back to 682-G Alvis Stalwart (1972)
Alvis Stalwart
Courtesy of
Olive Drab for the Spec Sheet
and
4WD Online Internet Magazine for the Technical Data History
Need a truck?
Want a boat?
Have to have a capable off-roader?
Congratulations. You're one of the very few who can even start to
justify owning ....... A STOLLY!
How to win friends and influence people -sell the family car and buy an Alvis Stalwart (right). No need
to worry about side impact bars or driver air bags, and there's loads of room for the shopping in the back.
With prices rumoured to start at 1500 stg plus sales tax you should be looking for "one careful owner, never used
on-road".
Once upon a time, many years ago now, there was a young boy who used to
collect toy cars, Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox,
and so on. He had other hobbies and pastimes, fishing, football,
falling out of trees, the usual stuff. But the model cars were held
in high esteem, and none more so than the Matchbox Mercedes-Benz
Unimog.
One day, this young chap was peering through the window of his local
Matchbox models stockist, when something in
there caught his eye. It was something strange, bizarre even, but at
the same time uniquely attractive. It had six wheels and looked like
a cross between a truck, a ship, and a sci-fi "moon rover". It was
painted white, and carried down each side the B.P. logo, along with
the single evocative word "EXPLORATION" in large capital letters. He
had to have it. The young lad cobbled together his life savings,
and duly purchased the model truck. It turned out to be an Alvis
Stalwart, and it was immediately elevated to no.1 favourite, above the
Unimog.
Well eventually, the models disappeared, passed down I suppose to some younger collector, probably at that age when girls, acne,
youth clubs, and getting hold of beer, become subjects of primary importance. It was a good few years later that I
saw my first Stalwart "in the flesh", in the woods at Tong, between Leeds and Bradford. A Stalwart in action is a sight,
and sound, to behold. It is a machine with real presence, a gentle giant of an off-roader.
Length | 6.356 metres (250.2 ins) |
Width | 2.616 metres (103.0 ins) |
Height | 2.312 metres ( 91.2 ins) |
Wheelbase | 2 x 1.524 metres (2 x 60.0 ins) |
Track | 2.040 metres ( 80.3 ins) |
Approach | 44 degrees |
Depart | 40 degrees |
Clearance | 0.420 metres ( 16.5 ins) |
Kerb wt. | 9,000 kgs (19,800 lbs) |
Gross wt. | 14,000 kgs (30,800 lbs) |
Payload | 5,000 kgs (11,000 lbs) |
Towing cap. | 10,000 kgs (22,000 lbs) |
Tank cap. | 455 litres (91 UK gallons) |
Max. range | 824 kms (515 miles) |
Engine | Rolls Royce straight eight B81 water cooled petrol |
Capacity | 6516 cc's |
Max. power | 220 bhp @ 4000 |
Max. torque | 335 lbs/ft @ 2500 |
Transmission | 5 speed primary gearbox. Single speed transfer case. Reverse and "No-Spin" differential in transfer case. Drive to centre wheel bevel boxes. Further drive to bevel boxes at each front and rear wheel. PTO for winch and marine propulsion units. |
Suspension | Independent all round. Wishbone with torsion bars. Multiple hydraulic shock absorbers. |
Brakes | Power assisted discs all round. Mechanical handbrake acting on both front bevel boxes. |
Steering | Front and centre wheels via power assisted recirculating ball, radius of turn 27.5 feet. |
Wheels/Tyres | 10x20" split rim alloys shod with 14.00x20 tyres. |
Despite it's modern appearance, the first Stalwart in
fact saw light of day way back in 1959. It was not, however, until 1966
that the vehicle entered service with the
British Army. It's role was that of general amphibious transport truck,
many units being fitted with a hydraulic crane and raised central
canvas tilt support. Unfortunately, rapid technical advancement in
helicopter design rendered its usefulness in all-terrain load carrying
prematurely obsolete.
You don't so much "get in" a Stalwart, as more sort of "climb
aboard" the thing. Cab entry involves scrambling up onto the roof,
using hubs, tyres,
and strategically placed rungs, and then lowering yourself in through
one of two circular "submarine" style hatches. Once inside, you are
confronted by an array of dials, levers, and controls. The steering
wheel is large and rather "flat". Gears are on the driver's right,
and the handbrake on the left. Various other controls, notably reverse,
diff lock, winch, and the marine propulsion controls, are by the hips.
The driver
sits, unusually, in the middle, with one passenger seat on either side.
There are no doors, only the roof hatches, however one side window on
each side will slide up and down, and can be locked in any mid
position. It is very much a "forward control" vehicle, the driver
sitting ahead of the leading wheels. With all that weight and 3 pairs
of wheels behind you, it must be a very strange sensation to reach to
top of a steep climb only to continue skywards, the nose becoming
nicely "airborne".
For such a large beast the Stalwart is a formidable
cross-country vehicle. Approach and depart angles are good, maximum
speed on land is claimed
to be 40mph, and trenches up to five feet wide can be tackled with
impunity. Before taking to the water the operator must undertake a
veritable plethora of tasks, chores, and checks, including switching on
the bilge pumps! Manoeuverability in water is good, steering being
achieved by a combination of vectored thrust from the PTO driven twin
Dowty water-jet propulsion units, and the road wheels. Speed through
water is said to be about 6 knots.
So how does it all work? I'm glad you asked me that. The
"chassis" is, in fact, the hull, and is made from steel, of frameless
construction. Suspension is independent
all round, utilising torsion bars with parallel links. There are a
total of 22 telescopic hydraulic dampers. The engine is mounted at the
rear, under
the load deck, access being gained via six lift-off hatches. Drive is
taken forward through a 12 inch Borg and Beck clutch, to the 5-speed
primary
gearbox, which incorporates PTO's for winch and marine drive. Forward
again to the transfer box, which incorporates the reverse and a
"No-Spin" diff,
the purpose of which is to limit the slippage between left and right
wheel sets. This diff can be locked, to fix all six wheels as one solid
unit. From here drive is taken out sideways to the centre wheel bevel
boxes, then on to the front and rear wheel pairs by further side
mounted prop-shafts.
Axle half shafts fitted with Tracta CV joints at each end join bevel
boxes to wheel hub reduction gears. Complicated isn't it ? Yes, it is,
and many will, by now, have spotted the reason why private Stalwart
ownership could be the stuff of nightmares. All three wheels on each
side are locked as one mechanical unit. If driven on hard surfaces, the
amount of transmission wind-up generated is self destructive. As the
Army were quick to find out, the bevel boxes bear the brunt. This
vehicle is no boulevard cruiser.
Not put off by that ? There's more ....... A full tank
of 90 gallons can reasonably
be expected to take you just over 400 miles. Yes,
that's 4.5 mpg, driven lustily.
There are 5 gallons of oil in the engine, 3
more in the gearbox, 15 in total of
hydraulic fluid. There are countless more fluids and lubricants required all
over
the place. There are seals, unions, hoses, joints, gaskets and
such, in more places
than you can shake a stick at. Go swimming and all
those fluids may, nay probably will,
need replacing.
So there you have it.
Stalwart by name, but not necessarily by nature. One thing is
clear, in order to keep one of these wonderful
machines running, you need more than
a domestic garage and a socket set.
Ideally, you will have access to a serious
engineering shop, a second donor vehicle would be a good
idea, and a generously
proportioned low-loader is a must, to cart
the thing around. Obviously, you'll
have a class I heavy goods vehicle licence for the low-loader,
and it goes without
saying that you'll need a very healthy bank balance.
Where to play ? Might I
suggest purchasing 10,000 acres of Scotland, preferably with
a small loch or two
thrown in for good measure ?
If anyone reading this happens to
have a Stalwart, and all the other prerequisites
mentioned above, I will willingly travel some distance
in order to write the sequel
to this tale ........... "The Alvis Stalwart - What it's
like to drive one"!
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