The Washington times., 1919-07-12
HOW TO GET TRUCKS
OUT OF THE bitches
By WARREN B. BULLOCK.


Any highway transport operator
will sooner OF later find himself fac
ing the problem OF getting a truck
out of a ditch. Sooner or later an ac-
cident will happen, which will throw
q big loaded van of the road, with
heavy damage. If not actual catas-
trophe. At the least there will be the
problem of getting the truck out and
on the road again, with the least pos
sible loss Of time.
The cost OF sending out a service
truck, men to pull on ropes and
cables, all adds to the cost of such an
accident, but the best managed trans
port system will sooner or later have
this experience which must be met
quickly, and solved at once.
To be prepared in the first place,
every truck, it might go without say
ing, should have the ordinary emery
ency equipment of cable, wheel chains,
and the simple expedient of bundle
OF burlap bags, old and worn, is used
by many operators. The bags are
used for packing the loads to prevent
damage to shipments, and when need
ed are OF untold value in giving trac-
ton to a whirling drive wheel.
MIrinE Is Mean Problem.
Inc Oh q lIuNh AAA SUI AOeNS
is always a mean problem, and one
which would to the novice appear TO
be easily solved. Yet a sticky, slip
perry, greasy clay. where the soil
seems to cling like the old man OF
the sea to the wheels, means a world
OF trouble.
Too many drivers have not learned
the first lesson of combating such
situation, which is to hold the front
wheels steady in the rut in rutted,
sticky road. The moment the driver
tries to climb out of the rut with his
front wheels, the momentum Is lost,
and the front wheels act as pillow.
actually blocking the movement OF
the truck. In rut in bad roads, the
driver should take care to keep NOV
ing above all things.
The power of a truck is sufficient
to pull il out of any such mud, how
ever, II the power can be applied.
That is why at times, a truck travel
ing light will get stuck, where
loaded truck will keep moving. The
weight on driving wheels is such that
they cannot spin, and the truck is.
forced to move
How One Driver Got Traction.
An interesting example OF this was
an experiment made by one of Uncle
Sans soldier chauffeurs in an Ameri-
can motor truck school. A convoy OF
trucks was out on the road on night
drive. preparing for service in France.
One of the leading trucks was mired,
when the driver tried to climb out OF
2 run, and the front wheels merely
piled up the mud in front, like snow
scraper Momentum was lost and the
truck stuck.
One of the drive wheels was on hard
ground the other in the miro. The
truck was empty and all efforts to
move the truck on its own power re-
suited merely in a spinning OF the
wheel in the mire. The drive wheel
on Arm ground idIed. After half an
hour of experimenting, work with
shoyels and the like, the driver PCT
a dozen husky soldiers in the truck,
SO theft weight was over the spinning
wheel
Then giving the truck the gun, the
mired wheel had traction. being
forced down to hard soil under the
slime, and the power was applied both
10 the wheel on hard ground and to
that in the mud, and the truck rolled
out like a factory test run on con-
crete.
The truck in the ditch is as much
q problem OF lead as Of truck. An
other army experiment is a lesson on
this point. driver found his truck
slipping over a high embankment.
A dozen men were in danger of be-
ing pinned by a capsiZing truck. In
stead of trying to hold the truck out
of the ditch when he found 1t in dam
ger, he threw the vehicle head on
into two feet of water, but averted