This week I’ve been working on all the lumpy bits of the newly covered wagon, and my goodness but there are a lot of them. The fascinating thing to me (and it’s my blog so you’re getting this too) is that the lumpy bits act as a frame holding the entire wagon together.
This is probably obvious to people who understand these things but it was only this week that I realised that it is not simply that the sides don’t hold up the roof: the rest of the van has to handle the not insignificant forces of the entire door sliding along the length of the van and slamming against the other end, again and again and again.
My word but that’s awful grammar. Keep up at the back there.
I’m guessing that while the Complicated Van sliding Door Department were at work, in the office next door the Mahoosive Frame Design Committee were scribbling away at ideas to make the rest of the van solid enough to work without it sinking through the track. The wagon is essentially a thumping big frame with the chassis, ends and central pillar taking all the stresses of the load. Even the roof is a bit of an afterthought between the load bearing girders. And I thought they were just big gutters.
All of which makes this nondescript van a very impressive bit of design, especially when you consider that a set of curtain sides would have been a far simpler solution.
Which leads to another thought: all the pictures I can find of these vans shows them trundling through alpine meadows and past the occasional happy cow, so why the heavy security? What do the designers know about rural Switzerland that we don’t? I think we should be told.
Maybe it’s the alpine cows that are the problem?
Hmm… perhaps that’s why they have bells,so they can’t sneak up on anyone.
Haha. Those bovine burglars!
Its probably international deliveries of Toblerone! 🙂
Can’t be: the vans are the wrong shape…
(Or maybe it’s an international bovine chocolate conspiracy)