A New British Maker.
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We Inspect the First New 50,-cwt. Guy Lorry ; it has a Chassis-speed Governor, a Real Three-point Suspension, and Many Other Interesting Features.
Those enterprising, people who, at the present juncture of our national affairs, have tackled the problem of producing a new and satisfactory commercial vehicle model, have had, as we have already pointed out, to contend with difficulties of a most disheartening nature. The demand fpna the user for machines of good allround quality, with which to "carry on" while the country has been depleted of the majority of its norMal motor-transport facilities, has been tremendous ; it is a growing one, as the various industries of this country are recovering and readjusting themselves. Suppliers of raw material and all partly or wholly assembled components, however kindly disposed to the newcomer in the field of manufacture, are unable to give him more than scant attention whilst their deliveries are almost wholly absorbed by the requirements of Government contractors.
He who would introduce a new industrial-vehicle model at the present time needs indomitable perseverance to see his project through. We have been alive to these difficulties and sympathetic to the sufferers,' for son] emOnths past. There are not a few newBritish models on the stocks, and it is to be hoped that these special difficulties of pboduction will not much longer delay their appearance on 'a market which is being at the moment more or less monopolized.bY American imports
We were particularly pleased to receive from Mr. Sydney S. Guy, the managing director of Guy Motors, Ltd., an intimation that
the long-promised inspection of the first of his new range of lorries might conveniently take place the week before met; it was due to exceptional pressure on our editorial staff that our arrangements to go to Wolverhanapton, to see the first of the new productions, required some adjustment.
Our readers will know that we are invariably guarded in our appreciation cif new things. Because a construction is novel, it is not necessarily satisfact6ry, and that is a point we always do our best to keep in view when writing of new production for the benefit of the user. Here, however, we have a chassis embodying many new and original points of design,: and we have no hesitation in prophesying that the machine as a whole will ultimately, when manufacturing difficulties are lessened, achieve for itself a position in the front rank of the commercial-vehicle industry.
For those who know something of construction and design, and of the restrictions and stipulations imposed by modern shop methods, a chassis invariably strikes a note of good or poor design. From radia for to rear-frame member there will be the same characteristic exhibited, either of.ability to put the right amount of metal in the right place or to do exactly the opposite ; the machine stands_ appraised or condemned accordingly in the eyes of the' expert. The Guy Commercial model, as we have seen it in its first type, is one of those which undoubtedly bears the imprint of professional design, the result of the
applied knowledge of someone who has learned unnumbered lessons on previous similar work. That accounts for the presence of the clever and very complete system of threepoint suspension for the whole of the power unit and its speed-reduction mechanism ; that is why we find on this chassis the employment of a car governor instead of an engine governor ; that is why the change-speed mechanism is carried direct on the box, .whilst yet not fouling the large hand-hole cover. From the same source, and for a similar reason, we are provided here with a double-reduction, bevel and spur-driven live back axle, which from the assembly point of view has one outstanding characteristic of the worm type of axle, direct and complete accessibility.
Other features stamping the Guy chassis are, the tilted front axle, the dropped stubs, the pivoted radiator, the castellated brake levers, the . provision for cooling the lubricant, the enclosure and adequat3 greasing of the brake cross rods, and the employment of a high-speed brake aft of the universal joints on the propeller shaft instead of forward.
We have endeavoured to illustrate many of these interesting points by photographic reproduction, which in a notice of this kind probably serves its purpose better, and certainly more promptly, than lengthy description of the kind one finds in a catalogue.
The types produced at the fine new works of Guy Motors, Ltd., Fallings Park, Wolverhampton, at present, are a 30-cwt. and a twoton chassis, and work is being concentrated on these models during the present interregnum period of the industry.
It : is obvious: that. the. designer himself has a particular fancy for the absorption of strain by perceptible movement rather than by distortion of material. This is effectively illustrated by two of the outstanding features of the new r,hassis, viz., the real and effective three-point suspension of the engine and gearbox and the underslinging of the back axle. Row often have we heard of three-point suspension which in effect is not suspension but fixture ? The mere attachment of a more or less rigid
frame holding the engine and gearbox at three points by rigid bolt. lags releases the subsidiary, frame in no effective manner from the strains which the main car frame seeks to transmit to it. . One of our illustrations will --serve admirably to demonstrate on paper what we ourselves were enabled actually to perform with a view to testing the flexibility of the suspension of the whole of the power unit. It will be seen that we drove this machine, loaded fully, ina manner reminiscent of •" stunt!' performances which Lanehester demonstrators were prone to undertake in the early days of that remarkable car, over a considerable lump on the side of a newly-made road. This, of 'courSe, was not intended to demonstrate any peculiar . flexibility of frame or of road-spring construction, but to show how, when the main chassis frame was badly twisted Owing to exceptional treatment of this kind, the subsidiary frame remained unaffected, and transmitted none of the special stress to the, engine ease, gearbox
arms and other more or less delicate parts. If the photograph, which we indicate, is carefully inspected, it will be seen that, whilst the Dalin frame member re 'quite out of shape—and indeed the roughly-made demonstration coachwork had taken a decided set out of alignment—the engine and gearbox sub-frame was hanging quite freely from its three pivoted supports in the easiest position it could attain. The means by which this suspension is -made so effective is shown in other of our photographs of details of the small ball-mounted hangers.
We need spend little time in writing of the special claims which ire put forward on behalf of an 'Lind er
.stung back axle. The ability to keep the frame line low is one of particular advantage, but ease of riding ie in particular assured by the lowering, .so far aS possible up to a certain point, of the centre of the fixed front spring eye, about which, of course, the axle will swing radially, very nearly in a vertical plane when long springs are used like those on the Guy onasais.
It will be noticed that torque bars and radius rods are dispensed with. The capacity of the springs themselves to "shock absorb" the initial driving torque has been deliberately employed. Special attention has been given to these springs to ensure that they can look after this part of the work as well as the actual thrusting of the Machine forward as the driving wheels revolve. Another little point may here be mentioned, and that is, • the abolition of the method of denting the leaves to ensure registration,. and the employment of an auxiliary central clip bedding on to a planed face on each axle pad.
One other very considerable departure which stands out from a . number of detail improvements which this chassis reveals is the embodiment of a governor on the main driving shaft as it emerges horn the gearbox. There is nothing very remarkable about the governor itself, hut its function is, of coarse, a different one from that to which we are accustomed in connection with engine governors. This provision should relieve the owner of all anxiety as to the driver's hustling his Machine along when lightly loaded or when in a hurry to complete a journey at speeds much in excess of those for which the chassis was Originally designed. The machine cannot be driven at over 20 miles an hour. True, it can coast at a greater speed, and that is a contingency against which it is diffieUlt to make mechanical provision. For hill-climbing, of course, there is distinct advantage in the fact that the engine can be speeded hp considerably whilst on a low gear. There is no danger of its cutting out at critical moments under such conditions. We published particulars of Mr. Guy's patent for this device in our issue for the 15th April last. Now, with regard to the engine itself, we found that a White and Poppe model was being installed, and that surely should be sufficient guarantee of effective service. We believe that this engine is to be used on the Guy chassis in conjunc
tion with a Zenith carburetter. A big leather-lined cone clutch, with a spring-mounted clutch brake operating on a special extension of the outer clutch body, transmits the power by way of a single leather disc coupling to the gearbox. This last unit is not without its special features, although no radical departures of an experimental nature have been embodied. The employment of the governor of which we have already spoken has naturally a special effect on the gear ratios.
These are four m number for forward speeds, the third being a direct drive and the fourth an indirect, which normally, were the car allowed entire freedom of acceleration' wouid yield an increase over the third of something like 20 per cent. What actually happens is this, however : The third indirect drives the car Comfortably, when loaded, at 20 miles an hour. Should it be desired when the vehicle is running light, or under exceptionally easy conditions, to proceed at that speed with the engine doing less revolutions, the fourth or top speed is then put in without any effective increase in the net speed of the car, but with a corresponding decrease in engine revolutions, in consumption, and wear and tear. So that in effect, although there is a four-speed gearbox, there are only three speeds for the car. This is quite a useful provision, and in connection with it, while we were testing this combination of mechanical devices, we were interested to put in the top speed with the ear running fairly freely on a slight down grade, and we found that while the engine slowed down and: still maintained the car speed there' was a distinct tendency to run leas freely on the indirect drive than on the direct, as one would expect, thus neutralizing, although only 'to' a small extent, the good effect olo: tamed by reduction of the engine speed owing to the higher gear.
The gearbox is a very sturdy and
very simple affair. Its changespeed mechanism is mounted stiffly on the outer casing, free from the main frame, and also independently of the gearbox cover, which is an impnrtant point. The fixed gears are hydraulically pressed on to their shaft, and are inter-locked one with the other by dog jaws in order to facilitate and to cheapen indiVidual replacement.
Illustrative of Mr. Guy's considerable care for detail is the manner in which he has the gears assembled. In the ordinary form of sliding gear there is, of course,
backing off on teeth which it is intended to engage. The normal way to adjust these gears in mesh, with the change-speed lever correctly placed, is to push them acroso, until the whole bodies of the two wheels are in exact alignment. In that position, of course, the tooth area in nominal engagement at both ends is neutralized. The net effective tooth area under pressure is the width of the complete . tooth less the two backings-off. In the Guy box, the wheels are taken further across until the backing-off -over_ laps at each end, with the consequence that the net effective . area of tooth is the whole width of the tooth less only one hacking-oil, which is a material gain. This is a small point, but we write of it at some length as illustrating the care which dominates the whole of this design. Other features in this gearbox include the fitting of light steel discs. in proximity to the bearings in order to prevent steel chippings from getting through into them. We need set down very little concerning the back axle, as our illustrations are particularly comprehensive and show the manner in which it has been arranged so that it can be dissembled. The meshing and assembly of the bevel-gearing pair can be effected on the bench before the Ole is finally put together. Then again, the bevel pair and the first spur wheel can -bc. withdrawn bodily; and subsequent removal of . the differential. 3hafts, and the taking down of the main ball-bearing caps inside the :tasing, enable the whole of the differential gear and the surrounding ei,g spur wheel to be withdrawn with '•.-almost identical facility to that -provided on modern wormiriven axles.
That the brakes are effective goes without saying : our illustrations, • evetil their size, and the effective' means which hive been taken to assure their ready adjustment and the replacenient of their wearing surfaces. We may pause, perhaps, to direct attention to that clever little device which has been embodied in order again to ensure that differential action between the two brake shoes of one pair which at one time designers went to such lengths, and often such complication, to secure. One of our illustrations shows the use for this purpose of a sliding i tongue piece n the place of the double earn which is common on in ternal expanding brakes. This sliding piece, so long as it be free and properly greased, renders the operation as between shoe and-shoe quite differential. .
We shall leave our readers to inspect the chassis for themselves with regard to other and more standard details. We can thoroughly recommend them to do so.
We will conclude by drawing at
tention to the great care which has been taken of the lubrication methods "employed on this chassis. That on the engine is, of course, automatic by a pump situated in a capacious sump at the bottom of
the crank chamber, and supplies oil under pressure, the latter being indicated on the dashboard. Provision is made to take the oil through a cooling reservoir so that the maximum viscosity is retained and not lost, as so often occurs, due to the overheating of the oil. Throughout the chassis, care is taken that the oil, which invariably does its best to creep out of journals and joints, shall be made to creep in the direction• which is most desirable, and the comprehensive use of spiral grooves designed to force the oil in the required directions will undoubtedly ensure the very effective control of this all-important characteristic of the chassis's functions. A shigle example will suffice to show the use to which this method has been put. The universal joints on the propeller shafts are --enclosed, and leather sleeves with proper clips are used to connect the covers with loose floating gunmetal bushes in which the ends of the shaft run. These are provided with grooves which continually tend to return any oil which creeps into them. Similar use of such grooves is made in connection with the mounting of the gears inside the back axle. Grease boxes are freely and intelli.. gently set at all important points on the chassis We strongly advise these. 'of our readers who are looking out for.,a new British model to lose no time in getting into communication with Guy Motors, Ltd., and if possible obtaining an appointment for the trial of one of the new chassis. We ourselves are frankly pleased with it ; we wish the experienced designer the best of success with his new venture.