IS THE MILEAGE GUARANTEE WANTED?
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_.. Actual Facts from a User.
THE QUESTION of tyres has always exercised , the mind of the commercial vehicle owner. ... When he buys a vehicle he is doubtful whether he ought to depreciate it at its total cost or less the tyres, taking the tyres as a running expense. If he liursues the latter course he probably starts straightway to keep a record of the Mileage of his tyres. When he only has one vehicle this is a fairly simple proposition. He fixes a reliable mileage recorder and takes this from time to time. As the fleet grows. however, and particularly if he adopts a system of having spare wheels, the problem is much more complicated. It is then necessary to keep a record book or cards showing the mileage done on each partidular wheel, and the location of the wheel according to the vehicle it is on.
In view of the present controversy with regard to mileage guarantees of tyres, the following partienars with regard to the mileage done by a. representative number. of wheels 'belonging. to a large user will undoubtedly be of interest. It will be noticed that in all, particulars are given of 43 tyres. These tyres are mostly fitted On 30 cwt Thornycrofts, several are on 2,3 ton Austins, and some on 3 ton Sentinel steamers. It will be seen that the highest mileage on any tyre is 264360, whilst the lowest mileage appears to be 2,648. Particulars are not available aslo whether the early failure of this tyre was due to any inherent defect or had treatment, such as sharp tramlines, etc. The individual mileages of each wheel are given so that the discrepancies in mileage can be seen.
It will be observed that on the whole the average mileag3 per tyre was about 12,000. As was to be 04.4
expected the front wheels did about 1,000 miles more than the rear ones. These tyres were all under guarantee for 10,000 miles, and the effect of this was that on the tyres below the guaranteed figure a nilbate was claimed, while on the tyres uldch did more than the 10,000 miles the user reaped the advantage. This seems to be the gist of the matter with regard to the new arrangement under which no guarantee is given. As will be seen by the average figure of 12,000 Miles per tyre the user will generally get more than 10,000 miles out of the tyre ; to this extent he will be in exactly the same position as if the tyres were guaranteed a certain Mileage. Where he will lose will be in that he will get no rebate for tyres which only do 2,000-4,000 miles.
It will be. noticed that in the accompanying list there are 16 tyres for which a rebate would have been claimed, in some eases for quite a substantial amount..
The following mileages were obtained with fron1 wheel tyres :-21;312; 21,167; 20,253; 16,980; 15,769; 15,175 ; 15,045; 13,015 ' • 12,780; 12,725; 12,470; 12,176; 11,954; 11,462; 11,066.; 10,130; 9:957; 9,957; 9,609'; • 9,504; 7,1745 ; 7,083; 6,657; 4,109. From rear tyres the following mileages were obtained :-26,360;