Thread: Another view on oil lubed bearings

Well that certainly leaves no doubt about the value of oil lubed wheel bearings.

Thats not a bad record for oil lubed bearings. I can imagine what the roads and loads were like in those days. I have a copy of that book here but haven't got around to reading it yet. Have you seen the one called "A history of road trains in the NT 1934-1988" by John Maddock. Has a pic of a Tanami transport triple Superliner on the cover. It's a good read.

US origin heavy trucks and trailers have had oil bath bearings for decades.

First road trains can be debated ad infinitum. "Big Lizzie" on display at Red Cliffs near Mildura might get the guernsey for first. The custom built AEC "Government Road Train" in the NT dates from the 1930's and I am sure plenty of operators in the bush away from eagle eyed transport officials pulled multiple trailers wherever they could get away with it.

A lot depends on how you define "road train". Once upon a time it was a heavy overlength body truck pulling one long trailer under permit.

Johannsen may have been the first large scale operator. There were others operating about the same time who may also have had a claim. Eric Ballard Snr. from Longreach always claimed to be first in Western Qld. but there were others out there at much the same time. North Australian Pastoral Co. had their own road trains early in the piece and Angus Campbell of Mt. Isa did work for them. Other early birds were Jim Cragg, Diamantina Transport and his brother-in-law, Len Shaw, Shaw's Transport, otherwise known as "Sheep**** Shaw the sheep shifter". Of course, in the NT there were Noel Buntine and Ivan "Spook" of Tanami Transport, both early operators.

I thought that an important part of the "road train" configuration was the steering linkages that allowed each trailer to follow in the tracks of those in front. Did those early examples have that feature, because without it their applications are severely limited.

EDIT: Just answering my own question. It seems that they did.
In the 1930s, the Government of South Australia operated a fleet of AEC 8x8 military trucks to transport freight and supplies into the Northern Territory, replacing the Afghan camel trains that had been trekking through the deserts since the late 19th century. These trucks pulled two or three 6 m (18 ft) Dyson four-axle self tracking trailers. With 130 hp (100 kW), the AEC's were grossly underpowered by today's standards, and drivers and offsiders routinely froze in winter and sweltered in summer due to the truck's open cab design and the position of the engine radiator - with its 1.5 m (4.9 ft) cooling fan - behind the seats.
Australian Kurt Johansson is recognised as the inventor of the modern road train.[2] After transporting stud bulls 200 mi (320 km) to an outback property, Johansson was challenged to build a truck to carry 100 head of cattle instead of the original load of 20. Provided with financing of a couple thousand pounds and inspired by the tracking abilities of the Government roadtrain, Johansson began construction. Two years later his first road train was running.[3]
Johansson's first road train consisted of a U.S. Army World War II surplus Diamond-T tank carrier, nicknamed "Bertha", and two home-built self tracking trailers. Both wheel sets on each trailer could steer, and therefore could negotiate the tight and narrow tracks and creek crossings that existed throughout Central Australia in the earlier part of last century. Freighter Trailers in Australia viewed this improved invention and went on to build self-tracking trailers for Kurt and other customers, and went on to become innovators in transport machinery for Australia.
This first example of the modern road train, along with the AEC Government Roadtrain, forms part of the huge collection at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, Northern Territory.

Self-tracking trailers have not been used for many years. Too much complication, too many wear points, too much added weight, for little practical value. Modern road trains have crept upwards in size from one trailer to doubles, triples, quads, B-doubles, B-triples, B-A-B etc. and track and handle well in tough going. Just look at double deck cattle triples that go into the worst of country routinely.

As Brian says, there are multiple claimants for the "first" road trains. But Johannsen has a reasonable claim to be the innovator that was actually the first to introduce them and make money from them. The earlier examples were financial failures, although some of the contemporaries of Johannsen probably copied his example or may have been independent. His first went into service in 1947, and he continued operating road trains into the 1970s, and road trains have been used ever since.

Self steering road trains could be used where the modern type cannot - and Johannsen's book has pictures showing this, for example, four trailers pulled by his tank transporter with 90 tons of copper concentrate over a winding track that many would hesitate to tackle in a modern four wheel drive. The advantage is that each trailer follows the ones in front, allowing the road train to use narrow, winding single lane tracks. As Brian says, the drawback of self steering is the added complication, wear points, and weight. Not mentioned is that self steering trailers need more power to pull them at the same speed, and the cumulative slop in the linkages makes them unstable at high speed - practical maximum speed is 50-60kph. But they can be used on tracks that modern road trains cannot be used on - but there is little demand for this today.

By the time I was in the centre in the 1960s, they were losing popularity, as roads improved (remember the building of "beef roads"?) so that conventional trailers could be used (and as the authorities cracked down on the number of trailers allowed - the more trailers, the more important self steering is).

John

I'd just like to make one correction to VNX205s post.There was only one AEC 8x8 road train in Australia.Production numbers for the AEC 8x8 amounted to a grand total of 3 units.One went to Sth Africa and one to the Ivory Coast according to an AEC book I had. The OZ example was reputed to have covered over 800,000 miles during its working life.
A little surprising really that there wasn't a bigger demand for this type of prime mover in the 1920s and 30s as there were many parts of the world that were being opened up and developed that would have required high mobility heavy transport vehicles.
Wagoo.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

As Brian says, there are multiple claimants for the "first" road trains. But Johannsen has a reasonable claim to be the innovator that was actually the first to introduce them and make money from them. The earlier examples were financial failures, although some of the contemporaries of Johannsen probably copied his example or may have been independent. His first went into service in 1947, and he continued operating road trains into the 1970s, and road trains have been used ever since.

Self steering road trains could be used where the modern type cannot - and Johannsen's book has pictures showing this, for example, four trailers pulled by his tank transporter with 90 tons of copper concentrate over a winding track that many would hesitate to tackle in a modern four wheel drive. The advantage is that each trailer follows the ones in front, allowing the road train to use narrow, winding single lane tracks. As Brian says, the drawback of self steering is the added complication, wear points, and weight. Not mentioned is that self steering trailers need more power to pull them at the same speed, and the cumulative slop in the linkages makes them unstable at high speed - practical maximum speed is 50-60kph. But they can be used on tracks that modern road trains cannot be used on - but there is little demand for this today.

By the time I was in the centre in the 1960s, they were losing popularity, as roads improved (remember the building of "beef roads"?) so that conventional trailers could be used (and as the authorities cracked down on the number of trailers allowed - the more trailers, the more important self steering is).

John

JD, Kurt's Diamond T M19's had a 178 hp Hercules Diesel and a top speed of less than 25 mph. The last of them built in 1950 by White Motor only had 202 hp. With four trailers and 90 tons aboard the drivers would not have seen the 25 mph end of the speedo except on rare downhill sections. Road resistance for soft surfaces is equivalent to a 6% grade for each inch of tyre penetration, so the old chuggers would have been doing it hard nearly all the time. I do wonder how they kept them cool in the NT desert summers. They were not blessed with large frontal area radiators or air flow from road speed but then they did not have a lot of horsepower to cool.

Those NT operators then were known to pull up to six trailers in the abscence of any regulation. Couldn't put much weight on them of course or they would still be trying to get out of Alice Springs in low-low-low.

Nowadays triples are pulled at 100kmh and gross 90+ tons. In the NT & WA there are quad trailer rigs with tri-drive and triaxle trailers and dollies all the way. I don't know what they are allowed to gross but it must be in the region of 150 tons.