NEW SERVICE TRUCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1036, 29 July 1930, Page 6

NEW SERVICE TRUCK

USEFUL INVENTIONS EFFICIENT DETAILS With a view to giving better service to the motoring public, the Dominion Motors, Limited, have designed and built a new car to handle breakdowns and smashes quickly and easily. This car is equipped with every device necessary to cope with any smash, no matter how bad, and can haul with ease a car over a bank 200 feet deep. It is equipped with a revolving electric crane designed by C. B. Gleeson, the company’s Auckland service manager, and built in the local garage. It is capable of lifting over two tons to correct towing height in less than five seconds, with a touch of the switch, has an adjustable jib and can lift from either side as well as end on. Included in the permanent equipment is an “ambulance” for use where a car has more than two wheels smashed, enabling easy towage. Another novel feature is the new design of tow bar used. This bar, which is hinged to assist in turning corners, has a strong clamp which grips the axle of the car which is being towed and makes a positive fixture, enabling high speed towing, if desired, with safety. The equipment also includes special clamps for hoisting, wire slings, block and tackle, spade, axe, sledge ham-

mer, crow bars and numerous small tools, all fitted into two neat lockers which are built into the body. For night work a flood light is used with 50 feet of cable, which winds around a concealed spring reel when not. in use. The bodywork has a very striking appearance, being moulded to give excellent streamlining, and is finished in white lacquer with black guards and valances. The driving cab is of the coupe design and is' trimmed witli black leather. The whole unit represents probably the most efficient service car of its kind in New Zealand, and certainly looks the part.

A.A.A. ACTIVITIES A.A.A. patrols are this week carrying out extensive services to members in the country districts. Headlight testing is being conducted at Warkworth this evening, and patrols will be in the district until Thursday. The following week a service patrol leaves for the far North, which will be the scene of an extensive tour. Headlight testing will also be extended to members in the Waikato district, at Te Rore on Wednesday and Taupiri on Thursday. Another patrol is visiting the Coromandel Peninsula and will carry out headlight testing this evening at Mercury Bay. POST-LICENCE TUITION The post-licence tuition course recently inaugurated by the A.A.A is proving very successful, and the service officer Is being kept busy ex tending this service to members. The course does not aim to teach how to drive, but after obtaining a licence provides the driver with a knowledge of correct gear changing, stopping and starting on hills, a full working knowledge of the motor regulations and traffic bylaws and other advice of which the beginner is very often ignorant. TOURING SERVICE The signs patrol is leaving this week accompanying the touring manager on a visit to the Rotorua and Taupo districts. A very comprehensive system of sign-posting is to be carried out on the new roa.d between Rotorua and Wairoa (Hawke’s Bay), via Lake Waikaremoana, and the two officers will cover this route preparatory to th,e signs being erected.