MAKING LORRIES
“British to the Backbone” proclaimed Morris-Commercial in the 1930s whilst Dorman maintained that “The Heart of the Car is its Engine”. Both chassis and motors are good places to start in a whistle stop tour of making lorries through the ages.
Back in the early days they laid structural steel or a couple of I-beams out on a flat floor and started measuring, drilling, reaming and bolting. Axles were not a big problem as carriage specialists used them and chains simplified drive to the rear wheels. Engines were a bigger problem though there were pioneer designs to copy by draughtsmen, founders and machinists. Soon engine specialists emerged from general engineering trades or, in the case of Tylor, a previous specialism in sanitary ware.
By 1920 pressed steel frames were widely used, many rivetted rather than bolted and with the coming of mass-production, sometimes welded. These frames were tapered to save weight where strength was least required, and they became the territory of specialists like railcar maker Parrish in America or Rubery Owen and Mechans in
