page_title: Vickers VR180 Vigor
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Vickers VR180 Vigor / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: New Tractor at the Elswick Works, 24 October 1949 (TWAM ref. DS.VA/9/PH/3/3). This appears to be a prototype of the Vickers VR180. ‘Workshop of the World’ is a phrase often used to describe Britain’s manufacturing dominance during the Nineteenth Century. It’s also a very apt description for the Elswick Works and Scotswood Works of Vickers Armstrong and its predecessor companies. These great factories, situated in Newcastle along the banks of the River Tyne, employed hundreds of thousands of men and women and built a huge variety of products for customers around the globe. The Elswick Works was established by William George Armstrong (later Lord Armstrong) in 1847 to manufacture hydraulic cranes. From these relatively humble beginnings the company diversified into many fields including shipbuilding, armaments and locomotives. By 1953 the Elswick Works covered 70 acres and extended over a mile along the River Tyne. This set of images, mostly taken from our Vickers Armstrong collection, includes fascinating views of the factories at Elswick and Scotswood, the products they produced and the people that worked there. By preserving these archives we can ensure that their legacy lives on. (Copyright) We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne &amp; Wear Archives &amp; Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email info@twarchives.org.uk.
context_page_description: The Vickers VR180 Vigor was a British crawler tractor, built from 1951 to 1958 by Vickers-Armstrongs. During World War II, the company gained substantial experience in the design and construction of tanks and continuous track vehicles. After the war they developed a civilian crawler tractor that could be sold for use in peacetime reconstruction work. It was notable for the unusual sophistication of its chassis.
  The Vigor was built at the Scotswood, Newcastle-upon-Tyne works.
context_section_description: The tractor's most distinctive feature was its running gear: four full height roadwheels also acting as rear drive sprocket, front idler and track return rollers. This was the same layout as the Tetrarch light tank, which Vickers-Armstrongs had developed in the 1930s.
  In common with tanks of this period, but in contrast to crawler tractors, the suspension had considerable articulation and permitted high speeds. The Vigor was capable of nearly 10 mph, while the comparable Caterpillar D8 could only reach 5 mph. The four roadwheels were linked as two bogies on each side. Pairs of bogies on opposite sides were linked by an articulated beam with a centre tilt pivot. This suspension required a flexible track, developed by Vickers, with rubber sealing washers between the moving parts. Wear to the rubber in service could make the track floppy, a drawback to the design. Together with the sophisticated suspension articulation, if not well-maintained, the Vigor was prone to throwing tracks when run at speed.
  Vehicle chassis was fabricated in two pieces, mainly from large iron or steel castings. The nose of early models was distinctively solid and sloped, while other makers had a vertical radiator grille. Later models, after experience in Australia, also gained a lightweight steel grille for better ventilation. The chassis unbolted relatively quickly, two hours being cited, into front (engine) and rear (transmission) components.
  The engine was a Rolls-Royce C6SFL 12.17l six-cylinder supercharged diesel. This engine was more powerful than other tractors of this age and weight, with 190 hp at the engine and 150 drawbar hp. However the fuel consumption was high, at 9.8 gallons per hour at full rate. The transmission was initially a three-speed manual and high-low-reverse splitter gearbox with a relatively small Borg & Beck 18 inch single plate dry clutch. This small clutch plate had a reputation for early failure if worked hard. An improvement from mid-production was the option of a Rolls-Royce hydraulic torque converter, the same converters Rolls-Royce were supplying with the same engines for the new British Rail DMU fleet.
  A full range of accessories were offered: front dozer blades with cable or hydraulic lifts, rear ripper blades for breaking virgin bush as farmland in Australia, and a rear logging winch of 30,000 to 50,000 lbf pull.
  Production of the VR180 ran from 1952 to 1958, with approximately 1,500 built. The design continued until 1961 as the Vickers VR110 Vikon with a smaller 142 hp C4SFL four-cylinder engine. Around 20 Vikon were built, most going to New Zealand.
caption: 1949 prototype at Vickers' Elswick Works
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