AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
Page 20
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The Tractor as Affected by the Various Acts and By-Laws.
In the spring of 1017, when the Government woke up to the• fact that intensive cultivation, or rather extensive cultivation, was essential to the safety of the country and realized that if the situation was to be saved it would be the tractor that would do it, it also realized the fact that if American tractors, which were practically at that time the only ones obtainable, were used, their employment would be greatly interfered with if the different provisions of various Highway Acts and By-laws, then existent, were enforced.. , It was known that many of such machines were not built in accordance with requirements and, if they were to be used without police interference, the. provisions of these enactments, so far as they relate to tractors, must for the time being be abrogated and accordingly it abrogated thetn. Notably was this done in regard to the provisions relating to wheel construction, which forbade the use of projections on the face of the wheels,. likely to prove detrimental to the surface of the road.
Accordingly, although, in spite of this, the officials in seine parts of the country proved troublesome until the' situation had been brought home to them, tractor ownersinet with little interference with their work when doing haulage upon the high road, or travelling from field to farm. But, now that the war is over, local authorities are beginning to assert themselves once more, and it is anticipated that, with the 'official terminition of the war, the latitude \ vhich has been allowed to tractor users will very likely be terminated, and the Tractor Committee of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has issued a selection of passages extracted from the various Acts and Regulations which apply, so that tractor owners, importers and constiuctors, may examine their machines and take the necessary steps to render them unobjectionable to 'the authorities on any points of detail in which they may transgress.
A perusal. of these extracts shows that one of the principal causes of. difficulty is likely to arise in regard to wheel, or tread, construction.° Many American tractors, both of wheeled and chain tread construction, undoubtedly da transgress, in that they are provided with permanently attached projeotions, or grippers, which enable them to obtain a hold on the soil of the field on which they, are working. 'Those projections will undoubtedly not pass muster as allowable for use on macadam roads, when the hand of authority once more asserts itself, and the other chief discrepancy from requirements will be found to be the absence of sufficient brake power.
Tractors are not exempted from the conditions which require that 'all self-propelled wheeled vehicles with I.U. engines must be provided with two independent brakes, each powerful enough to hold the machine on a steep gradient. Here, practically all tractors and not only imported ones fail, as few of them are provided with more than one brake, and many of them indeed have none at all.
Brakes ire, of course, quite useless encumbrances when a tractor is engaged in its legitimate work of ploughing, or pulling some other implement through the soil. Not only is the machine then travelling on soft soil which is itself a hindrance to progress, but the implement digging into the soil, even when operating down a steep gradient, acts as a very efficient anchor' but the case is entirely altered when a tractor is used for hauling loads on wheeled vehicles on hard road surfaces. Here we have no bar to progress in the road surface and, in addition, the drawn wagons roll freely on the road and respond to every, change of the incline, and on a down grade they are all the time pushing the tractor along before them, and it is by no means inconceivable that a tractor with a tram of wagons might get away on a steep gradient, with disastrous consequences. The provisions of the Act therefore in this respect are not unwarranted, and brake power on the tractor is certainly needed for such work, more especially as few farm wagons are provided with brakes and, if they are, they are rarely very effective. The brakes on al. tractor which is to be used for road haulage have to be sufficiently effective to control the progress, not only of the tractor on which they are fitted, but of the tractor with the added weight of the rolling wagons pushing along behind it.
At the same time it must be remembered that the I.C.-engined tractor, if provided with one really efficient mechanical brake, does not actually require another. It possesses in its throttled engine, in conjunction with its enormous transmission reduction, a checking power which is irresistible, especially if it has two gears and the machine is running on its lowest, and this fact should be recognized by the authorities ; although, until the wording of the Act is amended, I doubt that the plea, would be effective if the pollee thought fit to institute proceedings. So long aa the law. says two mechanical brakes must be fitted, so long will the police hold the tractor owner to its provisions. As a matter of fact, where the second brake is wanted and where it very rarely is and where it is not required at all by law, is on the
drawn wagons.. AGRIMOT.