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continued Pallex System
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THE PALLEX system is especially interesting, for its inventor, Mr. Harold Poole, has had vast experience of designing special-purpose mechanical-handling equipment. Incidentally, he introduced wheeled farm carts to thousands of African native farmers, enabling many areas with primitive agriculture to flourish.
Developed initially for general off-road use Pallex will soon be available in an on-road/off-rood version. The robust offroad version, illustrated, operates with any standard agricultural tractor and is fitted with a standard tractor hitch. Several types of load carrying platform or container are available and ,special equipment could be specified, or rigged up by the local blacksmith.
The carrier reverses over the loaded pallet and the operation of the hydraulic lever causes the twin hydraulic jacks to raise the lifting arm which engages on the pallet lifting lugs, thus lifting the pallet into the trailer frame, The trailer arm is automatically locked by a safety catch so there is no risk of mishap to the load in the rare event of hydraulic failure. The pallet is locked into the carrier frame when lifted and becomes so much a part of the carrier that all side stresses are carried through the pallet deck. Four safety locks prevent it jumping off on rough ground.
The system is designed for operation on -nuddy and extremely rough groundlotation tyres can be specified. The carrier is built on weight transfer principles with wheels at the rear of the unit so that traction is improved.
The first production pallets are 12ft by 5ft with a load carrying capacity of 5 tons. The carrier is 20ft overall and 8ft 6in wide. Larger pallet units up to 24ft and with capacity up to 10 tons are envisa9ed. Special pallets with slatted sides for livestock or unstable loads and bin or box types for carrying foodstuffs, grain, powdered or granular materials either bagged or in bulk are available. Pallex is produced by Wickham Engineering Co. Ltd., Ware, Herts.
High Lift Trailers HIGH LIFT trailers with a wide range of special bodies have many farm uses. They certainly help to turn round visiting vehicles quickly—indeed J. W. Appleton, of Downholland Bridge, Downholland, near Ormskirk, produces commercial vehicle versions for road work with capacities from 7 to 14 tons.
High-lift trailers are useful for moving all kinds of farm produce, particularly those requiring to be tipped. The 5ft or more projection beyond the rear wheels and the high platform enable much higher stacking of root vegetables, and the use of the trailer as a working platform must often be a great boon.
Versatile Mini-Moke FARMERS USING or contemplating the use of the versatile Mini-Moke may be interested in the 5cwt capacity fork-lift attachment produced by Barton Motor Co. Ltd.. of Hyde Park Corner, Plymouth, in conjunction with Kelvin Engineering Ltd., of Basing, Hants. Operated by an electrical pump driven from the vehicle battery this machine is available with such attachments as different forks, a crane, an automatic barrel lifter and a sack lifter.
I can well imagine that a farmer with a fork-lift equipped Mini-Make would be very popular with his neighbours—and his staff. And transport organizations using MiniMakes as runabouts, or for warehouse use, could also profit from this interesting idea.
Tractor Fork-lifts THE VARIETY of appliances available to increase tractor productivity grows apace. Oddly, only recently have fork-lift attachments been developed—a sign of the increasing importance of rapid load-transfer systems using pallets. The Hipope hydraulically operated tractor fork-lift is tailor-made for the BMC Mini-tractor, although it is adaptable to Fordson, Massey-Ferguson and Nuffield tractors.
Two models are available, both of 15cwt carrying capacity. Mark 1 has a maximum lift height of 7ft 8in and Mark 1A a lift height of 5ft 2in, The extended heights are, respectively, 11ft 3in and 8ft 9iin, and normal heights are 8ft 9iin and 6ft 3.in, the latter dimensions being important if doors or low roofs have to be negotiated.
The makers envisage Mark 1A as ideal for lifting palletized fruit from orchards with restricted head room and, of course, both models would soon earn their keep in lorry loading ans., )ff-loading and in load transfer jobs.
No engineer would claim that an "attachment" can have all the utility of a specialpurpose machine. Fork-lift trucks are generally expensive; and extremely heavy. Perhaps it is time for special-purpose lightweight fork-lift trucks to be developed specifically for farm use. Meantime, a device such as the Hi pope which can be fitted or removed from the tractor by unskilled labour in a few minutes must have a great deal to commend it. Apple Harvester THE SELF-LOADING vehicles developed by the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering are well known but the specialpurpose self-loading machine developed for this year's apple harvest is quite new, It is self-propelled and incorporates a front forklift system, The driver is carried on the arch connecting the two lift-forks and he moves up and down with them.
Power-driven wheels are built Into the forks so that the 6icwt unit loads can be transferred to or from either deck, (I fancy this idea may be seized on for other mechanical handling applications with fork
lift trucks!) The decks consist of powerdriven strands of conveyor chain. A 10-bin load can be picked up in the orchard in about 5 minutes. Road speed is 30 mph and the vehicle can rightly be claimed to be a oneman, one-machine loading, transport and unloading system.
The ingenuity of some of the designs developed by NIAE has often been remarked upon. Recently developed is an experimental mounting on the rear of a tractor for the Cameron-Gardner fork-lift attachment. The whole mast can be side shifted and slewed in addition to the normal tilting and these motions are controlled by a "joy stick". These and other experiments showed that there could be worthwhile benefits in such motions although NIAE feels it would be better still to have the tractor driver facing his work.
Many thousands of farmers operate agricultural vehicles. Probably a majority operate rigid equipment, but if the trend towards articulation applies an increasing proportion of articulated outfits will be operated.
The Wilson Foldfork device developed by Wilson Engineering Co. Ltd., of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, is especially useful to carriers of palletized goods. The fork-lift attachment folds down neatly after use and it is particularly useful to operators moving goods between premises where other loading aids are not available. It is much cheaper than conventional fork-lift trucks.
Drivers soon get the "feel" of reversing an artic unit with a load on the fork. Controls, centrally placed in the cab, come conveniently to hand and a mirror indicates the position of the forks. The Foldfork can be fitted to most popular artic units; a number have been fitted to the Ford D800 unit. Loading capacities of up to 3 tons are available.
by S. Buckley, Assoc. Inst. T.
AGRICULTURE and road transport have much in common: they are both large industries in their own right and have a wide geographical distribution. And they both have greater problems of peak-periods than many other industries. They have, therefore, both developed an ability to surmount the substantial problems of handling produce at harvest time in great quantities, An associated problem, for both farmer and road transport operator, is the need to get perishable produce to the required centre with the minimum of delay. All these needs hod been met by a combination of the service provided by the farmers' own vehicles and by those of the professional haulier. The fact that both are used to a substantial extent gives good ground for claiming that, in differing sets of circumstances, both services can be used to advantage. However in order to provide a sound basis on which to determine whether to employ one's own vehicles or hire from a haulier it is necessary to know at least the simple fundamentals of costing goods vehicle operation. That contention could, admittedly, be rejected by some farmers on the grounds that they had neither the time nor the experience to examine operating costs in detail, And even if they had done so their particular need to have a lorry of' their own would still have to be met regardless—or almost regardless—"of what that examination of costs revealed." This could arise when the Ioss involved in not being able to move goods just when they wanted would be even greater than the cost involved in operating a lorry. While this attitude is understandable in the context that such a farmer would be putting first things first, it does overlook the fact that whatever amount of money he might now spend on running his own vehicle might be put to even better use if the principles of operating cost were properly understood.
In contrast to manufacture of a commodity, a service such as a goods vehicle can provide is not so readily quantifiable. Obviously mileage and tonnage can be easily recorded and assessed.
But there can be a further element of service in the context of transport—the assurance of availability of use immediately it is required. Extreme examples of this "availability" concept of service is that provided by the fire brigade and ambulance services. As with the farmer, without this assurance that the service can be provided as and when it is required, the sequence of tasks on the farm leading to the goods being ready to transport cannot be effectively organized. But this availability factor constitutes, in effect, the buying of time—always an expensive exercise. This is reflected in the division of the total cost of operating a goods vehicle into the two groups of standing costs and running costs. Whether the vehicle turns the wheel or not, that is whether it is available for service or actually on service, standing costs have to be met.
From over 50 years experience in compiling the COMMERCIAL MOTOR Tables of Operating Costs, it has been found convenient to divide total operating costs into 10 items. The five items of standing cost are licensing, wages, rent and rates, insurance and interest. Licences are considered to be the expenditure incurred in payment of the vehicle excise duty. For farmers this could vary not only in relation to the unladen weight of the vehicle they operated, but also whether it was licensed in the name of a person engaged in agriculture under the title of a "farmer's goods vehicle"—that is an F-licensed vehicle or as a goods vehicle operating under a C licence. Thus a vehicle with an unladen weight of over 2i tons but not exceeding 2a tons would pay a standard excise duty of 1.58 10s a year if it operated under C licence.
If, however, the vehicle was used solely for conveying the produce of or articles required for the purpose of the agricultural land he occupied, or occasionally for another farmer, the F licence rate of excise duty for the same vehicle would be £24 lOs a year, a difference of £34. Moreover as the unladen weight increases this differential likewise increases.
The reason for this difference in rate of excise duty is official recognition that, because of the limitations in use and the fluctuations in demand for service occasioned by the effect of seasons and harvest, an Flicensed vehicle is not likely to be operated so intensively as other goods vehicles. For a variety of reasons the item of "wages" can vary substantially. In the case of farmers it can vary from a part-time driver to that of' a full-time driver such as when C-licence operation was considered appropriate. The item of rent and rates arises from whatever garage or cover is provided for the vehicle. Insurance refers solely to premium paid to insure the vehicle itself. The actual amount payable by individual farmers will vary widely according to the area, type of operation, capacity and value of the vehicle, while increasing emphasis is being given by insurers to the accident records of individual