Diverse applications Ford Model T

a model t homemade tractor pulling plow



pullford auto-to-tractor conversion advertisement, 1918

when model t designed , introduced, infrastructure of world quite different today s. pavement rarity except sidewalks , few big-city streets. (the sense of term pavement equivalent sidewalk comes era, when streets , roads dirt , sidewalks paved way walk along them.) agriculture occupation of many people. power tools scarce outside factories, power sources them; electrification, pavement, found in larger towns. rural electrification , motorized mechanization embryonic in regions , nonexistent in most. henry ford oversaw requirements , design of model t based on contemporary realities. consequently, model t (intentionally) tractor , portable engine automobile. has been regarded all-terrain abilities , ruggedness. travel rocky, muddy farm lane, cross shallow stream, climb steep hill, , parked on other side have 1 of wheels removed , pulley fastened hub flat belt drive bucksaw, thresher, silo blower, conveyor filling corn cribs or haylofts, baler, water pump, electrical generator, , many other applications. 1 unique application of model t shown in october 1922 issue of fordson farmer magazine. showed minister had transformed model t mobile church, complete small organ.

during era, entire automobiles (including thousands of model ts) hacked apart owners , reconfigured custom machinery permanently dedicated purpose, such homemade tractors , ice saws. dozens of aftermarket companies sold prefab kits facilitate t s conversion car tractor. model t had been around decade before fordson tractor became available (1917–18), , many ts had been converted field use. (for example, harry ferguson, later famous hitches , tractors, worked on eros model t tractor conversions before worked fordsons , others.) during next decade, model t tractor conversion kits harder sell, fordson , farmall (1924), other light , affordable tractors, served farm market. during depression (1930s), model t tractor conversion kits had resurgence, because used model ts , junkyard parts them plentiful , cheap.

like many popular car engines of era, model t engine used on home-built aircraft (such pietenpol sky scout) , motorboats.

an armored-car variant (called ft-b) developed in poland in 1920 due high demand during polish-soviet war in 1920.

many model ts converted vehicles travel across heavy snows kits on rear wheels (sometimes pair of rear-mounted wheels , 2 sets of continuous track mount on now-tandemed rear wheels, making half-track) , skis replacing front wheels. popular rural mail delivery time. common name these conversions of cars , small trucks snowflyers . these vehicles extremely popular in northern reaches of canada, factories set produce them.

a number of companies built model t–based railcars. in great railway bazaar, paul theroux mentions rail journey in india on such railcar. new zealand railways department s rm class included few.