MTFCA Forum

Don’t think this a Ford Coupe but in the T era and similar. But the gas tank exposed on the rear of the car? Wow! Was this an add on or built that way. OSHA would not approve I don’t think. At least Ford didn’t have exposed gas tanks.

Looks like a Dodge to me.

Mounting tanks at the rear of the car became feasible and common with the advent of the vacuum tank fuel pump in the teens.

That's where most gas tanks were located in that era. My '24 Buick is the same way.

It's a Dodge. Most cars carried the gas tank at the rear and relied on vacuum tanks to deliver fuel to the carburetor. The Fuel pump as we've come to know it didn't arrive until 1929. Cars continued to place gas tanks behind the rear axle well into the 1970s. Millions of miles traveled, negligible hazard.

Curiously (as lately there have been many photos of automobile wrecks in the 1910's and 20s) I have yet to see one of a car being rear-ended. Traffic was light and speeds much slower, perhaps drivers of yore were better at watching where they were going.

FWIW, "OSHA" administrates safety issues in the work place. I don't think they have anything to do with automotive safety.

Rich P. Bingham wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 09, 2023 11:55 am

FWIW, "OSHA" administrates safety issues in the work place. I don't think they have anything to do with automotive safety.

Yup. It's NHTSA that looks at automotive safety.

Most definitely looks like a dodge tank probably pre 24 as the later tanks had a fairing of some sort “connecting” the tank to the body

Notice the dual license plates?

People that worked in D.C. and lived in outlying areas, such as Maryland, Virginia, etc. were required to display the license plates from their state of residence and D.C.

Not really sure what the vehicle code was. Anybody have any inputs on this?

My 1924 Tarrant special body T tourer has a rear n mounted tank. The bodies on these were built by Holden's in Adelaide. The standard Ford oval tank was hung under the spare tyre carrier, using the original Ford mounting brackets. The original filler opening was sealed and fitted with a breather tube, and a new neck was soldered in the top/side for filling. It comes with a Stewart vacuum tank for fuel delivery. It is a much more civiilised way to refill than digging out the front seat occupants, and all their accumulated stuff off the front seat.

Allan from down under.

I don't have a clue what the vehicle code was. The second plate is a Maryland Dealer plate.

After some more looking I found this: It looks like the D in the DC plate is for Dealer also.

Yes it would be a safety auto regulation association or council instead of OSHA. I guess they weren’t concerned about safety in that era because speed was overall slower. But if many cars were built that way I wondered if any were rear ended and caught fire. Any way I’m not familiar with many other old cars and that’s the reason I posted and wondered about it.

But as time went on gas tanks must have been designed to be in other places besides being exposed openly in the rear of the car. Surely safety to an extent was being considered by the mid 30’s. But I’m not sure about that.

As mentioned there were later cars with gas tanks in the rear of the car. I’ve owned a few of them BUT there was a bumper on the rear of the car, the tank above the axle or behind it just behind were it was enclosed by the body. Sometimes the continental kits were there also. But if there were any outside and exposed I don’t know for sure about that.

modeltspaz asked;
"Not really sure what the vehicle code was. Anybody have any inputs on this?"

I only know what I have read in numerous history articles.

In the early days of the automobile, along about or slightly before 1900, no states "licensed" automobiles. Interestingly, it wasn't the states that started this. One of he first places to require a license on automobiles was a major park on the East coast. I don't recall the park's name, however, if I recall correctly it was in or near Boston Massachusetts. During the late 1890s, it had become a popular place for local wealthy automobilists to parade around the park streets and show off their automobiles and Sunday best! The park, then like now, had a budget from the city and/or county to maintain the roadways and greenery. The management realized that they were doing a little extra work picking up after the motorists and resetting cobblestones. So why not charge them for driving within the park?
Within a year, several parks on the Eastern seaboard as well as Golden Gate Park in San Francisco California were requiring motorists to purchase a license to drive within the parks! Other local jurisdictions also followed suit, as some cities and even counties (by many other names?) enacted local requirements.
I don't recall which state was first, however between 1901 and 1906, nearly half the states began licensing automobiles. Nearly ALL states that required automobiles to be licensed, had it written into their state codes that people from out of state drove across the state line had to go directly to the nearest town's courthouse or justice office and purchase a state license before continuing farther! These rules of course were often ignored. By 1910, most states had taken over automobile licensing within their jurisdiction. Parks, cities, and other local jurisdictions were no longer allowed to require local licensing.
Pretty much anybody living near a state line, ever needing to cross that state line for business or family and friends, had to license their car in both their home state, and the neighboring state. It is very common in era photos to see two or more license plates on automobiles.
The "District of Columbia" was a special situation. Not a part of any state, it still needed to run its own licensing department. And it of course wanted the income. The DC was the workplace for thousands of people! And very few of them lived in the DC. And even if they did live within the DC, they basically did have to go across the state line into one of the neighboring states fairly often! Practically all cars within the DC had to have at least two license plates on them! When people that study era photos from the 1910s and 1920s see several cars in one photo with two or more license plate, they often automatically check to see if one of the plates is a DC! While many areas around the country had many people that needed two or more plates for places they drove to often? Nowhere else had nearly so many of the cars needing two or more license plates!

I don't recall just what year it was? But one of the many changes enacted in the early 1930s along with highway work projects, was a federal mandate that all states had to recognize all other state's vehicle licensing! With exceptions for commercial vehicles, the need for multiple vehicle licenses came to an end.

Most all passenger car gas tanks were mounted at the rear of the car. Many pickup trucks had gas tanks inside the cab. Many vehicles had the gas filler located at the rear center of the car. It never caused much of an issue until the lawsuit/courtroom roulette culture developed. Car crashes are dangerous. Serious car crashes are very dangerous. A young woman died this week about 18 miles from here earlier this week. For some reason, her late model bugmobile left the roadway and struck a tree head-on in a city park. The vehicle burned from bumper to bumper within blocks of a fire station. Most vehicles today have plastic gas tanks, and many more potential ignition sources throughout the vehicle than older cars did. Some people have even died from exploding safety devices. Most crashes do not result in fire. Electric vehicles are developing a rather poor record as far as crashes with fire are concerned, and they have no gas tanks at all. Drive it or park it, and if you park it, park it well off the roadway.

The obvious non-Ford clue is that rear spring.

Luckily for the automobile industry mr. Ralph Nader was still soiling his diapers those days

Thank you, Wayne and Rich. I appreciate both of you taking the time to answer my question. This clears up a question I've had for some time.

Rich, tell Sally that I said "Hi" and that I miss our little workplace chats. I hope she's doing well.

Mike.

The car looks like a Dodge, and the 3/4 eliptic springs and large brakes also indicate Dodge. The wire wheels may be non-factory accessories.

Not only were rear gas tanks common, gas gauge in the rear as well.
Example, 1926 Buick.

I agree with txgoat the upper springs that come over look dodge

Guys, you are looking at the wrong car! The T in the photo is likely the fuel tanker on the left, I think.

Allan from down under.

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:51 am

The car looks like a Dodge, and the 3/4 eliptic springs and large brakes also indicate Dodge. The wire wheels may be non-factory accessories.

Wire wheels were a factory option on Dodge automobiles beginning in the late 1910s, and continuing into the mid 1920s at least. They were usually purchased on coupes and sedans, and I have seen them on sedans as early as 1917 and 1918. They were also often used on coupes quite a lot, and occasionally on roadsters and touring cars. Dodge brothers were ahead of the curve when it came to wheel options. I think they sold almost as many steel disc wheels on their cars as most of the rest of US cars combined! Steel disc wheels were generally expensive in those days due to the stamping machinery required to make them.

Usually for identifying Dodge Brothers automobiles of the 1910s to mid 1920s, the first thing to spot is their high peak double crown fenders. Once you become familiar with those fenders, you rarely miss them in photographs!


And, Allan, you are SO right!