MOTOR LORRIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 79, 5 April 1926, Page 5

MOTOR LORRIES.

THE NEW REGULATIONS

WHAT TYRES MUST BE USED.

The amended regulations dealing with motor lorries have been Gazetted. The new provisions came into operation on April 1. It is provided that no person shall operate any six-wheeled motor lorry if the weight of itd load exceeds nine tons, or if the combined weight of the vehicle and load exceeds fifteen tons. A "sixwheeled" motor lorry shall mean not only a lorry so designed that the weight of the load is distributed between the middle pair of wheels and the rear pair of wheels, but also a lorry which, though originally four-wheeled, has been adapted to secure a better distribution of the load by means of a combination body and trailer with two wheels added.

In regard to tyres, the amending regulations contain* definitions of width. {Clauses dealing with tyres include the following: — "Xo person shall operate any motor lorry having any tyres which, if not of a soft or elastic material, are not smooth and flat or which, if constructed of separate plates, have spaces greater than the spaces prescribed."

"The tyre of each wheel of a motor lorry, if such a tyre is not of a soft or elastic material, shall be smooth and shall, where the tyre touches the surface of the road or other base whereon the motor lorry moves or rests be.flat.

'•Provided tliat the edges of the tyre may be bevelled or rounded to the extent in "the case of each eilge of not more than half an inch, measured, as the shortest straight line across the width of the .surface of the bevelled or rounded

portion. "'Provided also that if the tyre is constructed of separate plates the plates may be separated by parallel spaces which shall be disposed throughout the outer surface of the tyro S'> that nowlipre shall the aggregate extent of the space or spaces in the course of a straight lillp drawn horizontally across the circumference of the wheel exceed une-i-ighth part of the width of the tyre.

Provision is made for publicity prior to the exercise of powers to prohibit traffic or certain kinds of traffic on certain roads.

There is a new clause providing for a 5 per cent reduction in fees payable for certain lorries if fitted with superresilient tyres on all wheels, and the clause proceeds to explain: "A superresilient tyre is a tyre not being a pneumatic tyre but composed of a soft or elastic material and of a kind, brand, or description certified by* the Minister by notice published in the New Zealand Gazette as being a super-resilient tyre for the purposes of the Motor Lorry Kegulations, 1!>25."'

In cases where a tractor with one trailer has been licensed for use a? one motor lorry, provision is made for extra fee where another trailer is used fitted with tyres that are chargeable with a greater fee than the tyres on the original trailer.