Multi-wheel to the Fa
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By John F. Moon, A.M.I.R.T.E.
CROSS-COUNTRY vehicles provide the greatest interest at this year's Paris Salon de l'Automobile, which opened on Thursday of last week and closes next Sunday. Including demonstration-park exhibits, there are 46 4 x 4 chassis of varying types., and 22 six-wheeldrive machines:
Much of this Interest by manufacturers in multi-wheeldrive designs has obviously stemmed from the need for such vehicles in the Sahara, where there are several oil companies engaged in large-scale operations. This has led even to the evolution of a twin-engined four-wheel-drive version of the Citroen 2 c.v. car.
. Other than the increasing trend in the production of allwheel-drive machines, there are few outstanding novelties at this year's Salon. Consolidation appears to be the theme, and a general shortage of money is tending to affect sales of heavy-vehicle manufacturers who rely mainly on the home market .
Vehicle production has nevertheless increased during the past 12 months, the extra output having been exported. Berliet remain superior in terms of production figures among the heavy-vehicle manufacturers, their annual output now being in the region of 13,000 vehicles.
British exhibits are slightly more numerous than usual. At the Pare des Expositions there are a Ford-A.W.D.
Thames Trader 704 x 4 with 6D oil engine and 12.00-20-in. (14-ply) tyres, and a Bedford oil-engined 5-tonner. Among the car exhibits at the Grand Palais are to be found an Austin Gipsy 4 x 4, a Commer Cob, a Karrier Gamecock, and a short-wheelbase Land-Rover.
It is usual to look to Berliet at the Paris Show for the main technical interest. Although they have not repeated the impact that their T.100 90-ton-gross six-wheeler made last year, they demand attention because of their adoption of the German M-type combustion system throughout their engine range. and by the introduction of two new goods chassis wall an outstanding cab design.
The Salon forms a strong contrast to Earls Court, in that nowhere is air suspension to be found, except for the hydro-pneumatic suspension of the new Citroen ambulance based on the ID.19 car. One oft, the Berliet engineers told me that they have an air-sprung vehicle running experimentally, but are wisely refraining from offering it to the public until they are satisfied that they have arrived at the best application for this medium.
Suspension novelties are, however, to be found among the trailer exhibits. Trailers are invariably chosen as the guinea-pigs in most countries when it comes to trying out a new form of suspension, because a non-driven, non-steered axle is the easiest type to which to apply new ideas.
The use of turbocharged oil engines is gaining popularity, particularly on oilfield vehicles, and some makers are now turning their attention to developing new transmission layouts to simplify the work of the driver. Notable among them are Berliet M engines represent an important French advance. The makers are showing a complete series of oil engines, ranging from a twin-cylindered 45 b.h.p. unit to a turbocharged 700 b.h.p. V-12. In the demonstration park they have a large six-cylindered engine installed on a mobile generator semi-trailer unit, and this is shown running on nine different types of liquid, including paraffin, petrol, oil fuel, mineral oil, vegetable oil, crude oil, cod-liver oil, brilliantine and a mixture of any of these. I was told, furthermore, that with typical French joie de vivre the engine was even run for publicity purposes some few days ago on champagne. Not only does the Berliet M engine operate on these "fuels." but it can also be started on them.
Claims made for the Berliet M engine are that size for size it gives a 20-per-cent. improvement in fuel economy, 20 per cent, greater power, better ,torque characteristics, quiet running and quick warming-up from cold.
The two new Berliet chassis are the GAK 5-ton fourwheeler, which has a 100 b.h.p. M engine, four-speed . synchromesh gearbox and air brakes, and the GPRK 16-ton six-wheeler, with a 180 b.h.p. M engine, ZF eight-speed synchromesh gearbox, power steering and air brakes. The GAK is rated for a gross weight of 9 tons, whilst the GPRK weight rating is 26 tons with trailer.
The new cab is all steel, with the accent . on good appearance, ease of driving and luxurious accommodation. On the GPRK, the back of the cab is extended by about 16 in. to enclose the larger engine, but in other respects the cab is common to the two models.
A full-width one-piece curved windscreen is employed. The radiator grille has two panels, which arc hinged at their outer sides; with the grille open, access is given to the steering gear, pedals, radiator, heater equipment and windscreen-washer reservoir. Below this grille there is a deep bumper into which are recessed paired headlamps.
Steps to the cab are ahead of the front wings and the doors open over a wide arc. The driving seat is fully adjustable and carried on a hydraulically. sprung pedestal, and the gear lever is on the dash assembly to keep the floor line clear. Pendant clutch and brake pedals are employed, and the Instruments, which are grouped ahead of the steering column, include speedometer, tachometer and clock, in addition to the normal temperature and pressure gauges.
Fittings include acoustic-board roof lining, twin door-actuated interior lights, arm rests on the doors, cigarette lighter, radio and Philishave electric shaver. All in all, this cab is surely the most modern forward-control design produced in France.
In terms of .appointments, however, it is rivalled by the Unic Gabbier .normal-control cab, which, in addition to having all the fittings of the Berliet design, goes so far as to include an ice box behind the seat for the driver to store bottles of wine and so forth on long journeys. The Galibier cab is naturally more spacious than that of the Berlict, because none of the engine obtrudes into it, and this has made it possible to incorporate a wide two-passenger seat which can be folded back to form a sleeping berth The Galibier chassis is the heaviest in the Unic range. It is powered by a 180 b.h.p. turbocharged oil engine and has a new eight-speed gearbox. The Gabbier is a four-wheeler rated for 19 tons solo or 35 tons gross with trailer. Turbocharged engines are also available in the Alpes series of chassis, the largest of which, the hoard, has the same weight rating as the Galibier.
The new Unic transmission is known as the Unifluid. It consists essentially of a 3 to 1 torque converter interposed El 1 8
between the engine and conventional friction clutch. Behind the clutch there is a four-speed synchromesh gearbox and the clutch is engaged and disengaged by means of a small trigger on the gear lever.
Addition of the torque converter to the normal transmission train has the effect of giving better acceleration and hillclimbing ability without the complication of an auxiliary transmission, besides making the vehicle easier to drive because of the absence of a clutch pedal. An eight-speed version of the synchromesh gearbox used in the Unifluid application has also been developed, the two-speed auxiliary section being integral with the main box.
Two interesting innovations are found on the Bernard stand. The more novel of these is the Elephant 4 close-coupled fourwheel-drive tractor. As shown, this vehicle is equipped with a Sinpar 30-ton winch, but it can be supplied with a bulldozer blade or a loading bucket.
It is powered by a Bernard 150 b.h.p. oil engine, and possibly its most unusual feature is that it is steered by locking the wheels on one side or the other, as with a tracked machine. This gives a high degree of manceuvrability, as the Elephant can turn completely round on its own axis, although if this were done excessively on hard ground the tyre wear would be alarming.
A conventional steering wheel is employed to control the steering brakes and the wheels of the exhibit are equipped with Dunlop 16.00-20-in. (24-ply) nylon tyres.The front axle is attached rigidly to the chassis frame, whilst the rear axle is again unsprung, but is pivoted centrally to the frame, the axle tubes sliding in trunnion blocks.
The Bernard engine used in the Elephant is the most powerful made by this concern, but there is a demand among operators of 35-ton-gross articulated outfits for greater power. Consequently Bernard are now offering the Dieselair 200 b.h.p. aircooled V.8 engine.. This unit is installed in one of the exhibits, a T.200 35-ton normal-control tractor. This has a Bernarddesigned cab and front end built by Pelpel, access to the engine being given by two centrally hinged bonnet panels.
The Saviem group, which comprises Latil, Renault and Somua, is exhibiting a wide variety of heavy vehicles and coaches in the exhibition hall and several different types of multi-wheeldrive machine in the demonstration park. The newest model is the IL. 20, which is a four-wheeler rated for up to 35 tons gross train weight. The IL. 20 is basically a Somua design and has a 108 b.h.p. oil engine, 10-speed synchromesh gearbox and doublereduction rear axle.
The Saviern range of passenger vehicles now includes forward-, rearand underfloorsengined chassis varying from 32seaters to 105-passenger city buses.
The two principal mass-producers—Citroen and Renault— have made little alterations or advances in their standard range. Citroen,' however, are showing two 5-ton 4 x 4 vehicles in addition to the 4 x 4 2 c.v. car. The 2 c.v. design is interesting in that instead of using a larger engine than the 600 c.c. 14 b.h.p. horizontally opposed air-cooled twin normally fitted, they have installed a second unit at the rear of the car.
This drives into a transfer box at the back of the main gearbox and so provides the extra power necessary for four-wheel traction over difficult surfaces, particularly desert sand, besides giving the vehicle a gradient ability of about 1 in 2.5. Citroen have introduced a new 86 b.h.p. six-cylindered oil engine for 5-tonners, replacing the 76 b.h.p. unit formerly fitted. They have also produced ambulance and estate-car versions of the ID.19 private car, with the promise later of a 12-cwt. van. The sole Renault innovation is the adoption of the Perkins P4 (V) oil engine as optional equipment in their 24-ton chassis, a move also made recently by Hotchkiss.
Peugeot have introduced a new oil engine and this, at 1.8 litres, is the smallest of its kind to have been built in France. It is exhibited at -the Grand Palais in a 403 station wagon, but will eventually be offered in the 4-ton van based on a similar chassis. It is an indirect-injection four-cylindered design with aluminium cylinder head, and its governed speed is high-4,000 r.p.m., at which 50 b.h.p. are developed. The maximum torque output is 86 lb.-ft.
An interesting Marmon-Herrington design is a forwardcontrol 4 x 4 with coil-spring suspension at both axles. The axles are double-reduction units with spur gearing at their outer ends, which helps to raise the ground clearance, and each is located by three radius arms and a Panhard rod.
Certain trailer manufacturers are experimenting with types of suspension to give the fully progressive characteristics of an air spring without its complication. One of the most ingenious layouts is that exhibited by Coder, who have developed the Caouflex type of suspension for tandem axle trailers. Essentially this consists of walking beams carrying the wheels and pivoted to T-frames, which in turn are pivoted to the chassis frame at their forward ends. Between the top of the T-frames and the bottom of the chassis are two rows of large rubber buffers, and as the load increases these buffers are brought into effect progressively.
Titan have adopted semi-elliptic leaf springs to give a similar result. They also show a disc brake in which two presser plates, hydraulically operated, act on a friction-faced disc which is keyed to a type of brake drum. These presser plates are deeply finned to obtain good cooling.
B.A.J. and Fond. like Coder, have developed a rubber semitrailer suspension system similar to that of a trailing-arm airspring layout. The rubber buffers are carried at the. rear of radius arms, with two Evidgorn rubber springs to each arm. The demonstration park contains exhibits unusual to British eyes, and the most startling of these is a huge snow plough cum vacuum cleaner based on a Berliet 4 x 4 chassis, which has been developed for aerodrome runways. There is also a 70-seat articulated bus with a Magirtis-Deutz tractor, and a petrol tanker based on a Renault underfloor-engined chassis, the engine being directly beneath the forward end of the tank— a contrast with British safety regulations.
The most unusual passenger vehicle is in one of the balls. It is a 20-seat bus on a Berliet 6 x 6 chassis and is intended for use in the Sahara. The body is fully dust-proofed and the seats are equipped With safety belts; the body is mounted on the chassis frame by large rubber blocks, giving cushioned location longitudinally. laterally and vertically.