Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-09-24
INDIANA DAILY TINES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER "a 1yz1
BIG SUMS SAVED
BY RECLAIMING
OLD EQUIPMENT
Altering War Trucks Said to
Save State More Than
$4,000.

BY retaining $4,000 worth of solid
tires for trucks which dealers claimed
could not be marketed for more than
$500, and remodellng steel and wooden
bodies on trucks formerly in Government
service chief of the motor transpOrta-
ton department of the State highway
commission and sun erintendent Of the
State garage, will save the State about
$50 900, Lawrence Lyons, director, said
today. In addition to the huge saving
this work will place at the disposal of
the construction and maintenance de-
partments equipment that for months lay
idle, some Of which could not be stored
for lack of garage space and which was
deteriorating under exposure to elements.
The State highway commission re-
ceived from the Government seventy four
trucks with two-ton steel bodies. They
are products of war days designed to
convey ammunition, and the bodies are
thirty-f -four inches high. Employees under
Mr. Barley are cutting the bodies to
fifteen inches to make them serviceable
for road work, and at a cost of $29 a
body including material used and labor
employed. Four men, one drawing 80
cents an hour and three 40 cents an
hour, each working ten hours a day are
remodeling the trucks at the rate Of four
each day. If this same work was done
other than in the way 1t is, each truck
so remodelled would cost STAT for the
actual work and material plus an ad-
Gitional S27 for mounting on chassis, Of
ficials point out.
Remodeling wooden bodies of which the
department has thirty, costs a little more
for as bodies are reduced they are lined
with No. s guaSe steel. This operation
costs $50 body against an outside price
of $225 the body. All trucks are equipped
with double acting restricted steel tall
gates made at the garage. Hydraulic and
handpower hoists go on each truck. but
this equipment IS not included in the
aforementioned remodeling figures.
In saving the commission $4,000 by
making use Of solid rubber tires Of an
obsolete type to the pressed on the rim
kind and which were given the State by
the Government Mr.. Barley not only
affected great reduction Of operating
costs, but slmpliAed and expedited tire
changes on trucks on the road When n
pressed rubber tire gives ~ the wheel
must be sent to garage tipped TO do
this sort of e-tiring. l. venting two
wedge rings, two fange rings and with
the aid OF twelve bolts. the garage super
intendent now utillzes the obsolete tires
on a plan similar to the demountable. in
fiated tyre on touring cars. Men In the
field with trucks make, their own tire
changes, saving both time and expense.
Beginning Oct. l, the hrst Of the fiscal
year every tire and part OF equipment,
which goes out of the State garage will
be checked to the specific car and charged
to the individual ordering it, Later a
check will be made to determine which
drivers are the most economical with
state property. Extravagent drivers who
cannot come UP TO a certain standard OF
efficiency must retire. The State garage
and motor transportation equipment IA
the past has cost approximately quar-
ter Of a million dollars a year.