Frustrated he could not find a suitable truck to load vehicles with low front clearance, the Burnside engineer invented his own.
The crouching trucks are now seen not only around New Zealand but are also being manufactured under licence in the United States.
The trucks have no ramps.
Instead, the truck uses a pulley system which lowers the back of the deck and pushes the cab forward at the same time.
Even racing cars could be loaded easily, Mr Armour said in an interview.
One of the trucks was designed specifically for the "skid cars", which teach young drivers how to get out of a skid or slide while driving.
Because of the casters underneath the car, there was only 40mm clearance.
It took the driver 40 minutes to load the car after each demonstration.
Once the crouch truck was delivered, the skid car could be driven straight on.
Equipment hire firm Accessman had bought five of the trucks, and bought another one each time a new branch was opened in New Zealand.
"The owner went to the US to find something to shift his machines and he found us in Dunedin.
He claims there is nothing else in the world that will shift his machinery like this.
We are lighter, stronger and faster," Mr Armour said.
Accessman's elevated work platforms could not be tipped, so the flat access was ideal, Mr Armour said.
Along with his father-in-law and fellow director Rex Telfer, Mr Armour set up an operation in the US to manufacture the crouch trucks.
They decided to have the trucks manufactured under licence rather than do the job themselves.
But they spent many thousands of dollars covering the world in patents, and were talking to a company in England about the concept.
The second big idea Mr Armour developed is so simple and effective that interest is being generated around the world.
It is a load anchor system that fits flush into the deck of a truck.
T. L MacLean was selling them in New Zealand, Australia and the US, and Mr Armour had recently used a Dunedin City Council marketing support grant to attend a trade fair in Germany where a German company expressed interest in getting involved in the manufacture of the system.
Again, the invention came from necessity.
Mr Armour noticed that most machinery was tied across the tracks or wheels and secured on the side of the truck on which it was being carried.
In some circumstances, the machinery was being lifted off the deck by the pressure on the ropes or chains being used to secure the load.
Mr Telfer said other anchor systems attached to truck decks caught debris, and sometimes loads got caught when they were slid off the truck.
However, with the MacLean system, the anchors were flush with the deck, and when they were released, they self-cleansed.
At first, the company had them made in Timaru before making some themselves.
A Canterbury firm picked up the manufacture of the system before the two men took the manufacturing to China.
"We are hoping this will be the thing that gives us a good return.
"We have spent a lot of money on patents and are hoping to get something back while we are both still here," Mr Telfer said with a laugh.
The systems were widely used by companies such as car transporters, Fulton Hogan and transport companies.
The systems have a 6000kg rating, but when they were tested in a laboratory, they reached a 18,300kg strain three times, before exploding into bits.
T. L MacLean had to pay for the D bolts which were bent out of shape, the chain which was broken in the test and the lights that were blown out by the flying bits of the system.
The anchor survived.
T. L MacLean was started in Dunedin in 1920.
Mr Telfer, who has a hobby of designing and building gyrocopters, started with the firm in 1956.
He eventually went into partnership with his boss, and Mr Armour became a business partner about 10 years ago.
Mr Telfer said the firm had always been known for innovation, setting up the first electric welder in Dunedin.
Originally, it specialised in cast iron and aluminium welding, before going into structural steel.
To keep ahead of the competition, he and Mr Armour looked for different products and came up with the crouch truck and the anchor system, Mr Telfer said.
The firm employs six people.
It now specialises in major transport engineering, but still does "general pots and pans work for the public".
