Volvo Ailsa B55
motor vehicle
The Volvo Ailsa B55 was a front-engined double-decker bus chassis manufactured in Irvine, North Ayrshire by Ailsa, Volvo's British subsidiary, from 1974 until 1985.
Design
In June 1972, Volvo bought a 75% shareholding in Irvine based truck importer Ailsa Trucks Ltd, transforming the company into a subsidiary of Volvo that imported larger numbers of vehicles and kept higher numbers of spare parts in stock. The following August, a new company, Ailsa Bus Ltd, was formed to market imported Volvo buses to operators in the United Kingdom, with development of a front-engined double-decker bodied by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders of Falkirk commencing at Ailsa Bus in 1973.
The Ailsa B55, produced at Ailsa's Irivne facility and debuting at the 1973 Scottish Motor Show, was designed with a front-mounted engine that still allowed a front entrance position suitable for one-person operation, similar in nature to the earlier Guy Wulfrunian. The B55 was fitted with the Volvo TD70 engine, a compact turbocharged unit of 6.7 litres (1.5 imp gal; 1.8 US gal), with a suspension consisting of beam axles and leaf springs. A Self-Changing Gears five-speed semi-automatic gearbox was also used. High-capacity tri-axle and single-deck variants were also offered for the export market, however no examples of the latter were ever produced, and a prototype low height B55, designated B55-20 (instead of the standard B55-10), was built for Derby Borough Transport in 1975.
In 1977, a Mark II Ailsa was launched, with Voith D851 transmission with retarder introduced alongside the Self-Changing Gears transmission. The Mark II was followed in 1980 by the Mark III, with Ailsa badging dropped in favour of Volvo badging, This continued to use the Volvo TD70H turbocharged engine, although it utilised a Volvo F10 truck rear axle with an offset differential in place of the previous hub reduction axle. Air suspension was also made available as an option.
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