MOTOR NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 176, 25 June 1938, Page 9

MOTOR NOTES

SNOW ON ROADS. A problem of winter road travel i the United States is the keeping c the main highways in many arts c the country free from snow. The tas is one involving a great deal of sp< eial equipment, and considerable ei pense. Last winter, for instance, i cost the authorities £3,400,000 t keep 217,243 miles of highway ope: for traffic. For the work, nearly 14,00 motor trucks were used, 1,300 trac tors, 2,500 motor graders, near] 13,000 displacement ploughs for th tracks, and 209 of the rotary type while another 1,000 displacemen ploughs, and 107 rotaries were usei by the tractors. Forty-one power sliov els completed the equipment. In ad dition the authorities erected mor than 12,000 miles of snow fences t prevent snow drifting on to the high ways. These fences consist of woodei slats four feet high, 11 inches wid and J-inch thick, held together wit! galvanised wire and spaced 2 inche apart. Another costly undertaking i the spreading of sand on ice-boun( roads. HOW CROSSINGS HAMPER TRAFFIC. A report on observations recently conducted by. the Automobile Associ ation, London, shows that traffic oi the most important roads in Great Bri-tain-is interrupted nearly 8,000 times daily between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. bj the closing of railway level cross- : ings. The investigation, the reporl i states, related to only 080 level crossings on selected roads carrying heavy through traffic, and when it is re--1 membered that there are 4560 crossings in England, Wales, and Scotland, ol 1 which 1082 are on classified roads, some idea is obtained of the enormous loss of efficiency they cause to the 1 nation’s road transport. The A.A. figures show that on an average each crossing is closed to road traffic 2C times during the period of eight hours. On this basis the 4560 crossings interrupt road transport 91,200 times between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, a loss of 4560 working hours if an estimate of three minutes is accepted as the average time which elapses between the closing and opening of the barriers. ADJUSTING THE SPARK. In the event of a mysterious loss of power, it is not a bad plan' to look at the “octane selector” or vernier spark adjustment, placed in most modern just alongside the distributor head. The main purpose of this is to allow the spark timing to be adn.sted to suit different grades of petrol, but some are so designed that -slackening of the locking screw will allow the spark to retard itself. The cure, of course, is to advance the spark again to the required degree (found by experiment) and tighten the locking screw firmly. The judicious use of leverage provided by a pair of plyers on this screw will prevent future trouble, but care must be taken not to overtighten and strip the threads of the screw. CARBON-MONOXIDE DANGER. With the advent of cold weather users of closed cars are warned of the danger of driving for any length of time with all the windows closed. Cars are prolific generators of the deadly i oarbon-monoxide g.ae, which is tasteless, odourless and colourless, and can cause death very quickly when inhaled in any closed space. It is produced in the’ combustion chamber of the engine, | and is carried off by way of the exhaust, but where there is a leak in the exhaust pipe or the muffler, the gas is likely to enter the interior of a ca.r, more especially the older models, through cracks-in the floprboards. Any driver suffering headaches while a.t the wheel of a- closed car should suspect the presence of carbon-monoxide and. take immediate steps to ensure ah ample supply of fresh air. KEEP SPARE TYRE INFLATED. Motor car owners, who have become used to the rather rapid loss of pressure which is a feature of the modern large balloon tyre,.are apt to consider this a phenomenon due solely to the pounding which the tyres receive in normal service. While this, no doubt, is partly true, ft is not completely so. There seems to be somo porosity in the large areas of rubber necessarily used in the big inner tubes, together, perhaps, with a slight leakage from the valves, which would make them lose pressure in any case. That these factors are not generally realised is shown by the number of motorists who are caught, when a tyre ispunctured, with a sadly deflated spare, which they have fondly imagined would retain its pressure so long as it remained out of service. The moral is to test and inflate the spare every time the road tyres are brought to their correct pressure, which, these days, should be at least once a week.