US rental drive in UK
Page 20
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• Claimed to be the largest commercial vehicle rental company in the world, Ryder Truck Rental, of Miami, Florida, is preparing to enter the van and truck rental field in Britain in the near future. Business is already being canvassed, and as well as short-term (daily, weekly, monthly) rental it will engage in long-term contract hire.
As revealed in an article on pages 51/2 of this issue. Ryder's rental services have been built up on vehicles specified for reliability and long life, with many special features. This practice will be carried over into the UK, where types from 5cwt vans to 32ton trucks will be offered.
Ryder has ordered Bedford CF and Ford Transit vans with petrol engines, and these will later be fitted with US ignition interrupters to avoid damage from overspeeding. In the next class Commer 2ton Walk-Thru and Bedford-Hawson vans have been specified, and these will have slam doors where possible. based on experience which shows them to give less trouble than sliding doors. Dry cartridge engine air cleaners have been specified in place of oilbath types.
Fodens have been chosen initially for the top end of the range, the 32-tonner with Cummins NHK 250 specially derated to 220 bhp gross; Ryder is a great Cummins user and operates 7600 engines of this type in the States, 800 of them turbocharged. Ryders have specified the Cummins spin-on corrosion resistor; this replaceable cartridge makes checking of coolant condition easier. A large-capacity sump gives 3gal extra oil capacity, and a 750cc external oil filter is fitted.
Kysor radiator shutters are specified on all vehicles, and the Fodens will have a very large 16in. Cyclopac air filter, while it is apparently typical of Ryder attention to installation details that the filter's pressure restriction is checked by water manometer. It should read 5in. of water when new, and the filter is changed when the reading reaches 20in.
Behind the Cummins is a 17in. single dry-plate clutch, though Ryder would have preferred a 14in. Lipe Rollway twin-plate if it could have been arranged in time. The gearbox is the Foden 12-speed. but in the USA Ryder specifies the Fuller RI 910 with gear splits of 24 to 27 per cent. This has given long, trouble-free life, with fewer than 15 per cent of the boxes needing overhauls before 350,000 miles. The RT 909, more popular in this country, has gear splits of 34 to 36 per cent, which Ryder considers too great for optimum performance.
In the USA Ryder insists on radiator hoses in silicon rubber to last the life of the vehicle, while even lamp bulbs have been redesigned—to take. at slightly higher cost, molybdenum element poles in place of nickel; developed by GEC, they are said to give tenfold bulb life. Tail-lamp lenses are specified in Lexan, a polycarbonate plastic with great impact strength.
Even the paint finish is specified; in the States it is acrylic but until this type is readily available over here a top-quality ICI finish will be used.
1000 trainees approved
• The Department of Employment has given approval to the RTITB's plan (CM Sept 17) to train another 1000 redundant men as hgv drivers.