The beginnings of light trucks go back to the start of automobile civilisation itself. It was quickly realised the automobile had a practical purpose other than carrying passengers. Which brings us to our featured vehicle, the Ford TT. No, that's not a typo – the TT was a variant of the Model T – perhaps the most important car of the 20th century.
The first Ford to be fitted with a tray appeared in 1905 but was discontinued after mediocre sales, but Ford tried again in 1912 with a box-style tray on the Model T. It also failed to excite the buying public. It was left to the after-market builders to bring popularity to the Ford pickup. The Model T had found popularity by this stage with farmers, traders and carriers as a commercial vehicle. After-market body manufacturers built tray bodies to fit the car, affectionately known as Tin Lizzie.
Ford formalised the workhorse status in 1917 by bringing out the TT which offered a heavy duty chassis, worm-gear differential and solid-rubber rear tyres, all designed for carrying heavy loads, the TT being rated at one ton. This was much heavier than the passenger-oriented Model T was supposed to carry. To start with the TT came only as a cab chassis, with after-market suppliers handling the task of building the tray to suit owners' needs. In essence it was a `heavy duty' Model T, although still based on the Model T's proven mechanicals.
In 1924 Ford started producing it's own tray body on the TT, called the Express, which was essentially a pick-up style bed. Not surprisingly, the 1924 TT was an instant success. On a recent trip to New Zealand we were fortunate enough to visit the Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum which is home to a number of these TT light trucks.
The green TT utility sign written `Sibbald & Sons' is a 1926 model imported into New Zealand as a cab chassis with local coach builders tailor making the body to suit the new owners. In the instance of this vehicle it was a flat-tray truck originally used by Auckland-based Sibbald & Sons as their market garden truck. The family restored the vehicle and it was purchased by the museum in 2001 at a Christchurch swap meet.
The marketing of light trucks in the period 1910 – 1920 marks one of the more interesting periods in automobile history. Buyers were being asked to take a quantum leap from the horse-and-cart-era, into the automobile. In Australia dealers that sold cars as well as trucks went into long drawn out exercises pitting horse against horsepower. Advertisements would show how a light truck could carry a heavier weight further and more often than a horse-drawn buggy. And, the truck did not need to be fed and watered, groomed and housed in a stable. Some enterprising motor agents even went so far do to comparisons on upkeep of a stable of four and eight horses compared to a light truck which only needed fuel. It was an interesting time in the motor trade.
This Sibbald & Sons TT was built in Canada for right-hand drive markets and runs Ford's four-cylinder 2896cc side valve, water-cooled mono or single block engine. Bore is 95mm and stroke 102mm. Power is run through a 2-speed epicycle gearbox, multiplate clutch and shaft drive to the rear axle with a worm final-drive. Some 82,000 TTs were produced by Ford.
By the time the Sibbald vehicle came of the production line Ford's T and TT vehicles were nearing the end of their run which in the T's case started in 1908. In 1927 the A-Model Ford was launched and soon after it was followed by the AA – a light truck variant on the A-Model. These days the TT and AA vehicles are in museums or kept by collectors and Ford is best known for another high alphabet letter, the enduring F-Series trucks – launched in 1948 – which still dominate the US market and into the 12th generation are also popular in Australia. To underline the value of the F-Series to Ford it accounts for around half Ford's bottom line in the US and for 34 years was the largest selling truck in the US.
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