All-wheel Drive for Beach Clearance
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TO assist in the clearance of flotsam.
rubbish, oil, seaweed and so on from Blackpool's beaches, a 4/5-ton tipper based on a Unipower Junior fourwheel-drive chassis has been supplied to the order of Mr, H. C. Lighten, director of public cleansing, Blackpool. When not engaged in its beach-clearing duties, the vehicle is to be used for towing a
Carrimore 10-ton low-loading four wheeled trailer carrying municipal machinery and equipment.
The choice of an all-wheel-drive machine has been influenced by the fact that conventional vehicles which have been tried, have, on several occasions, become bogged in the sand and required outside help to extricate them. Powered by a Perkins P6 oil engine developing 83 b.h.p. at 2,400 r.p.m., the new tipper has a wheelbase of 10 ft. 6 in. and a timber body 8 ft. long by 6 ft. 10 in. wide, with a depth of 3 ft. when detachable extensions are fitted to the 1-ft, '10-in. sides.
The drive to the fully floating spiralbevel axles is taken through a fivespeed overdrive gearbox and transfer gearbox which are interconnected by a short propeller shaft. High gear in the transfer box is direct drive, whilst low gear has a reduction ratio of 1.7 to I.
Rzeppa constant-velocity universal joints are used in the front axle, and Marles steering gear is fitted, acting through a self-adjusting drag link.
Vacuum assistance is provided for the two-leading-shoe hydraulic brakes. The front drums measure 164 in. by 21 in. and those at the rear 16 in, by 34 in. The hand brake operates on the rear wheels only,
The body, and Model 2LN tipping gear were produced by Edbro-B. and F. Tippers, Ltd., Quebec Street. Bolton. The single-front-ram end-tipping gear derives its power from a combined power take-off and wobble-plate pump on the vehicle gearbox. Controls for the tipping gear are located in the cab.
Makers of the Unipower Junior are Universal Power Drives. Ltd., Aintree Road. Perivale. Middx.