Hello everyone. A friend of mine found one of these here in N. Dakota and he said his neighbor might give it to him. From what he told me there is a frame, complete drivetrain and rear diff, all 4 wheels, but only one is intact, but it has been sitting for about 50 years. The western N. Dakota climate is generally pretty forgiving to things that sit outside, but I have no idea if it's salvageable or not.

I don't know much about them, or even Model Ts for that matter, but I was just curious if anyone on your fine forum might know something about them and if it's worth anything. He said there is a small stamped plate attached to the frame that says it's a Smith Forma-a-Truck. Sorry no photos as he lives a couple hundred miles away, but I could probably get some at some point. I guess the unit is in amongst some trees in his neighbor's back yard. Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.

see pvt msg re: 06.2002 Vintage Ford etc

I have another one about 40 miles from the North Dakota border. It's for sale.

Here is adv from 1916 on the Smith attachment.

Note the big jitney bus

From R.M.Head in St Sauveur Quebec Canada --

"see pvt msg re: 06.2002 Vintage Ford etc"

Did you send me a private message? If so, I'm not sure where to look for them.

Hi John.

Pvt msgs get sent directly to your email. A Convenient feature.

Thanks, I found it and have replied. Cheers, John.

Here are some photos of the truck kit. As you can see there is a tree resting on what I assume is the fuel tank -- it probably did save the frame from any damage however. I was also mistaken about the wheel count, it looks like the two rears are present, but the fronts aren't, unless the owner has them stashed somewhere. It looks pretty solid for something that sat outside for so long.

John, I think it's a funny project, because it's not just a Model TT track fram, but a kit to make a standard Ford Model T to a truck.
All the special parts are there and the missing front axle can be found "everywhere".
Ragrding the year - the enfine have (had) starter and generator so it must be after 1919. However it have two valve covers, so it is a 1921 at the latest.
The body can be made as you please. Look for som fotoes for inspiration.

amazing to see how things stand up to the out of doors...lots of good bits there.

Thanks, Michael, that's good to know that all the special parts are there.

Robert, I sent you an email with a zip file of the photos.

The Form A Truck predates the Ford TT by several years. It would fit any T frame and while some were probably sold and fitted to a new T chassis, I would guess that a lot of them were fitted to a used chassis. Once Ford came out with the TT and other manufacturers started making commercial trucks the demand probably went away for these kits. Form a Truck made kits for many of the popular cars. The Ford kit probably outsold the others but I have seen a couple that were made for other manufacturers.

It is often amazing to people who live along the coast or in the "rust belt" how pristine old iron is here. It is dry and windy and no chemicals in the air so rust is not an issue. Often the old bolts -- put together 100 years ago -- will just unscrew with a hand wrench as if they were put together yesterday.

This one has probably set out every day of its life -- close to 100 years.

Here is a link to an earlier discussion on the Smith Form-A-Truck,
with photos, ads and original patent.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/118802/147274.html?1277423056

And here is an additional patent that I have since found covering
the Torsion-Arm (chain adjuster) for the Smith conversion.

Albert D. Smith
Chicago, Illinois
Assignor to Smith Form-A-Truck
Delaware
Vehicle Torsion-Arm
Patent number: 1213031
Filing date: Feb 19, 1916
Issue date: Jan 16, 1917
http://tinyurl.com/39g5bna
http://preview.tinyurl.com/39g5bna

Regards
Art

Thanks everyone for the additional info. As I said earlier, I'm not a T collector, but I am enjoying learning about these kits and their history.

It makes sense what Stan said about demand for them drying up once Ford started offering their own truck. I may have to educate myself about the TTs now! Regards, John.

Update on the forma-a-truck. I just spoke with the owner and he said he would let it go for $750, buyer to pick up. I also found out a little more about the tree resting on the fuel tank. He told me that the tree didn't fall on the tank, but grew horizontally over it as the years passed. Strange indeed. Anyways, feel free to PM me if you're interested and I will get in touch with the owner.

Looks like that tree also "grew horizontally" into that fence.

Cool and historical machine. Can't be to many of those driving around.

I recoverd a frame under similar conditions this Summer that had been left outside fully exposed in Iowa winters since the early 1960's. Photo is how it looked 2 weeks later after cleaning and a coat of POR 15. Jimmy

One more picture (maybe}

One more try:

Guys - for educational purposes and for us fairly newer guys, the photos of this old frame - this is a TT right? or is it different in some ways? Explane what I am really looking at here, because the photos are really great and I need the education.

Smith Form-a-Truck is an accessory frame that allows you to convert a CAR chassis to a TRUCK. This is not a TT. The reduction comes from the chain drive.

John, these were very popular before Henry came out with the TT. That's why he came out with the TT. I imagine there were still many sold after the introductoin of the TT, at least for awhile. Dave

TT trucks are fairly common. "Form-a-truck" type chassis are quite rare, whether Smith, Graham, or any one of several others. Strange, I have had a Paige for many years. As such, I have read much of their related history. Graham Bros began building form-a-truck kits about 1915 for Fords and other makes of cars. But I can't recall ever seeing a surviving Graham/Ford truck. I wonder if any exist.
Drive safe, W2

I am still trying to learn this dumb windows 7. I am going to try one more time to post a picture of Bill Bollig and his form a truck.

I too have windows 7 and have yet to post a pic. Would love to see a higher resolution pic of the Bill Bollig form- a-truck.

Gary Schreiber:

If you go to the MTFCA photo site you can get a bigger picture of Bill. I have a picture of his Form a Truck in my colection but don't know how to size it larger with this dumb Windows 7.

A little bit of back ground on the truck: It sat in a shed in Fleming, Colorado for a long time. The owner claimed that a motor that sat beside it was original to the truck. The motor was a 14. Someone had installed a newer motor. I don't know if Bill got the 14 motor when he bought the truck. After bill got the truck up and running he had a lot of trouble keeping the chain drive lined up and connected to the truck axle.
As a side bar: the guy that had the truck before Bill also had a 26 two door sedan in another shed. The thing that makes me remember the 26 was it was painted black. I didn't look close enough to see if it was original paint or not. All the 26 closed cars that I ever saw in junk yards and behind barns in this area were painted a dark green. I suspect maybe the car was a very early 26.

The photo of Bill's truck at the MTFCA site is quite low resolution.
This the best that I cuold do with it.



Regards
Art

I’ve been noticing some differences on some different Smith Form a Trucks. On Johns frame, The front sprocket is much larger than mine and his has some kind of ring bolted around the rear wood fellows.
On Bills truck the sprocket looks even bigger and the tires appear to be air type.
On mine the sprockets are much smaller, I have hard rubber tires and no ring around the wood fellows. Did the model change at some point?
Oh, After talking to Calimers about fixing my one bad wheel, He said he would rather not rebuild my one bad rear wheel. Anybody have any suggestions on how I might be able to fix it myself? I did have one suggestion to use expoy. Is it possable?

Depends upon how much you plan to use it. Those wheels as originally properly bent and built would handle many thousands of hard mile under extremely heavy loads.
Your spokes look salvageable. The felloe can be made by cutting planks of oak about half as thick as the felloe is wide and gluing them together about half offset all the way around the wheel. It would probably be easiest to cut the half-hole in the sides and gluing them together with the spokes in place. The important thing is to use a good straight grain across the length of each piece. And be sure to use plenty of really good glue and a lot of strong clamps.
If some of the spokes have been attacked by dry rot (it is actually a fungus, gluing and wood strengtheners can only do so much to save them), squarish spokes are not that hard to cut out of solid oak or hickory.
Those truck felloes were originally steam-bent in a BIG press. I don't know of anyone set up to do it that way now. Making a felloe piece-meal like I suggest will be about 30% weaker. But unless you plan to haul five ton a thousand miles on rough dirt roads, it will be plenty strong.
Drive safely, W2

Send you wheel to Stutzman's Wheel Service, Baltic, Ohio. You can google the name for a number, he is Amish, leave a message and he will call you back. I have seen them bend 4 inch thick wood fellows for horse drawn heavy wagons. The guys in the brown truck deliver there every day. Even FedEx. That makes him very close to you. Your spokes are shot along with the fellow. Not worth trying a half A fix. JP