THE NEW 31-TON CLYDESDALE.
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A Product Resulting from the Collaboration of British and American Engineers.
A CHASSIS' which-is of particular in
terest, as it is a design resulting from the collaboration of British and American engineers; lis: the 3k-ton Clydesdale, model L.65 B, called by the makers a bus chassis, the concessionnaires for which are Whiting '(1915), Ltd. 334-340, Euston Road, London, N.W. 1.
Many American lorries which we have seen have a somewhat crude appearance which does not tend to make them .popular with either the British user or engineer, but the new Clydesdale bears a
marked resemblance to some of the best British-built lorries.
Some time aga same of the engineers who assisted in designing the A.E.C. lorry were induced to go to America, there to collaborate with American designers in producing this new chassis. Vehicles of the same make and of a somewhat similar type have 'been rimfling in England for some ,years, and, apart from a few details, gave every satisfaction. The details which proved defective have now been re-designed; for instance, the radiator gave trouble through overheating of the water ; in the new model it has a 75 per cent. greater cooling surface. A certain number of spring breakages were experienced, so that new springs have been redesigned with thicker and wider leaves. The gearbox has been deepened and the width of the gears increased. The new chassis has a 40 h.p. inoderate-speect Continental four-cylinder engine with the cylinders cast -in pairs; its actual b.h.p. is 38at 1,000 r.p.m., and 47 at 1,500 r.p.rn. Ignition is by American-made Bosch magneto, and a Zenith carburetter is provided. Evidence of the influence of the A.EM. design is seen in the radiator, which is of the vertical tube and cast aluminium type, seamless copper tubes being expanded and soldered into brass plates to which are bolted aluminium top and bottom tanks, the whole being supported by aluminium side members and carried on coil springs. (cast aluminium radiator guard is embodied in the oonstructiaa.
The cooling water is circulated by pump, driven off the same shaft as the magneto, governor and fan pulley. The magneto drive is through. a flexible leather coupling, and the governor, which is of the centrifugal type, has skew gears. This governor is not of the ordinary type and the title is somewhat of a misnomer; perhaps controller is a better terra to use, for the driver can set the engine to run at any speed within its capabilities, and this speed is maintained either up or down hill, the controller acting directly on the throttle; in addition, it has a maximum speed setting.
The drive from the engine is taken through a multiple dry-disc clutch which is totally enclosed in a continuation of the crankcase casting ; incidentally, arms extending from this continuation form two points of the unit's three-point suspension, the front portion of the engine being slung from arigid bracket which bridges the frame.
The gearbox is remarkably compact, though, on inspection, the gear a proved to be of ample width, and the shafts, whir% are squared to carry the gears, are short and stout. Four speeds and a reverse are provided with direct drive on top gear.
The change-speed lever is mounted in a quadrant and pivots on this to left or right so that -when drawn right back it gives either second, fourth crr reverse speeds, and when right forward first and third, according to the side to which it is pushed ; a neat safety catch prevents the driver getting into reverse by accident.
From the gearbox the drive is taken through double universal joints to an overhead worm-driven back axle of somewhat novel design and fitted with Timken roller bearings. The axle itself is of the horizontal-banjo type and consists of two steel pressings which are welded together in a line which rune through the centre of the axle on a plane with the banjo. The construction is such that, by removing the hub cape, the axle shafts may be withdrawn and the whole of the worm gear and differential dismantled without interfering with the rest of the axle orremoving the Wheels.
The ends of the axle are of square section, and-the spring seatings are mounted direct on to it, no pressed-in steel tubes being used. The axle has stout malleable iron radius rods which are swivel mounted.
The frame, which is of the pressed channel-steel type and perfectly straight, has a width of 8 ins, at the centre, and the thickness of the material is k in. ; the flange is 3 in.s, wide throughout, but the flame tapers to the front and rear. The wheels are of the artillery type with very wide large-diameter brake. drums. The foot and hand brakes both operate on the same drums by means of shoes, each of which operates over a quarter of the circumference of the drum. The springs are semi-elliptic, made of silicoananganese steel; they are of amplelength and width.
Much attention has been paid to details, suchas grease. cups ; the spring eyes are bushed with phosphor bronze; the starting handle swivels round a central bolt and fits into a dip when not in use; a spring adjustment is provided for thefan, which is mounted on ball bearings; the -carburetter has a flexible, metallic, hot-air pipe which draws its supply from a muff surrounding the exhaust pipe; the gearbox has detachable housings for its bearings so that the gears and shafts may be withdrawn without otherwise disturbing it; towing hooks are bolted to the frame.