Gillois

The Gillois is an amphibious bridgelayer and ferry vehicle built by Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern (EWK), which describes it as one of its 'wet bridge' products alongside its folding float bridge. The archive's details come from a Dutch dealer's specification of an EWK Gillois Type 2E.

Design

The vehicle is about 12.3 m long, 3.2 m wide and 3.9 m high, and weighs around 29 tonnes including its bridge section. It has four-wheel drive with retractable wheels and is powered by a 19-litre Deutz F12L 714 air-cooled diesel of 250 hp, driving through a ZF gearbox. For buoyancy it carries two large inflatable floats made by the Deutsche Schlauchbootfabrik, each 11 m long and 1.4 m in diameter with nine air chambers. Afloat it is driven by a Schottel rudder-propeller of 850 mm diameter. Other equipment includes a 4-tonne winch with a 225 kg anchor and a cab heater.

Each vehicle carries an 8 m bridge section about 4 m wide with folding walkways either side, rated for class 60 loads; several vehicles combine to form ferries or a floating bridge.

Later work

The French firm CEFA, a former EWK subsidiary, manufactured 68 ramps, spans and ferries for Gillois vehicles and renovated 63 Gillois 'edition II' ferries before developing the EFA that replaced them.