SALES-SUPERVISED TESTS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 266, 6 August 1937, Page 15

SALES-SUPERVISED TESTS

International Trucks Are Tried .Something special and more gruelling and more extended than usual in truck testing was inaugurated in the past year by .the International Harvester Company in the development of its new complete line just announced, which consists of 26 models and 77 wheelbases and sizes from the half-ton to the big 62,000-pound six-wheeler. This special programme was apart from regular engineering and factory tests. It was conducted under the direct supervision of the sales department far away from the factories, and after the engineering department had put the various units to a variety of severe laboratory tests and given them thousands of miles of test runs, only after every unit of the new line had survived three series of varied out-in-the-country tests and been approved by the sales department was that unit released for production and final sale. Co-operating with the sales department in a consulting capacity were the service, manufacturing, inspection and engineering departments. Some 12 representatives of the sales, engineering,' manufacturing, inspection and service departments rode with the drivers to check reports by drivers and to make their own observations. Dally reports were sent to the head office in Chicago and the factory in Fort Wayne ffiased on these observations. Many an improvement or change before the models were placed in production was based ,on these reports. The result, of course, is trucks of greater stamina, better performance and more economical operation. After thirty days of hard, steady driving, these e>< ineering-department-built jobs were returned to Fort Wayne. Further tests were made to check the findings on the road. The results of that first run were most gratifying. Every part of every unit received a most'thorough test under the severest of “regular operating conditions.” Weaknesses or failures were corrected and parts strengthened wherever necessary. Stamina and performance ability of the new line were definitely proved.