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Why Michigan Still Uses a Ford Model T for Official Government Business
- russfink 2y agoWould love to know how they maintain it, eg replacement parts.
- tivert 2y ago> Would love to know how they maintain it, eg replacement parts. Total speculation: I'd bet some combination of collector interest keeping parts available and the relative ease of manufacture of such parts using modern techniques.
- SoftTalker 2y agoYep. There's a viable collector/restoration market for these cars, the parts are all very simple and not particularly tolerance-critical by modern standards, and easy to recreate with all the plans available.
- ocdtrekkie 2y agoI would bet making parts for it is not super hard, and that there is also probably a whole market for those parts from the museum/antique restoration crowd. https://www.modeltford.com/ https://www.modeltford.com/ claims to sell new and used parts.
- analog31 2y agoIIRC Ford made shop drawings for replacement parts available, and the car was designed to be repairable. A quick bit of Google research suggests that a WWII Jeep would also serve this purpose. But it would be shameful to use a vehicle from Ohio.
- Daz1 2y agoRepairable because they usually didn't last more than 3 years
- eru 2y agoYes. People love to complain that modern cars aren't repairable, but they typically do last much longer than those of decades ago.
- SkyPuncher 2y agoCara barely use to last to 100k miles. Now, most people expect nearly 200k. More if you do proper maintenance (namely preventing rusting)
- Daz1 2y agoThere's a reason odometers have 6 digits now.
- bravetraveler 2y ago... and there are reasons for the rollover odometer meme too. Is the supposition that they didn't need the digit until recently? I doubt that was a concern - if any, more financial/cosmetic than engineering. The older cars didn't fail spectacularly. The used car market is made mostly of these repairable cars. Again, they lasted long enough for the odometer rollover... but also for Toyota trucks to become an icon. These 'junkers' (said lovingly) are how 'everyone' in the Midwest learns to drive and gets to their first job, too. I'll close with my own crazy assertion! Leases are for people so bored with their work, they need financial commitments to spice things up
- eru 2y ago> The older cars didn't fail spectacularly. The used car market is made mostly of these repairable cars. Well, we need to specify which ages of car we are talking about. The used car market is probably mostly made of cars built in the last twenty years. I also had even older times in mind, all the way from Model T to today.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoLouis Rossmann is currently trying to get Hakko to release schematics and parts lists, but they're presently hiding behind distributor-channel knowledge-hoarding and "no longer available" planned obsolescence.
- bityard 2y agoIn SE Michigan, you can't swing a stunned cat without hitting an automobile museum. The are lots of people, clubs, businesses and museums to keep these things going.
- myself248 2y agoThe Henry Ford Museum also maintains a whole fleet of them that ferry people around the grounds, you can ride one, and you can watch a live demonstration of one being taken completely apart and reassembled every afternoon. Many of the parts can still be made on site in the museum's workshops, too.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoI'm sure Leno's Garage may also be a resource for 100-year-old NLA Ford parts.
- fbdab103 2y agoI would propose gutting it and replacing the engine with something modern. A moped probably has equivalent oomph. Or the heretical option and install EV motors directly onto the wheels.
- blahyawnblah 2y agoThere's all kinds of reproduction or aftermarket parts
- usrusr 2y agoReminds me of the accidental Wikipedia dive into the "Volkswagen engine" universe I once had: apparently the design lives on in a multitude of engines in the ultralight market, for dune buggies and the like. Bootstrapped by aftermarket parts for repurposed original engines, but then complete engines appeared making use of those aftermarket parts and now it's an interoperability standard long after repurposing original engines has stopped being a thing. Distributed Theseus.
- sneak 2y agoThe explanation doesn’t make sense. They could just measure the shoulder width. Highways and roads are built to spec.
- dwheeler 2y agoAwesome story! I love hearing about surprising and interesting solutions.
- nxobject 2y agoAs an aside: does anyone with a local dimming-based HDR display occasionally get dimming with the embedded videos?
- aiddun 2y agothat video on my MacBook Pro almost blinded me
- brewdad 2y agoThat embedded video threw me for a minute. I don’t associate Sheldon Brown with Toyota Tacomas but rather bicycle repair and nerdery. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/ https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
- dbavaria 2y agoI mean they could use a Fiat 500, or some other modern car...but what would the fun be in that?
- blahyawnblah 2y agoI bet a Fiat 500 is narrower
- defrost 2y agoHow's that compare to a 1957 BMW Isetta 300? We've got one in the local car museum, it gets driven out and about every 18 months or so. Crackin' fuel efficiency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta https://youtu.be/ekRoVb0qfAY?t=39 https://youtu.be/ekRoVb0qfAY?t=39
- 082349872349872 2y agoI've seen at least two (or maybe remakes?) on local roads, one of which was driven several times per week.
- surfingdino 2y agoAnd costs more to buy and maintain.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoA running Ford Model T likely costs absurd amounts of money to maintain because everything about it is likely custom, especially when something breaks.
- cm2187 2y agoAnd the driver is unlikely to survive a crash.
- 2y ago
- danans 2y agoHow cool would it be if at some point they used one of the original electric Model Ts - perhaps with a bigger battery to achieve more than it's original 80 mile range.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoHow did they achieve 80 miles in that era?
- vasco 2y ago10 gallon gas tank https://www.speedwaymotors.com/shop/1926-ford-model-t-fuel-tanks~65790-1926-54-5385-1-1877-12-516-6268 https://www.speedwaymotors.com/shop/1926-ford-model-t-fuel-t...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- chronogram 2y agoI think the comment refers to the Detroit Electric cars, because it was driven a lot by Clara Ford. I am guessing their range is due to them going 32kmh/20mph and being loaded with 530kg/1170lbs of batteries. https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/209957/ https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digita...
- masklinn 2y agoBig batteries and low speeds? Also 80 was the advertised “reliable range”. The “normal” T had double to triple the range, at double the speed. and I don’t think there ever was an electric T, there were barebones prototype frames. What people call electric Ts are usually Detroit Electrics (the specs match).
- coolspot 2y agoElectric Ford model T was never produced, only planned. 80 mile range figure is for Detroit Electric car that Henry Ford’s wife owned[1]. 1 - https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/209957#slide=gs-214227 https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digita...
- zxexz 2y agoI wonder if PA, OH, and other states with large Amish and Mennonite populations do something similar. Seems a thoughtful idea.
- kotaKat 2y agoIn this region of NY our bigger concern is visibility in the winter and at night. Our lawmakers sat down with various local community leaders to hammer out a voluntary agreement to go beyond state visibility laws. https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/patty-ritchie/historic-agreement-improve-visibility-horse-drawn https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/patty-...
- jmclnx 2y agoGreat story, and why not use them :)