My friend has an automatic gate that opens automatically when you leave, except sometimes it doesn't when I'm in my Model T. I used to install automatic gates years ago and there are some with an "eye" that when you cross the infrared or laser line they open, some that sense vibrations and open and some with an electromagnetic loop under the ground. Sometimes when I'm in my 14 runabout his gate won't open. I've never tried anywhere else but it works for anything else I've driven over there. Maybe it is because of the light weight of the T compared to later model cars? Has anybody else had this problem? Sometimes it works but today I backed up and went forward a bunch of times and it never opened. It let me in fine using the key pad. I went through his pasture and got out but I would've been stuck in some places with no other way out.
Does the runabout have a aluminum body ? some Fords used aluminum for some body panels,doors,hoods ect. If So there may not be enough magnetic material iron/steel in the car to trip the sensor ?
"My 2 Cents worth maybe less".Good luck
Corey. See if He can increase the sensitivity on the gate opener to help Your car trip it.
Some gates sense the magnetic fields caused by sparking of the distributor and/or alternator/generator. I know there was an apartment complex that had to call in the gate company to adjust the sensor since it wouldn't pick up one residents motorcycle.
I think most traffic signals and gate sensors are magnetic loops. When the steel/metal body or frame distorts the magnetic field, the sensor knows there's a vehicle needing attention.
BUT, I'm NOT an expert on this.
Terry
It's a steel body. I mow a guy's yard with a zero turn Scag mower and have trouble there also. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Probably the T and mower weigh about the same. I have a time going around from his shop through the pasture roads because of the narrow tires in the dry deep sand.
My T won’t trigger some traffic lights in town that I assume use a magnetic sensor embedded in the road.
Tim:
In Minnesota, motorcycles or bicycles that do not trip the pavement sensor can proceed on a red light if they have waited a reasonable amount of time for the light to change and there is no approaching cross traffic.
Mine has the same problem with traffic lights. have to get someone else to sit over the line in the road to get the lights to change.
Erik, I agree with the principle of that here but usually the lights on sensors are to cross the busiest roads. I’ve become impatient enough in other cars before that I’ve set the parking brake and jumped out to hit the pedestrian crossing button to trigger the light to change.
Years ago, I worked on a few of those, and on systems in areas "secured" by such gates. A lot of those loops are not magnetic, they measure capacitance. The capacitance changes when anything metallic (sometimes even organic) gets into its field. I used to get into "secure" areas where I had to service equipment by rolling aluminum soda cans under the gate and across the loop. Finding someone that knows how to properly set the sensitivity on those things is difficult (they can be very tricky, fact is, a soda can should NOT trigger one).
The model T is likely too high, and crossing above the capacitance field.
You might try crossing to one side (room permitting), with one wheel near the middle of the loop. The wheel rim being closer to the ground just might trigger the loop. It just depends upon how the sensitivity is set.
I have the same problem with one of the traffic lights in my neighborhood. -Apparently, there isn't enough ferrous metal in a Model T Ford to trip the magnetic sensor. -The answer, for me, was fairly unsatisfactory; that of re-routing my trip around that particular traffic light.
What about fibreglass cars like a Corvette? I remember a lawsuit some years ago when a car park barrier came down on a fibreglass car when it was halfway through.
Wayne is right, the T's are too high off the road surface. My Jeep Wrangler 4 door weighs 4200 lbs and won't trip lots of things.