97 SMITH'S

20th September 1968, Page 138

20th September 1968

Page 138

Page 138, 20th September 1968 — 97 SMITH'S

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Smith's Electric Vehicles Ltd., Eastern Avenue, Team Valley, Gateshead-on-Tyne, 11.

FOUR of the five electric vehicles exhibited on this stand are dairy trucks. The other is a delivery van and while there are no new models, the two smaller dairy vehicles have a recently introduced change to the electric system.

These particular vehicles are S75 models which are designed for a payload of about 30cwt and the only differences between the two exhibits are that while one is an all-plastics cab, the second has steel framing for the plastics moulding and that one has an insulated section at the forward end of the body for dairy produce whereas the other has an open platform. The platform on both has a capacity for 28 crates providing for the payload to be carried in two layers; the height from the deck to the under side of the canopy is 3ft 6.5in.

Powersaver controllers used on the S75 model employ parallel/ series systems with a delay unit using electronic equipment—the new feature and this saves battery capacity on starting to give improved range.

A Roundsman dairy truck and a Deliveryman van are also exhibited and these two models are basically the same except that the latter has a specification to give it higher speed. As shown, the Deliveryman which has a van body of 150 cuff. capacity can cover 30 miles on one charge, at up to 22 /25 mph with a 1-ton payload. The Roundsman t an cover the same distance on a charge but its maximum speed is 18 /20 mph and as shown, the model can carry 22 cwt on its 30-crate deck. The main difference between these two models and the S75 is that a hypoicl-bevel single-reduction axle is used instead of a double-reduction unit.

The fifth exhibit by Smith's is the bigger S95 dairy truck which has a payload capacity of 2 tons. This also has a plastics cab and canopy and like the S75 vehicles shown has sliding exterior doors—the Deliveryman and the Roundsman have doors which slide into the cab behind the driver and passenger positions. The S95 has a 36-crate deck and a height from the platform to the canopy of 4ft Sin. The controller is different to the 575 in that the electronic system is not incorporated.