A Home-made Snow Shoe.
Page 12
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By An Owner—"Ntestore."
At this time of the year, when the roads are frequently covered with snow or have a frozen surface owners and persons in charge of motor vehicles fitted with steel tires have a con.siderable amount of trouble, owing to the slipping of the driving wheels, and my experience in this matter may prove of interest to the readers of THE COMmmeciAL MOTOR. It may be that, during the journey, a few inclines occur, which result in a great amount of trouble in trying to ascend them, as the coefficient of friction is very small between an icy surface and a steel tire; the wheels, in consequence, spin round without making any real progress on the road. The descending of an incline, too, when the roads are in the state described, is attended with much danger, owing to the fact that when the brake is applied, in order to reduce the speed, the wheels generally " pick up."
Legal Obligations.
The Motor Car Regulations do not favour owners of steel-tired vehicles to the extent of allowing them to use any kind of spud or spike in the tire, and, in the case of wheels which have the tires put on in separate plates, a limit is given as to the space between the plates, so that the wheels do not offer much resistance to a slippery surface. When a great amount of slipping takes place, it puts—as everyone will be aware—a severe strain on the engine, and also on the other parts, as then the wheels spin round at a good speed while the vehicle itself remains practically stationary; directly the wheels get a grip of their own accord, or by the aid of coke or granite chippings, a violent jerk is given to the various parts, and this will probably result in a strain— if not a breakage. Should the owner have to deal with important traffic and be unable to await the thaw, or where delay would result in loss of such traffic, he may be inclined to try and " get it through" somehow, but, in the end, he will probably have to leave the vehicle by the roadside, or place it in a yard near by.
Early Experiences.
I well remember, six years ago, the first winter we had with heavy motor vehicles. While returning with a load of important goods from some factories in the country to the town, a distance of four miles, about half-way snow fell heavily, with the result that we could not make any headway, either by the aid of bags or coke ; we therefore, finished up by running the motor into a farmyard near, leaving it there all night, and thought that, with the notoriously-changeable climate of ours, there would he a thaw or rain before morning. The snow the next day lay,
however, just as deep as ever, and horses and drays had to be sent to remove the lead, and we had to bring the motor home the best way we could. This was eventually accomplished, by the use of chains fastened around the tires, it not being possible to use bolts or spuds, there being no holes in the tires—apart from all question of legality. This experience led to the consideration of some sort of provision against any similar emergency in future, and it ended in my adoption of a snow shoe, which can be put on the existing wheels by the driver and his mate without any loss of time.
A Simple Snow Shoe.
It is not an expensive arrangement, as it only consists of 2 in. by 2 in. angle-irons, bent to the radius of the wheels, welded up at the ends, and drilled to take i; in. bolts for pulling the two halves together on the wheel. Small hard-wood blocks are placed between the angles, and rubber—from old rubber tires—is put in edgewise. When pulled together by bolts round the angles, it makes a good non-slipping tire. It is necessary, when making the angles, to have them a good fit on the tire, and also to allow in. or more for pulling up between the ends of the two haves; to do this, I find it best to get the circumferential length of the tire and then to obtain the exact diameter by the slide rule, and the radius to set the angleirons to. An instance, showing the danger of taking the diameter in a rough sort of fashion, occurs to my mind, and proves the truth of the old saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I asked one of our fitters to send me the exact circumferential length, and the angles were made accordingly, but they turned out to be 5 in. or 6 in. too short, and, when I afterwards asked him how he had arrived at his measurements, he told me that he had taken the diameter and multiplied it by 3:
For the purpose of holding the snow shoe on the wheel, in case of the bolts' working loose, and also to take up the drive, I arranged for one of the wood blocks to be recessed to take the head of a tee bolt, the head being 4 in. long and 11 in. deep. This bolt is fixed in the tire, and, when the whole shoe is pulled up tightly round the wheel, the probability of its working loose is very remote. One of the illustrations shows a wheel fitted with the snow shoe, and the other the same wheel with the shoe taken off and put away in the yard until again required. These have been used several times during the recent hard weather, and I think there will be no difficulty to the reader in grasping the idea of the construction of the shoe, or the method of its attachment to the wheel.