Ford Model T - How to Start & How to Drive

YouTube ^ | 09-01-2020 | Mitch Taylor

[NRx]

A quick video guide on the basics of starting and driving a 1925 Ford Model T. This is exactly one step up from the horse in low tech transportation.

[TMN78247]

Actually, the “You can have your Model T in any color as long as it is black.” is a MYTH. - From the 1st year of production a customer could “special order” a T in ANY color, “for divers commercial uses”.
(A lady/milliner in my home county ordered a PINK Model T coupe in 1917 & drove it until her death during WWII.)

The REA in my home county owned/operated a RED (with black fenders & taupe trim) Model T “depot hack” for decades.
(After the T was “retired from regular service”, it was taken out & driven for years for various “advertising reasons”, like Christmas parades.)

Yours, TMN78247

[Bigg Red]

Mark

[Yardstick]

Compound as in the bone broke through the skin?

Heck of a thing for a kid to go through. Back then you had to be tough.

[bk1000]

I started in a Ford truck with three on the tree. I’ve always wondered how to operate a model T.

[Timothy]

There is a metal rod kind of like a turn signal on the steering column that allows one to increase or decrease the gas. Be careful going up a very steep hill, though. If the carburetor gets higher than the gas tank, the car will die. That’s why some people chose to drive up a hill in reverse.

[TMN78247]

YEP, I suspect that you are correct. = My Uncle Josh was “well known” in Franklin County (He was known to be “comfortable”.) & the funeral specifics had been TWICE in the local newspaper.

“Red” Arnold told my dad that “IF I find out who stole ‘Buddy’s car’, he will soon wish that he was never born.”
(Ranger “Red” Arnold was called “THE LAW in East Texas” & was NOT a good person to cross. - He taught me in Sunday School for 3 years of my boyhood.)

To NON-Texicans: One “TX myth” that is 100% TRUE is that our Rangers are just as tough, “lacking in ruth” & tenacious “on the hunt” as their reputation is.

Yours, TMN78247

[Big Red Badger]

Great Video!
100 yr. Old
American Technology!
.
Sweet Ride!

[hanamizu]

You can break your arm starting one of those things if you don’t hold the crank right. You can break your arm starting one of those things if you don’t hold the crank right.

---

My great-uncle who drove a Model T truck told me the secret was to not put your thumb around the crank handle. That way if it kicked back the crank would just slip out of your hand.

He called all of his cars ‘Lizzie’. Before he had the truck, he had a horse and wagon to deliver candy to stores in Boston. The big advantage of the horse was it learned where the deliveries were to be made and would take himself to the stores.

[NorseViking]

I think it sold more than that. Model T is the number three best selling car in the World to this day.

[Yardstick]

The original self driving vehicle...

[where's_the_Outrage?]

Went to the Ford Piquette Ave Museum last year about the intersection of I-94/75 in Detroit, got to ride in a model T. Amazing how many variations were made at the plant.

https://www.fordpiquetteplant.org/

[JoeFromSidney]

Yes. When I was a child, my father had his wrist broken while cranking his model T. Since he was a barber, that put him out of work until his wrist healed.

[Songcraft]

The old Model F took a lot of energy, and was quite a challenge to drive...

     

[Exit148]

And WE DID!!

[SkyDancer]

You betcha! Drove my bro’s new Mustang. Showed him how to drive it. LOL

[Clay Moore]

“My dad used to recount how as a kid he had that crank come back around on him and compound fracture his ulna, Doctor set it by pulling on both ends and re-aligning them. No anesthesia.”

That was actually relatively common and came to be known as a “Ford Fracture.”

[Mr. Lucky]

Which branch of the Service were you in?

[nicollo]

Actually, the “You can have your Model T in any color as long as it is black.” is a MYTH.

Ford mass produced T's in black becuase it dried quicker than other colors, so was more efficient for the production line.

[imardmd1]

Ford is reported to have said,”You can have a Ford in any color you want as long as it’s black.”

[nicollo]

Model T is the number three best selling car in the World to this day.

In sheer numbers, the VW Bug and Toyota Corolla have sold more, but there's no comparison to the T in terms of market share -- I don't know the number, but it was upwards 90% c. 1914 and probably half or so following WWI. Into the 1920s Ford lost marketshare, even as sales went up, which led to the move to the Model A.