How Much Does A Jowett Weigh?

[AlanBartlett]

Just out of interest does anyone know the estimated weights of various models of jowett, for example my long saloon?

[george garside]

just a few sample weight all taken from Autocar / Motorroad tests. Not clear if unladen weight or as tested weight and bear in mind unladen could be with or without petrol. but for comparison purposes presume they used same formula throughout so it can be seen how weight crept up throughout the thirties.



1921 2 seat 9cwt
1927 'greenhouse' saloon 12 cwt
1929 Black prince 14cwt
1934 kestrel 15cwt 1qr 10lb
1935 Curlew with cross braced chassis of free wheel 16cwt 2qr 26lb
1936 Jason 4 cyl - same chassis as curlew 18cwt 2qr 18lb not sure where the extra weight came from as the engine can't have been 2cwt heavier than the twin!
1936 Plover (Motor figs) unladen weight 18.25cwt (same comments as above apply)
1938 Eight (Motor) 16.8cwt nunladen
1939 Eight 16cwt 2 qr 12 lb bigger than curloew but slightly lighter.
1940 Eight JCL figure 16.5 cwt 'ready for road'
1940 Ten " 17.75cwt " "




the vans were much lighter

1934 10cwt van chassis 8.75cwt, body3cwt = 11.75cwt
1936 10cwt van chassis & body 11.75cwt

george

[Tony Fearn]

Thanks, George.

An extremely useful list, especially if one is taking the Jowett for an M.O.T..

They need te weight to work out brake efficiency.

The inspector is always surprised at how good the pre-war Jowett brakes are.

Tony.

[TedAllen]

Tony,
I don't know about your tester but mine works to the principle of 'If it's not on the wall chart, then he cannot guess the weight and will only base the test on the efficiency at the rollers and not by any percentage formula'
Bit like only having to do a visual check on emissions for pre-76 cars not on the database.
Also, unleaded petrol in the tank will weigh less than leaded....stands to reason, doesn't it ?


Tommy Cooper

[AlanBartlett]

Thanks for the info. just wanted to convert some of them to a metric just to see what they amount to these days. On a rough guess I compared mine to the kestrel on the weight and in modern kilograms its approx 763kg, which is only only a little bit heavier than my friends vw polo coupe 89, which is 727kg. I was quite surprised how light it actually is I guess theres not alot in it really. And isn't Tommy Cooper that old comedian with the monkey hat with a tail at the top?

[george garside]

I get it to 800.9kg (1680lbs =56lb=26lbdivided by2.2) but its not quite proper somehow to think of a jowett in metric form!

Your car should I suppose be slightly heavier (but not enough to worry about) than the Kestrel as it has 2 extra bits of glass & possibly a little bit more tin.

for those mot men who insist on weight ( Ted's bloke is I think being far more sensible) the 1935 on cross braced chassis are 'around' 16cwt and the ladder frame 'around' 15 cwt. for those who have the misfortunate to encounter pedantic mot blokes it can be 15 or 16 cwt precisely!
george

[TedAllen]

Hi George,
I'm a little rusty now, and a lot has come in since I last conducted a test. I qualified as a tester in the mid 80s. It would need checking with the vehicle inspectorate but I'm fairly certain that the tester cannot insist on a weight being presented to him by the customer. I'll phone them and post the answer.

There are several restrictions on what a tester can do, several of them quite strange including the fact that plastic wheeltrims may not be removed leading to a situation where a car could pass and be put on the road with wheel nuts missing ! If the boot is full of shopping then this cannot be removed to check on corrosion inside the boot....both fairly important safety issues yet a cracked number plate will fail...why?...being an old cynic, I assume that it will not give the speed (sorry, safety) cameras a perfect readout of your number.
Most of the test is carried out with the examiner allowed a great deal of discretion...so if you find yourselves on the ramp of a total pedant, find a more mature tester for next time.
Alan...get yourself a Tommy Cooper dvd, take time off from the car and prepare to roll round the floor with laughter.....
Ted

[george garside]

Hi Ted
your mention of shoping not being allowed to be removed from the boot reminded me of the first time I took a car for an mot or should I say the 10 year test!. It was my first car and I wa about 18 at the time. The car was a 1938 four cylinder Jowett that I bought off Roy Braddock for £10, himself saying " I suppose I should really scrap it!".

Now at that point in my life I knew bugger all about the intricacies of setting up Bendix brakes & my particular ones had a nasty habit of locking up the back wheels when applied in earnest as was done by testers using a Tapley meter on the road. Needless to say it failed but I was promised a free retest. After various hit & miss adjustments failed to bring about any improvement I had a bright idea. A friends dad had just knocked down his garden wall and had a large pile of bricks available., which I swiftly borrowed.

the luggage locker behind the back seat was then filled with bricks as was the externally accesed spare wheel locker, the bricks of course replacing the spare wheel as they were heavier. Just to make absolutely certain I added another layer on the back floor covered up with a couple of old coates.

Bingo! the brakes worked perfectly and the tester didn't think of looking for the bricks!

happy days!

george

[TedAllen]

George,
Now isn't life strange, I checked with Ian, my tester, this morning and he said he just makes up a weight based on the official weight of a sinilar sized vehicle and does it that way 'cos no-one ever checks anyway.
He checked the official line with the inspectorate and was told that in these circumstances he should take the car out and use the TAPLEY. ( or decelerometer.)
I have never seen him use this and it sits on the filing cabinet gathering dust. Of course, all test stations should have one as , I think, it is still the only way of brake testing a vehicle with permanent FWD, like the early Range Rover.
Your brick tale reminded me of something that happened many years ago, I was offered a very clean Fiat 850 as a non-runner for the taking away. I soon got it going with new points , entered it in the local car market and had people clamouring to buy it before I put a price on it...great !
A neighbour was impressed and , just having bought a gas welding set, fancied doing a car up for sale....of course a fiat 850 sounded good and he duly found one.
The floor was really rough and the car was duly set up on stands and under he went to see what needed doing. Imagine his surprise when the first dig of a chisel produced a load of gravel in his face !
The conclusion of this story is that the floor had been repaired by someone by supporting a large piece of ply under the car against the floor and filling the inside of the bodyshell with an inch of concrete which was left to set, the ply removed and the whole new 'floor' painted white like the rest of the car. Got to admire their ingenuity, havn't you.
Needless to say no welding practice was obtained and no profit was made with the car going to the crusher.
Ted