Ingenious Cross-country Trailer for Carrying Army Tanks
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Unique Vehicle with Many Ingenious Features Built by Cranes Concern AT the request of and in collaboration with the War Office, Cranes (Dereham), Ltd„ Dereham, Norfolk, has designed and produced a unique trailer mounted on ten pneumatictyred wheels. It has been expressly constructed for carrying army Tanks.
The chief features of the vehicle are its extreme flexibility, its low loading height and its surprising stability under the most gruelling conditions. *Ale from solid-drawn tube, the front axle has a fabricated steering pivot, the movement of which is damped by a spring-loaded friction disc. It is equipped with independent overrun brakes, operable by a slight movement on the drawbar brackets.
The steering pivot is coupled to the main portion of the vehicle through a central tubular backbone which is located inside two sleeves attached to the main frame, the backbone having rotational and
• limited sliding motion damped by friction.
In order to obtain a low platform, small diameter wheels have been used at the back. Small wheels ordinarily have a poor crosscountry performance, but, by a special form of suspension, this defect has been largely overcome. All the rear wheels swing in a vertical plane about a point in front of and above the wheel centre ; they are also interconnected in such a manner as to limit load transference during articulation and braking. Further, to assist in crossing obstacles, the forward line of rear wheels is less heavily laden than the rear four.
Brakes are applied by overrun action on all wheels, the retardation of the front bogie being used to apply the brakes on the rear wheels, via the sliding backbone. Full trailer braking is thus obtained with a minimum of push from the tractor and without intercoupling of the tractor and trailer brakes.
The two front wheels are shod with
9.00 by 20 tyres and the eight rear wheels with 8.25 by 10 tyres. Weighing 46 cwt. complete, this trailer is designed to carry 5-ton loads across country. A winch is fixed to the front of the vehicle and two light loading ramps are provided at the back. These can be adjusted in respect of their distance apart, to suit Tanks of different truck widths. Broken-down Tanks can by this means be loaded quickly under all conditions of active service. The ramps are reversible, having one side steel plated, so that a Tank with jammed tracks can be slipped up the steel surface of the ramps.