Military Vehicles, July 1996,: Re: Alvis Stalwart

Re: Alvis Stalwart

Colin Brookes (Colin@h-bplan.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 25 Jul 1996 07:30:02 +0100

In message <31f6ab10.12795752@post.demon.co.uk>, Andy Dingley
<dingbat@codesmth.demon.co.uk> writes
>On Tue, 23 Jul 1996 20:56:47 UNDEFINED, you wrote:
>
>>I would be curious as to what the Military manuals recommend for long distance
>>transport of these vehicles. How do they haul them overland, on a trailer like
>>a tank?
>
>A Stollie is meant to _be_ long range transport. You just get in and
>drive it, and don't let anything stop you.
>
>Top speed in a Stollie is around 40mph, limited by the engine rpm
>limiter at 4000rpm and poor cornering at speed. Brakes, unlike the
>other 600 series chassis, are pretty good. You can lock all wheels on
>a fully-loaded Stollie at top speed on tarmac and make a pretty
>impressive smoke trail from the wheels, both brakes and rubber.
>
>Civilian owners tend to trailer them around, but that's more to do
>with the 4 miles per gallon fuel consumption ($4 gallon). With a 100
>gallon tank, there's still no shortage of range.
>
>--
>If they privatise the Royal Mail,
>who gets the Craig Shergold franchise ?

Hi Andy,

What many misunderstand is that the 'Stolly', is an off-road long
distance carrier !!
Like all the multi-wheel-drive vehicles it is normal to trailer them on
hard ground (roads), whenever possible. The damage caused by hard roads
is the winding up of an individual wheel station (hence the reason for
the white paint stripe on each of the wheel-centres). Off road each
wheel station is able to re-set itself by slip. Because of the system
of drive the 'Stolly', does not accelerate or decelerate in a straight
line, making them dangerous to manoeuvre in confined spaces. If you
make a throttle change whilst loading on to a trailer the 'Stolly', is
often likely to slew off the side. Biggest problem with owning a
'Stolly', is keeping it in tyres. Tyres must all be within a matching
limit in circumference. Although it is a mega-nightmare to change a
'Stolly', wheelstation, it is a rare necessity.
To privately own a 'Stolly', is not for the fainthearted. Even the
British army de-classified them as amphibious after only a short time in
service, due to the phenominal cost of maintenance after swimming.
And finaly....because of their width, they arn't road legal in most
countries.

Colin Brookes
Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society (IMPS)
colin@h-bplan.demon.co.uk

-- 
Colin Brookes