No More Twin Steers, Although He Likes Them
Page 56
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AWELL-KNOWN Worcester haulier, Fred Taylor, likes twin-steer sixwheelers because they give a very valuable saving in tyre costs. Not only is the number of tyres reduced by two, compared with a six-wheeler with twin rearaxles, but the elimination of scrub on corners increases the mileage of a set of tyres from around 60,000 to 80,000100,000. Mr. Taylor has, however, decided to replace his twin steers with sixwheelers of the tandem rear-axle type
with a trailing axle. .
A few weeks ago, one of the twin steers in his fleet of 10 vehicles was stopped by the Cheshire police for a weighbridge check, and although the gross load was only 18 tons 14 cwt„ the recorded load on the rear axle was 10 tons, despite the fact that the load of sacks was gradientstacked to concentrate the greatest weight at the front. If the weighbridge loading was correct (which Mr. Taylor doubts)
c26 this means that the minimum weight penalty of employing a twin steer is at least two tons.
When the weight on the rear axle was measured the vehicle was backed on to the platform of the weighbridge until the rear wheels were located within a few feet of the far end and the front wheels were standing on hard ground just clear of the forward end. Mr. Taylor considers that the axle weight should have been checked With the wheels on the centre-line of the platform, and judging by confirmed reports of faulty weighbridge readings this may be valid reasoning.
No charge was made against the driver or the company, but the police warned Mr. Taylor that a repeat infringement of the regulations would result in a prosecution. Unfortunately the vehicle's load was removed when the vehicle returned to base before Mr. Taylor could arrange a recheck on the local weighbridge.
Trailing-axle six-wheelers will be purchased in preference to vehicles with twin driving axles, because experience has shown that far less mechanical trouble is experienced if only one axle is driven, the conclusion being that high stresses are created by twin drive (without a third differential) by virtue of wind-up in the mechanism.
What would be the cost of fitting a multi-wheel vehicle with self-steering rear axles? Mr. Taylor would not be the only one who would givevery serious consideration to the purchase of such a vehicle if the cost were reasonable.
It is pertinent that in the May 18 issue of The Commercial Motor men don was made in the patents page of a DaimlerBenz tandem-axle layout in which each axle automatically adopts the most suitable angle when the vehicle is rounding a curve. Movement of the axles is damped, and if necessary they can be locked in
the straight-ahead position. P.A.C.B.