MTFCA Forum

I have a 27 TT truck that I recently acquired that has a Ruckstell and 5:1 higher speed rear axle. I want to have enough speed to keep up in traffic or with other model T cars. It currently has a milled low head, Chevy downdraft carburetor and original TT Rocky Mountain brakes installed as well. I haven’t been able to drive it much yet but I want to know if the Warford is necessary. The guy I got it from was known to go pretty good the way it’s setup now, but how good I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Assuming your Warford has an overdrive, it is necessary if you want to keep up in traffic. Without the Warford, your TT will probably not get to 30 MPH even with the high speed rear end gears. With the high speed rear end and a Warford overdrive it'll probably move along comfortably at a little over 40 MP.

Just remember, these trucks were intended for about 20 MPH. Doubling that speed means you need to drive it with caution. Having the Rocky Mountain brakes is GREAT, but you still need to drive it like what it is, a 93+ year old truck.

Two choices, there are more but for this; get the 3 speed which will give you the over drive or look for a 2 speed that has overdrive. You have the Ruckstell so already have the in between gear. In Ruckstell and using Ford low, should be slow enough for any trailer loading or parades so would just need the over drive for road speeds. Be ready in any case to pull the rear end shorten the driveshaft/tube and radius rods. While transmissions are not hard to find, the rest of the components not so much and if you do find them, you need to make sure they will work with which ever transmission you have, they are not all the same length. Do a search of MTFCA; Warford and study the differences between the units, they don't all mount the same.
Just as a side note; final drive with the Ruckstell installed is Ford direct, what ever the ratio rear end you have.

How about the new Warfords offered? Is the $2800 price tag worth it? Pretty expensive

Do some checking. Do they have the shortened driveshaft etc for the TT or just cars? How much you want to spend, you need to make that choice. All reports I have seen they are good.

Hi Alex, I am assuming you do not have a Warford but want to know if you should put one in?

Have a few drives to get a feel for the TT first. That will help you get a feel for its performance. Keep in mind that Ts wear out! The harder you drive / push it, the quicker an engine rebuild comes around.

My suggestion is YES install a Warford (or other aux overdrive). It removes a lot of stress from the engine trying to keep up with traffic. Even with an aux box you can't really keep up with traffic, but is is much more comfortable than hanging on to a shaking revving truck at 25 mph (or often much slower).

Have a 'google search' of this site as there are several threads over the years covering what/how/why for fitting aux boxes into TTs.

My TT has a Ruckstell AA truck unit 'reversed' to give overdrive. It fits in the drive shaft. Perhaps it is a bit too much over driven, so I will fit smaller tyres when the rear ones wear out.

Cheers
Adrian Whiteman