In Your Opinion

30th September 1966, Page 144

30th September 1966

Page 144

Page 144, 30th September 1966 — In Your Opinion

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remendous gain'

?EEL I cannot leave this opportunity of thanking you for a most ellent Fleet Management Conference. I, personally, thoroughly joyed the proceedings, and gained a tremendous amount from it. I the industry has a lot to thank you for, in producing such eresting speakers and getting together so many well known apIe as delegates.

R. P. A. F. WILLIAMS, The Amey Group Ltd., Oxford.

tic or rigid plus container?

)NGRATULATIONS ONCE again on a successful Fleet anagernent Conference and I sincerely hope, like many of my lleagues, that such success will give you all the necessary enuragement in arranging one for 1967, As furniture manufacturers the last paper on containers was of at interest and one of the decisions our company will have to tke within the next 18 months is whether we go to articulation or containers on a rigid vehicle. There must, incidentally, be many me companies with the same decision to make.

PATRICK V. CONNELL, Group Transport Manager, Alston's (Long Melford) Ltd., Ipswich.

3levant to Today's Issues

THOROUGHLY enjoyed your Conference and the papers, all of ich were very relevant to the leading issues and imponderables the present day. I am sure the industry benefited a great deal and it they are extremely indebted to COMMERCIAL McrroR for the motion of this annual event and for the excellence of your .angements.

JAMES AMOS, West Linton,' Peeblesshire.

is turbine possibilities

■ OUND the letter by Mr. J. R. Billows (COMMERCIAL MOTOR, otember 16) about turbocharged diesels of particular interest I too fail to see why the British road haulier considers this form power unit with such great conservatism.

Actually, turbocharged vehicles have been tested by )MMERCIAL MOTOR on a number of occasions: a Thornycroft ; Ben (April 1955), Midland Red motorway coach (1959), ilvo 9 ton 4 x 2 with trailer (1959), Scania-Vabis LS76 20 ton <2 (September 1963) and the Foden Twin-Load outfit (January 65). The king of the road vehicle to which Mr. Billows refers was

not pressure-charged, this being a Mack END711 Thermodyne diesel in naturally aspirated form.

Ironically, the situation is summed up quite well by looking at pages 78 and 79 of the edition in which Mr. Billows's letter appears. Page 78 shows a C AV advertisement for turbochargers and page 79 has the most apt heading to the editorial "Ten years too late". While our own manufacturers have avoided the production turbocharged diesel, those in other countries have produced them and now have many years of field experience behind them.

The turbocharged diesel has literally swept the board in the rail, industrial and marine fields, but its introduction into the road transport industry has been left rather late, possibly too late, as we will be looking for power units even more potent than those we have today if maximum gross vehicle Weights are increased further as they are expected to be.

In the light of these possible increases in maximum weights, should we not be looking very seriously at the possibilities of massproduced turbine-driven vehicles? If readers look back through some of the recent road tests of 32-tonners they will see that fuel consumption figures are rising rapidly and will continue to do so as gross weights increase. Are we now reaching a point where the turbine-powered vehicle really has something to offer? 'think we are.

Admittedly the initial cost of a gas turbine is high, but then there are British hauliers willing to pay £10,500 for American artic outfits of rather dated design! To arrive at the power output required for future vehicles either engines will have to be increased in cubic capacity or radical changes will have to be made to designs to achieve the desired power/weight ratio and power/installed volume. This is where the gas turbine scores heavily over the diesel, with its extremely good power/weight ratio and small, compact dimensions, rivalling even those of the petrol engine.

Developments over the past 10 years have improved the fuel consumption of the gas turbine to a point far better than the heavy petrol engine, but not quite to the accepted standard for the diesel. However, the slight loss of economy is more than accounted for by its reliability, ease of servicing, higher average speed, easier driving technique and clean exhaust. The complication of the tilt cab could be eliminated as these units require so little attention and its small installed volume would leave designers with a free hand to make the cab as simple and as practial as possible.

The gas turbine has much to offer, just like its smaller counterpart, the exhaust driven turbocharger. It may be too late for the latter, let us make quite sure we are not left behind with gas turbines. N. J. R. PAINTING, Organizer, Commercial Vehicle and Road Transport Club.