Talking shop for fleet owners
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IF you are interested in cutting downtime and outside repair costs, the trick is to do a better preventive maintenance job. How much will that cost? This is a typical quote from the Fleet Owner's Maintenance Shop Design Book (McGraw-Hill, £20.95) and typically a largepage size layout illustration accompanies it. Fleet Owner is the American transport magazine founded in 1928.
"If you merely repair trucks — or perform conscientious PM — and don't keep accurate records, you're defeating an underlying purpose of the shop ... but if you treat the shop as seriously as any other side of your business, it will save you a lot of money." This chapter also has a checklist for equipping a small fleet workshop with major items, namely: air compressor (min 5hp; 80gal tank); volt-ohm-amp meter; master mechanic's chassis tool set; cooling-system leak tester; impact wrench (1-in drive); 10-ton-capacity hydraulic jack (20-ton for heavy equipment); adjustable safety stands for working beneath raised equipment; highpressure chassis lubricator (mobile); hand-operated grease gun; portable gear-lube and oil dispensers; battery fast charger;. workbench with vice and bench grinder; heavy-duty wheel dolly for dual-wheel removal; battery and coolant hydrometers; small parts cleaner; oxy-acetylene welding outfit; torque
wrenches: 0-300Ibin, 0-150Ibin, and 0-300Ibft; manometer; tachometer; belt-tensioning gauge; air-pressure gauge; tyrepressure gauge; portable truckwashing equipment.
While that small chapter is aimed at the small operator, there are also a couple of pages on the way !'computer graphics speed shop design" and an illustration of a threedimensional plan "giving designers freedom to create via freedom from details. If an architect wants to move a steel column one foot in either direction, the computer will remember where every plumbing line, electrical line, airconditioning duct and load bearing wall is within the building and make the proper adjustments."
The book consists of small chapters with many illustrations divided into three sectors: getting ideas down on paper; learning from experience; and the economic factors.
in thq second factor, for e \ample, one of the authors — Jack Lyndall — looks at an American furniture delivery fleet with 65 tractive units, 139 trailers and 28 miscellaneous units. This company, Schweiger Industries, built a new shop for $387,000.
Schweiger, of Wisconsin, claims to be the world's largest upholstered furniture factory under one roof. The fleet runs into all states except California, Oregon and Washington. The fleet picks up raw materials and supplies on 60 per cent of return trips. The plant's rebuild room is equipped to repair or rebuild alternators, starters, cylinder heads, transmissions or complete engines.
So many types of operation, including psv, are covered in this book.
McGraw-Hill Company (UK), Shoppenhangers Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire.