Immediately after the company was founded, production started in the SAT factory in Vallila, Helsinki. The Yhteissisu vehicles were built separately from SAT vehicles. It was clear from the start that vehicles should be produced away from Helsinki; the company sought a suitable location close to good rail, road and waterway connections. The original idea was to build the factory inside caves mined into bedrock; the place would be required to have suitable geology. A suitable area was finally found in Vanaja next to Hämeenlinna. Yhteissisu bought 31.1 hectares (77 acres) of land on 14 March 1944. A contract for factory construction was signed with a contractor on 30 March. The Railway Administration accepted Yhteissisu's plan to build a railway connection in the area. Quarrying work for the underground workshop began in July 1944. The expense and a shortage of time meant the plan had to be amended, and the entire production area was built above ground. The factory buildings were completed in early November 1944. Alvar Aalto's architectural office designed houses for the factory workers.
The first lorry made in Vanaja was a Sisu S-22 prototype, which rolled out of the factory door on 1 August 1945. After a short and intensive testing period, serial production began on 29 October 1945 but because of a shortage of materials and component quality problems, the first vehicles were not ready until early 1946. The capabilities of the domestic suppliers proved to be very limited and the company was dependent on imported gearboxes, steering components, drive shafts and electrical systems until domestic companies could set up their own production. The Finnish suppliers were unable to meet the requirements with the available materials and experienced severe quality problems. Total production in 1946 was 147 Sisu S-22 vehicles, which was far below the target of 2,000 vehicles. The original, calculated price per vehicle had been 765,000 marks but the eventual cost was 800,000 marks.
The war had ended before series production was started, and the Defence Forces did not need new vehicles. On the contrary, the army had to reduce the number of vehicles according to the Moscow Armistice. The frustrated component suppliers left the business and the Ministry of Trade and Industry terminated the vehicle supply contract from the end of 1946. In early 1946, Yhteissisu had agreed with the Ministry of Trade and Industry that vehicles not bought by the state could be sold on the civilian market. Sisu S-22s became available for sale at 12 SAT locations in Finland. The company presented a lighter, lower-cost model, the S-22K, at the Helsinki Domestic Industry Fair in May 1946.
When the licence to use the Sisu brand expired in June 1948, Sisu S-22 production was continued as the Vanaja V-48, and its production continued until 1955.
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White M2 Half-Track conversions
General manager Kytölä travelled to France and West Germany in 1947 and early 1948 to buy military surplus materials from the Western Allies. He bought 425 White Motor Company M2 Half-Track vehicles, 186 lorry engines, 304 Cadillac V8 engines, 4 Mack ED diesel engines, 2 Hercules Diesel DFXE engines, 11,000 GMC wheels and one 45-tonne-capacity trailer. Trading was organised through the Ministry of Supply and the first delivery arrived in March 1948. The White Half-Track vehicles were without armour; Kytölä's idea was to equip them with superstructures for field or forest clearing, or to convert them into Four-wheel drive lorries by replacing the tracks with a conventional rear axle. In total, VAT sold 359 units as half-tracks, and 60 were converted into 4×4 or 4×2 vehicles. These lorries were sold as Vanaja VaWh. Some of the half-track vehicles were scrapped for parts; the last was sold in 1952.
Some of these conversions are still extant and in the Finnish vehicle registry. At least one hase been reconverted back in the WW2 half-track guise with US Army insignia.
Vehicles for the Finnish Defence Forces
The Finnish Defence Forces carried out a winter test for potential military vehicles in March 1958. 35 candidate vehicles from the two domestic producers and various importers were driven around Finland. VAT sent four vehicles to the test, three of which were 4×4s and one was an ordinary, rear-wheel driven vehicle. During the five days' testing period, all vehicles were continuously fully loaded. For part of the journey, the vehicles had to tow an eight-ton field cannon. The vehicles were tested for off-road capabilities in even, 50-to-70 cm-deep (20-to-28 in) snow. One of the Vanajas was destroyed in an accident. The domestic vehicles performed well in the test; in some cases the rear-wheel driven Sisus and Vanajas outperformed the 4×4-driven foreign competitors. None of the vehicles were clearly better than the others but the result convinced the Defence Forces of the capabilities of the domestic vehicles and led to several deals for SAT and VAT.
In 1960, VAT delivered the first Vanaja VAKS lorries, which were intended for general use in garrisons, to the Defence Forces. The later versions were called AS-33. 155 units were produced. Vanaja NS-47 was the first Finnish 4×4 off-road lorry designed primarily for military use. A few dozen vehicles were ordered between 1962 and 1964, and were used for hauling 35 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons and heavy artillery.
Factory and production
The original factory building, officially a warehouse and assembly hall, had a volume of 25,000 m3 (33,000 cu yd). The facilities were developed over time and by the end of 1953, the floor area was 35,000 m2 (42,000 sq yd). The warehouse and assembly hall were renamed the main hall; it was now 120 m (130 yd) long and 30 m (33 yd) wide. Bus chassis production was located at the southern side of the hall and lorries were built at the northern side. This set-up was often changed depending on the product mix and production volume.
At the end of the building was a crane for ironware handling. When the frames were taken in, they were fitted with suspension and axles, and then turned the right way up. The next parts were the engine and transmission components. The final part for lorries was a pre-assembled cabin. Conventional bus chassis were delivered with bonnet and wings, but the forward control types left the factory without any body parts. After being painted, the vehicles left the assembly hall. Finally, every vehicle was tested on a 100-to-200 km (62-to-124-mile)-long test run on different roads and with various loads. The bus chassis were tested in a similar way; because there was no body, the drivers only had warm clothes and driving goggles to protect them against the weather conditions. The vehicles were handed over to the customers after final adjustments.
Construction work on a new subassembly shop began in 1955 and the building was ready in 1957. The new facilities were for machining, heat treatment and sheet metal works. Another end of the building was for a service workshop. A new service workshop with 17 vehicle places was built in 1966.
Bus chassis production
Bus chassis production began in 1950. VAT made the first prototypes of rear-engined buses in 1956. The company made two prototype chassis, which were designated model VAT-4800; the superstructures were made by coach builders Ajokki Oy and Nummela Oy. The solution caused several technical problems, including proper cooling and transfer of heating to the front end of the body. The cooling problem was finally solved by a large air scoop located at the back of the roof; this was not regarded as an aesthetically pleasing arrangement. As the solution was found, VAT produced ten more rear-engined chassis called type VAT-5200.
By 1958, all VAT bus chassis were equipped with air brakes; later these were also fitted to lorries. The decision was influenced by one of the worst road traffic accidents to happen in Finland; 15 people drowned in Konnevesi when a fairly new Vanaja bus drove through the boom barrier of a ferry slip, sinking in 4 metres (13 ft) of water. The driver survived and said the bus' brakes had failed; this was confirmed in the following investigation, which found the sealing of one of the hydraulic Lockheed brakes had failed.
VAT delivered its first mid-engined bus chassis to Ajokki Oy coach works in April 1958. It was powered by a horizontally mounted 164-hp AEC diesel engine. The end customer was bus operator Väinö Paunu Oy, which also participated in the development work. In 1960, VAT introduced the VLK500 chassis with air suspension and dual-circuit air brakes. VAT returned to building rear-engined buses in 1966–67, but sales did not reach the level of the mid- and front-engined models. The company conducted a number of experiments with the construction; one example was a bus with a frameless structure in which the beams were replaced by a lighter solution.
Production figures
The number of Vanaja lorries and bus chassis produced totalled 7,140 units. In addition, dozens of trailers and semi-trailers were produced and sold under the Vanaja brand in connection with lorries. In 1955, four Vanaja rail buses made in collaboration with coachbuilding firm Kiitokori were sold to the Finnish State Railways.
About 260 models of lorry were produced, which were fitted with 35 types of engine, 20 different gearboxes, and 15 to 20 types of cabin. Many of the models were produced in small numbers, with 116 types only being represented by one or two units. Most of the differences came from special wheelbases that always needed approval from the authorities. In many cases, it is impossible even for experts to identify different models and years of production. There were 66 types of bus chassis produced, and the number of different body types built on them by various coach builders and operators is unknown.
