14-WHEEL MOTOR LORRY

Hokitika Guardian, 15 April 1929, Page 2

14-WHEEL MOTOR LORRY

TO CARRY 100-TON LOAD.

LONDON, Feb. 25.

A gaint motor-lorry,' with 14 wheels and capable of carrying the enormous load of 100 tons, is being built by a leading loutish firm. This is easily the biggest load yet attempted by motor transport. The lorry is a Seammell for carrying heavy machinery by road.

British manufacturers have led the world in the rapid development of the multi-wheeled heavy motor-vehicle. It is only tlireee years since they started designing these lorries and trucks, but already they are sending them to all parts of the globe.

UNDISTURBED BY HOLES

The most popular type for work in rough country is the six-wheeler with axles so designed that the wheels can drop into deep holes without the rest of the chassis being affected. Hie lorry remains “on an even keel.” It might lie described as. a high-speed freightcarrying tank. British vehicles of this type have lately been making amazing journeys, one being the crossing of the hitherto unconquered Kalahari Desert in Afi ica They are independent of roads and are of tremendous value in new- oountries. A glancee at the order books of the leading manufacturers yesterday showed the many uses to which the sixwheeler is put. One is a tenclei to an expedition in Tanganyika that is trying to exterminate the tsetese-fly. It ploughs through dense undergrowth with the aid of two large blades on the front axle. Another has been sent to Brazil for logging. It is the only vehicle that will negotiate the forest tracks.

Some are working in the Dutch Easi Indian oilfields, the approach to which in rainty weather is over mud swamps. Transport authorities consider- tlial we are only at the beginning of the demand for these vehicles.