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Increased Production
A SIGN of the recovery which the commercial vehicle -1-1 manufacturing industry has made from the recession of a year ago is given by some statistics issued by David Brown Industries, Ltd., regarding their Automotive Gearbox Division.
They compare orders for complete gearboxes to be produced during the first quarter of 1959 with units actually delivered during the second quarter of last year.
For heavy vehicles with engine-torque outputs ranging from 350 to 750 lb.-ft. and for light vehicles with torque requirements from 90 to 100 lb.-ft., the demand for gearboxes has doubled. Most remarkable, however, is that in the medium-weight range, where torque capacities are from 200 to 300 lb.-ft. and payloads range from 5 to 10 tons, the demand has quadrupled.
David Brown see in this upsurge both an indication of the nation's economic recovery and a justification of their own reorganization and development of a comprehensive range of gearboxes.
Three Men and a Tractor
FROM a Sussex village comes a story of five summonses arising from the sale of a single tractor. The original owner sold it without notifying the licensing authority, whilst the two men who bought it were each lined for not notifying the change of ownership, and one of them in addition for driving it on the highways without a rear registration plate and without a licence, making 'a. total of
five lines for the three men concerned. So watch your step when you sell, buy or drive without considering all the legal aspects.
A Tap Which Persuades
A NEW form of tapping tool will soon be at work. It is
claimed for this that the internal threads produced in aluminium, brass and other metals will be considerably stronger than those of the conventional type, because the metal is swaged and thus " moved " into shape rather than cut. It is another step in the fast-developing technique of cold-forming.
U.S.A. Drivers Paid £289 a Month
INTERESTING comparisons with British experience can I be Made with that of the Republic Van and Storage Co.. Los Angeles, California, a concern carrying furniture all over the U.S.A. They were formed only 13 years ago and now have 15 branches and 400 vehicles.
Three hundred units of the fleet are petrol-engined, but engine life at 80,000-120,000 miles (representing 12-18 months' work) would appear to be on a par with oilengine performance. Tyre life is from 50,000-75,000 miles. a little less than that of many long-distance vehicles operated here, although, of course, American vehicles are heavier and run at higher speeds.
Drivers are paid the equivalent of £214-f289 a month. and in view of this it is perhaps not surprising that a job involving the use of a van with the services of three men