the field artillery journal - Fort Sill - U.S. Army

MOTOR TRANSPORT FOR FIELD ARTILLERY
battery and store wagons. If used for the same purposes only it
is thought that the truck will outwear the replaced vehicles and
if used for miscellaneous purposes they will be replacing
something else and credit should be given accordingly. There
is just being generally overhauled at Rock Island Arsenal for
the first time a truck that has been in daily use for four years
working eight hours per day. The mileage made is not known
but the truck has pulled dozens of road tests of artillery
vehicles running from a few miles to a thousand or more, and
in more than one the vehicle was ready to discontinue the test
before the finish. When not used in road tests the truck has
been hauling material about the shops and store houses.
There is doubtless reliable data in existence regarding the
life of tractors in farm service that would hold for batteries; but
it is not at hand. They are known to last for several years and
assuming a farm life of five years at forty miles per day for one
hundred days each year gives 20,000 miles and a depreciation
of $875.00 per thousand miles for the five in the battery.
The total of the above is $2832.00 per thousand miles and
the battery would have to travel about 11,000 miles per year to
eat up the estimated saving of $31,000 per annum. Various
contingencies may increase the 1000 mile cost estimate, but
there are many savings that have not been counted, such as
"recruiting men and shoeing animals, overhead at remount
depots, quartermaster equipment of personnel, reduction of
stable and barrack space, reduced cost of transportation by rail,
etc."
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