Good Friends of ours, Jacque and Mae White from Pine Grove, PA, just completed a trip last week in their 1913 Model T Touring. They drove the car from Pine Grove to the National meet in Kanab, from there they drove to Los Angeles, CA., then through Texas, and back home by a southern route. They expedience all kinds of weather conditions, from high winds, torrential downpours, hail, and extreme heat. They were driving in 116 degree heat across the desert. The Touring has 3-to-1 gears. Jacque used Firestone tires, and he drove over 8,000 miles. The the tires are a little over half worn. He was averaging between 20-23 miles per gallon.
From Jacque and Mae's travel blog:
Because our 1913 Model T Ford performed so well I should tell what was done to the car. All the work done was by Ernie Spittler & me. I babbitted the main bearings, rods, 4th main (ball cap) and line bored them to fit. The main bearings were time savored to the new Scat counter balanced crank. The rods were bored, using a fixture I made in White's Machine Shop, using a Knight Jig Bore. Other changes are: Stipe 280 camshaft, A 7-1/2 degree nylon timing gear made by White's Machine, Inc., Reader high compression head, Watts clutch, all three new transmission drums made by Dave Nolting, Kevlar bands, adjusted 1 turn low pedal, 1/2 turn reverse pedal, valve seats installed by Wes Roll, new rear axles from Ben Hardeman, Texas T's, new Ruxtell from Chaffin's, Rocky Mountain Brakes, did not adjust, a maintenance free E-Timer made by Mike Kossor which performed flawlessly, a new transmission shaft made by White's Machine. Inc. The transmission was rebuilt by Jacque White & Ernie Spittler, it was statically balanced in White's Machine, Inc using their balancer, each magnet was weighed in grams and positioned on flywheel to balance it then taken to Trim's Engine Shop to be Dynamically balanced. The Ruxtell rear was assembled by Ernie Spittler. There were no major mechanical problems, all of these changes performed exceptionally to perfection. The radiator was the most problem, mostly due to the speeds that we traveled, mostly at 45 mph, one time on I-81, 57mph. For this trip a new set of McLaren wire wheels were used for safety. Lost 1 McLaren hub cap (we think it was stolen), lost 1 top prop nut, pulled radiator twice to fix leak at overflow tube at top tank, torqued head bolts, fixed 1 flat tire, picked up a small nail and the ignition switch vibrated to the off position about 10 times. Also fan shaft wore a grove in the brass fan hub, had to put 2 nylon washers and 1 metal washer to take up the space.
Must have been an awesome trip. Glad you enjoyed it and came home safely.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading their daily blog. They are a true inspiration and an example of how to enjoy life and not sweat the small stuff. By the way, they made every problem they encountered look small. It's changed my whole attitude on driving my T.
For anyone who missed the link to the blog on an earlier post, here it is. Worth the small amount of time it will take to read through it.
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/jxnmy/Trips/23169
Interesting to note all of the mechanical fixin's and electrical dependability.
Trip of a lifetime indeed !
Bob J.
Forgot to mention, Jack told me the engine sounds as good now as it did at the start of the trip. Also, the MPH he traveled was according to his GPS
The only problem with the travel blog was we had to wait until evening to get the updates That is the way to go to a tour, drive there and back and then some.
Safety first.... no texting while driving !
Hey Bob, I did not think of that, I will cut them some slack for making the roads safer
Proof that the E-timer is very reliable and worth the expense.
Wow, over 8 thousand miles without timer problems!!!
An E-timer? Nooooooooooo.........! Thats terrible! I'm going to have to get one immediately!
It can still be done! Thanks for reminding us all. That is a great advertisement for our hobby and clubs.
Respectfully submitted,
Hap l9l5 cut off
We already know about how reliable the Etimer is. Let's not start another war over it and how much it costs. Some will never agree to the dependability and worth of it.
I applaud Jacque and Mae for a great accomplishment!
E-timer or not, this is a great testimony to how durable and dependable our beloved Model T's are. An eight thousand mile trip with really nothing more than routine maintenance along the way is 'nuff said about that.
Congratulations to Jacque and Mae on completing their wonderful adventure, and thanks to Dan for sharing this info with us here on the Forum.
Gene:
Agree.
A total achievement in reliability.
Congratulations on a enjoyable and safe trip.
Bob J.
Jacque and Mae,
Congratulations on a wonderful trip! It was a pleasure to meet you in Kanab and thanks for the special mention in you blog about our meeting! Sorry I didn't make more time to chat to you. Amazing to see you went on to Vegas and LA after Kanab. We arrived in Vegas in Rush hour and also drove down the strip. It was bad enough in the air conditioned rental, well done for doing it the T. Amazing also that that you toured around LA in the T. Very impressive. Must have been good to do all those miles and not to have to be concerned with timer maintenance!
EXCELLENT THREAD! Thanks Dan!
Remarkable accomplishment..and that's an understatement