Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford

22. Fordson Truck

22 Fordson Truck The well-known Fordson tractor, designed by Eugene Farkas and first built by Henry Ford & Son — not by Ford Motor Company — was produced in Henry, Edsel, and Clara Ford’s brickyard factory on Elm Street in old Dearborn. The Fordson tractor was as important to American farmers as was the Ford Model T automobile. Work on experimental tractors was begun by Ford as early as 1904, four years before the Model T was introduced. After the Model T was well developed , Ford put it to work as a farm tractor on his farm in Dearborn, but it was not strong enough to pull as much as a strong team of horses. So work began on a more powerful tractor, resulting in the famous Fordson, which was built in large numbers beginning in 1917. Some 552,799 Fordson tractors were built in Dearborn factories before manufacturing was transferred to Cork, Ireland, in 1928. By 1915, Ford Motor Company was selling the Model T chassis for $360, upon which body builders fitted various types of commercial bodies. The following year, Ford Motor Company began selling its own one-ton Model T truck. These lightweight trucks with stake bodies became very popular with farmers. The trucks were first produced in Highland Park, Michigan, and 1,283,975 were sold between 1916 and 1928, when Ford Model AA trucks took their place. Ford had realized back in 1916 that the Model T, with its 25-horsepower motor, provided a good lightweight truck that served farmers well, but for some trucking purposes a stronger vehicle was necessary. While he was manufacturing thousands of Fordson tractors on Elm Street during 1917–18, he was also contemplating a truck using the stronger tractor motor. This was to be the two-ton Fordson truck. There were several practical obstacles to be overcome, however, before he could go ahead and build the Fordson truck. His plans for the fledgling Rouge plant (a Ford Motor Company facility) at that time were being hindered not only by World War I but also by his minority stockholders. In fact, Ford was so disgusted with his “greedy” stockholders that in December 1918, he 172 Previously published in the Dearborn Historian, Vol. 32, No. 1, 1992. turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son, Edsel, and left for California, where he announced that he would form a new company, market an automobile at $250, and drive his “parasitic” stockholders out of business. So it was well after the war and after his complete buyout of Ford Motor Company minor stockholders in July 1919 that engineering drawings and photographs of a Fordson truck appeared. Eugene Farkas, who had designed the very successful Fordson tractor , was assigned by Ford to design the Fordson truck chassis. Joseph Galamb was to design the bodies, and they were to be built by Budd Wheel Company of Detroit. During this same period, Fordson tractors were beginning to be built at the Rouge plant, but photographs indicate the new Fordson truck experimental work was being carried out on Elm Street at the old brickyard tractor plant, the birthplace of the Fordson tractor. Creating a truck from a tractor required considerable reengineering of the driveline; the Fordson tractor’s top speed of only 6.75 miles per hour would hardly be fast enough for a truck. Farkas, in his reminiscences, relates that his very first sketches for the Fordson truck were made in the powerhouse drafting room at the Fair Lane residence. Ford had told him that he wanted to have a chassis for both trucks and buses to carry schoolchildren. He also wanted Farkas to employ a worm gear rear axle in the truck as was used in the Fordson tractor. The tractor transmission gearbox was to be used, with three-speed sliding gears similar to the tractor but, of course, having appropriate gear ratios. The standard Fordson tractor engine of 30 horsepower would be used. There was much discussion concerning spring suspension. The front axle and spring were to be similar to the 173 This drawing of the proposed Fordson truck is dated September 9, 1920. Wheelbase is 136 inches; overall length with stake body is 213 inches. The open cab is over the engine, with the driver sitting above the engine and next to the gasoline tank. (0.1190) 174 Fordson Truck An overhead view of the chassis of the two-ton...