Transporting Live Stock in Numbers.
Page 29
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THE transport of live stock is at all times attended with certain risks, and whatever precautions may be taken to ensure the sale transit of cattle and sheep one has always to reckon with the temperament of theanimals. Of late years considerable use has been made of the motor vehicle for transporting live stock, and it has been found in practice that the animals are less affected -when transported by road than when herded together in confined railway trucks.
The one drawback, perhaps, of the motor vehicle for this class of work is that it only permits of a limited number of animals being transported at one time, although where pedigree stock is being dealt with this perhaps is an advantage. The scope of the motor vehicle for the transport of cattle is, however, likely to be considerably increased if the type of vehicle which has just been specially constructed by the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., becomes popular, for it. enables a greater number of animals to be carried than has hitherto been possible. The vehicle which we illustrate on this page consists of a 45 h.p. 4-ton A.E.C. chassis, to which is hitched a 4-ton trailer made by the Eagle Engineering Co., Ltd., who were also responsible for the bodywork, -which possesses one or two unusual features of design.
The trailer is attached to the vehicle by the usual form of drawbar, but as an additional safeguard chains are fitted. The superstructure at the rear of the vehicle is a form of hinged tailboard, which, when fully extended and lowered, serves as a ramp up and down which the cattle can travel. Buifable side pieces are used on the ramp to prevent the animals from falling off at the sides.
The ramp can be used for loading cattle in both the lorry and trailer, since a bridge is formed between the prime-mover and the trailer when the tailboard of the former is dropped. The spaces at the sides between the lorry and the trailer are protected by the back doors of the lorry body which, when thrown open, form barriers linking up the body sides. The doors engage with slots at the front of the trailer and are held perfectly secure. The total carrying capacity of the vehicle is 32 cattle or about 60 sheep, and arrangements are made for the animaLs to stand facing outward, in which position they are tethered by means of ropes. Each of the bodies carries an overhead framework over which tarpaulins can be spread when it is desired to' protect the animals from inclement weather. The cleansing of the interior of the bodies is facilitated by the scuppers which are cut intathe sides.