Answers to Queries.
Page 16
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The Crawley-Boevey Non-skid Attachment.
[2504] (Dunfermline).—You will get information about the Crawley-Boevey non-skid from the National Steam Car Co., Ltd., Moulsham Works, Chelmsford. It is the invention of an A.S.C., M.T., officer.
Insulated1Bodies for Meat Haulage.
[2505] (South Coast).—You can get good bodies of the type which you mention from E. and H. flora, .Ltd., 36a, Peckham Road, S.E. That company has built a number for F. W. Rudd, Ltd., the big meat:haulage contractor of Smithfield.
Dry Bearings When Benzoic is Used.
[2506] (Public Services).—We are unable to state the exact chemical reason for the action between commercial benzole and lubricating oil which contains a percentage of animal fat. Our references to this subject were based upon knowledge of trouble in the hands of users of such oils, in respect of dry bearings, and your -experience evidently confirms the earlier ones of which we were advised. If you specify an all-mineral oil, we believe you will eet rid of the difficulty.
Short Hauls and Big Delays.
[2507] (Preston).—Battery propulsion does not pay specially well on long waits, but where there are fre,quent stoppages. The work which you outline approximates, on five trips per day, seven hours of waiting and possibly two hours of running. On the -other hand, if you buy a steam lorry with steel tires, the running time would be three hours. Can you -do anything to reduce delays at the termini by having compartmented bodies that can be slung? If you have to climb Fishergate from the Strand, in the course of your journeys, a battery vehicle would not necessarily do very well, and we are inclined to favour steam on steel tires, especially having regard to delivery difficulties in the petrol-vehicle industry just now. For the work which you specify we should place petrol next in order.
Lorry or Tractor [2508] (Cornwall).—If loading and unloading are done quickly, the self-contained motor lorry might suit you better than a tractor and trailer. If there are terminal delays, it often pays better to have a tractor and a couple of trailers, one of the latter for use while the other is loading. Provided the hills are not steeper than 1 in 10, the tractor should at all times be able to haul at least four tons of net load, and the wagon should at all times be able to carry five tons. Our free sheet of working costs may be some guide to you. If, as a contractor, you are charging the work out, you should be sure first of all that you can make the mileages per week which. are indicated, and you should then get at least 50 per .cent, more per mile run, adding light and loaded mileage together, in order -to pay. The law does not allow you to use a tractor to -pull two wagons at the same time, unlesa you register it as a traction engine. You can, however, haul a trailer behind a steam wagon, thus utilizing the wagon body of the power vehicle as well as the wagon body of the trailer. That is a better plan, as a general rule, subject to the condition of the ground, to which we note you refer. An alternative method is to have interchangeable boxes, which can be slung, or removed by other means, from the platforms of the vehicles. It is impossible to answer your question as to terminal delays without an opportunity to examine the facilities at all the points of -collection and delivery. The first cost of a good fiveton steam wagon with steel tires is now about 2800, and that of a good steam tractor about 2525.
1312 Correct Price for Subsidized Chassis.
[2509] (Manchester).—The initial and annual subsidies are by way of retainer, and not by way of payment for fittings. The 210 for the second magneto is a payment. You arecertainly entitled to add 217 to the sum which you paid, for the purpose of your calculation, seeing that you spent that sum on the chassis, immediately after purchase, in order to complete it.
A Four-wheel-drive Inquiry.
[2510] (Burnley).—No four-wheel-drive petrol vehicles suitable for carrying five to six tons, and for drawing a trailer carrying Si tons, are built in this country. Numbers are built in France for the Government of that country, and, of course, are quite unobtainable now. The Jeffery truck of America is a 30-cwt. or two-ton machine of the four-wheel-drive type. The Canadian contingent is employing some of them. There are no regulations dealing specially with four-wheel-drive petrol motors drawing rubbertired trailers. Any vehicle hauling a. trailer has to conform to the five-miles-an-hour limit.
His Trucks Behind Another Person's Engine.
[2511] (Essex).—There is no 5s. each per annum to pay in respect of vehicles which are hauled behind a modern steam tractor. Any such trailer, only one of which can be used at a time under the Heavy Motor Car Acts, must, if its weight exceeds one ton unladen, have the axle-weight of each axle, i.e, the maximum weight which may at any time be upon each axle when loaded, which maximum must not exceed four tons for each axle, and also the weight of the trailer unladen, painted or otherwise plainly marked upon some conspicuous part of the right or off side of the trailer. In any event, the weight of the trailer unladen must be painted on the off side. All such lettering must be not less than 1 in. in height. Tire-widths on trailers are legal down to 3 ins., if not overloaded. You cannot get permission to haul more than one truck behind a tractor at any time. Any such use of more than one truck necessitates your registering the tractor as a traction engine as well, and paying the necessary fees. At such times the tractor must carry the locomotive plate and not the motorcar plates.