Overseas Haulage of Wool Along Severe Route.
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[2966] (New Zealand).—We have very carefully considered the contents of your letter. We agree with you that a four-wheel-drive truck should suit you. We are not in a position to say from personal experience that either the Jeffery Quad or the F.W.D. four-wheel, both of which are American, will suit loads as high in weight as those with which you are concerned, and under the heavy conditions of going which obtain. We are asking the people who handle these trucks over here to post particulars to you, but we do not think you will be. able to get a gradual. payment arrangement unless they have a New Zea. land agent there through whom you could fix it. Our belief is that you will do well in any event to have a vehicle which is fitted with a winding-drum and cable. We know from personal experience the treacherous behaviour of a Shingle bottom in a river bed. Selfpropulsion cannot be gauged over such ground except on the spot, and the tendency of any vehicle simply to work itself into the shingle is almost unavoidable. With a winding-drum it is possible to make a hitch on to some post or other fixed anchorage on the bank, and to wind the vehicle through the shingle by a positive pull from the front, which direct application of power is at ail times superior to a tangential drive at the rim of the wheel. Such winding-drums are fitted by numerous British makers, with the necessary fairleads to guide the cable. This tackle can also be used, after the power unit has crossed a stream, to draw over a following truck or trailer. Should the face of a hill at any time be unduly "greasy," the possession of a drum and cable is a -useful auxiliary.