as the loads they were specified to carry, but improvements in design and the use of lighter materials soon began to have their effect. The first vehicle to incorporate these features was the Wolf 2-tonner, christened at the works by the late Sir Malcolm Campbell in May 1933. That year also witnessed the introduction of the Guy Arab chassis for single and double deck buses. For this project, arrangements were made to fit the now famous Gardner oil engine, Guy being the first manufacturer to standardise the fitting of diesel engines in buses. Daimler soon followed suit, incorporating the pre-selective gearbox. By arrangement with Daimler, Guy ultimately fitted a similar gear.

The Vixen 3—4 tonner and the Otter came shortly afterwards. The latter was something in the nature of a triumph for, although weighing only 2½ tons fully equipped, it could carry a load of 6 tons.

The Ant and Lizard, and Welded Armour Plating

The new Guys continued to be improved, but in 1936 their production had to be curtailed due to Government contracts, and by 1928 ceased altogether. The first Government order of 1936 was for a four-wheeled military truck and, after exhaustive testing, the Ant (as it was designated) was approved and ordered in large quantities.

Further requests resulted in the production in 1938 of the Quad-Ant and Lizard (both being four-wheel drive units), and of the searchlight generator chassis. The latter’s engine was coupled directly to the generator, driving through the armature to the gearbox but supplying current to the searchlight only when the vehicle was stationary and out of gear. When the War Department suddenly gave notice to stop production during the war, the Company was naturally worried; only on subsequent reflection was it realised that cancellation of the order had coincided with the introduction of radar.

As a development of the four-wheel drive Guy “Quad-Ant” the Company produced the first British rear-engined four-wheel drive armoured car, and suggested to the War Office that the hull and turret, of Bullet Proof Homogenous Hard Unmachinable Plate, should be of a welded instead of riveted construction; but the Government Technical Department advised that it was not commercially possible to weld this material.

Undaunted, the Company offered to weld the first batch and, if unsuccessful, to stand the cost. After a few months the impossible was accomplished, and welded construction became general practice.

The advantages of welded construction were: a) very considerable reduction in the number of casualties resulting from “splash” and rivet heads flying around inside vehicles; b) reduction in the price of material per vehicle by elimination of the machining of the plate; and c) the vehicle, being waterproof, was able to “wade” to a considerable depth.

The Company placed their patents and methods on this important development at the free disposal of the Government in the national interest for the duration of the war. This was gratefully acknowledged, and an award was made to the Company by the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors for the original pre-war idea of welding this material on armoured fighting vehicles.

Cancellation of the searchlight vehicle order coincided with a request to manufacture Arab buses instead. Public transport was becoming a problem, since so many buses had been destroyed by enemy attacks. Guy Motors were forced to use cast iron and other heavy materials in place of lightweight metals such as aluminium, but the wartime Arab nevertheless put up a fine performance and had a long life-span. The wartime needs of civilian goods carriers were satisfied by the Guy Vixant, utilising mechanical parts of the military Ant.

The war ended and improved versions of the Wolf and Vixen appeared both as trucks and buses; and the Company re-introduced the Arab employing light alloys and steels of pre-war quality, reduction in weight over the wartime model being about 20 percent. The first post-war trolleybuses left the factory in 1947 and, a year later, Guy acquired the Sunbeam Trolleybus Company Ltd – the success of this merger being reflected in the numerous repeat orders and the successful development of new types. In 1948, production of the 5-6 ton Otter was resumed.

1. Guy Motors History
2. Guy V8 Tourer
3. Guy Buses
4. Guy Gas Producer
5. Guy Military Vehicles
6. Guy: The Final Years