Gardner-engined mid-underfloor Seddon
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• Seddon's mid-engmed bus chassis will make its debut in the demonstration park of next month's Scottish Show. The new chassis — news of which was exclusively revealed in CM, June 22 — is the first Seddon for 15 years to have a mid-mounted, underfloor engine..
This Pennine VII prototype will have the first horizontal version of the 180 bhp Garner 6LX B to be made — designated 6HLXB.
Because of the engine's high torque (536 lb ft at 1100 rpm) the ZF fourspeed S4-90 all-synchromesh gearbox has been chosen and the clutch is a Lipe-Rollway 14in. twin-plate 2LP pull-type.
The Show model will have an I 1 m Alexander Y-type dual-purpose coach body and is destined for the Scottish Bus Group. The Pennine VII is, in effect, an RU bus with a raised floor and an engine repositioned midway between the axles. The power unit is accessible from both sides of the vehicle, and access from above — eg to reach the alternator — will be via floor traps. It is designed primarily as an inter-urban express vehicle but has rural service and export potential. Production will start early next year.
The mid-engined layout provides better weight distribution than a rear-engined type, and the higher floor, probably with a three-step entrance, is no handicap on out-of-town work.
An Eaton 10-ton single-speed rear axle is fitted, the front axle is a Seddon heavy-duty type rated at 6 tons, and there is conventional semi-elliptic springing all round. Telescopic dampers are fitted at the rear axle.
The main chassis frame is of gin, by 3in. by 0.25in. high-tensile steel, the parallel side-members being flitched, and joined by familiar Seddon bolted tubular crossmembers.
The engine has pressure-lubrication and a universal oil-bath air cleaner. Induction air is drawn from an intake ahead of the front axle through a duct of 20 sc in. cross-section. Cooling is by a separats tube-type radiator mounted just forwarc of the front axle; it is non-pressurize( and is topped up from a header tanl just below the windscreen. The coolini fan is electrically driven and cuts in a a thermostat opening temperature of 165del F (74deg C).
Tecalernit Airdromic automatic chassis lubrication is provided.
At 12 tons gvw, Seddon states tha maximum speed is 57.8 mph, and maximun gradient 1 in 6.05.