MAGNIFICENT MERCURY
Page 66
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Impressions gained during a short test run of an A.E.C. Mercury fitted with a Leyland Group Ergonomic cab
BY R. D. CATER ON Monday I was given the opportunity to have a short drive in the new A.E.C. Mercury and this proved to be a very interesting and enlightening experience. The chassis, fitted with the AV 470 engine and a six-speed overdrive gearbox, was also equipped with power steering and was laden to 15-5 tons g.v.w.
First impressions on entering the cab are similar to those that a commercial vehicle driver gets when first entering the driving position of a luxury coach, and although the interior of this cab is not finished in fancy colours it is most certainly the best I have had the opportunity of driving in during my experience with commercial vehicles. Having plenty of adjustment both fore and aft and up and down on the driving seat it is possible for the driver to achieve a perfectly com fortable driving position. Once installed in the seat he is immediately aware that the vision obtainable without screwing his neck around corner pillars is almost as good as he is ever likely to get from a vehicle. The heating and ventilation equipment is so effective that the whole of the interior of the cab is maintained at a very comfortable working temperature and in fact it is possible to keep a fairly constant temperature even when driving along with the side windows wound fully down and with the quarter lights partly open.
For the first time I have seen and driven a vehicle fitted with a decent rearview mirror arrangement, one which will last, and withstand the general wear and tear of everyday use, and one which provides the driver with a large amount of adjustment to suit his own personal requirements. Two mirrors are fitted on to the offside carrier, one of these being flat, the other convex. Although these two units provide an excellent rear view I wondered perhaps whether they constituted rather a dead area to the driver's vision in that direction. From what I could see in the nearside mirror, of which only one is fitted, I got the distinct impression that one would be enough. The ability to get the mirror mounted at a .point outside of the load line, without having it flapping about and useless, is indeed a great advantage over most other methods of mounting.
Noise is at a very low level,. the insulation of the bonnet being of such a nature that it is possible (as one of the A.E.C. engineers commented to me) to carry on a conversation lasting for perhaps an hour without being absolutely hoarse at the end of it. And it is perfectly true that the noise level in this cab is so low that a driver could, in fact, 1320 listen to a radio whilst travelling without The accumulated sounds being unbearable.
Riding qualities of the vehicle proved to be very good, and the power steering makes such light work of roundabouts and short turns that, if one is not careful, it is possible to " oversteer" the vehicle, which could perhaps result in striking the kerb with the nearside rear tyre. This, however, is purely a matter of getting used to the equipment and I must confess that I have had very little experience with power steering.
My first impressions of the braking were that the modified pedal pressures which A.E.C. have decided to use were a bit too high for safety, but when I discussed this with their engineers later they put the point to me that they had aimed at achieving a level to which drivers would very soon get used,
and at the same time would avoid violent application of the -brakes when
the vehicle was lightly laden. This, they said, would stop wheel locking and make unladen braking much safer.
Stopping Power
When I had a second look at the vehicle and experimented with the brake pedal for a short period I found that the amount of pedal travel was much greater than I had at first thought. It was then that I realized just how little of the full amount of available braking I had used during my test circuit, even though I had needed to brake fairly sharply on one or two occasions. From this I gathered that there must have been a large amount of reserve application left for use in an emergency.
Such light work was made of the load that I inquired for a second time as to what it was. In fact, the performance was such that I would have cheerfully gone off on an extended test, and feel certain that at the end I would have still been as impressed by the performance and general comfort of the vehicle as I was at this stage.
There were two things which I found necessary to complain about at the end of my run—these were both concerned with a lack of clearance around the steering wheel in general. The first was that when overdrive was engaged the gear lever was inclined to find its way into the left sleeve of my jacket; on one occasion I found that I had inadvertently knocked the gear lever into neutral. Second, I found that exactly the same problem arose with the offside door window winder, and I also noticed that this lever caught my wrist on one or two occasions. When I spoke later to the A.E.C. engineers on these points we could not agree that the siting, or the length, of the gear lever was wrong, but they told me that the winder lever was to be altered. I personally think that if the gear lever was made 2 in. shorter it would be much more satisfactory.
All of the instruments are nicely sited and can be seen through the twospoke steering wheel without moving one's body in the driving position. The swept area of screen when the wipers are working is very large and the provision as standard of windscreen washers makes for safer operating in dirty conditions.
Easy Access The amenities provided to the engineering staff by the tilting of the cab have been well expounded over the past few months in The Commercial Motor. It is enough for me to say that in my . opinion there is more accessibility to the ' top half of the engine in this cab with the bonnet top removed than was to be found in many of the older, forwardcontrol cabs which this company has fitted over the years. With the cab tilted, of course, maintenance is a very much simpler proposition than it has been in the past, and coupled with the increased driver comfort—and, I would think, much greater serviceability than has been the case in the past--I consider that the Ergonomic cab must find a welcome in the transport world,