THE " LIBERTY " LORRY.
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Details of the New Standardized War Truck for the Quartermaster Department of the United• States Army.
DETAILS ARE NOW to hand of the first of the great new fleet of standardized• "war trucks," as they are called, for which the United States of America has initiated such a colossal production programme. This new machine is an assembled chassis, as are so many others of American conception ; it corresponds in broad principles to much with which we are familiar as embodied in American lorries which have already been imported into this country both for civilian and for war uses.
Realizing at once that this new standardized U.S.A. truck could not be produced in the vast quantities re quired for many months, in July of last year the American Government ordered over 10,000 trucks of ordinary commercial types from the Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Riker, F.W.D.' Nash and Garford factories. Over • 24,400 lorry bodies. were also ordered ; the International Harvester Co. being understood to have received a eontract for no fewer than 10,000 of theSe. With regard to the production of standardized chassis, the first-idea was that the Society of Automotive
• Engineers, through a specially appointed committee, should prepare a programme and a specification which would lay down the broad lines on which the trucks could be produced in the various motor vehicle factories in America, and which Would at the same time • permit the _manufacturer considerable latitude in the • Matter of detail. This plan in the end had to be abandoned, as the conflicting opinions of the various builders in their efforts to combine what was dictated lay active service requirements, as communicated to them by the other Allied Governments, and what was best from the multiple-production point of view, re c36 • stilted in a state of affairs which was very nearly a deadlack.
In the end the Government stepped in in July of last year—the Committee had been endeavouring to arrive at some definite decision since the spring—and set to work to prepare a hard and fast specification which permitted not even the slightest divergence by any contracting manufacturer ; thereafter in two months' time a contract for two sample machines was fixed. It was laid down by the Gaivernment authorities that the machine was to be standardized throughout to the last bolt and nut. Then the genius for American hustle once again revealed itself, and the first two machines were delivered in thirty days time.
There is now no secret about the design, for as one of the reports on the behaviour of one of the two first trucks states, in characteristic style, " Since it is a sure success, there is nothing secret about the vehicle. If the Kaiser has a complete drawing and specifieation of it., he is quite welcome to it, for we are planning to use these trucks to clear away the debris when we start reconstruction work on his palace in Berlin for General Ecershieg's Headquarters." The standardized chassis itself is frankly "A mere composite of time-honoured construction." One of the principal considerations which the committee of American motor-producing experts had before them when agreeing on the standard drawings, and ta the adoption of the " assembly" type of construction, was the need for ease and speed of assembly and dissembly. As evidence of the way in which all that is considered the best in American design has been embodied in this new war truck, the engine, which is 60 hp., may be cited as a typical unit. Of this the crankcase is a Continental stock pattern, the cylinders are identical with those used in the Waukesha. motor. The pistons are...standard Hercules pattern. The oiling system is similar to that used on the Wisconsin engine. There is much that is Buda in the design, particularly in respect of the timing gears. The engine supports are like those used'on the Mack truck. The governor is 'closely related to the Waukesha and Kelly-Springfield types. Again, the back axle is a combination of both the famous Timken and Sheldon models, types, both of them, familiar to all who knew the American commercial truck of to-day. Much in the design differs from the specification which the S.A.E. drew up in April of last year. What is known as the Hotchkiss drive which was taboo before, is now incorporated. The demountable solid tyre is superseded by the pressed-on type. The axle is worm driven, and, of course, of the full floating pattern. The gearbox is placed amidships, and has eardan shafts in front and behind of equal length and similarly equipped with identical universal joints. It is understood that the road wheels will be of steel, although the early chassis are mounted on wooden ones.
Special attention has been given to the radiator, -which, it must be admitted from the illustrations to hand, appears to be none too large foor the 60 .h.p. motor. It has cast top and bottom headers, a tubular centre, and cast or pressed side members, and a fillet of unusually ample dimensions. Elaborate prevision has been made for safeguarding it; there is a spring-mounted buffer board in addition to a steel radiator guard of grid pattern strongly braced in front of it. There is little doubt that the American factories will achieve' wanders in respect of the quantity production of this composite vehicle. The nature of its detail conception lends itself to the individual type of productive capacity which is characteristic of the various great plants of the States. The aims of the designers are declared to be to produce "a track more robust than any other now built, and one which will operate on the newly-acquired ground which it is hoped the American troops will assist to secure after the demolition of the Hindenburg line. The designers also state that they consider that the machines must be able to stand up under much more severe conditions than those which have confronted the Allies own motor transport on lines which have hitherto been practioally stationary in the West, until such time as permanent reads can be built over the erstwhile battlefield."
There is little doubt that this new assembled truck of our American Allies will give a good account of itself on active service. There is little reason why it should not ; all its components, in any case, have seen war service, some of the better known American models, embodying established " assembly components 7 have rendered yeoman service in our own M.T. columns, as well as in those of France and Russia. There is no season to suppose, however, that the " Liberty " truck will prove more suitable for war service than any of our bettei-known British models, which are as well fitted for any new conditions which may arise as they have proved to be for those that have existed for the past 3i. years.