MINI STEAM JEEP (STEMKA) 2




Apart from the steering wheel, the instruments and controls consisted of pressure gauge, speed and distance meter, foot and hand brakes, foot and hand throttle controls, engine cylinder lubrication pump and feed-water metering and bypass valve. Other controls included a boiler scale-trap blow down, chimney blower jet valve, feed-water priming pump, engine reversing and notching up lever, cylinder drain cocks lever, fire door, furnace air control and excess steam release valve. The cylinder drain cocks were made in the form of pop safety valves with variable spring loading from the hand lever and notched quadrant. If they were momentarily set at below boiler pressure they went off like small bore rifle shots.

Main dimensions were, wheel base 52”. Track 40”. Overall length and width were 70½” and 46”. The furnace extended rearwards from the generator section with the hinged fire door on top. The cylinder drain cocks lever, the hand brake, and the furnace air control levers were grouped close to the reversing lever. Apart from lighting up there was no smoke emission. The occasional burning of macadamia nut shells did create a little brown smoke as well as plenty of heat. Touring around the local streets produced memorable events. One found one’s self leading two or three cars showing no tendency to pass and they would loiter alongside. On one occasion pulling into a friend’s home and treating him and neighbours to rides up and down the street the fuel supply ran out with still a kilometre to get home. No problem, kindly people rummaged in their garden sheds and enough scraps of wood and pine-cones quickly appeared to continue the entertainment and complete the journey. They were apologetic over the tree bark included but to Stemka’s boiler that was good hot ember producing fuel. A friend, also a steam buff who frequently rode with me shares the memory of a Sunday afternoon jaunt about the village when we had to stop at an intersection for cross traffic. There was a full head of steam causing the release valve to blow off the excess which due to the cool air temperature and no breeze, enveloped the vehicle in a fog much to the obvious astonishment registered by the occupants of passing cars.

After six years of enjoyable driving and tinkering I became dissatisfied with the temperamental characteristics in this application of the flash type generator. Schemes for various configurations of small volume boilers were studied. I wanted a generator of a type that was inherently stable without the necessity of cause and effect control systems. I also wanted to devise a steam generator that had the manners of time honoured volume boilers and firmly believed as I still do that this could and should be the path to follow. Records of the successes of Winslow boilers and their derivatives the Derr boilers brought me to favour these types for replacement. Time and circumstances caught up with me and I terminated my workshop activities to give fulltime care to my then ailing wife. Now since 2005 my steam interests and fellowship with steam buffs and my third generation younger families fill my daily life.

A fellow enthusiast who owns a museum in Northland bought the little steam jeep and keeps it among his display pieces. So that leaves me enjoying being a nonagenarian pounding out on my computer themes and schemes and things the way they were and possibly could have been. I hope to discuss some of these meanderings in future instalments.