Commercial Vehicles
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A Guy lorry from 1914
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Guy's first commercial vehicles, produced in 1914, were
a 30 cwt. lorry, with a light pressed steel frame, patented three point
suspension, a governor to control the speed automatically and a 14.9 hp
White and Poppe four cylinder engine; and a two tonner.
The First World War intervened almost immediately and production
was taken over by the Ministry of Munitions. |
| Large numbers of vehicles were produced for military
use but in 1917 vehicle production was halted altogether.
After the war, trade was not helped by a general world
recession and the market was flooded with army surplus
vehicles. But the war had proved the value of lorries – and had
trained a lot of drivers. The future for commercial vehicles was
set fair.
In 1919 lorry production restarted with a 2 ½ tonner, the
chassis being sold at £950. |
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1920: farm truck
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During the next few years the company also
produced a number of specialised vehicles: a special farm lorry
with tractor type spuds at the rear; a road/rail tractor; a 2 ½
tonner battery operated vehicle for refuse collection; and a
producer gas lorry which ran on charcoal. All of these were made
in very small numbers and lead to no longer term developments. |
| In 1923 a 30 military lorry was produced and sold
to the War Department. (A half-track vehicle was developed but
was not successful). In 1926 a rigid six-wheeler with
drive to both rear axles was produced and large numbers were
sold as military tractors. About 1928 the Warrior 6 tonner
lorry was introduced, the start of a long and successful line of
vehicles under that name. |
1924: first pneumatic tyres
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1919: 2.5 ton lorry
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In 1934 the very successful Otter light vehicle chassis
was introduced, another first in a long line.
It had a payload of 6 tons but an unladen weight of under
50 cwt, thereby beating a statutory ban on vehicles of over 50 cwt
unladen weight going at more than 20 mph. It cost £425.
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| In the mid-1930s, at the Government’s request,
Guys developed a short wheel base four wheeler general service
truck – the Ant. This developed as the Quad-Ant gun tractor and
as the first British rear-engined, 4-wheel drive armoured car.
It also became the basis of the civilian Vix-Ant lorry. |
Light framed goods vehicle, early 1930s
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Guy military vehicle, 1941
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During the Second World War lorry production seems to have
stopped, except of the military types; but production was concentrated
on buses.
Lorry production restarted in 1946, based on improved
versions of pre-war models.
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| The Vixen 4 tonner was introduced in 1947. |
The Vixen 4 tonner
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The Otter 6 tonner
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The Otter 6 tonner was introduced in 1948.
The 7 ton Big Otter, with Gardner or Meadows engine, was
introduced in 1954. |
| The Goliath range, including a 22 ton rigid eight
wheeler and a 19 ton six wheeler, was introduced in 1954. A
German manufacturer was using the name Goliath, so Guys changed
the range name to Invincible. |
The Invincible
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The Warrior 14 tonner
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The Warrior 14 tonner came in 1956. |
| In 1958 the Warrior and the Invincible Mk II were
fitted with a heavy duty cab. |
The 1958 heavy duty cab
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In the 1959 edition of the Wolverhampton Official
Yearbook, Guy Motors Ltd. described their range of goods vehicles as
follows (and not entirely grammatically):
"The range of goods vehicles consists of Wolf 2/3
tonners, Vixen 4 tonners, Otter Mk III 7 tonners, and Warrior Mk. I
and Mk. II 10 tonners, together with the heavy duty Invincible Mk II
range of 2, 3 and 4 axled machines for 14, 20 and 24 ton gross
weight, respectively, and up to 45 tons gross weight train. The 2
and 3 axled models are available with normal control mainly for
export markets.
All models are produced in various wheel bases
suitable for use as tractor units, tippers, trucks, pantechnicons,
etc. and all have diesel engines. The Wolf and Vixen are powered by
a 4 cylinder 57 bhp diesel engine; the Otter Mk. III has a choice of
a 4 cylinder 57 bhp or 6 cylinder 78 or 90 bhp engines, the Warrior
has 4, 5 or 6 cylinder engines producing from 75 to 125 bhp, whilst
the Invincible Mk II chassis, 6 cylinder engines of up to 220 bhp
can be fitted."
After the company went in receivership in 1961 and was
bought by Jaguar cars, the Invincible, Warrior and Otter were dropped in
1964 and replaced by Big J range, with their slogan "Designed to
Dominate".
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A Big J from 1965
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In 1970 a 56 ton eight-wheeler, designed to carry
a 20 ton container with another container on a draw bar trailer,
was introduced to meet the new demands of containerisation. This
vehicle was beyond UK weight limits, so there was also a rigid
eight-wheeler at 30 tons gross.
The Big J range sold well enough but competition in the
commercial vehicle market was fierce.
In 1974 BMC’s Scammel tractor units were assembled at the old
Guy works, in order to meet the demand for them and to take up
spare capacity at Fallings Park.
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| But competition, and the disaster that was BMC,
were too much for the factory and in 1978 all vehicle production
stopped. The works were demolished a few years later. |
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