Commercial vehicle activity increased. Their first was a van for Harrods in London. Dennis made its first bus in 1903 and their first fire engine in 1908 — for Bradford Council Fire Department. The last car was made in 1913 after the Dennis brothers saw there was less competition in the commercial vehicle market.
The rate of growth of the business may be gauged from the regular expansions on their new site at Woodbridge Hill on the outskirts of Guildford — in 1907, 1910, 1912 and 1913. In 1913 Dennis Brothers moved their main operations to a new much larger building of almost four acres on the twelve-acre site at Woodbridge leaving their purpose-built Onslow Street premises solely for repairs. In March 1913 the investing public learnt that Dennis Brothers was a manufacturer of motor-vans, motor-lorries, motor-fire-engines, motor-cars etc. The brothers' offer of shares to the public was substantially over-subscribed and Dennis Brothers Limited became a publicly listed company. Rising international tensions precipitated a major contract for supply of 1,000 3-ton "subsidy" lorries to private buyers on terms set by the War Office. Taking the subsidy obliged the buyer to release the vehicle to the War Office in time of war. Materials had been ordered but no subvention lorries completed when the situation changed.
In late 1985 a new 125,000 square foot Dennis Eagle plant on the Heathcote Industrial Estate in Warwick opened, taking over the building of Dennis municipal vehicle chassis and the matching Eagle bodies. Construction of chassis for buses and coaches as well as fire appliances remained at Guildford but that factory lost 600 jobs. Building of fire appliance bodies was moved to Carmichael Fire in Worcester and all cabs to Duple at Blackpool.
The re-organisation cost around £4 million covered by the sale of part of the original Dennis site. The Guildford workforce dropped from 700 to 400. Still one of Europe's largest builders of fire appliance chassis Dennis Specialist Vehicles was running at a loss.
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In the 1980s bus engines stayed beneath the floor but were moved as far back as possible to release luggage space. At the October 1986 Commercial Motor Show Dennis introduced its Javelin design using a 6-cylinder Cummins engine mounted forward of the axle. Previous models had used Gardner engines.
The fire engineering division was closed and requirements contracted out to Carmichael in Worcester. At this time Dennis claimed 65 per cent of the fire engine market. John Dennis of the founders' family, previously coach and truck sales manager, left and set up John Dennis Coachbuilders to build complete fire engine bodies.
The remaining business was the manufacture of chassis for fire appliances and public service vehicles. Almost all the 35-acre Woodbridge Hill site was sold.
At the October 1988 Motor Show Dennis and Duple displayed their new Dennis Dart midibus.
Products
Fire engines
Dennis fire engines were noted, from their 1908 outset, for their use of a Gwynnes made centrifugal pump or 'turbine' as a water pump, rather than the piston pumps used by other makers. This was more complex to build than the long-established piston pumps, but had advantages in operation. Where water was supplied under pressure from a hydrant, rather than by suction from a pond, this additional pressure was boosted through the centrifugal pump, whereas a piston pump would have throttled it. Piston pumps also gave a pulsating outlet pressure which required an air-filled receiver to even this out.
The Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services owns a pumper that was built by Dennis Brothers and delivered to the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore in 1925 from England.
N-Type 1905-1920s
G-Type
Big Four
Big Six
Light Four
Ace
F series - 1946-1970s
Delta
D series
DS series - 1980s-1990s
R series - 1976-?
RS/SS series - 1978-1990s
DF series
DFS series
TF series
TSD series
Sabre - 1995–2007
Rapier - 1991- Early 2000s
Dagger -1998-2007
Military vehicles of World War I
Over 7,000 Dennis 3-Ton lorries were built for the War Department during World War I. These 3-Ton lorries could reach 55 miles per hour and climb gradients as steep as 1 in 6.
Buses
1926–1967
E/EV (front-engined single decker)
F/FS (bonneted single decker)
G/GL (bonneted small capacity bus)
H/HS/HV (front-engined double decker)
Dart (bonneted small capacity bus)
Arrow (front-engined single decker)
Lancet/Lancet 2/Lancet 3/Lancet 4 (front-engined single decker)
Lance/Lance 2/Lance 3 (front-engined double decker)
Ace (front-engined small capacity bus)
Mace (front-engined small capacity bus)
Falcon (front-engined small capacity bus)
Pike
Dominant (underfloor-engined single decker)
Lancet UF (underfloor-engined single decker)
Pelican (underfloor-engined light-weight single decker)
Loline
1977–2000
Dominator
Jubilant
Dart - front-engined full-size single-decker bus built in late 1970s
Falcon
Lancet
Dragon/Condor
Dorchester
Domino
Underframe of Duple 425 coach
Javelin
Dart/Dart SLF
Lance/Arrow/Lance SLF
Trident 2
Trident 3
R-Series
Trucks
Between wars
Ace
Max
Max Major
Post war
Pax
Horia
Centaur
Jubilant
Stork
Hefty
Condor
Heron
Paravan
Maxim
Delta
Refuse trucks
Dennis were noted as specialist makers of refuse collection trucks, with compactors, bin lifters, tipper-body emptying and other specialised features for this market. The same market is now served by Dennis Eagle.
Military vehicles of World War II
Loyd Carrier
Churchill Tank
Light Artillery Tractor 6 x 6 'Octolat' (a misnomer, standing for 'eight wheel light artillery tractor, retained when the design was abbreviated by one axle to reduce length and weight, and improve handling).
Conceived to meet a requirement for a simple easily produced and maintained alternative to the effective but costly and complicated Quad 4 x 4 tractor, the Dennis design steered on the first pair of wheels but dispensed with springs, substituting six oversized tyres for conventional suspension.
A centre-control driving position in a shallow lightly armoured body provided with ammunition lockers and sheltered under an overall canvas tilt resulted in a vehicle not instantly recognisable as truck. (Prototypes used a box body in place of the simple platform and conventional cab). Early models were powered by twin coupled Bedford engines but the final design was powered by a powerful Leyland 9.8 litre engine. Length was 20 feet (6 metres), height 7 ft 6 inches (2.3 metres) high.
Despite promising test results no production order was forthcoming.
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