LESSENING LABOUR IN LOADING.
Page 13
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Details of a Simple but Effective Sliding Roof Fitted on a Van Body.
T IS NOW understood, by all those experienced in the use of motor vehicles for the transport of goods, that the tenefits.which acorne from their use can only be taken full. advantage of if the vehicles are kept. ruiming for the maximum amount of time possible, and the time taken-in loading and unloading
restricted accordingly. Methods whicki facilitate these functions are always of interest, though sometimes the suggestions are of such a complicated nature that their use would he too expensive or would absorb too much labour.
A 4-ton petrol-electric van, which was recently supplied by .Tilling-Stevens, Ltd., of Victoria Works, Maidstone,. is fitted with a, novel 'device in the shape of a sliding roofor, rather, half roof.
The vehicle was to the order of Messrs. Carr and Son,the blacking and polish manufacturers. Practically all the goods transported by this vehicle consist of heavy cases of blacking, etc., and the sliding roof is so designed that, by the use of a crane, these heavy cases can be lifted. directly into the vehicle whilst loading or directly out of it whilst unloading. Should the cases be too large to . pass through the aperture formed by sliding back the half ronf. they can be lifted slightly by the crane and the vehicle driven forward, thus disengaging the cases whilst suspended; alternately, if the crane is movable the crane itself can be .moved back carrying the goods. The device is so simple and its operation so • easy that it is somewhat, surprising to find that few, if any, sliding roofs baves.-previously been fitted.
The drawing which we reproduce shows clearly the essential details of its
construction. Half the roof is covered in in the ordinary vfay, but the other half is left open. Supporting struts or slides are fixed the whole length . of the roof, • and on these slides rests the movabla half. At the rear end bf the sliding portion is a hinged flap which, when turned down, prevents the roof from moving back under the effects of .vibralion. At the end of the fixed portion of the roof is a stop, which prevents -the sliding portion from being pulled too far O ff the runners.
It will be seen that by the use of this device the vehicle retains all the advantages of the covered vehicle _without its disadvarth,ges, as, unless such a device is employed, the goods must be moved up to or on to the tailboard before a create or blocks and tackle can be brought into operation. Such labour and time-saving devices have a. good deal to recommend them, and we shall be very glad to receive particulars of others which have proved of such use in speeding up loading and unloading as to merit publicity.
Several modifications in this sliding roof arrangement will no doubt suggest themselves to those of our readers who are interested in the subject, and whose vehicles deal with heavy loads which at present require an undue amount of manual labour; for instance, it would be quite easy to arrange a section of the roof so.that, an opening is left. over the whole length of the body; it. would also be possible to utilize a flap, hinged so that it opens in a longitudinal direction.
This would seem a very cheap and easy method of operation. Though somewhat more ,complicated, some form of sliding slat or venetian blind' device might also be effective, but
it is naturally impossible to .Standardize any arrangement of this kind, as so muck depends upon. the. class of work which the body is called.upon to deal with and the manner in which loading and unloading is required to be performed. In certain cases the provision of sliding pane's at the sides of the body might ,`prove useful for loading and unloading against a loading platform.
Though a little more intricate and necessitating strengthening of the body
structure, it would be possible to m a central girder provided with blocks and tackle on runners. The girder could be made' of such a. length as to project slightly over the tailboard. Articles could then be lifted by the tackle and run into tbe required position in the lorry, and. loading or unloading could easily be done from the ground level.