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Instant Maintenance for Doal Tippers

9th April 1965, Page 72
9th April 1965
Page 72
Page 73
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Page 72, 9th April 1965 — Instant Maintenance for Doal Tippers
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

SITUATED at one of the highest points in Glamorgan, some three miles from Merthyr Tydfil, the South Tunnel maintenance depot of S. Harfoot and Sons Ltd., Casfieland Street, Barry, was established to cater for a fleet of 14 Foden eight-wheelers operating a service over mountainous country between a coal-recovery site, half a mile from the depot, and a processing plant, a distance of eight miles. Part of a total fleet of 127 vehicles, 110 of which are tippers, the Fodens are maintained by a foreman and a staff of three fitters and three apprentices, who form a specialist team equipped to deal with problems arising from a particular type of operation that may aptly be described as "tough in the extreme".

• A base depot at Glyn Neath and a maintenance depot at Tairgwaith provide for the requirements of the fleets of 20 and 14 vehicles operating respectively on the Dunraven and Arnmen Valley, open-cast coal sites which have to cope with gradients of up to 1 in 5, often in deep mud. The distance of the depot from the site is less than six miles in each case.

Whilst the foremen of these depots act on their own initiative in organizing maintenance, they receive full co-operation from the staff of the main depot at Barry (30 vehicles) and of the Cardiff and Newport depots (about 28 and 20 vehicles respectively). Lorries at the Barry, Cardiff B38 and Newport depots are engaged mainly in the transport of building and road-building materials on the highways and byways of South Wales, all of which have steep gradients. And although maintenance of the tippers is a less exacting and specialized problem than is created by the coal vehicles, it is tackled with the same thoroughness.

Harfoot and Sons is a family concern, founded in 1919, and the managing director, Mr. Frank C. Haifoot, is the eldest of four brothers in the business. Mr. Ivor Harfoot is joint managing director, Mr. Ronald Harfoot, fleet engineer, and Mr. Leslie Harfoot, assistant depot manager. Mr. Frank Harfoot's son, Donald Harfoot, is assistant secretary, and Mr. Ivor Harfoot's son, Anthony Harfoot, works in the traffic office assisting Mr. A. T. James the general manager.

Taking the longer view of maintenance, Mr. Frank Harfoot considers that the number of tippers based at a depot should not exceed about 30 if a high standard of maintenance is to be provided, and that the number should be reduced at depots catering for vehicles engaged on really arduous operations. Only by limiting the total, Mr. Harfoot believes, is it possible for the maintenance foreman and fitters to combine as an integrated team and develop a know-how appropriate to the types of lorry in the fleet and the work they do. At Harfoot depots, the team spirit is fostered by the help the mechanics receive from the Barry headquarters and other depots with regard to the supply of spares, the major overhaul of power units (at Barry) and, in an emergency, urgent repairs that cannot immediately be carried out on the premises. Mr. Ronald Harfoot visits each depot at least once a week to discuss immediate and future needs with the foreman and is responsible for obtaining spares for all the depots. This necessitates a detailed knowledge of the sources of supply and of the facilities offered by local specialists, and enables stocks to he reduced to an economic level by selective planning. The spares bill of the company is about £40,000 a year. Limiting the number of vehicles at a depot also has the advantage that it improves relations between fitters and drivers and promotes better driving. At the Merthyi Tydfil coal-recovery site, for example, recurrent transmission failures, notably of propeller-shaft couplings, are caused by a section of road with a reverse camber combined with a change in a few yards from a flat surface to a 1-in-5 gradient. This imposes a very high torsional strain on the chassis and produces excessive articulation of the bogie axles, and drivers have fully co-operated with the foreman, Mr. Thomas Howells, and with a Foden representative to develop a handling and gear-changing technique that has substantially reduced the incidence of transmission breakdowns.

The Foden is regarded by the technical staff as the ideal tipping vehicle and it is emphasized by Mr. Frank Harfoot that these breakdowns are no discredit to Foden designers, who have given every possible assistance to eradicate them. Equipped with Gardner 6LX engines and 12-speed gearboxes, the Fodens are supplied with 6-ton front axles. Heavy-duty springs have been• fitted by Harfoot's in the case of the coal-recovery tippers in addition to stop rubbers that limit the articulation of the rear bogie axles and to special heavy-duty couplings. These vehicles rarely operate in top gear and their average fuel consumption of 6-61 m.p.g., compared with a consumption of 9-91 m.p.g. on normal road work, is symptomatic of the arduous job they perform. Annual mileage is about 30,000.

On open-cast and quarry work, the remaining 16 Fodens rarely give trouble of any kind and the fleet breakdown average of 14-15 a day (mainly of transmissions, springs and tyres) is, therefore, the more significant as it shows the value of running heavier " quality" vehicles at their rated load as a means of reducing maintenance.

M.o.T. Examination

A programme is planned which will give priority to increasing the number of such vehicles in appropriate categories. The remainder of the existing fleet mainly comprises about 35 Bedford four-wheelers, 45 Leyland Comets, four AEC eight-wheelers, 10 Leyland Retrievers and three Leyland Octopus tippers. Six or more Bedfords have been completely rebuilt in the Harfoot workshop with heavier chassis frames.

Despite the fact that a new tipper may break down on its first trip (this applies mainly to the lighter vehicles) and that any tipper may develop a serious fault (that no B40

preventive maintenance scheme could possibly guard against), warranting an immediate prohibition by a Ministry of Transport vehicle examiner, Mr. Harfoot considers that the increased tempo of MoT examinations over the past 12 months has been of great benefit to the industry. "The examiners are very fair and helpful," he observes, "and• their definitions of allowable wear are of special value. After regular visits to our depots, we are now fully conversant with the standards they require." The examiners normally work through the fleet " in a series of appointments over a given period, a batch of, say, five stipulated vehicles being produced for each check, following thorough cleaning.

These checks stimulate keenness on the part of the fitter and, of related significance, it is claimed by Mr. Harfoot that older vehicles are generally less liable to develop serious faults than new tippers because the staff have had time to eliminate basic defects,

Mr. Harfoot makes the surprising forecast that the enforcement of better maintenance will encourage many C-licensed tipper operators to give a substantial part of their traffic to hauliers, because, as stated earlier, of the difficulty of providing a high standard of maintenance in the case of a large fleet. According to Mr. Harfoot, the problem is aggravated by the acute shortage of good mechanics and there is little prospect of increased availability. "If a C-licensed operator runs, say, 80 vehicles," Mr. HarfoOt claims, "he may well be forced to reduce the fleet to 50 vehicles and hire lorries to carry the surplus traffic because of the impossibility of providing good maintenance."

On average, a fully-skilled mechanic and an improver (excluding foremen) are employed by the Harfoot company for every four tippers, which is at least double the ratio applicable to the average operator running longdistance trunking vehicles. If it were possible to employ fitters in this ratio for any number of vehicles, the main obstacle to increasing the tipper fleet at a base depot to 50 or more would be removed, but, Mr. Harfoot observes, a fleet should not be increased to such a size that the manager or foreman loses touch with details of operational problems. Very few large companies run tipping vehicles successfully, he points out.

All maintenance and repairs are performed by a day staff of mechanics, a stand-by fitter being available if required • up to 8 p.m., which is considered preferable to employing any section of the staff on nights on the score that it promotes more efficient and more harmonious use of labour.

Approved and supplied by the South Wales Maintenance Advisory Committee, the inspection sheets used by the depot maintenance staffs cover every item of equipment subject to wear or tear, stress or strain and allows no loophole for overlooking a defect. Each vehicle is inspected monthly and is docked for an average of two to four days, according to the type of operation in which it is engaged. At any one time, two vehicles are normally in dock at each depot and to avoid disruption of traffic in the event of a breakdown, a stand-by vehicle of appropriate type is garaged at each premises.

Breakdowns and repairs vary Because of the nature of the site work that coal lorries undertake, breakdowns and emergency repairs vary greatly according to the state of the weather, the mud created by heavy or continuous rainfall being a common cause of transmission and spring failures. Therefore, large fluctuations in the labour force required for emergencies are unavoidable. This applies to all depots to an extent because, as mentioned, Cardiff and Newport, as well as Barry, get a share of coal vehicle repairs.

in slacker periods (generally in dry weather) overhauls are undertaken that are non-essential with regard to immediate requirements and can, therefore, be discontinued for an indefinite time in the event of a spate of breakdowns. This includes fitting engines with new pistons and cylinder liners, reconditioning cylinder heads and gearboxes and R44 servicing springs, a stock of spare units and parts appropriate to normal requirements being available at the depots for immediate use. At all times, however, day-to-day maintenance is given priority.

Maintenance facilities at each depot include an inspection pit (multiple inspection lamps are preferred to strip lighting), greasing and welding equipment, drilling and grinding machines and a cylinder-head planing machine. The overhaul of electrical and injector equipment is performed by the makers' distributors or specialists and radiators are also repaired by a local concern. .Worn or damaged steering components are replaced by service units.

For every vehicle at a depot, at least one assembled tyre and wheel is held in stock, which saves time on the frequent occasions that tyre changes. are necessary and facilitates checking for faults. Six makes of tyre are being tried out to test for wear and resistance to damage. A 'Michelin representative makes a monthly check of tyres at every depot.

Vehicles are brake-tested unladen with a Ferodo meter at intervals of two months—the target is once a month— and the " pass " efficiency is 30 per cent from 20 m.p.h. for handbrakes and 70 per cent from 30 m.p.h. for footbrakes. Special care is taken to match the tyres of front axles in the interests of good steering, and the covers of rear axles to avoid excessive wear of the differentials. All eightwheelers are fitted with an automatic chassis lubrication system to reduce wear and the time required for maintenance.

Flexible specialization backed by an ample labour force is the keynote of the Harfoot organization, the appropriate delegation of authority to responsible members of the staff being also a principle that is operative at all levels.

Mr. Harfoot pays particular tribute to the work of the South Wales Maintenance Advisory Committee and the opportunities that discussions at committee meetings provide for improving maintenance methods. In a number of cases representations by the committee to a vehicle manufacturer have hastened supplies of long-Overdue spare parts for urgent repairs.


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