ARIZONA TESTS TRUCKS. |
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The New York Times
April 12, 1914
Hard Trip from Silver City to Mogollon Shows Their Quality.
While much has been heard of the efficiency and economy of motor trucks in city service and in the larger centres in transportation service through suburban sections, little attention has been given to the work which is being done by some motor trucks operating under entirely different conditions. Although the comment is often heard that in the remote sections the only kind of transportation that could successfully carry on work is that done by horses, the motor truck is proving infinitely superior to horses in territories where steep mountain grades and roads that are practically no roads at all are the rule. An example of this is the excellent service being obtained in the mining sections of Arizona from motor trucks.
C. B. Rose, chief engineer of one of the motor companies, has just returned from an extended trip through the mining section of Arizona in the interests of his company, which practically monopolizes motor truck transportation in this territory. He reports that the most remarkable example of truck efficiency that he has ever seen is displayed by the five trucks now making the eighty-five-mile trip from Silver City., Ariz., to Mogollon. This trip is one which might well be considered impossible for any kind of a motor-driven vehicle. Yet the trucks are covering the 170-mile round trip in twenty-seven hours. The same trip previously required teams of sixteen horses and took eleven days.
An idea of the difficulty of the trip can be gained from the fact that the sun in Mogollon only shines from 11 o'clock in the morning to 1 in the afternoon because of the great height of the mountains on each side. During the trip the Gila River had to be forded, and in the Mogollon Mountains one five-mile hill averages 9 per cent. grade for the distance of five miles, and then drops 1,200 feet in one mile.
During his trip through Arizona Mr. Rose was instrumental in closing a contract with the City of Tucson for the first motor-driven fire wagon ever used in the State.