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Semi-trailer Has Air Springs, Rear Steering

22nd August 1958, Page 51
22nd August 1958
Page 51
Page 51, 22nd August 1958 — Semi-trailer Has Air Springs, Rear Steering
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A15-TON semi-trailer incorporating automatically steered rear wheels will be exhibited by Taskers of Andover (1932), Ltd., at the Commercial Motor Show.

Its bogie consists of two oscillating axles mounted side by side on semielliptic springs. The spring hangers are carried on ball-bearing turntables, the two turntables being interconnected by a track-rod. Any prime mover fitted with a standard S.A.E. fifth-wheel coupling may be used with the semi-trailer without modification.

The bogie is steered by changes in the angular movement of the tractor and semi-trailer through the normal king-pin and a spring-loaded tapered block on the semi-trailer which engages with the wedge-shaped opening in the bottom half of the fifth-wheel coupling. The block rotates with the coupling and this movement is transferred to one of the interconnected turntables by mechanical linkages, thus turning the rear axles. Normal coupling and uncoupling of the semi-trailer are unaffected by the steering mechanism.

Another exhibit will be a 15-ton straight-frame semi-trailer with air suspension. The bogie of this semi-trailer also employs twin side-by-side oscillating axles swivelling on beams mounted at their forward ends in rubber bushes and controlled at the rear by cylindrical airsprings operating inside metal cylinders. Telescopic shock absorbers are used and the normal type of height-control and levelling valve is fitted.

FEWER TROLLEYBUSES, SO DEARER ELECTRICITY?

A WARNING that electricity charges

may go up if Belfast Corporation continue to cut their tr011eybus services is given in the annual report of the city electricity department's general manager, Mr. R. P. Watson. He points out that in the last six years consumption for trolleybuses has dropped by nearly a third.

These vehicles were "the cheapest form of public transport," and it had to be borne in mind that special plant had been installed to keep them supplied with current. If they were gradually eliminated, the inevitable repercussion would be higher electricity charges for the transport department and for the public generally.

In reply, Mr. J. Mackie, general manager of the undertaking, has said it is not the policy to reduce trolleybuses, but the fall in passengers had to be matched by reduced services. He could not agree that they were the cheapest form of transport and did not see that the cost of special equipment entered into the matter, as the transport department bore the interest and loan charges for it.

. AMSTERDAM SHOW DATE

THE 1959 Amsterdam Commercial Vehicle Show opens on February 5, 1959, and closes on February 14.

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