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 day 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was superseded by the 20 hp monobloc version, but a decision had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.
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. It was usual for the
gear-change to be on the right hand side, so Austin decided to put
the gear-change lever in the centre position, this also makes it
easier to produce RH-LH drive versions. Cars had been fitted with
centre gear-changes for almost fifteen years.
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.
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. The picture below shows a Panel Van, which appears to have
different wheels. A total of 2,038 were produced in the period from
the end of 1913 to 1919.
This
is an interesting picture because at the end of 1913 Herbert Austin
along with Du Cros and Kayser 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