Transport Problems in Africa
Page 60
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Although Difficult Road Conditions Hamper the Increase of Mechanical Transport, there is a Fair Demand for Suitable British Motor Vehicles
N these days of acute competitive
trading, it is as well to study the conditions in all countries offering markets for the disposal of manufactured goods. In eastern and central Africa there is a large market into which British motor manufacturers have penetrated but little. The world war was the original cause of the introduction of road mechanical transport, on a large scale, into these territories. Previously, all conveyance of goods has been carried out by native porters, railway and ox wagons.
During the war many rough tracks were opened up, either by the passage of wheeled vehicles over virgin country, or by the hasty preparation of earthen roads, temporary bridges and drifts. Since the war many other roads and tracks have been opened up, and some of the more important roads have been improved, but as the surfaces consist mainly of the soils which they traverse, the majority of even the better ones is of only seasonal utility.
Subsidiary Roads of Earth.
The subsidiary roads are wholly of ;mrthen surfaces, except where they happen to traverse regions of stone outcrop, and these are passable usually only during the dry seasons.
The foregoing types of road are comparatively few in number, when the total area of the countries concerned is taken into consideration, and the numerous transport needs of the population frequently involve vehicles in travelling direct across country, regardless of highways. Such needs include motor services replenishing outlying trading stores and returning with' native produce; the conveyance of hunting parties, transport to and from isolated farms, and various other duties which require the employment of reliable motors that will withstand extremely arduous work. The failure of
B46 transport in an arid region is usually fraught with severe hardship, if not actual danger, to the parties concerned.
Even the most generally used roads often deteriorate into two-wheel tracks, so soon as they enter open country, because drivers are loth to steer off the tracks of preceding traffic, except, of course, when travelling with unusual care across country.
Road surfaces vary from mile to mile, according to the types of . soil, vegetation, soil denudation and deposit, and Governments can afford but little expenditure in proportien to road mileage. A road may .be transformed by two days' heavy rain from one with a surface 6-12 ins, deep, in dust into a sea of mud, or, by erosion, may become a boulder-strewn track, and even bridges or culverts may be completely carried away.
Difficulties in Dry Weather.
In dry weather, the obstacles to be overcome may consist of miles of loose sand, loose or bedded boulders, potholes deep in dust, tree stumps and precipitous river drifts, often with loose surfaces. Even the antbear and porcupine conspire with nature to make difficulties, the wheel tracks on roads often being the places most favoured by them for their excavations.
During the wet season, if the road he traversable at all, the wheel tracks in the mud become so deep after the passage of one or two vehicles through soil of the alluvial type, that it becomes impossible to follow them, and the countryside becomes studded with exploratoi-y tracks and often with. vehicles stranded for days on end.
For the foregoing class of work, therefore, a type of vehicle is needed that will withstand the arduous conditions with the minimum of depreciation and trouble, much of which is avoidable with a little modification of design. The African market still awaits the arrival of motor vehicles suited to its particular requirements, and the manufacturer who endeavours to meet these needs will find an ever-expanding demand, for the native populations are fast taking up mechanical transport on their own behalf.•
Modified Clearance Required.
• A particular point in chassis construction that could with advantage be modified is road clearance. A 10-in.. clearance from the lowest point of the chassis is not too much, as tree-stump and boulder projections from the road surface render a vehicle most vulnerable. The lowest point should in all case's be the front axle.
Frequently, an otherwise fairly suitable clearance is poiled by brake-rod adjustments being carried below the axles instead of above, and many breakages occur from this cause. Similarly, when the springing of the chassis is too light, the engine sump may easily fall to a lower level than the front axle when the front wheels hit a bump or hole in the road surface, and thus fail to clear a projection that the front axle has already passed over. Such an accident is not unusual, no matter how careful the driver.
The above will serve to illustrate two of the points that really require consideration in motor vehicles for Africa.