Chariots of War I Have Driven.
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No. 5. —THE DAIMLER.
Personal Experiences with Daimlers in France.
By One of Our "Despatches" Contributors.
is probable that, of all the many 'motor factories whose products are in use by the Britis4 Armies, none has contributed so many chassis and components as the Daimler factories, not even excepting those turning out the everevident Ford. Wherever one goes behind the Western Front, Daimlers. are features of the landscape. Consequently, thousands of drivers have obtained experience, or added to, previous knowledge, of Daimler cars ' and lorries ; and many have come to swear by them—not at them, as is the case with some makes I Daimlers of every kind, type and age seem to be represented from the latest arrivals "lust come out" to old impressed motorbus chassis or lorries which arrived on the scene in 1914, and are still running. • Daimler touring cars, landaulets, limousines, light and heavy lorries and delivery vans—one could not escape them if one would, but their silence and sv‘eet running make them rather attractive than otherwise. Then, of course, there are Foster-Daimler tractors for big gun haulage, to which the great Coventry workshops contribute some of the principal units, and last, but by no means least, the Tanks, in whkh are embodied important components of Daimler manufacture.
One of the chief attractions of Dainikr lorries for the driver is their, extreme simplicity. The number of parts that go to make up a Daimler lorry chassis is rather less than usual, so the ordinary driver finds those minor but constant attentions demanded by e30 every war lorry well within his scope during the intervals between
frequent 'journeys. One might almost say that Daimlers require rather less attention thau other makes. For example, the flexible ring, leather or composition couplings do not need lubrication, and they make no. demand" on the driver's time, except for an occasional inspection, and, possibly, tightening of the bolts. The absence of separate torque or thrust members involves a minimum of lubrication and cleaning time There e no external pipes, gauges, indicators or pimps forming parts of the engine lubrication system. Oil has only to be poured into the crankcase filler, and the
lubrication then takes care of itaelf. These are points which commend themselves to drivers and make for the most efficient maintenance of a chassis by reducing the number of parts that have to be regularly watched, cleaned, lubricated or tightened.
No mistake can be made about over-oiling the motor or back axle, because the maximum oil level is determined by the height of the fillers. One merely pours in as much oil as is needed to fill right up, which method is the acme of simplicity. It has seemed to me that the filler lids could be improved on by the addition of a rim to exclude dirt. At present, unless one has time and material for_carefully cleaning the filler and lid, there is great danger of road dirt which has _collected on these parts falling into the crankcase or. Kear axle when the lid is raised. Another detail • which might easily be improved is the priming oil cup, of which there are two on the induction pipe. The provision of a dust Covet which could move synchronously with the handle of the tap would save grit or other foreign matter collecting in these cups. At present the careful driver wipes out the grit, but the less careful lets it be sucked in with the oil, to the detriment of cylin ders, sleeves and pistons.
I have had personal experience of several Daimler lorries on war service, but have been the official skipper of only one. She was an ex-commercial lorry, already in the " aged " class before being impressed for duty as a war chariot.
In the latter capacity I imagine she must have had a rather rough time, judging by her appearance and condition when I took her over. A crack in the upper part of the crankcase had been imperfectly repaired with a patch, so that V winked at us when the engine was running and wept copious quantities of oil. Bolts and spring pins, brake Sand control joints were much. worn. The road springs, especially_ the rear pair, had rusted until they were practically a solid mass of cambered steel plates incapable of deflection until loaded far beyond the three tons which was the nominal useful load of this lorry. Consequently driving empty or with ordinary loads was a truly awfel experience for driver, lorry and loads alike. About three-fourths of our running was on pave, more or less worn, which tended to make matters worse. Two out of three
loads consisted of live men in khaki, who came to regard this lorry with decided aversion, preferring slower but less uncomfortable lorries when there was any choice to be exercised.
Troubles naturally developed from the excessive vibration set up by this rusted condition of the springs. Bolts securing the springs to the axles constantly worked loose, wore, stretched and sometimes broke. Tires suffered severely, and the bodywork fell to pieces almost as fast as we could patch it up. We lost more than one trap door from the floor of the body,The east aluminium brackets on which the fuel tank was mounted broke in pieces, and had to be replaced by wood packing. Dashboard brackets snapped, the breakage of mudguard irons was almost a daily occurrence, and finally the whole lorry attained a general condition which justified her removal to Base repair shops for complete overhaul.
As a rule, the adequacy of the springing of Daimler lorries is less open to criticism than that of most solid-tired road vehicles. Their adoption for passenger work on such a large scale, and the use of an exactly similar system of suspension on Ii.G.O.C. vehicles is a striking tribute to the comparative efficiency of this particular type of springing. Perhaps, too, the Daimler's resiliency has largely contributed to its success on war transport, a success attained despite features of design that were unacceptable to the •War Office M.T. Committee prior to the war, features which, it was generally considered, would not stand up under the onerous conditions of war service. While on this subject of suspension, I may say that there appears to be more scope for improvements in springs than in any other feature of the war lorry, and it will be interesting to see what suspension developments will appear in the super-lorry which, presumably, will be evolved from experience gained in the exacting tests to which solid-tired transport is being subjected in the war. I have noticed very few efforts to introduce suspension improvements in the latest models. Hitherto nearly all makers have used the type of springing employed on cheap and medium class passenger i
cars, .e., four semi-elliptic springs. They have made no adequate provision for insulating the chassis and body when filo load is carried. Obviously some different arrangement is desirable for a vehicle of which the unladen weight is only 50 per cent. of the laden weight, as in the case of the average three or four-ton lorry, more especially as the speed of the vehicle increases as the adequacy of the springs to
absorb shocks from road surfaces decreases.
It cannot be denied that the vibration to which an empty lorry is subjected on bad roads is serious, and has a bad effect on the vehicle, besides necessitating parts being made much stronger, and consequently heavier, thereby adding to the cost ef production and operation. In fact, radical improvement in suspension will automatically. solve other problems and difficulties.
The bolts securing road springs to axles of Daimlers, and all solidtired vehicles on war service, need very careful watching by the driver, and tightening if at all loose. This precaution is specially needful when, as on the Daimler, the rear springs do duty as torque members.
One of my pet ideas being the substitution of large" oil cups for screw-down greasers, I was pleased with the oil cups for lubrication of the spring shackle bolts provided on my old friend of the rusted up springs. Another feature that pleased me greatly was the silent-chain threespeed gearbox. It was noticeably quieter than any ordinary spurpinion gearbox. She was,, like all war lorries on active service, an open-air vehicle, standing in the open whether parked up or undergoing repair, or awaiting a load. A defective bonnet permitted rain to collect in the deep recesses in the combustion heads, so that before starting up after a heavy shower, it was necessary to soak up the water which had collected round the sparking plugs and dry the plugs. Another driver who experienced this trouble fitted cardboard discs over his plugs with a view to keeping out the wet, but, of course, the discs got soaked and then provided a first-class short-circuitifig medium for the elusive current.
My carburetter was a Smith's four-jet, and had been so adjusted. • that acceleration' power and starting were all that could be desired. I do not know about petrol consumption, because in those days we kept no record. , The power was remarkable, and I have yet to come across a similar engine which, will equal her ; evidently the mishap which broke the crankcase had been effectually dealt with, although one might. have made a better job of the crankcase. There was no tendency to knock or clank, whether light or overloaded. One 'effect of the wear and tear and abnormal vibration was the snapping of .the exhaust pipe close up to the manifold. This happened about 2 a.m., when I was returning from the trenches with a load of men. The flaming exhaust gases ignited the oil, of which a fair quantity was spattered over the engine and caused me to stop suddenly, grab my fire extinguisher, and rush round to put out the fire-. Howevu, it had burnt itself out in a fewPseconds and caused no damage"; so we were able to run the two or three miles back to billets without troubling to patch up.
This old lorry had cast-steel wheels with webbed spokes, except that one of the front wheels had tubular spokes and was much easier to clean than the other. three. The first-named wheels present an abnormally large surface for the collection of tenacious rand. Do makers ever look at these /batters from the driver's and cleaner's point of view? Mention of road wheels reminds' mo of a strange aecident that befel
one of our Daimlers last sumnier. The front wheels were fitted with safety rings bolted to the rims to prevent the tire, should it work loose, slipping off and becoming entangled with the steering. A tire of this particular lorry was worn a good deal, and the safety ring had struck a stone, which caused it to bulge , away from the rim at one point. At a critical moment on a, slippery road the driver had to use full lock to avoid the inevitable French cart ; the bulged part of the safety rim caught a, front spring shackle and locked the steering. The lorry promptly Blithered into a ditch, striking a huge stone, which broke both front springs and caused considerable damage. The salvage of that lorry was a job that occupied the best .part of a day.
The two-ton " C.B." Daimler is rated 30 cwt. when employed as a war chariot. One of these mediumweight lorries was attached to my unit for a period of 18 months, after which, owing.. to re-arrangements of transport, she was transferred elsewhere. Her generally satisfactory career was only marred by frequent tire and front spring troubles. Without doubt, front. tires of 110 mm. section in place of the 90 min. employed would have considerably improved her war efficiency. The indirect gears of this lorry were strikingly noisy by comparison with the chain gearbox of my own lorry. The gear change on these "OB." Daimlers is difficult at first, until one gets used to the very powerful clutch brake, the actual, method of changing gear depending on how the clutch brake is adjusted. Several drivers handled our `..` C.B.," and most of them had initial trouble with the gear change, so that whenever we inspected the gears I 'feared to see a mangled mess. To any surprise, however, the gears looked as new after nearly two years on war service as before, and, in spite of the. mishandling they had received. This little lorry, was always in demand as a sort of runabout, but occasionally she had to carry her full load, and perhaps a bit over. Once she was not pulling well and jibbed at a se_yere hill, so the driver got a steam roller that happened to be " rolling " at the spot to give him a tow. A Daimler was one of a number of lorries that were towed over a bad patch in an R.E. park a few weeks ago by a small locomotive running on one of the numerous light railways. From the driver's standpoint, the sleeve-valve engine keeps clean. and is easy to Clean, besides running like silk, until considerable wear warrants the renewal of sleeves or junk rings. At that stage the driver realizes the similarity. to poppet-valve engines, in that "When' they are good they are very, very good, but when they're bad they're horrid." During frost, especially such frost as we have emir perienced this year, the Daimler driver needs to be scrupulously careful to remove the water from combustion head jackets with a syringe, as recommended by the makers, and he will do well to wait until the water has become lukewarm before carrying out this operation, so as to minimize the risk of condensation of steam, which is afterwards liable to freeze.,