Popular Science Mont hi }/ 



75 



deliver a ton of goods more cheaply than 

 any other vehicle. Its weight is re- 

 duced to a minimum so that its power can 

 be applied to actually moving the load, 

 rather than to pushing itself over the 

 road. Greater strength demands heavier 

 and more rugged 

 parts and this means 

 greater weight. 



Some truck ma- 

 kers wondered why 

 it was necessary for 

 the United States 

 Army to have a 

 special and more 

 rugged conveyance, 

 when our Allies 

 across the seas were 

 not only using the 

 54,038 commercial 

 vehicles shipped to 

 them from America 

 between July, 1914, 



Stirrup Step and Storage for Spare Parts 



The clumsy automobile running board with its 

 tool boxes and extra tires lias been discarded 



they are not all that has been desired. 

 When our Allies bought American 

 trucks they had to buy them, not because 

 they were built in the right way but 

 because trucks were vital necessities and 

 America was the only country able to 

 make and export 

 them. To change 

 even the smallest 

 detail on any of our 

 trucks now abroad 

 would throw the en- 

 tire repair parts sys- 

 tem into chaos. 

 Battles might even 

 be lost if the system 

 were disturbed. 



But with the 

 United States, it is 

 different. We are 

 entering the war at 

 a time when we are 

 able to apply every 



and July, 1917, but 



were continuing to order more each month. 

 That was all a matter of sheer necessity. 

 The repair-parts problem is stupendous, 

 because of the inherent weakness of the 

 average commercial truck for war work. 

 The trucks couldn't be changed, A 

 single change in design of any of the dozen 

 or more standard makes sent to the battle 

 front would mean the scrapping of thou- 

 sands and thousands of dollars' worth of 

 spare parts. Our trucks overseas are 

 giving a good account of themselves; but 



Exhaust 



inlaKe manifold^ 



1^1 



Hot gases 

 heat and 

 vaporize 

 incoming fuel 

 here 



1.0 



Governor 



g^ 



The Unique Gas- 

 Saver 



About three inches of 

 the intake manifold is 

 inside of the exhaust 

 manifold, so that the 

 low grades of fuel now 

 used will be vaporized 

 before entering the 

 explosion chambers 



bit of truck experi- 

 ence gained by our Allies at the cost of 

 much blood and money. This experience 

 is embodied in the new trucks, the first 

 two of which, w^ere assembled in record 

 time at plants in Rochester, N. Y., and 

 Lima, Ohio, driven overland to Washing- 

 ton and accepted by President Wilson and 

 Secretary of War Baker. 



The weakest part of the new truck is 

 stronger than any conceivable war strain 

 that can be put upon it. It is more rug- 

 ged that any commercial vehicle of like 

 capacity. Its load is only three tons, and 

 yet it is comparable with the five-tonner 

 of every-day use. This is very impor- 

 tant; for there will be neither time to 

 make extensive repairs when the forward 

 march on the W^est front begins, nor road- 

 side repairshops at which to make them. 

 A broken-down truck is a truck lost. 

 Into the ditch it will go, so that the line of 

 vital ammunition and supplies is not held 

 up. Again, the shell-pitted roads of 

 northern France, over which the advance 

 will be made, will be boulevards as com- 

 pared even with Mexico's roadless 

 country. 



In order that our new trucks shall not 

 fail in this crucial test, the two already 

 completed, wall be tested to destruction 

 between now and the first of January.. 

 1918. Any weaknesses which might 

 prove disastrous later on will be dis- 



