Extensive Marketing Plans for an American Chassis
Page 66
Page 67
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM a new works and assembly depot at Beaver Lane, King Street, London, W.6, the Reo Motor Car Co., of Lansing, Mich., 'USA., is about to open a new sales campaign in this country. A British company, Rea Motors (Britain), Ltd., has been incorporated which will have its offices above the London works,' and plans are in progress for the formation of a widespread dealer organization in Great Britain.
The Rea commercial chassis are already known to operators both here and in many countries abroad. The company has not, however, offered before such a wide range of chassis as that which is now to be placed before the British coach operators and hauliers, and several features of the new models are of quite recent introduction.
Briefly there will be two classes of
Reo commercial chassis. The junior class will consist of two 30-cwt. models, one of slightly longer wheelbase than the other, and both having a three-speed gearbox and a six-cylindered engine of 31-in. bore and 4-in. stroke. The senior class or "Speed Wagons," will comprise five goods chassis with loading capacities of from 2 ions to 3-i tons, and two passenger models, one suitable for 20-seater bodies and the other for 26seater bodies. The speed wagons will all have four-speed gearboxes and the new 'Rea Gold Crown power unit, a six-cylindered engine of 3k-in. bore and 5-in, stroke, which ,is capable. of developing 67 b.h.p. at 2,800 r.p.m. Both this and the smaller engine have side lathes, aiuminium,alloy pistons, And seven-bearing crankshafts. In both
3340 cases the engine, the housing for the single-plate clutch and the gearbox are built as a unit, the drive being transmitted to the rear axle through an ex posed propeller shaft and spiral-bevel gearing. The propeller shaft is supported by a self-aligning ball-bearing mounted in. a frame cross-member, and has universal joints of the ball-and-pin pattern at its front and rear ends.
All the models are equipped with hydraulic brakes working on the. Lockheed principle, the pedal actuating a pair of shoes in each of the four wheeldrums. The hand lever operates a contracting-band brake located just behind the gearbox. Unusually wide frames are employed, the width at the front being as Much as 27 ins., and that 6 the rear 40i ins., for all models.
A standard feature of the passenger models which is worthy of mention is an exhaust-gas diversion cock, permitting the use of heating pipes in the bodies of coaches and buses ; when the heating is required the exhaust gases may be diverted so that they pass through the pipes in the body interior before entering the silencer.
Both passenger and goods chassis are equipped with the Meyer system of spring-shackle lubrication, aonost ingenious arrangement whereby oil is retained in reservoirs cast integrally with the spring brackets, and istfed to the shackle bearings and pins by way of drilled channels in which cotton wicks form the agent for supply. Semi--elliptic springing and malleable-iron spoked wheels are employed on all models, the rear-axle torque and drive being taken by the springs. Pneumatic tyres of 32-in. by 6--in. section are fitted to all the chassis, the passenger models and all above the 2-ton goods class having twin tyres on the rearv wheels. The prices of the goodstmodels range from £225 to 1645. The' PE-type. chassis, for 20-passenger bodies, costs £4757.and the GE-type, for 26-passenger bodies, retails at £695.