MTFCA Forum

Weather has been beautiful here so I took the '14 out late yesterday afternoon. Had to go to Walgreens, HEB and to pick up some health food at the pizza place. After the first stop, cars were lighting up so I stopped in a turn lane and lit the lamps.

Did HEB and decided to drive around west Houston a while then get the pizza. By the time I was back, twilight was long gone.

Took a couple photos at the shop before putting the car up.
The John Brown 16 gas headlights hit the door at and below the windows.
I'm close to the door which makes them look low but they hit the road good.
The spot is upper left.

I have a Victor "spot" that I can direct from the driver's seat so I tilted it up a little for the photo.
The Victor is a 6" lamp like the John Browns and I can use it with them or by itself.

Here is a couple more at the shop.

I guess the jewels on the side lights are supposed to tell you they are lit.
The 115's have the blue side light which does add to the driver side visibility.

Awesome! But I can't believe you haven't ditched the gas lights for a 6 volt alternator!

Pretty neat! We have a fellow in the Orange County Club who used to come to the meetings using his gas lights. They were better than I had thought.

Do you use a generator or a tank to feed them?

On my '14 Touring, I used the stock generator for gas for the headlights for 4 years at the OCF. They would start out quite bright similar to the pictures above. After about 1/2 hour the lights would begin to run our of gas and get dimmer. At about 45 minutes, they lights were only a glow and not much good to see the road. Then I got a Prest-O-Light tank, hooked it up correctly, and tested it to be sure it was safe and ok. I've used it for about 5 years at the OCF. The lights are bright for as long as you have them on. The 2 hours from 7 to 9pm when the gas light parade is over is no problem at all. Using the generator was a challenge and fun, but I really like the POL for the convenience and it works great.

Keith

Been there done that. The generator is a real pain and very nasty. I always had compressed air to blow out the lines before use, but a tank is by far the better choice!! Bud.

That's too cool.

Those gas lights look like they're brighter than the 6V lights on my 24 Touring.

I'm on the north side of the Houston metro and drive my car all over the area. It's good to see another one in front of an HEB (possibly the best grocery store chain on the planet). My great uncle work for "Mr. Howard" (as he called him) in the 1930's. The family is still running great stores.

Now that I'm getting pretty bold with my T, and now that it has a proper tail light and stop light, I'm driving it at night more often. I think I'm going to get some of those LED bulbs that'll plug into the stock sockets.

I'm using a POL tank. Too convenient.

It's the 40 cubic foot tank and lasts 26 hours on our T lamps.
Ford shipped Model T No. 1 with a Prest-O-Lite tank Oct. 1908, OEM.

The POL was an upgrade but I have no idea if there was a charge, or maybe POL
furnished Ford an empty tank to exchange for a filled one at a POL station back in the day.
Probably the latter because of adding shipping hazard of a full tank on a car.

Brass carbide generators cost $3.00 in 1909 but a POL tank was $18.00!

Prest-O-Lite charged $1.50 to exchange for a full tank - adjust for inflation, equivalent to $39 today.

Exchange a tank today for $39 at welding supply house....
($29 for the gas + $9 taxes)

I have a NOS Victor on a shelf in the shop. That is where it's going to stay for now.