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Largest Circulation.
Recognized in Business and Municipal Circles as the Leading Journal The Authority on all forms of Motor Vehicle for the Transport of Goods and Passengers SOME additions have been made to. a popular range, of trench chassis marketed here. Page 250. WE give brief details of the modifications in the • chassis manufactured by a Sheffield company. Page 243. _ PARTICULARS are included of certain improvements in a well-known make of steam wagon. Page. 252.
* * EXCLUSIVE information is given regarding tha plans for 1930 of an important American maker. Page 256. FIRST details are included of an entirely new range of passenger chassis hailing from a Yorkshire • works. ' Page 246. * * REVISIONS, of which details are given, have been made in the range of chassis produced by a Scottish maker, Page 258.
• THE maker of a new and already popular Passenger chassis has produced a larger model to carry 32-seater bodies. Page 240. PROVINCIAL users of taxicabs will welcome the line, new model incorporating a highly efficient private-car chassis. • Page 255.
TWO new chassis have just been placed on the market by a well-known Scottish maker: one is for 4-ton loads and the other is a five-tonner. Page 244.
NOT much of interest to our readers was to be seen at the InventionsExhibition, but we deal with the few devices applicable to commercial vehicles..
Page 251.
AN American concern specializing in the construction of axles has designed a highly efficientfour-wheel-driven•bogie for rigid-frame six-wheelers.
Page 242.
MUCH of the success of a passenger vehicle depends upon its appearance, and our expert deals with the way in which this can be improved externally. Page 248. PARCELCARS of satisfactory design find a ready market in this country, and we describe a German make which has met with much success and which is being built in an improved form. Page 257.
CONSIDERABLE attention is being paid to the design of bodies particularly suited to the conveyance of cattle, and a new type has been brought out embodying many ingenious features; it is also convertible for goods transport. Page 239.
The Need for Greater Co-operation Between Chassis Maker and Bodybuilder.
ON several occasions In the past we have expressed the view that infinite good would result from a greater degree of co-operation between chassis makers andbodybuilders, and we are led once again to refer to the subject by reason of the difficulties which we know some builders of passenger-carrying bodies are experiencing in endeavouring to keep within the weight limits imposed by law. Official regulations demand close adherence to maximum total laden weights and maximum axle weights for all public-service vehicles of both the four-wheeled and six-wheeled tYpes. That being so, it is obvious that if a vehicle is being built to the permissible limits, any increase in chassis weight must necessarily Involve a similar reduction in body weight. So far as single-deck buses and saloon coaches are concerned no unusual difficulty arises, because the bodybuilder is given ample latitude, but in the case of double-deckers, and particularly those with covered tops, the problem is one which is causing not a little concern in the coachbuilding trade. Many coachbuilders fedi that, at present, the limits of weight-saving have been reached and that any further effort to lighten the body structure might conceivably be attended with disastrous effects. Light materials, such as aluminium, duralumin and plywood (plain or with strengthening metallic skins) are now being largely employed in body construction, and baulks of timber now find only a meagre use, whilst in some designs, which are founded on successful aircraft practice, wood has been entirely dispensed with. Bodybuilders would appear to have some justification for their grievance when one considers that different makes of chassis built to carry bodies of similar capacity often vary in their net weight by as much as 15 cwt. or more. Such differences necessitate individual body designs being prepared for each make of chassis, whereas a standardized pattern capable of modification to suit specific needs would be cheaper to build and, therefore, cheaper to buy. Efforts have been made to increase the seating capacity of double-deck buses and tendencies in this direction are still noticeable, but such a procedure has very little support from the average bodybuilder. In considering this phase of the problem it Must be remembered that, apart from the mere question of body &sign and construction, the official regulations regarding total weight are based on an allowance of 140 lb. for each passenger.
It would seem, therefore, that chassis makers will have to come to the aid of bodybuilders and devise ways and means for achieving this desired end. Those who preach standardization as a fetish may regard this as a chance for stressing the desirability of specific weights for chassis built to carry definite capacities of body, hut such an idea, if 'carried out, would restrict makers' individualism and possibly retard progress in design. When one hears that frame assemblies for certain important makes remain very much as they were 10 or. more years ago, one does feel that by giving close attention to the design of main components certain designers might be able to reduce weight without materially sacrificing strength.
We are inclined to the belief that the maximum laden weight permitted for'a double-deck four-wheeled bus—i.e., nine tons—is insufficient to permit the building of chassis which are robust enough to meet present-day conditions and the provision of adequate equipment such as large dynamos and batteries, servo devices, etc. Quite a small increase in the maximum allowed would help both chassis maker and bodybuilder.
The Registration of Haulage Con tractors. •
THE Bill concerning the regulation of road transport which is being brought in by the Government during the next few months will, we understand, embody a scheme ,of particular Interest to haulage ,contractors, and we gather that it has the support of the purely haulagecontractor bodies.
Amongst its clauses are the registration and licensing, on specified lines, of hauliers before work for others can be undertaken, and a bar on hiring or contract haulage by any other parties than those genuinely in the trade and duly licensed. At the present time there are many owners who use vehicles for their own traffics and who do haulage for others as, what may be termed, a side line, and thus compete with the bonafide haulier, and this often at rates which are economically unsound. There is much to be said in favour of the scheme, although it is bound to meet with considerable opposition. In few other trades is price-cutting so rampant, and it may be that with more thorough organization the whole status of the haulage industry could be raised. On the other hand, it will undoubtedly constitute a hardship if the user whose own haulage work occupies but a small proportion of the possible working time of his vehicle be enforced to keep it idle. It may be, however, that, in such instances, there could be a combination of interests to permit some measure of co-operative use and thus avoid vehiclecapacity wastage. The whole subject is one which lends itself to considerable argument, and we are willing to devote space to ventilating views from both sides. .
That Budget Concession to Road Transport.
IT has not been realized by everyone connected with road transport that the small concession proposed by Mr. Winston Churchill in the second half of the Finance Act was dropped by the present Government when it refused to concern itself with this particular portion. Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P., the present Chancellor of the Excheilmer, has, however, given an assurance that the matter of this concession shall receive attention in his Budget.
it was proposed that the rate of duty for goods vehicles of which the unladen weight is over 2 .tons but does not exceed 2i tons should be reduced from £40 to £35, with the existing rebate of 20 per cent, in cases where the vehiclesare equipped with pneumatic tyres.
We have some hope.that the Chancellor will .see his way to helping road .transport to a larger extent than this, and we suggest that, in addition to the particular concession to which we have already referred, this could be effected by .increasing the rebate where pneumatic tyres are employed. This is of particular importance in the case of the heavier classes of vehicle, the equipping of which with pneumatiq tyres would involve theiowners in considerable expense, and yet it is their use on these .very machines which would do so much towards preventing excessive wear and damage to the roads.