6-WHEELED EORRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1920, Page 3

6-WHEELED EORRY.

LONDON, Oct. 16 !

The wide range of selection which is to-day offered to the trader who wishes in purchase a commercial motor vehicle is well exemplified by the exhibits on view this week at Olympia, W. To-day I am taking the other end of the scale—namely, a newcomer of the 6-wheeled order. With the possible exception of certain tractors, this machine is the giant among the race of goods-enrrying, petrol-driven vehicles, being able to carry a load of 7-J- tons and haul an additional 6 tons in a trailer. The. prime factor in its favour is its weight, which is said not to exceed that of an ordinary 3-ton lorry.

Tlie provision of three axles enables the load to be distributed fairly evenly, an asset both from a vehicle and also from a road maintenance point of view. The lorry weighs, I believe, 4 tons 10 cwt unladen, travels at 12 miles per hour at an engine speed of 1,000 r.p.m. and a petrol consumption of 6 miles per gallon with full load is guaranteed. The future success of motor road transport lies in the possibility of being able to increase loads and decrease vehicle axle weights, for that means a reduction in the cost of conveying every ton of goods for every mile it is carried. Therefore any new designs which tend this way are worth investigation.

There is a decided demand—and after all it is a natural one—for multi, or at any .rate dual, purpose vehicles. An example at the show! of a very different class is a 5-ton steam tractor which by the removal of the 1 wheels and a special block fitting to the front can be converted into an 8-ton steam roller. Perhaps the most automatic vehicle in the exhibition is a certain make of “rate-reducing” machine. This weird creature seems to do everything in the nature of road cleansing automatically. It sprinkles water to" lay the dust before it sweeps it up, and, not-content with that, whisks the sweepings—paper, mud, tins, or any rubbish—into its inside.