Obstruction Due to Unnecessary Height of Bodies and Tilt Covers.
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The better " finish '" of the average box-van body usually appeals to th.e vehicle-proud owner of motorvans, when comparisons with, low sides plus a " tilt " cover are made. It is not forgotten that the former costs more and is heavier : the superiority of style is by some held to. outweigh those factors. We cannot see that there is occasion to argue in favour of either to the detriment of the other, on the score of convenience to the user, but we feel that a few new pointers may he set, for consideration by intending new purchasers of motorvans.
Savings in weight and first cost are the initial advantages of the canvas top, and to these must be added the possible securing of flexibility. No such rover is arranged and fitted in a manner which permits its ready vertical contraction or expansion, and all of them without exception waste head-room when compact or small loads are on the floor; hence, at present, in respect of their height, which is the equivalent of the obstruction they offer, tilts are not less troublesome than panels. The so-called removable tilt, in fact, not infrequently is a delusion and a snare ; its owners never do remove it, and there might as well have been a permanency in wood on the chassis in its place. It is when one has to deal with bulky loads of three tons and upwards that box-van construction may demand degrees of strength and rigidity which render the extra weight of any panelled body a working difficulty. The increase of tare, which becomes of more account in the larger types, naturally causes greater wear on tires, and depresses the ratio of paying to dead load. For example, a typical box-van body to provide 360 cubic feet of space weighs some 20 cwt., whereas the same capacity is yielded with a tilt-type superstructure by a ewt.: the percentage reduction, on the weight of the complete vehicle, empty or laden, may not look material, but it is ever present. The area of such large vans, however, is of serious import, as the effects of wind resistance increase both fuel consumption and maintenance. We are now concerned to ask is hether the box-van and the tilt cover really offer the only reasonable alternatives in bodywork.
Observers of traffic features may, in any great city. hut in London most of all, quickly apprehend that the timehonoured custom of fitting a high cover often results solely in a personal sense of importance on the part of the miner's boy who sits or stands beneath the lofty canopy. It may, of course, be. a. satisfactory arrangement from the boy's standpoint, that he should have ample protection from rain or sun. but what about the public at large? The loads, in a high percentage of eases, as all who use the streets may 'note for themselves, are but two or three feet high under a nine-foot cover ; in short, it may tinbesitat ingly be stated that the obstructive and potentially dangerous tilts, when they are large enough for maximum loading requirements, are at one and the same time greatly in excess of average needs. We have taken a few records in this connection, and numerous instances have collo., before members of our staff, in regard both to motordriven and horse-drawn vans, which send home the occasional character of a full utilization of the interior head1.00111. It is a commonplace, in London, to See this unintelligent perpetuation of a nuisance, and tacitly to admit its necessity: we believe there is a way of escape, or at least a method by which the growth of the evil may be checked. Both box-van and tilt-rovers are offenders, but the former, owing to the not-uncommon practice of owners in adopting semi-permanent internal shelves or other fittings, and to the nature of the loads in some instances, there are varying measures of reason to offer in explanation.
'We appeal to manufacturers and purchasers of commercial motors to do what they can to contribute to an improvement in body design, qua the lessening of obstruction to drivers of other vehicles. Take, for example, the low-sided wagon with canvas tilt, upon which a beginning might well be made. We postulate that the full height of the tilt is not wanted once ill six trips. Can there not be collapsible and extensible supports? Cannot, as another suggestion, some cases be met by a form of spring roller upon which the cover can be retired into a transverse box behind the driver's seat? Might there not even he an elaboration of this spring-roller-mounted system of covers, from the sides and ends of a low body, in such combination that the acme of protection for the load might be gained in conjunction with perfect access for loading and unloading F We think so, but we do not imagine for onemoment that it offers the only solution. Motorvans arc. already anal/a-ma on country roads. Car owners can't make their drivers hearcan't get past them. As motorvans increase, so, unless steps of some kind are taken to remove features in design which engender the retention of drawbacks to hearing and seeing. so will a body of legitimate objections to their circulation grow. Doubts as to the bearing of a driver's ability to see ahead may easily he set at rest ; it has been found that the raising of a London motorbus driver by some 18 in,, which is done upon certain models in service, gives the man the opportunity to gauge his driving with a much-greater ease and certainty for himself, and with enormously-greater comfort for his passengers. He can just see over the tops of ordinary vehicles, whereas his lower-seated comrades have to "draw out." or to stay "in line," according to their own speculations or inclinations. Conversely, seeing that every driver can't be placed on a relatively-elevated plane, the cause of fast traffic, which is synonymous with the cause of several important sections of commercial motoring, cannot fail to he helped forward by whatever modifications are possible in respect of those wasted top portions against which we protest. True, they are wanted occasionally. Is that which may be so required necessarily to he in situ throughout all the hours of every day? Motor owners, above all others, should not add to the difficulties which cause them so much delay and loss,