The First Austin Lorry (2-3
Ton)
Around mid 1912 Herbert
Austin decided to make his first Lorry, as was fitting from this
visionary it would not follow the normal design of the day.
It was mainly in the area of the transmission that this vehicle
broke new ground. The engine-gearbox was angled downwards towards
the rear, this meant that the centre-line of the engine-gearbox and
prop-shafts were all inline in the unladen weight. Yes I did say
prop-shafts as on the back of the gearbox was a common differential
from which prop-shafts connected to the rear wheel hub
assembly.
This meant that the chassis
frame side members had to be an open lattice section, it was also
necessary to make chassis members deeper than normal, and also to
retain lightness with strength all sections were flanged. This then
allowed full up and down movement of the suspension with the rear
wheels connected by a tube, this arrangement from an engineering
point reduced the overall un-sprung weight which should have give
the vehicle a better ride. You will notice that on the rear it uses
two springs on each side, this was also a novel feature, that by
combining two springs in this way, gave a fairly constant force on
the wheels. The advantage of this is two fold (a) it will reduce
the tyre wear, (b) it will stop the rear axle bouncing around when
in the unladen condition so giving a smoother ride.
Tyre cost were particularly high in those days, and it has been
worked out that in todays prices for every 200 miles covered £100
would be need to be set aside to cover replacement tyres when
needed. So for a freight owner any vehicle that was able to be more
economical on tyres and so keep freight cost lower was worth
buying.
Note the petrol tank (not
that big)
Another bonus this gave was
that the loading height was just 2 ft 5 ins which also made it easy
to get into the cab. Because of the inclined engine it meant that
the starting handle was much higher, so this must have made
starting difficult if you were under 5 ft 6 ins.
The engine was based on the 20 hp unit at the time, but still
retained the 'T' individually cast cylinders heads, which had been
dropped by all the other manufactures. It took till 1919 before it
was superseded by the 20 hp monobloc version, but a decision had
been made before hand by Herbert Austin to stop production of
lorries and concentrate on making cars only.
3140cc Four cylinder gave 23.6BHP at 1,000
RPM
Cooling was with a
rear-mounting radiator, this gave a more streamline front to the
bonnet, and helped the engine cooling, perhaps not too cool for the
driver though. Normally it was usual for the gear-change to be on
the right hand side, but Austin decided to put the gate-change
lever in the centre position, which made it easier to produce RH-LH
drive versions. Cars had been fitted with centre gear-changes for
almost fifteen years.
The front suspension used a straight axle
beam with semi-ellpitic springs inside the chassis frame members.
It gave a low loading height and yet maintained good ground
clearance. The dished forged-steel wheels at the front allowed the
Kingpin to be positioned to give centre contact. Steering was by
means of worm and sector and gave the vehicle a 42ft turning
circle.
The army's so it is said be
came interest in these vehicles in September 1913. No 4 Infantry
Division was holding manoeuvres in the Midlands, and hired a 2-3
tonner from a contractor. The senior officers in the division were
so impressed that they sent in a glowing report on its suitability.
So because of this report the War Office placed an
order.
This side view clearly shows the different
road wheels, front and rear, with braking only on the rear. As a
platform version truck it was priced at £600 which was a great sum
of money. These were used in the first World war by the Allies and
the Imperial Russian Goverment
No new
models were made of this vehicle although various modification were
carried out, mainly brought about by faults notified by the War
Office. In fact the Russian Government in 1914 place a very large
order with Austin, which included 100 of these lorries. A total of
2,038 were produced in the period from the end of 1913 to
1919.
A Panel Van
version
This is an interesting
picture because at the end of 1913 Herbert Austin along with Du
Cros and Kayser(Sheffield) decided that the company needed to go
public as a way of bringing money into the company that would allow
it to expand. So The Austin Motor Company (1914) Limited was born.
It was quite common in those day for Industrialist to be
shareholders in other companies.
If you have any information
on these vehicles,
please could you contact me