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Important French Army Tractor Trials.

5th March 1914, Page 8
5th March 1914
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 8, 5th March 1914 — Important French Army Tractor Trials.
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Early Advices from Our Own Correspondent.

Preliminary operations in connection with the French all-wheeldrive tractor competition commenced in the town of Rheims on Monday, 23rd February. The courtyard of the second aeronautical group was set aside for the operations of weighing, examining and sealing the various tractors entered for the competition. The military element predominated. Indeed, no effort had been made to bring this event before the ordinary commercial motor user and permits to enter the military ground were given out very grudg

ingly. Even Press passes were difficult to secure. The following firms are entered for the competition :—Panhard Levassor, Balachowsky and Caire, Blum-Latil, Renault, Schneider and Aries. Two firms had to present their machines on each day, Panhard and Balaehovvsky and Caire being called up for Monday morning. Having left Paris on the previous Friday, at noon, all four ,previous

were brought up with

I nilitnry exactitude. The Balachowsky and Caire petrol-electrics were not ready. As they had not c2 left.Paris at noon on the Sunday, it was obvious that they might not be at Rheims, nearly 100 miles away, on the Monday morning. Blum-Latil and Renault had to be examined on Tuesday. The former left Paris early on Sunday morning, and thus had ample time to reach their destination. On the Wednesday the two Schneider and the two Aries tractors had to be presented. It is doubtful if the latter will be seen in the competition. They have been delayed in construction to such an extent that it appears almost impossible for them to be presented in time. According to the programme, the competing machines have to leave Rheims for Clialons on Thursday morning. Then they continue towards the east, zigzagging along the German frontier, passing through Sedan. Mezieres and Hirson, then turning southwest for Paris, the final examination taking place in the fort at Vincennes. This run comprises 12 stages of about 36 miles each, on 10 of which the tractors have to haul their full load. On one stage difficult hills have to be climbed and

cross-country work undertaken, and on another stage of 60 miles the tractors have to carry their full useful load, but have no trailers to haul.

On the first three days carburated alcohol had to be used by all the engines. Benzoic was the obligatory fuel for the five following days, and petrol for the rest of the competition. Messrs. Panhard and Levassor have presented two distinct types of tractors. Two vehicles enter in what is known as the heavy class and two in the light division. The heavy tractors arepractically duplicates of those which_ took part in last year's French Army manceuvres with remarkably good results. They are driven by a fourcylinder poppet-valve motor of 125 mm. by 150 min. bore and stroke. A feature of this model is the entire absence of universal joints. The drive is transmitted to a fourspeed gearbox, thence to a differ-. ential at the rear of this unit. The mainshaft carries a, bevel pinion engaging with a crown wheel on a transverse shaft. A bevel pinion on this shaft meshes

with a couple of pinions mounted respectively on the extremities of the front and rear propeller shafts. This description applying to the left-hand wheels, there is also similar mechanism for the right-hand pair. At the rear of each propellei: shaft there is a bevel pinion driving a short cross-shaft, which ill turn operates a vertical shaft in the axis of the wheel. This latter shaft has on its lower extremity a bevel pinion engaging with a crown-bevel on the wheel hub. The road wheels are of east steel and fitted with twin Bergougnan tires. This model has been in constant service for practically three years, and although it has undergorle detail improvements ;its main features have not been changed.

MP small Panhard tractor is an entirely new model, this competition constituting its Coup ereesai. The motor is a Knight of 100 mm. by 140 mm. bore and stroke, this being the first occasion on which Panhard has made use of the sleeve-valve motor for a utility vehicle. The Knight engine has b?en used, however, for several ytaas on probably nine-tenths of file firm's pleasure cars. Unit construction is employed for the motor and gearbox, and the clutch is of the steel and fibre plate type. To rear of the power unit is a central differential from which four diagonal shafts are carried to the road wheels. Final drive is by worm gmring. The gearbox is a special

which really consists of two sets of four-speed gears combined. On No. 1 setthe gears 1 and 2 are an emergency set only brought into play when it is necessary to get the vehicle out of very difficult posi tions. A start is nearly always made on gear No. 3, then on to No. 1 of the second set, and through the range to No. 4. The six speeds generally used are enuivalent to 2, 3, 4.. 61, 9i and 15 miles an hour with the motor run ning at 1000 revolutions. There are two reverse gears. On this model the winch is mounted under the rear of the chassis and is driven by shaft and worm gearing from the gearbox. Cast-steel wheels are used fitted with twin Dunlop solid tires of 1000 mm. by 110 mm. section. Provision has been made for attaching chains round the tires, studs being cast on the inner face of the rims to receive the chain hooks. The total weight of the tractor is 5!tons, this, of course, including the useful load. Each tractor has two trailers, the total weight hauled being between eight and nine tons

The heavy tractor weighs 7?,: tons, of which 2 tons constitute useful load carried on the platform. In addition it will haul as much as 15 tons, this being on the two.vehicleg for the Army competition, al though the weight can be sweat over three or four trailers, if desired, under ordinary conditions. The only petrol-electric vehicle: in the competition are two Bala: chowsky and Cairo tractors enterec in the heavy section. These .tractors are fitted with a four-cylmdei janvier motor of 120 mm. by 25C aim, bore and stroke, having, as one of its distinctive features, an unusually big circular oil sump, from which the lubricant is drawn and delivered under pressure to all the bearings. The generating dynamo is built in the flywheel, and the electric motors are built in the road wheels. These vehicles have been on the market for some time and were presented at the last Army trials. This is the first occasion, however, on which they have been shown with all four wheels driven.

Latil has two types of tractors, making four vehicles in all. The smaller one has a four-cylinder monobloc motor of 95 mm. by 140 mm., and the larger a motor of 120 mm. by 160 Iran. All the motors have ball-bearing crankshafts and lubrication is by constant level splash. Only detail changes have been made in these vehicles since last year's trials. The motor, clutch -and gearset form a single unit with a considerable overhang beyond the front axle, and is the same, in principle at any rate, as the firm's front-drive vehicles. Five speeds are provided, the ourth being direct. At the rear there is a transmission unit similar to that at the front, a propellershaft being carried from the gear set to the rear axle and driving the cress-shaft by means of worm gearing.

The Schneider tractor, built in the Creusot works from which many of the Paris omnibuses are produced, has a four-cylinder motor of 125 mm. by 140 rani. set rather to the left-han,d side of the chassis. The driver's seat is directly above it. There is a platferm at the rear and a supplementary platform in front of the radiator. There are independent differentials for each axle, the drive being taken from the gearbox to the axles and then to the wheels by transverse shafts and internal gearing. The capstan is above the frame members, directly behind the platform body. Cast-steel wheels are used and the front spring hangers are united by a transverse balance lever to give greater flexibility for operating over rough ground. Among the firms paying particular attention to this problem is Renault with a set of tractors pos sessing many interesting features. Although the new vehicle is of special type and has been built entirely so as to comply with the Army Regulations, the same broad lines of design have been followed as on the ordinary Renault commercial models.

The engine used is a. four-cylinder, cast in pairs, of 130 mm. by

100 mm. bore and stroke. It so closely adheres to the Renault standisd as baldly to need any description other than that it is fitted with a governor and has a. half-compression device for ease in starting.

A slight .change has been made in the cooling system. The water flow is therrno-syphonie, but instead of vanes on the flywheel and an air-tight underpan, there is a fan at the back of the radiator, driven by belt running over a pulley just to the rear of the flywheel. The fan is enclosed by an aluminium casing bolted on the rear of the dashboard and having a central quick-detachable cover to enable the driven pulley to be reached without taking down the entire casing. Louvres are cut in the rear portion of the bonnet, so that air can be drawn through the central radiator tubes, and a sheet metal V-section guard is fitted between the rear cylinder and the radiator so that the current of air going through the bonnet may be directed on to the central tubes and not on to the engine.

The clutch is of the inverted-cone type, and there is a spring-disc coupling between it and the gearbox. The whole of the mechanism between clutch and gearbox is encased by an aluminium housing forming an extension of the gearbox. The lower half of this housing is fixed and tho upper half is readily detachable. The arrangement allows the whole of the coupling and clutch-withdrawing mechanism to run in oil, and has already been employed on the firm's other models for more than a year.

The gearbox is naturally of a special type. It comprises four speeds and reverse, with the usual primary and secondary shafts. On the primary is a central crown wheel engaging with a pinion mounted on a shaft in the same vertical plane, this shaft transmitting the power through a front and rear propeller shaft to the respective axles. Each of the propeller shafts has a universal joint at each end. The axles are of the well-known Renault design, comprising a one-piece forging with a central cradle, and with a caststeel cover on the driving end and a detachable ahuninium cover on the opposite side. The axle is bored out to receive the driving shafts, but, as the wheels must, be steerers as well as drivers, there is an enclosed universal joint on the end of the shaft, within the steer. ing pivot. [This we illustrate clearly.—ED.] A differential lock is obligatory. This is provided by means of a lever on the change-speed sector, with connections passing through the gearbox, left and right, to the two differentials.

A selective gear change is pro• vided. There are three hand levers : on the left, the differential lock ; in the centre, the changespeed ; and on the outside, the hand brake. The change-speed lever also enables the capstan to be brought into engagement. This latter fitting is mounted on a heavy platform at the extreme rear of the chassis, and is driven from the gearbox by propeller shaft and enclosed worm gearing. In addition to the external contracting brake at the rear of the gearbox, there are internal expanding brakes on all four wheels.

Cast-steel wheels are employed. They are fitted with solid twin tires, 1055 mm. by 140 mm. Provision has been made for the attachment of tire chains by fitting a series of hooks at intervals on the inner face of the rim, to left and right of the tires. These allow chains to be hooked on quickly when it becomes neiessary to employ them over soft ground.

The steering gear is, of course, duplicated. The worm on the steering column engages with a sector on a, horizontal shaft, set just within the right-hand frame member. This shaft has two worms, one of which engages with the sector carrying the lever arm for the front wheels, and the second with a corresponding sector and lever connected to the rear wheels. From these two points the control is exactly the same as on the ordinary models.

Suspension is by semi-elliptic springs front and rear. Each of these has a sliding shackle at the rear ; they are of the unusual width of ins. Towing hooks are fitted at the front of the chassis, and there is a, quick-action springmounted coupling .at the rear in accordance with the Army requirements. A very powerful sprag is hinged from the rear axle, this also being in a,cordance with the Army regulations. Tha Renault tractor is taking part in the coming Army Trials, with two trailers shod with steel tire;

Tags

Organisations: French Army, Army
Locations: Cairo, Rheims, Paris

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