Neck 14 HP

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Neck of the car

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14 HP
Manufacturer: Wagenhals Motor Company
Production period: 1910-1914/1915
Previous model: none
Successor: Neck 24 HP
Technical specifications
Designs: Flatbed trucks , box trucks
Engines: Otto engine :
2.06 liters
Power: 10.44 kW
Wheelbase: 2032 mm
Payload: 0.23-0.34 t

The Wagenhals 14 HP was a light, three-wheeled utility vehicle that was manufactured in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century and was at times also available as a passenger car and taxi.

Manufacturer was Wagenhals Manufacturing Company , founded in St. Louis (Missouri) in 1910 , which moved to Detroit , Michigan that same year and was renamed Wagenhals Motor Company in 1911 .

The company had to close in 1915. The 14 HP was safely built until 1914, possibly until 1915. Until at least 1913 it was the only model from the manufacturer.

technology

The unconventional vehicle was designed by the railway engineer WG Wagenhals . It was designed as a particularly large tricycle with two steered front wheels and one driven rear wheel. The driver's seat was at the very rear in the rear, to the side of the poorly connected rear wheel. The loading area extended in front of the driver to the front. This new commercial vehicle concept was not Wagenhals' idea. It was also unable to establish itself for larger commercial vehicles. Applications can be found for light vehicles, often on the basis of cycle cars , until the 1930s; in addition, they kept themselves in the niche of transport equipment in factory traffic . However, contemporary images also show versions with a more conventional arrangement of the driver's seats for passenger cars.

chassis

The contemporary images suggest a box frame on which an auxiliary frame was placed at a distance. This carries the body. The axles seem unsprung, but there is a suspension between the frame and the subframe. At the rear, this consists of leaf springs arranged lengthways . There is no information about the brakes ; however, they are likely to have acted either on the gearbox, differential or, in this arrangement with a central rear wheel, rather unlikely, directly on this. Front-wheel brakes are only used on production vehicles from 1920.

The track width of the front wheels was the usual 56 inches (142.24 cm) for passenger cars at the time, the artillery wheels (probably fitted with solid rubber tires) were 30 × 3.5 inches (762 × 88.9 cm).

The chassis was revised in 1912 and converted to the Underslung type . In fact, due to the unconventional design, it cannot have been a typical Underslung chassis, because the springs did not support the axles, but the subframe. The axles were no longer guided under the chassis, but between it and the subframe. The stability of the vehicle has been improved due to the lower center of gravity.

engine

The engine of unknown origin was a two-cylinder engine , possibly a boxer , which was installed transversely in front of and above the front axle . The cylinder bore was 4 inches (101.6 mm) and the stroke was 5 inches (127 mm). This results in a displacement of 125.7 ci corresponding to 2060 cm³. The power of 14 bhp (10.44 kW) led to the model name.

Power transmission

The literature mentions a three-speed planetary gear and chain drive on the rear wheel for passenger cars .

production

Between 1910 and 1913 110 to 140 vehicles in all variants of the 14 HP were built. No more figures are available for 1914 and 1915, not even for the entire extended program. In addition, it is not clear whether a "small" model at US $ 350 that has been mentioned several times means the 14 HP or a derivative of it, which is at least obvious.

  • 1911: 20 copies
  • 1912: 40 copies
  • 1913: 50 to 80

Wagenhals designed his motor vehicle primarily as a small van. Mentioned are “open” and “closed” delivery vans ( flatbed and box vans ) as well as “occasionally” a runabout or taxi . No illustration was found for the latter, so it is unclear what this structure looked like.

Other models from Wagenhals

From 1913 there were other Wagenhals models based on the same concept. These included the 24 HP with a four-cylinder engine and a smaller van with an electric or gasoline engine .

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 . (English)
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
  • GN Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI 1979, ISBN 0-87341-024-6 . (English)
  • Robert D. Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era: Essential Specifications of 4,000+ Gasoline Powered Passenger Cars, 1906-1915, with a Statistical and Historical Overview. McFarland & Co, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-7136-2 . (English)
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)
  • David Beecroft: History of the American Automobile Industry. A series of articles reprinted in The Automobile magazine . first published between October 1915 and August 1916. Publisher lulu.com, 2009, ISBN 978-0-557-05575-3 (softcover). (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942. 1996, p. 1505.
  2. ^ Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars. 1973, p. 711.
  3. ↑ a b Georgano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 656.
  4. ↑ allcarindex.com: Wagenhals.
  5. ^ Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, p. 495.
  6. ^ A b Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era 1906–1915. 2013, p. 126.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 (Wagenhals).