The Motor Drivers News.
Page 17
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A Good Year's Work.
" B.P." (Glamorgan) sends the following notes ;---" Now that the year 1907 has passed, I think that an account of my last F2 months' work with a steam lorry would be possibly of interest to many. My daily run is about 22 miles, and eight miles of this distance have to be done in low gear, owing to the number of steep hills, some of which have a gradient of as much as i in 7; this, I think, one will admit is fairly stiff, the wagon being often loaded up to its top weight. The vehicle ran for six days in every week throughout the year, excepting five days last January when the snow was too deep; it also did not run on Bank holidays. What running repairs were required, I did myself during the night or on Sundays. Considering that this is the third year during which this wagon has been used, I think it speaks well for the design and material used in its construction, and, also, I think that I myself can justly claim a fair share of this success. Steam wagons are second to none for economical -running if they are cared for properly."
Repairing a Boiler Tube.
" T.P." (Reading) writes : " I was driving my wagon
along a country road in a hilly part of Scotland, sOme time ago, and I had had a satisfactory run of somewhere about 45 miles. I was going down a hill when, all at once, there was a roar from the !boiler, and 1, and my mate, were enveloped in hot steam. I pulled the wagon up as soon as I could, and then started to make an examination to find out the cause of the noise and steam, and I found, as I had expected, that one of the boiler tubes had collapsed rather badly some distance above the crown plate. I happened to have noticed a blacksmith's shop. some little way back, so I went to the place and got the man to cut me a length of a-inch steel rod. He screwed it for a length of about three inches at each end, and fitted nuts. I then asked him to cut me four washers, two iron ones, and two cut from 4inch lead. I returned to the wagon and started to repair the damage—the fire had been drawn before I went to the blacksmith's shop. I put a nut on one end of the rod and then dropped an iron washer next to it, and then a leaden one. The rod was next passed downwards through the broken tube and the remaining washers and nut were put upon the lower end; both top and bottom nuts were then screwed up tightly; we got up steam and found that the tube did not leak at all and we had no further trouble with it."
A Broken Differential Shaft.
"
SOB." (London) writes :—" I beg to send you an account of a very simple but useful contrivance which I made on one occasion some years ago, to enable me to drive a broken-down motor vehicle home to a repair shop. The car had been in a collision, with the result that the differential cross-shaft had been twisted right off close U p to One of the sprockets. I had taken another vehicle to the point where the accident had happened, to tow No. i' home, but, when I tried to pull the vehicle, I found that my motor was not powerful enough, as the roads were extremely heavy, and the hills bad—the incident happened. in Devonshire. My vehicle was, owing to being light, short of adhe sion, so I had to give up the idea of towing the second one home. I had, consequently, to devise some means whereby I could use the engine of the broken-down car. The only thing that I could think of was to clip the broken half of the differential shaft in such a manner that I could drive through a single chain, and this, with the help of `No. a', enabled me In get home without much difficulty. The illustration will show how 1 managed the job. First of all I went to a local blacksmith, who happened to live some considerable way off, and I got. him to make me the clip in two portions, the lower half having a leg turned inwards at a right angle to the shaft and of such a length that the end of the inturne-d portion would fall on the casing of the gearbox. The complete clip was bolted together as shown in the illustration. I then started up the engine and was glad to see that the scheme worked most successfully in practice.
" A clip such as this one, or of some similar pattern, should, I think, be carried on every chain-driven vehicle, because I feel sure that it would often come in most useful on occasion. I do not for a moment intend to convey the idea that differential Shafts often break, but we all know that chains do, now and then, give way, and it would be a great thing to be able to come home on one chain without having to contrive something by the roadside. A clip should be in the tool kit of drivers of delivery vans which have to make long country rounds, as it would save traders and purchasers much annoyance from delayed goods."
[The course adopted by " S.O.B.," although ingenious, it rather liable to fracture the casing, which it called upon to take all the drivi»g strains. A. better plan would be to anchor the clip under the side member of the frame and lash it there.—End
Non-slipping Tread p for Steam Wagons.
" M.O." (Wolverton) writes on the i3th instant :—" With reference to the letter which appeared in your issue of the 26th December from (Keighley), I beg to say that I, tried his '.dodge ' to prevent skidding as far back as the year 1903. I was, at that time, driving in the North Country, and I had to take my vehicle over some very bad roads and through towns whose street surfaces were laid with setts. My first attempt was with hempen rope, but this only lasted for a very short time, in fact hardly long enough to warrant the trouble of laying it round the tire. Then I, like was fortunate enough to gain access to a yard in which there was a huge pile of old steel cable. I tried this with great success, although wrapping the material over the wheels was rather a long and tedious process. I was, however, so pleased with the result that I determined always to adopt it. There was, I remember, one very bad hill with a gradient of about i in 8 in a certain town, and this hill was covered with cobbles. In wet, or frosty, weather it used to take me sometimes as much as an hour to get up it with a lead on, and it did more harm to the engine and transmission generally than a straight run of many miles. After I had fitted the cable tread,' I had no further trouble, and I was able to sail up the hill in tine style, with the result that I, and my mate, got home much earlier than was formerly the case. I think it would be a very goad plan if owners of steel-tired vehicles would keep a spare pair of wheels ready furnished with the cable tread,' so that, when Frost or snow did come, they might be substituted for the plain wheels. I am perfectly certain that by doing this the vehicles would have a much longer 'life ' than is at present the case. Very few, beyond the manufacturers themselves, who have to bear the brunt of it, know what a tremendous amount of strain is set up in a wagon when it attempts to get to the top of a slippery hill with -a full load on the platform. I have, on many occasions, marvelled that the machinery did not break up altogether under the severe conditions imposed upon it. In one way, the petrol-driven vehicle has a smaller strain to bear than a steam-driven one, because, if the vehicle has had to stop on a hill owing to want of adhesion on the part of the tires, the driver has only to accelerate the speed of the motor, to make another attempt, whereas, in a steamer,' it is frequently necessary to pull over the reversing lever to get a jump ' on, and, by altering the direction of rotation, an enormousstrain is set up. By keeping a set of -non-skid wheels ready, this trouble would be avoided."