Electric Model T?
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Fordwright
Topic author - Posts: 284
- Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 4:14 pm
- First Name: Greg
- Last Name: Popove
- Location: Olds AB
Electric Model T?
Has anyone made an electric Model T? I think it would be great to drive it without the annoying engine sound.
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RajoRacer
- Posts: 5170
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:18 pm
- First Name: Steve
- Last Name: Tomaso
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1914 Touring, 1919 Centerdoor, 1924 TT C-Cab Express, 1925 Racer
- Location: Longbranch, WA
- Board Member Since: 2001
Re: Electric Model T?
There was a thread a while back on that subject.
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TWrenn
- Posts: 3743
- Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 10:53 am
- First Name: Tim
- Last Name: Wrenn
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: '13 Touring, '26 "Overlap" Fordor
- Location: Ohio
- Board Member Since: 2019
Re: Electric Model T?
I rather enjoy the engine sound, but then especially my '13, Clarabelle, runs so quiet usually you hear the coils clicking over any engine noise. The rest is the wind blowing in one ear and out the other. 
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Hudson29
- Posts: 498
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- First Name: Paul
- Last Name: O'Neil
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1914 Touring, 1923 Runabout
- Location: Klamath Falls, OR
- Board Member Since: 2005
Re: Electric Model T?
I LOVE the sound of a Model T engine. The putter it makes makes me purr like my cat being stroked!
Someday if fuel is taken away we may need to go electric but it sure will not be a choice I would ever make voluntarily.
Having said that, I imagine it would be pretty easy to mount a battery under the seats and to replace the gasoline motor unit with an electric one.
Someday if fuel is taken away we may need to go electric but it sure will not be a choice I would ever make voluntarily.
Having said that, I imagine it would be pretty easy to mount a battery under the seats and to replace the gasoline motor unit with an electric one.
The man with a watch always knows what time it is, the man with two watches is never sure.
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ThreePedalTapDancer
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- First Name: Ed
- Last Name: Martin
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1914 Touring, 1909 Touring
- Location: Idaho
Re: Electric Model T?
Without the T engine, it has no heart, no soul. It is no longer a Model T Ford. It is now a golf cart.
Last edited by ThreePedalTapDancer on Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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TWrenn
- Posts: 3743
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- Last Name: Wrenn
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- Location: Ohio
- Board Member Since: 2019
Re: Electric Model T?
I'd much rather have a neat little 24HP Yanmar Diesel under the hood, like I have in my CubCadet/Yanmar sub-compact tractor!
Has a similar "ticking" noise like a T, is about the same footprint, maybe even a little lighter, and got power galore! I know it's
been done with some diesel engine, saw a pic once, might have been posted by Joe Bell a while back.
Has a similar "ticking" noise like a T, is about the same footprint, maybe even a little lighter, and got power galore! I know it's
been done with some diesel engine, saw a pic once, might have been posted by Joe Bell a while back.
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Virtus
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:37 pm
- First Name: Paul
- Last Name: Robertson
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: Ford model tt 1921 right hand drive
- Location: Heathfield, east sussex, uk
Re: Electric Model T?
Surely, without "the annoying engine sound" the T would become a museum exhibit? Just thinking out loud!
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TRDxB2
- Posts: 6259
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- First Name: Frank
- Last Name: Brandi
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: Speedsters (1919 w 1926 upgrades), 1926 (Ricardo Head)
- Location: Moline IL
- Board Member Since: 2018
Re: Electric Model T?
This is the thread https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18064 as pictures of several DIY's and one Ford electric No 2
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The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
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Les Schubert
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Re: Electric Model T?
Seems to me that the solution is to get a original era electric car. I have a 1920 Detroit cw the original style iron nickel alkaline “Edison” batteries. Runs nominally on 84 volts. This made sense at the time because with a vacuum tube rectifier running from 110 volts AC no transformer needed.
Good for about 70 miles on a charge at about 30 mph
Good for about 70 miles on a charge at about 30 mph
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Art M
- Posts: 964
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- First Name: Art
- Last Name: Mirtes
- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1923 Touring
- Location: Huron, Ohio
- Board Member Since: 2016
Re: Electric Model T?
Let's not be giving the politicians any ideas, we will be driving electric cars soon enough without converting our old cars to electric.
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Kaiser
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- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1923 Huckster, '66 CJ5 daily driver
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Re: Electric Model T?
A hundred years of the model T and we've gone from spookin' horses to wakin' politicians, now that's progress for you !
When in trouble, do not fear, blame the second engineer ! 
Leo van Stirum, Netherlands
'23 Huckster, '66 CJ5 daily driver
Leo van Stirum, Netherlands
'23 Huckster, '66 CJ5 daily driver
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Quickm007
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- First Name: Mario
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- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1911 Touring and 1914 speedster
- Location: Quebec City Canada
- Board Member Since: 1999
Re: Electric Model T?
T mecanic sound music for my ears. It is like a Ferrari without sound, it doesn't make sense for me. I'm in line for the Tesla CyberTruck but I will keep my 2 t's has is for sure. The CyberTruck will tow my trailer and my T's as well. We call that paradox. My humble opinion
Super Mario Bross 
1911 Touring
1914 Speedster
1911 Touring
1914 Speedster
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Mark Gregush
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- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 1925 cutdown PU, 1948 F2 Ford flat head 6 pickup 3 speed
- Location: Portland Or
- Board Member Since: 1999
Re: Electric Model T?
Converting a T to electric has crossed my mind but more in the direction of gas electric. I would think of it more in the realm of a Detroit or Baker.
I know the voices aren't real but damn they have some good ideas! 
1925 Cut down pickup
1948 Ford F2 pickup
1925 Cut down pickup
1948 Ford F2 pickup
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VanEpsFan1914
- Posts: 35
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- * REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: My Corolla doesn't count.
- Location: Florence County, SC
- Board Member Since: 2020
Re: Electric Model T?
Model T's sound great as they are, IMHO.
But as a non-T owner I was thinking what would happen to build an electric motorcar on a T frame--it's perfect. The brakes are enclosed and the tires are smaller, so two major sources of pollution (brake dust and tire fragments) are reduced. Ground clearance is of course great...a fibreglas sedan body or doped canvas would be a light and tough body and if canvas it could be biodegradable.
A Model T - style electric motor car would be the best option for an eco-friendly automobile. Tesla cars are neat but they are unnecessarily fast -- It would be more efficient to build an electric T and drive forty, than to build a high-performance electric and go ninety.
These are all interesting questions.
But as a non-T owner I was thinking what would happen to build an electric motorcar on a T frame--it's perfect. The brakes are enclosed and the tires are smaller, so two major sources of pollution (brake dust and tire fragments) are reduced. Ground clearance is of course great...a fibreglas sedan body or doped canvas would be a light and tough body and if canvas it could be biodegradable.
A Model T - style electric motor car would be the best option for an eco-friendly automobile. Tesla cars are neat but they are unnecessarily fast -- It would be more efficient to build an electric T and drive forty, than to build a high-performance electric and go ninety.
These are all interesting questions.