VE AND AINTENANCE
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How much to spend on the worst?
ONCE the better vehicles are operating on a proper preventive maintenance programme, attentions can be turned to the worst vehicles—those that received a grade 3 rating.
Although the introduction of the MoT tests may have reduced the number of unsafe vehicles on the road, once vehicles are nearing the end of their useful life to an oper ator, the amount he can justify spending on maintenance is reduced. Nevertheless, grade 3 vehicles must be uprated to grade 2 urgently, because apart from any possible safety problems, they are almost certainly operating inefficiently.
If there are any number of grade 3 vehicles in the fleet— more than, say, 1 in 10—then the fleet engineer faces an uphill task in updating them. The first point is that the full inspection report must be balanced against the remaining life of the vehicle. In this grade, the youngest vehicle must receive attention first.
They may well need reconditioned or rebuilt mechanical units to keep them operating efficiently for the remainder of their life—which may be three or four years. In some cases, the renewal of valves, seats, guides and piston rings may ' suffice, if the annual mileage is not too high—say, 40,000 a year. Obviously, the overhaul ing programme must be planned properly, with the parts obtained beforehand, and it should be possible to carry out fairly major mechanical overhauls in eight to 10 days. At this stage, it is not economical to transfer the vehicle to the bodyshop after the mechanical overhaul, but the urgent job must be attended to at the same time. The import ant point here is not to let the vehicle stay on the road too long, but as soon as it is up to grade 2 get it out of the workshop.
The problem with the older vehicle is just how much is worth spending, once safety has been ensured. If there are a number of similar vehicles of different ages in the fleet, then a bit of planning can give some economies. For example, it may be that a replacement engine or gearbox is to be fitted to a grade 2 or better grade 3 vehicle. In this case it is preferable to keep the old unit since it can almost certainly be put into a condition that will suffice for a vehicle with only a year or two to run.
Expensive junk
However, only retain units when they can be installed in a vehicle as soon as they have been renovated, otherwise the workshop will soon be cluttered with a lot of expensive junk.
With these older vehicles, which may have two or three • years useful life ahead of them, safety and a knowledge of the depths of other problems are essential. Then, it is a routine factor to gradually improve the vehicles, always bearing in mind how much longer they are going to remain in service.
Many of the jobs may be quite small, and it may be possible to bring the vehicle off the road for one day a week to attend to one job. If this procedure is followed regularly, then the condition of the worst vehicle in the fleet will soon improve.