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Toy shows the problem

2nd May 1996, Page 32
2nd May 1996
Page 32
Page 32, 2nd May 1996 — Toy shows the problem
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by Alan Johnstone • A Dinky toy lorry given to a solicitor as a nineyear-old was used by him to demonstrate "loose wheelnut syndrome" to a court last week.

William Tate was defending Montgomery Transport. of Preston, Lancashire after one of its articulated lorries was seized by police for having four loose wheelnuts on one of its trailer wheels. Exeter magistrates gave the company an absolute discharge, but ordered it to pay .£250 costs.

Tate said there were several theories about wheel loss, but he suggested that dust, cotton or wire-brush threads had created a tiny gap between the nut and the wheel and "the resonance makes the nuts loose: He handed his toy lorry to the magistrates to show how the looseness occurred mainly on the nearside wheels.

"On the driver's side the wheels rotate clockwise, that's the way you tighten the nuts. On the nearside the lorries wheels wheels rotate anti-clockwise, the way nuts are loosened.

"Companies find it difficult to anticipate or combat it."

Tate said the lorry had travelled from Preston to Kennford, near Exeter, Devon when it was stopped in a police check and the

danger

ous wheel pointed out.

Derek Robins, the company's safety officer, said the driver checked the wheels before he started his journey, but believed four of the 10 nuts on the wheel must have worked loose on the long haul_ "It would have been suicidal for him knowingly to have driven with loose wheel nuts," Robins added.


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