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Fifth-wheel from new company
Page 57
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• A new company called Slaven Transport Products has been formed with a factory at Chadwick 103/104, Astmoor Industrial Estate, Runcorn, Cheshire. Its first product is a fifth-wheel coupling, a pressed-and fabricated-steel unit with an imposed load capacity of 50,000lb, a tractive-load capacity of 40,000lb and which weighs only 230Ib. List price is £45.
The top plate of the coupling is of pressed 5/16in. mild steel and incorporates capacious grease channels to ensure liberal lubrication between itself and the trailer rubbing plate. A swinging jaw is used to fold the trailer kingpin and this is locked in position by a sliding wedge. Both the jaw and locking wedge are manufactured from lin. manganese steel, the two together forming a 3in. by lin. beam behind the kingpin and taking all the towing stresses.
The design of the jaw mechanism provides that none of the towing stresses are passed to the pivot pins. These serve only as location members about which the jaw and its mechanism can swing freely. The rubbing plate is stiffened with 5in, by lin. mild steel webs which are welded only to the grease reservoir depressions so avoiding any distortion of the actual rubbing surface.
One point of particular note with thc coupling is that the automatic trip mechanism does not require the kingpin to be slammed home before it will lock safe. When inspected at Runcorn last week only a gentle movement of the pin into the towing position was needed to obtain completely safe locking every time.
A degree of wear must take place in all jaw and kingpin assemblies. To have the ability to adjust the amount of slack is not new. But the Slaven coupling has its adjuster mounted on the end of the locking wedge shaft adjacent to the operating handle and adjustment can be made in under a minute.