JANUARY 2008 OLD TIME TRUCKS
FORD’S F-SERIES:
60 YEARS & COUNTING
By John & Shirley Sponholtz
Ford Motor Company began in 1905. Their first commercial vehicle was the Model E delivery van which was chain-driven. In 1917 the company built its first purpose-built truck called the Model TT. In 1948, Ford set out to redesign the truck that it had used since 1938. The new truck was the Ford F-Series (which is still being built today). Their specific goal was to design a truck with a new level of comfort and lots of features. Some of the many options offered on the new F-Series truck included a passenger side windshield wiper and passenger side sun visor. While many people added the extra wiper, others considered the $6.00 price tag for the second sun visor too expensive. With a 239 cubic inch flathead V-8 engine producing 100 horsepower and 180 foot-pounds of torque, the truck’s top speed was about 45 mph. The 4-speed transmission was coupled to a single-speed high ratio (6.67:1) differential. The non-synchronized sliding gear transmission made double-clutching an absolute necessity. The truck, which featured the popular “Loadamatic” distributor that automatically regulated spark advance based on the truck’s speed and engine load, was fuel efficient by the standards in those days. The 1948 Ford F-5 pictured here, owned by William Monaghan of Ohio, might be obsolete by today’s standards, but in 1948 this combination of comfort, design and economy of use was considered leading edge technology.