Wotcher all.
Just spent an hour crawling all over an Alvis Stalwart at a local show, talking to the owner, and even sat in the driver's seat like a small boy revving the engine and grinning like a loon. Lovely sound, lovely machine. Wasn't expecting it to be centre-steer and wasn't expecting the steering wheel to be so tiny for such a monster!
The main reason for posting this though was to try and dispel a myth that I've heard about the Stalwarts, I'd spoken to the owner about the transmission wind-up issue on tarmac roads, and how I'd heard it made them blow their transmissions a lot. He said that they do have a differential of sorts across the axles, in the form of an automatic dog clutch between one side of each wheel pair and the other, and that they will blow the transmission if you don't drive it right. I'm not sure on the exact mechanicals but he said that as an example, when coming to a roundabout or similar you power all the way through it on the accelerator, otherwise the dog clutch won't disengage and you do get wind-up. It's still best to unwind the transmission from time to time, but you don't need to bash it on the kerbs every few miles like I'd been told, just every few trips or so it's best to just unwind it somehow as a precaution. On tight bends though, if driven right, the clutches disengage drive to one side of the truck or something like that.
He was ex-army himself and had gone back to the training shops long after retiring for 6 months of training on the vehicle, driving it, maintaining it and working on it. He'd restored his and had recently bought another much rarer one in very poor condition which he was rebuilding so I reckon he probably knew a fair bit about it, and takes his out on the roads quite a bit. He also said that the pre- and post-wading checklists aren't as bad as people say, just two bungs (possibly two each side) and regular greasing of certain joints.
Needless to say I want one even more now.. If you see one thundering around the roads near Yeovil then give it a wave, it's probably him on a joyride! Jammy git. It cost him about £8,000 for his complete with swim kit. Apparently they were originally a civilian load carrier and were never intended to be amphibians, seems they took to the role like ducks to water. As they were revised they became more specialised for the role. His will be up for sale this September so he can concentrate on the other one.
On the way back from the show, while carefully negotiating a tight bend in the pinz a Scammell Explorer came zipping around the other way in a cacophony of roaring engine and thrashing gears, that got my attention for sure. There were 7 of them at the show, common as muck ;-)
I might have to go back up there tomorrow. If anyone's in the Yeovil area, just south of Yeovil on the A37 at Yeovil Showground is where the show is, it's on until Monday. £4.50 entry for adults.