Mr. Henry Sturtney on the Recent Trials
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Now that the Commercial Vehicle :rials are over, although we have not is yet received the judges' awards, it is lossibie to obtain a very fair idea of chat the result will be, or, at any rate,
o form some sort of an idea of the apability and durability of the corneting vehicles, by taking a line brough their recorded stoppages, as :iven in the official diary of the trials. t is a pity that, in this record, the oIumn headed "other road stops ".is o vague. It would be very interesting, Aid indeed instructive, to be told what he stoppages "other than mechanial recorded against the several cars "ere for.. Stoppages for water with he heavy steamers, and on account of ire troubles with the pneumatic-tired ars come under this heading, we mow, but all the marks recorded gainst the cars under it are not for these causes. Then, again, we are informed by
side notes, that some of the adverse marking in the depots goes to the credit—or discredit—of tires, so that it is not possible to eliminate marks lost on tire account exclusively, and I don't see why this should be done. So far as the user is concerned, if his van is hung up on the road for an hour or two, it is of little moment to him what the cause of the stoppage is, and, if the trouble becomes a matter of expense to put right, as is the case with most tire troubles, he will be inclined to prefer an engine Stormage, due, perhaps, to a choked carburetter, or a disconnected wire. Still, if tire markings had been given a column to themselves, it would have been a good thing, as both makers and users would the better know where they were. Manufacturers are rather inclined to say : " Oh ! That's only tires " when a puncture or burst occurs, and to console themselves with the fact that tires are none of their making. All they hold themselves responsible for has behaved itself properly. Yet, the user cannot forget that, however much makers may look on tire troubles as necessary evils, he cannot altogether afford to do so, because he knows that the heaviest of his running expenses is the upkeep and renewal of these items.
The foregoing introductory remarks bring me to the whole question of tires for commercial vehicles. I think I may say that these trials have shown—what many of us have long held—that pneumatic tires are unsuitable for a commercial motorcar. So far as the lighter cars in Class A are concerned, these running" light "as most of them were, pneumatics were doubtless used by their
entrants in order to save their light construction, and they may be made, so to speak, to " do," but towards the end of the trials, tire troubles began to assert themselves pretty frequently, and, when we come to the attempt to bring them in for use on heavier loads, it must be admitted they proved a dismal failure. The one-ton MiInes-Daimler, although its wheels were shod with 6inch tires, was soon in difficulties with them, and was, quite early in the day, knocked out by their complete failure, whilst the very light van in the same class, entered by the Palmer Tyre Company especially to show that pneumatic tires could be used under heavy loads, found itself, at the end of the trials, with a large number of marks against it, all on account of its tires It seems, therefore, that, if anything is to be learnt from these trials, one of the lessons is to eschew pneumatics, although it must not be forgotten that several of the heavier lorries were compelled to put in a lot of time in the depots attending to their solids.
Relative Statistics.
Takingthe results of the trials as a whole, I cannot say I look upon them as such a sweeping success as some writers try to make out, and I say this because I remember that what the business man is looking for to-day in a motor wagon, is, above everything, reliability and durability, and I cannot say that it is altogether very reassuring to him to find that nearly in 12 of the competing vehicles were unable to do 4 or 5 weeks' running without breakdown and withdrawal, whilst very nearly 25 per cent„ or i in 4, required some " tinkering" to get them through the journey. On the other hand, the trials have proved that, whilst some vehicles are still very unreliable, there are cars on the market—and a very fair number of them too—which are capable of doingconstant and steady work for weeks together, either with little attention whatever beyond filling up with oil and petrol, or with less attention than would be needed by a horse's shoes. This consummation has been reached in pleasure-car construction for some years, but it has not been so until now with the commercial car, and such a showing two years ago would have been impossible. Looked at from this point of view, it must be admitted the trials have been a very considerable success.
British Success.
The result which, perhaps, looms out above all others has been the marked superiority, all along the line, shown by the products of British factories over those of their Foreign competitors. Indeed, the trials have proved a veritable Waterloo to the Continental manufacturer, and more than one reputation has received considerable damage. Both the Turgan wagons broke down hopelessly, quite early in the trials, and it must be 'remembered that the Turgan company is not a newcomer into the commercial-vehicle trade, but has been looked upon, for many years, as quite in the van in this branch of trade in the French industry, whilst mishaps to no less than 3 out of 7 of the ManesDaimlers came as a great disappoint ment to those who, like myself, have always looked upon this firm as quite in the forefront of the heavy-car industry, and this failure has proved a great blow to the chances of Germany in the heavier classes. Of course, the tire troubles already named accounted for one of these three withdrawals, and the other two occurred through the fracture of a part which has, by now, been strengthened. We have always, in this country, been inclined to flatter ourselves that, whereever the foreigner may be in the pleasure-car trade, the British manufacturer is in front in the commercial branch of the industry, and these trials have demonstrated the conviction to have been well founded, for, in addition to contributing nearly all the breakdowns (the one British car which was disqualified was not placed hors de combat, but completed the trials unofficially), only a single one of the "non-stop absolute" records goes to a Foreign car, whilst, as I shall presently show, not only were there fewer Foreign ears as a whole in the list of what may be called " good " performances, but there was a far larger proportion of them in what I may term the "average to bad " class, as well as a much larger proportion of them amongst the cars which made a really bad showing. In addition to this, certain of the Foreign cars were the only ones, so far as I can gather from reading the reports in the different papers, which were shown by the trials to be underpowered for their work, and which had frequently to " make two bites of a cherry " on hills, in other words, which had to go up with half their load, and come back and fetch the rest, and, although a contemporary has endeavoured to let them down lightly by calling this " overgearing," the fact remains that the cars were supposed to be such in all respects as would be supplied to the customer, and it matters little to the user whether the designer has failed by putting in too small an engine, or too high a gear : the result, to him, is the same, and we must look on all competing cars as the regular, commercial product of the firms which build them.
Class Comparisons.
To particularise, in regard to the respective results secured by British and Foreign cars, I have gone carefully into figures, and I find that, whilst there were 38 British starters, there were but 18 Foreign ones, so I have worked out the different results in percentages, for the vehicles which duly finished, and in doing so I have taken only the two first columns of the official " diary," viz., depot troubles arid " mechanical stops on the road," and have ignored " Other road stops," which relate to tires, watering, etc.
FIRST, out of 38 British starters, only one retired (compulsorily), and that one finished the route, whereas, of the 18 Foreign competitors, no less than 5 broke down, a proportion of t. in 38 in one case, against z in 3.6 in the oilier!
SEcoND, of the British cars, no less than to made "non-stop absolute" runs, against but a single one of the Foreigners, and, had I included the tire and other stops, even that one would have been wanting to the latter. A proportion of i n 3.8 in the one case, against only z in 18 in the other.
01 Those Which Finished.
THIRD, of the cars losing less than 53 adverse marks for depot troubles, zo
were British, and only 3 Foreign, which places the British cars making a "good " showing in the enormous majority of z in 1.9 as against i in 4.3.
FOURTH, of the cars making similarly "good" records on the road, and losing less than so marks, zo were British, and 5 Foreign, which gives in 1.9 against i in 2.6.
FIFTH, taking more than so adverse marks against a car, either in the depot
or on the road, as indicating a moder ate to bad showing, we find the Foreign figures largely in the ascendancy, for, whilst in the depot 17 British cars come under this category, there are no less than to Foreign ones, which, considering the much smaller number of competitors, gives i in r.3—nearly all in fact—for the Foreigner, against / in 2.2 for the home manufacturer.
SIXTH, under the same category, as regards road stops, the proportion is nearly the same : 17 British and 8 Foreign cars figure in this category, giving proportions of, approximately, / in 1.6 for the Foreigner, against only r in 2.2 for the Britisher.
SEVENTH, taking the totals of both depot and road performances, we find the home manufacturer again scoring heavily, for, in the "good" class, in which I include all cars having less
than roo marks (minutes occupied in repairs) against them, there are zo British vehicles, and only 4 Foreign ones—a proportion of I in 2,2 in the one case, and / in 3.3 in the other.
EIGHTH, on the other hand, as to cars scoring in the aggregate more than zoo marks against them, were /7 out of 37 British, and 9 out of /3 Foreign, which figures out at i in 2.2 and i in 1.4, respectively.
NINTH, when we come to the really bad performances, in which I include all cars with an aggregate of over soo against them, the Foreigner has 3 to our 9, over and above his five missing vehicles,
Whichever way we look at it, therefore, it will be seen that the British manufacturer has proved his superiority " all along thr line."
Passing from the general to the particular, and dealing with the classes separately, some interesting conclusions are reached.
CLASS A.—This is remarkable for the fact that it is almost entirely confined to the foreign car, and that the only English competitor in it did worst of the lot on the road. These two facts are, doubtless, accounted for, the first by the rules re load, which prevented at least one (and, I have reason to believe, two more) British cars from competing, though the Foreigners were not so conscientious, as, according to their own showing, Darracqs (which, next to the unfortunate Turgan, did worst of the Foreign cars in this class) were really one-tonners masquerading under halfloads ! The poor showing of the Thames is probably due to its being the first of a new model, untested and un
Tied, and, if this is so, as I am inOrmed, then it once more shows the 'oily, which has often been shown be'ere, of rushing an untried construction nto a public competition. This class s also remarkable for its being the only me in which a Foreign car really disinguished itself, as the little " Lnic " ian, but for its pneumatic tires, did exellently. I believe it was one of the wily two vehicles in this class properly )elonging to it, which is all the more to ts credit.
CLAss B.—1 think the most remarkable thing about the performances of he cars in this class, was the signal ailure of both attempts to use pneunatic tires under one-ton loads, their Ise leading to the early collapse of the 3.nly Foreign car in the class, and couributing more than three-fourths of the narks scored against the Thames car, Alicia would have otherwise done fairly ,vell,. and it must be remembered that h is car was the lightest in the class, And entered specially to demonstrate h e tires! .Although one of the Lacre ;ails was not entirely happy, the other apore than upheld the reputation this :ar has made for itself, though the allure of one Straker-Squire, and the partial failure of the other, are hardly .vhat we had looked for from this firm.
believe, however, that I am right in saying that both these vans are first samples of a new model, and were
rushed through " for the trials, thus again emphasising my remarks on this lead in the class above. [The Strakersquire one-ton model is new, and is -Low being standardised by the company with certain desirable modifica:ions in detail.—En.] Ca.Ass C.—This was the most g-enerally satisfactory class of the whole lot, and it compares more than favourably with any other class in the trials. To get two, and very nearly five, out of seven cars, doing non-stop runs is something to talk about, with no car scoring more than iso on the discredit side, and had the running in all the classes been equal to this the trials would indeed have been a sweeping success. The Darracq-Serpollet did not really make a very bad showing, and the non-stop runs of the Halley and Thornycroft vehicles show that two of our -oldest firms in the " heavy " trade have profited by their experience to an excellent tune. This class is remarkable for being the first in which the steam car was pitted against the petrol car, but there does not appear, from the published reports, to be very much to be learned by the comparison, as both did well, though the less favourable showing was made by a steamer,
which certainly had the worst mishap, work having to be done upon the generator in the garage.
CLASS D.—This does not show up in anything like so favourable a light as does the previous one, and, with the exception of the heaviest class of all, is the only one in which no car scored a clean sheet, in depot and on the road, though the Dennis van came very near to that, as, although 63 minutes were occupied one day in a precautionary examination of the water-circulation system, nothing, after ail, was found to be wrong. With this exception, I am afraid no very great credit redounds to the vehicles in this class.
The Prevalent Type.
CLASS E.—The " three-tormers " were more than twice as numerous as any other class, from which I presume that this is the capacity of wagon for which there at present exists the greatest demand amongst the commercial community and upon which the greatest amount of trade activity is at present centred—the average chassis for a double-deck bus. It is a type of vehicle upon which most of the firms in the " heavy " trade have been working longest and, as might have been expected, the " good " performances are in very fair proportion, for, if we omit tires from our consideration, no less than five cars, all British, viz., the " Hallford," Siddeley, Straker-Squire " Corner Car," and Thornycroft scored clean sheets, and two more, the Maudslay and Dennis, got within a very few marks of doing so. In this class, we again had a steamer amongst the competitors, and it made a decent record, though not up to the showing of the cars mentioned above. Another remarkable feature of the class was the appearance of both the petrol-electric system and the big, single-cylinder, slow-running, paraffin engine adapted to commercial-car work, though it cannot be said that either quite set the Thames on fire. The former, however, was, I believe, especially as regards the engine, another example of rushing a new thing into the trials, and is a further example to bear out my comments on this sort of thing, as given earlier in this article. The Broome and Wade wagon for an experimental one came through well, if slowly.
CLASS F.—The five-ton class was really one of the most interesting in the trials, as it found the petrol cars in direct competition with the steam cars, in that class in which the steam vehicle has hitherto been considered preeminent, and it must be admitted that
the steam men fairly " knocked out" their competitors. Both the MilnesDaimlers—the only foreign cars in the class—suffered misfortune before the close of the trials, and the Ryknield only did moderately. It was a pity the Dennis got into an argument with a tramcar early in the trials, which prevented its showing what it really could do, because this car was particularly interesting, being, as it was, Lhe first attempt to carry so heavy a vehicle with a liveaxle and shaft drive : the accident was peculiarly unfortunate. As to the steamers, they made a uniformly good showing, the St. Pancras and Yorkshire lorries coming through with clean records, and the Savage losing only four marks, whilt the other, the Straker-Squire, made by no means a discreditable record. One point, however, stood out in very strong contrast between the two types of vehicle, which, were the petrol cars equal to their opponents in other respects, would give them a great advantage from the user's point of view, and that is, the large amount of Lime, averaging nearly eight hours, lost in taking up water en route, and the huge quantity of water consumed.
Of the three steam tractors in CLASS H, the Burrell scored heavily over both its competitors, and that is all, I think, that need be said, save that, from all accounts, no trailer has proved itself to be a very handy vehicle, or without its element of danger, as the accident to the " Little Giant," which was upset by its trailer taking command, indicated.
General.
That the trials, as a whole, have done good, I do not doubt, though they have hardly come up to expectations in regard to the business done. This was especially disappointing during the first stages, though I understand that, at the Manchester and later exhibitions, some firm business came. Makers could, however, hardly expect business from firms, who were looking to the trials to tell them something of the relative merits of the competing cars, until the results of the trials were known, and I have no doubt that results will follow, although the event did not receive that attention from the general Press of the country which the competitors had been led to expect, and which might have been hoped for. I have summarised my remarks on the International aspect of the trials, as above set out, in the following table, showing the relative success or failure of British and Foreign cars, respectively, in the several classes.