Alvis Stalwart

The Alvis Stalwart, known throughout British service as the "Stolly", is a six-wheel-drive amphibious load carrier built by Alvis from 1962. Around 1,200 were produced for the British Army, which used them as forward ammunition and fuel carriers.

Design

The Stalwart shares its independent-suspension running gear with the Alvis Saracen and Saladin family, but wraps it in a welded aluminium hull. In water, two Dowty waterjets provide thrust and steering. Unlike most amphibians it required no trim vane, no bilge preparation and no sealing drill — the crew simply drove in, a property the Army valued more than outright water speed.

Power comes from a Rolls-Royce B81 straight-eight petrol engine driving through a complex transfer arrangement that gives all six wheels drive but no differential between axles, making tight turns on hard surfaces hard on tyres and transmission alike.

Service and afterlife

Off-road load-carrying ability was exceptional, but the petrol engine's thirst and the vehicle's mechanical complexity made it expensive to run. Withdrawn from front-line service through the 1980s, large numbers reached the civilian market, and it remains one of the more numerous large amphibians in private preservation.