Guy's four-wheel-drive field artillery tractor, developed from the 15-cwt Ant and launched in 1938: an all-steel, sloped-sided body for a driver, commander and four gunners, with ammunition lockers and a winch, 4.49 m long and 3,327 kg with a 60 hp Meadows 4ELA four. Sources give about 4,000 built by 1944.
MODEL LINEQuad-AntBUILT BYGuy Motors Ltd, Fallings Park, WolverhamptonPRODUCED1938–44OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, New Zealand, DenmarkPRODUCTIONAbout 4,000LAYOUT4 wheels
The record
The War Department asked in 1937 for a short, four-wheel-drive tractor with a winch to replace the Light Dragon and the Morris CDSW; Guy produced its design quickly from existing components and Morris followed with the C8, which shared the beetle-backed body. Two prototypes, one petrol and one with a Gardner diesel, were built under a contract of December 1937; the first large order, for 444, was placed in November 1938, and deliveries began in late August 1939. The Quad-Ant towed the 25-pounder, and also the 18-pounder, the 18/25-pounder and the 17-pounder, and served with the British Expeditionary Force in France and in North Africa, including with the 2nd New Zealand Division. The Wolverhampton History and Heritage account says Ant and Quad-Ant production moved to Karrier shortly after the war began. After the war the Ant and Quad-Ant were declared obsolete, auctioned or passed to other armies; Denmark had them among its first vehicles from Britain.
Research status: draft — identification, dates or figures could not all be pinned down; the summary says what is unresolved.
ENGINEMeadows 4ELA four-cylinder petrol, 3,686 cc, 60 hp at 2,600 rpmMeadows 4ELA
PRODUCTION RUNAbout 4,000 (Danish Army Vehicles Homepage, Truck Encyclopedia); Milicast gives 3,787 tractor chassis
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, New Zealand, Denmark
STATUSout of production
RECORD KINDBase model
MODEL LINEQuad-Ant
FAMILYQuad-Ant
WHEELS4
BODY STYLEField artillery tractor
VARIANTS2
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Body styles & colours
Body style
Factory colours
Khaki Green No. 3
SCC No. 2 Brown
SCC No. 1A Dark Brown
SCC No. 14 Black
SCC No. 15 Olive Drab
Light Stone
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published
