AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Home 'Regulations Cramp Vehicle Exporters

5th December 1947
Page 39
Page 39, 5th December 1947 — Home 'Regulations Cramp Vehicle Exporters
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

pp• EGULATIONS under which the 1%. British commercial-vehicle manufacturer operated had hampered the export drive, said Mr. V. W. Pilkington, director of engineering, Leyland Motors, Ltd., when he discussed important factors affecting the design of passenger and goods vehicles at the November meeting of the Institute of Traffic Administration's Manchester centre.

In view of the proximity of America, even our Canadian market could not be expected to accept our machines if they did not fulfil their needs as well as American vehicles. Towns were built on the block system, with long streets, so that manceuvrability was not so important as it was in the United Kingdom, and the type of public .service vehicle required was necessarily different from ours Taxation and Regulations

Reminding his listeners that it was only in 1925 that the first efforts were made to design a public service vehicle as such, instead of merely putting a passenger-carrying body on a goods chassis, Mr. Pilkington pointed out that taxation and the regulations regarding construction had both had a marked effect on British design. Because of our particular climatic conditions, ventilation was amona the matters that had never been really tackled in this country.

Figures troved that the biggest field for weight-saving was in the body Discussions were in progress with a view to evolving a chassis of standard dimensions on which any similarly standard body could be fixed For vehicles to be acceptable in the

U.S.A., where city buses had a unit fare system and were one-man-operated, it was necessary for the entrance to be beside the driver. American bus drivers were paid something like 80 dollars a week and had to justify this figure by doing all the necessary work on a largecapacity bus.

The " unifiow " system provided for the passengers to enter at the front of the bus and to leave only at the rear. Because of the use of driver-controlled doors, platform accidents had been eliminated by the U.S. operators.

More powerful engines were being demanded by the Transatlantic undertakings and to-day it was quite usual for units to run up to 180-200 b.h.p. The big companies in America conceived their vehicles as a whole and there were only a few builders left who constructed bodies on the conventional chassis. The American vehicle was functionally designed all through, in contrast to the practice in this country, where the industry thought of the chassis and body separately, so that the operator had to decide how the two were to be mated together.

, To meet the demands of the export market, we had to supply a chassis and cab suitable for either passenger or goods duty, and with a smart frontal design that could be applied to either

increase in the overall dimensions of goods vehicles made in this country. but to increase the axle weights would be to bring them to a figure too high for the present conditions of some of our bridges.

The British manufacturer, said Mr. Pilkington, made the best of the smaller oil-engined vehicles. On the whole Britain also had the most economical compression-ignition engines.

"Outsize" Vehicles There were special requirements in vehicle design to meet the case of the abnormal indivisible load, especially where this had to be sent on long hauls, as was the case in South Africa. There bigger power units were required, but this need was difficult to meet when the home market called for something entirely different.

Discussing the various systems of hydraulic transmission available in this country and overseas, the speaker commented that all transmissions of this nature had a slightly lower economy factor than the ordinary step transmission.' In view of Britain's position with regard to fuel, many people felt that economy in this direction was of paramount importance.

Incorporation of the gas turbine in future designs was not out of the question, but there were problems to be faced in the 100-200 b.h.p. engine that did not exist in those 10 times the size. For that reason, said Mr. Pilkington, it was unlikely that the gas turbine would be used in commercial vehicles within the next 10 years.


comments powered by Disqus