Answers to Queries.
Page 22
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Snow " Packing " Between Twin Tires.
[2387] (Ross-shire).—We are interested to learn of your experience with twin tires in deep snow. We strongly recommend you to try to fit the Parsons non-skid chains, which have an enormous sale in Canada for running on snow. The address of the Parsons Co. is 23, Store Street, London, W.C.
Company-owned Taxicabs in London.
[2388.1 (West End).—So far as our information goes, the average earnings of a company-owned taxicab, apart from the driver's tips and extras, i.e. the net money which is paid in for a day's working, have varied during the past few months between 1-1,s. and 19s. per day. The driver gets 25 per cent. of this. It will no doubt go up materially until August.
Wrongfully Summoned.
[2389] (Rugby).—The conviction to which you refer is an erroneous one. Your driver should have proved that it was a heavy motorcar under the Motor Car Acts, and not liable to any penalties under the Act of 1898, which does not apply. If he did not raise that defence at the time, we fear it will prove a very costly business to get the conviction set aside. If you are a member of the Commercial Motor Users Association, you might communicate with that body., but otherwise we recommend you to put up with the position in which you And yourself, because you should have raised the point when the summons was heard..
Wants Our Opinion of the Ford Van.
[2390] (North).—A Ford van will do very well for a 5-cwt. net load, provided the body is not too heavy, and that you do not carry more than two people in the van.. For a load going so high as ei cwt., you will need to travel slowly over bad lengths of highway, and strictly never to exceed 6 cwt., or you may have trouble with broken axles. Provided the weight of your van is not excessive we should anticipate that you would get satisfactory results, and we strongly recommend you to keep the weight down to 5 cwt, as often as possible, whenever two men are carried. You have to guard against the contingency of possibly a third man and a fourth man being picked up on the road. As to purchasing such a vehicle second-hand, we recommend you to communicate with J. Blake and Co., Dale Street, Liverpool.
Horse-van or Small Motorvan.
[2391] (Lanes.).—You cannot run a motorvan at the weekly cost of one horse and van, especially in the Provinces. Unless you can arrange for the one vehicle to do the work of two horses, and also to extend your present deliveries when you get the i
motor, there s no advantage, and some risk, in your special case. It is not difficult to stop your engine and re-start it every tune you have to pull up for a period of several minutes. If your average stops are sometimes so high as 15 minutes per call, and you make 100 calls per day, it appears that your two horse-vans are standing still at customers' houses for anything between—on an average of 10 minutes per stop—eight or nine hours. This interferes with the profitable use of a motor vehicle.
Our recommendation to you is to make a beginning with a new, cheap and light van, which will carry 5 cwt. and two people. You must not put more than 5 cwt, of load into such a van, in addition to the driver and one helper, or one passenger, or you will run up bills for breakages. Such a van, of course, can be used for long journeys very economically. You can get the cheapest vans of this type from : Belsize Motors, Ltd., Clayton, Manchester ; Star Engineering. Co,, Ltd., Wolverhampton ; G. W. K. Ltd., Datchet ; Enfield Autoear Co., Ltd., Sparkbrook Birmingham; Torpedo Motor Co., 122, Hampstead itoad,
LW.; The Motor Carrier and Cycle Co. (Unique), Wimbledon; K G, Motor 0o., Ltd., :353, Upper Street, Islington, N.
Wants Our List of Owners. . [2392] (New Tires).—We regret that we cannot give the information for which you ask. The acquirement of that iniormation has taken us nearly ten years, and we can only with some difficulty assess its value. If we were to supply you with these lists we should in fact be making a present to you of our own lists of customers. We are sure you will agree, on reflection, that no commercial house can be expected to do that, and that you will also appreciate that cur value as a journal to you, and as a means of getting in touch with the thousands of owners up and down the country, must be preserved intact. Furthermore, many of the manes have been given to us in confidence.
Concerning Paraffin Carburetters.
[2393] (Caxton).—On the whole, it is correct to say that to date the majority of experiments with paraffin carburetters have not yielded satisfactorily-consistent results. Some proprietary types have performed satisfactorily for a, while, but almost invariably such efforts have been succeeded by periods of inaccuracy and un
certainty, Certain makers of commercial vehicles fit paraffin carburetters of their own make when re quested so to do, and we believe, for instance, that Albions and Thornycrofts secure working results in this direction which are good.
Even after many years of investigation, there is still an opening for an absolutely successful paraffin carburetter. There are numbers of devices on the market, but we should feel some difficulty in recommending any one to you as being entirely and regularly satis factory. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get owners to make tests of paraffin carburetters for which all sorts of claims are made, owing to the unsuccessful results with which they have had to deal hitherto.
One of the most promising types which has as yet been brought to our notice is the Winchester. We gave our own experience with it, on a recent day's run, on page 287 of the issue for the 21st of May.