White Truck With Tilt Cab on Show
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A N American White 3,000 truck, the
basis of a demountable Cummins display unit, is on view outside Olympia, London, during the Engineering, Marine, Welding and Nuclear Energy Exhibition, which opened on April 16 and closes on April 30.
Although the twin-axlecl truck is similar in dimensions to a British 14-ton-gross vehicle, it has a far larger power unit than the British equivalent would have and is rated for a gross weight varying from 40,000 lb. to 60,000 lb., depending on legal limitations.
The Cummins JT6 turbocharged sixcylindered direct-injection oil engine has maximum outputs of 175 b.h.p. at 2,500 r.p.m. and 414 lb.-ft. torque at 1,700 r.p.m. The compressor-air intake may be fed either with cold air from outside the cab or warm air taken from the engine compartment, depending on climatic conditions.
The engine is mounted vertically under the three-man seat in the tilt cab. The cab pivots on the forward end of the chassis frame-and is raised by a hydraulic ram. Pressure for the ram is provided by a pump driven by an electric motor powered from the vehicle batteries.
All the driving controls have universal joints or pivots incorporated in their linkages to allow the cab to be tilted without disconnecting any of them. Safety cItches inside and outside the cab prevent accidental tilting.
The gearbox is a Fuller Roadranger providing eight speeds forward and two in reverse. Direct mechanical operation is employed, with the ratio change effected by air pressure. The drive is taken from the gearbox through a twopiece propeller shaft to the hypoid rear axle. The chassis frame is robust, with pressed channel-section Side members joined by six cross-members.
Air-pressure brakes are fitted all round and a control in the cab alters braking distribution for wet or dry roads by limiting the air pressure applied to the front brakes.
Inside the hall -at Olympia, exhibits on the Leyland stand include • • three torque converters manufactured by them under licence from Self-Changing Gears, Ltd. The three converters shown are 12-in.,13-in. and -17-in.-diameter units, and they are coupled to Leyland U.E.250, U.E.0.350 and P.U.680 directinjection oil engines.
Although intended in these applications for use in earth movers and similar equipment, and not supplied with gearboxes, there seems a reasonable possibility that the converters might eventually be employed possibly coupled to the PneumO-Cyclic gearbox in road vehicles.
START ON BY-PASS
WORK will start next month on a Yv, £21m. road to 'by-pass Maidenhead. Later it will be extended to by-pass Slough and form part of a 24-mile motorway from Chiswick to a point west of Maidenhead.
The first step will be the resumption of work or a bridge over the Thames at Bray, which began before the war. The six-mile Maidenhead by-pass should be completed by the end of next year, when plans for the extension will have been drawn up.