Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/104

 A Ten-Ton Motor-Truck on Eight Wheels

It combines the greatest possible carrying capacity with the high speed and easy riding of lighter trucks

���The eight-wheel truck is mounted on two sets of four wheels each, with tires of the pneumatic type. This arrangement provides an easy-riding vehicle of great stability and carrying capacity

��THE novel motor vehicle shown in the accompanying illustrations is mount- ed on two trucks, patterned after the old-fashioned four-wheeled railway coach truck, having eight supporting wheels in all. Each wheel helps to drive the vehicle, which is thus always able to secure traction, since it is extremely unlikely that all eight wheels would be mired at once.

Because of the large number of support- ing wheels, the tires may be of the pneu- matic type, even for as large a vehicle as a ten-tonner. The use of such tires instead of the solid-rubber type, which must now be fitted on the conventional ten-ton vehicle, would cushion the driving mechan- ism to such a great extent that the vehicle could be run with safety at greatly in- creased speeds. This is in line with the most advanced trend in vehicular trans- portation, which is to carry as large unit loads as possible at the greatest speed compatible with safety. Large loads on one vehicle take the place of smaller loads on a larger number of vehicles of less capacity. This substitution means less traffic congestion, which is one of the greatest problems the police forces of our

��most important cities have to contend with.

Aside from the advantages of carrying large loads at fast rates of speeds on pneumatic tires and of being able to secure the necessary driving traction at all times, even on bad roads, the eight-wheel ar- rangement also provides an extremely easy-riding vehicle of great stability and one of extremely short turning radius, since in the case of the vehicle shown, all the wheels are mounted so as to turn for steering.

In detail, the vehicle is mounted on two sets of four wheels, each set carried on a suitable cross-frame member. Each cross member has two arms on each end. Each end is made into the shape of a yoke to carry a wheel on a vertical spindle. This spindle simply serves to support the wheel so that it carries its share of the vehicle load and so that it can be turned in steering.

The power for revolving the wheels is secured from a conventional gasoline motor placed off the center line of the vehicle to the right at the front. The motor shaft extends aft of the crankcase in the usual manner and transmits its power to a four- speed gearbox located between the front

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