Model T Tour Guidance

[Darin Hull]

The Southern Peach T’s formed as the MTFCA’s Georgia chapter a little over a year ago. We’ve taken a crawl, walk, run philosophy as we started with the basics, like proceeding through the MTFCA process to become a chapter, and slowly advanced forward from online chapter meetings, to in-person meetings, etc.

Now, we are working on our next step which will be a fall tour October 22-23. Our goal is a small and simple tour to get our feet wet, see if we can get a few T’s together, and enjoy some fellowship time. We have our locations picked with the highlights being Berry College, in Rome, and The Savoy Automobile Museum, in Cartersville.

As we plan this weekend, I’m curious what best practices and pitfalls y’all have learned through attending or planning tours. Even though this will not be as an elaborate or extensive tour as y’all have been a part of… this will be maybe more of a gathering of friends… I believe there’s experience and wisdom you may be willing to share which could help our chapter out.

Thank you for your time,
Darin

[DHort]

Yesterday we went on a tour. 50 miles one way. We went to a lighthouse with the keepers station, an historical museum, and then lunch. The person who planned the route drove it in modern iron a few times to make sure it was OK. When I have done a tour I mapped it out on Google maps and then drove it in modern iron at least once to make sure it would work.

I prefer longer tours with 2-3 stops. Sort of like 9-5. Others prefer shorter tours. We also do overnight tours where you drive 80-120 miles, see sights along the way, party hard that night, and then do the same coming back. Usually use a different route coming back. Do not forget gas stops and potty breaks.

Suggest everyone on the tour stay 200-300 feet apart so cars can pass. If one car breaks down, everyone stops to help. Very important - each driver is responsible for watching the car behind them. That way if one car is having a problem, everyone is aware, and the front of the tour does not drive off and leave them stranded.

[Allan]

For a novice tour organiser, driving the route in a modern is a good start. However, depending on the terrain, it is often a good idea to drive the same route in a T. There can be catches in a route which a modern will breeze over. Driving the route in a T is really needed if there are time schedules to be at certain points, especially for lunch!

Allan from down under.

[DLodge]

... Our goal is a small and simple tour to get our feet wet...

You mean like this?

Kentucky Fall Foliage Tour in 2006.

[DLodge]

More seriously, the St. Louis club has had an annual Overnight Tour since 1992. (They have all been planned and organized by our tour chairman, Sam Atkinson, and he has been on every one up to this year, when a last-minute positive Covid test sidelined him. Very frustrating.) I am no expert but have ridden with Sam a few times in his modern car to help plan the route. For a same-day tour, I would agree that driving it in a T is a good idea, but for a two-day tour, that is time consuming. Sam (and I sometimes) got very good at mentally converting a trip from modern to T. ("I think this is a low-gear hill." "I agree, definitely low gear.") Since Model T clubs tend to be composed of an older demographic, be sure to build in enough rest stops and list them in the route description. Since the destinations of our overnight tours generally are 80-120 miles from St. Louis, the lunch stop is planned and included in the tour route. In our case, the tour usually includes a point of interest in the destination city, dinner at a reasonably nice (but not too pricey) restaurant near the destination hotel, and then a different route back home the next day. This year we left at 7:00 am and took back roads (i.e. state highways and the like, including the Grafton Ferry across the Mississippi to Illinois), stopped for lunch, then ended up at the Illinois state capitol, where we were given an excellent tour of the building, then on to the hotel, checked in and went a few blocks to a nice Italian restaurant (where we had a separate room). The next day, we went home by a different route.
The last vehicle in the overnight tour is a pickup with a trailer and a selection of tools. ("Trouble truck," "vulture wagon" or whatever you prefer to call it.) We always hope we won't need it, but it's nice to have if we do.

[Mark Gregush]

Most of our tours we have a trouble trailer, just in case. How far apart the cars are spaced depends a lot on what kind of traffic the roads have. If a car breaks down, because of traffic in our area, everyone keeps going and the trouble trailer picks it up. Most roads around here do not have shoulders or room for all the cars on a tour to park without being more of a traffic hazard then the one car.
Depending on the rules for your state, in our case, all cars need to have insurance. The MTFCA event policy covers the club not individual drivers/cars.
The other things we require to tour: safety glass, fire extinguisher, cars being in good order and modern iron to the rear.
Don't over think it, it's just a drive with other cars. Print out a map or directions to give to each car.
Mostly, just have fun.

[Steve Jelf]

Some states have good to excellent county maps on their DOT websites. For a tour here I downloaded a pdf of the county map, copied pertinent sections of it, labeled the roads we would use (with the actual names that appear on the signs), marked the route in green, and printed out copies for the drivers and their navigators. Sadly, some states don't provide this resource.

[Mark Gregush]

You can also use something like map quest. Just change from the fastest route to one you like by moving the lines it shows then print map and directions.

[SamInStL]

Everyone who has responded so far has given good advice but having planned club tours for 30 years I would add one piece of crucial advice; give every participant a route description that has bulletproof, easy to read, turn-by-turn instructions making sure all the street names and left/rights are correct. Sometimes people want to go on their own or somehow get separated from the group and a piece of paper in front of them with accurate directions will make them feel more at ease. Just following the car in front of you is fine until you can't see it and need to guess which way to go. Every club does things a little different but this is how we do it.

[DHort]

It is amazing to me on many tours they ask you to stay far enough apart so modern iron can pass and yet cars get so bunched up you could stand on the hood of one car and jump into the back seat of the car in front of you. I do not mean just two cars. Sometimes up to five cars are driving on the ass of the car in front of them. Keeping far enough apart just isnt emphasized enough at the start of each tour.

[Dave Lantz]

Include an ice cream stop, minimum. Be safe have fun !

[jsaylor]

Include cell numbers for the tour leader and the trouble truck.

[Steve Jelf]

...give every participant a route description that has bulletproof, easy to read, turn-by-turn instructions making sure all the street names and left/rights are correct.

Yes, some folks are better with written directions than they are with maps. Also include actual directions along with right and left. ("Turn right (south) on Elm Street.")

Google maps can be useful, but beware of their penchant for using official designations not found on the ground. If you're looking for CR W-4 and all the signs say Ranch Road, that's not helpful.

[Dgpoff]

Another good idea can be to use map software and set it to Bicycle routings. Usually results in no highway, no gravel, simple routes.

[Steve Jelf]

Another good idea can be to use map software and set it to Bicycle routings. ...no gravel...

Unless you're in a place like southeast Kansas where the only alternative to a high speed highway with lots of big trucks moving fast may be an unpaved road.

[Allan]

Two posters raised a real problem with old car tours, modern cars!
The general public first. Some are in a hurry, and asking T tourers to keep a distance between cars to leave space for overtaking is just plain good road manners. But in needs continual reinforcement, either in general to the group or to individuals as a side issue. Make it as easy as possible for trucks to go around you.

Secondly, fellow tourists on the tour. We ask that they do NOT follow the tour or a particular car. The general public tends to bank up behind them, wondering why they do not pass. We encourage them to drive through the convoy as the general public would like to. They can stop anywhere along the route for photos or car watching, and the rejoin the route and do as before.

Allan from down under.

[Loftfield]

Try contacting the Atlanta chapter of HCCA. They put on a wonderful Social Security Run tour for twenty-five years, have loads of experience in your area, know all the good places and stops to make, and how to organise for a grand experience. No need to reinvent the wheel.

[DickC]

Touring along a road at 32 mph that has several modern cars also using the road, have you ever noticed that cars approaching you often give you the "thumbs up" hand sign but those passing you from behind often have a different hand sign!!!

[NorthSouth]

Coffee and donuts before leaving. A Driver's Meeting detailing the route. Ample pre-planned bathroom stops.