DRIVING IN MUD

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 18, 12 April 1927, Page 10

DRIVING IN MUD

READ THESE NOTES THEN WEEP, AND DON’T GO Anyone who has seen the pictures of the various predicaments that the service officer of the Automobile Club had got into, will realise that he should know something about the method of driving through mud and clay. Quite a number of people will probably find themselves doing just this during Easter—l hope I am being unduly pessimistic and that I will be quite wrong—but here is what Mr. Champtaloup has to say on the subject: “If the weather has been wet, and you are not used to driving on clay roads—DON’T. Go somewhere else.” “The main thing in clay-driving is to get down in gear, and keep the engine revving. The necessity is to strike the happy medium, not too fast and not too slow. “The knowledge as to how to correct a skid immediately is very necessary. “A precaution, which will usually save no end of trouble, is this: When you come to a bad-looking piece of road, the car on the best spot available, and get out and have a look at the road ahead. Take a sounding and you will usually find that the rut that looks the worst is "in reality the best. The simple-looking rut is often the worst, being filled with soft mud. When you have decided which is the best route keep the car in a low gear, find take it fairly fast. If there is a bad hole the momentum of the car will often take it through. A slowmoving vehicle will stop. “When driving without chains on the wheels, and the back wheels start to spin and refuse to grip, do not speed the engine up. The position will be made worse, and the wheels will probably dig in. The best procedure is to fit chains immediately, though the stoppage may be remedied with a supply of ti-tree. “If the wheels spin with the chains on, then the case is usully fairly desperate. However, it may be caused by driving the engine too hard. Fill any holes under the wheels with logs or titree, and start away slowly. A sudden letting-in of the clutch will undo everything.” NOTED The motorists’ tyre bills would be reduced if some steps were taken to raise or repair the surfaces at the Customs Street - Queen Street junction, and at Grafton Bridge. In both cases the tram rails are standing well above the road in a number of places.

USE OF GLASS A saloon car with the entire upper back panel of glass would enable the driver of an overtaking vehicle to see right through the car in front of him, and know exactly what obstacles lie in the path of the leading driver. Thus he would be prevented from executing many rash and possibly dangerous manoeuvres, and lias all the time a pleasant sense of security, feeling that he can see the road almost as clearly as if no saloon preceded him. This is of value not only in the congested streets of a city, but on the wide open highways of the country. If every closed car were sufficiently low built so that anyone seated in a following car could see right through it, and had a window at the back as big or almost as big as the windscreen, there would be far fewer accidents, says the “Motor.”

NOVEL ROADING A novel type of road has been laid recently under the supervision of the borough engineer at Middlesborough, England. A continuous metal carpet consisting of steel and iron plates, constructed in the form of grids, with bars and voids, was laid on a concrete foundation while the latter was still unset. Concrete was then worked into the voids on the surface of the plates, binding the foundation and the metal carpet as a firm part of the roadway. A non-skid surface was thus provided. In a recent test of the concrete slabs formed in this way heavy blows with a steel hammer failed to separate the grids from the concrete, and the severest heat tests were equally well resisted.

SLOW ON NEW METAL Attention is directed to the inconsiderate habit of many motorists whc make a practice of speeding over new stretches of metal, which have had scarcely time to bed down on theit foundation. It is pointed out that thi« practice is very bad for the road, since it often causes it to corrugate and also forms ridges which cannot be eliminated without resheeting the entire surface. In addition to the fact that the road very quickly deteriorates under this treatment, there is also the question of expense to be considered, and since more expense means less road work, motorists must surely realise the folly of this inconsiderate practice. Strangely enough, the offenders, having completed their work of thoughtless destruction, are usually first to complain of the bad roads.