This is a photo showing a heavy hauler truck. It looks like it has some Ford parts on it, but I'm not sure if it is a modified Ford or just another manufacturer's truck that has some similarities.
What do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.com/EARLY-UNION-HAULER-TRUCK-MFG-NEW-YORK-PHOTO-AUTOMOBILIA-/200 438274381?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eab0d594d

Herb

That is a T with a kit similar to a Smith forma truck kit on it.If not a Smith.But i aint that familar with some of the exact details of the conversion kits.I am sure Smith werent the only kit to buy to do that.
the bed is what I am more interested in learning about.Looks to have a swivel on it.

Mack, look closer, that is a trailer that is jacknifed. Dave

15 or 16 T with a early 5'th wheel and i would think the picture was to show the ability to make a tight turn?? Being a poor excuse for a part time trucker i would say if the cab/trailer are not touching/dammaged there is no jacknife! Bud.

It looks to me like he puts the trailer in that position to load it.

Bud,

That's kinda like saying "Any landing you can walk away from....." ;-)

Hal,I guess its true as i have heared it before.Talking about that i knew one of those lost in lake Michigan this week in the downed plane! PS,The best weld is the one that will do the job the cheapest! Bud.

Looks an awful lot like Charlie Chaplin at the wheel.
Neat 1916 T truck.
W2

Heat must be getting to me.Duh,how could I miss that?

Wayne I thought the same thing about that being Charlie Chaplin.
Can someone put the picture here?

Herb

Is this it? Has words in the middle of the picture

Here's one without the words . . .

Even "back in the day" it's hard to imagine that they could meet the overhead and make a living at $0.01 per ton per mile. If you loaded the thing with the 3 tons (which I bet is a stretch) and haul it 20 miles you have made the grand sum of $0.60 gross, and by the time you got it loaded and unloaded it probably took the better part of the morning at least, depending on the nature of the freight.

Really neat photo!! Thanks!!!!

Sorry for two posts in a row, I guess this photo is interesting to me.

It does not look like there is an auxiallary transmission in the photo. Assuming that's correct, they were hauling 3 tons of freight with only the planetary transission. What do you suppose the final ratios and speed were with the chian drive? I would imagine it was necessary to gear it down to get it to go??? The size of the chain sprokets leads me to think it was geared down quite a bit, but there could be other factors not evident in the photo.

Looks like about 5:1 to me. That's an overall ratio of about 18:1 if the stock 3.64:1 gears are in the differential housing.

Let's see, my 3:1 speedster was almost 30 mph/1000 rpm in high gear so at 18:1 overall in high, that would be 5 mph/1000 rpm.

8 mph at the peak power speed of 1600 rpm.

2,000 rpm in low gear is about 3.5 mph.

Safety glass not required in this dude.

So, I need to revise my estimate. Travel time alone to go 20 miles would be at least 3 hours, Plus loading and unloading time. Sure seems slow by today's standards, but the guys who drove rigs like this one probably thought it was pretty fast compared to the mules or horses they were using up until that time.

That fully loaded 20 mile trip was likely to produce not much more than about $0.15 per hour max. Minus the gas cost. Munus the truck cost. Minus the truck service cost. Minus the insurance cost(if they even had insurance). Sounds like a pretty thin margin to me. And then I would guess that not all loads were capacity loads, which would reduce the revenue without much reduction in overhead.

Ah, the good ol' days. It's hard to imagine how they survived. They must have had the thing running 24/7.

I think the point of the cost to haul per ton was to
attract buyers with the low cost of running the truck,
not the rate one would charge for commercial hauling.

Henry, I think Art is correct about the cost per mile being an ad for the truck builder as a sales tool.
I have to admit that the 1 cent, per ton, per mile got me too.

Thanks, guys. It didn't occur to me that it was a sales pitch for the truck itself.

Sometimes I don't hear too good, either.

I see the "Truck" conversion, with the chain drive & solid rear wheels, but is this a "T" or a "TT"?

It's a T. They didn't make a TT until the 1918 model year. This one has a brass radiator, so it couldn't have been anything but a commercial chassis T bought before sometime early in 1917.

Thanks Seth. I was wondering why it was so shrot. I wonder what the total GVWR was?

I learned about rates in that price range when hauling for ‘friends’
Payment was generally in the form of “Thanks Art – I guess I owe you a coffee”
<g>

LOL! With friends like that, you sure don't need any enemies....

You aren't alone Art. I have lots of "friends" like that. I'm hoping they want to borrow some money so I can give them twice as much so I'll never hear from them again.