Ford pickup marks 100th birthday,
From humble beginnings, automaker ‘never looked back’
One hundred years ago Thursday, the first Ford Model TT truck rolled out of the assembly plant, beginning an American love affair with pickups that still burns hot.
Henry Ford had no idea what he’d begun when he had the TT engineered specifically to be a truck at a time when most pickups were modified cars.
He intended the Model TT for farmers, another tool like the Fordson tractors he built for the rural life he idealized.
He would’ve tipped his straw boater hat back, squinted and laughed in your face if you told him the F-series pickup that’s the direct descendant of his Model TT would eventually become America’s best-selling vehicle, as the F-Series has been for the last 35 years.
“Ford never looked back,” said Joe Phillippi, principal of Autotrends consulting in Andover, N.J. “From the Model TT to the 450horsepower 2017 F-series Raptor offroad racer, they’ve taken the truck from humble beginnings to its illogical and wonderful extreme.”
Tens of millions of Ford trucks have seen decades of use on farms, ranches, construction sites and as family vehicles from the Wild West to the heart of the biggest cities.
“The Model TT literally turned the agricultural economy on its head,” Phillippi said. “It led to huge increases in productivity and ended the sheer drudgery of horse and wagon. Ford even sold a kit for about $59 that would convert a wrecked Model T into a pretty good tractor.”
Before the Model TT, most pickups were produced like stretch limos are today, Ford company historian Bob Kreipke said. Customizers bought cars, stretched their wheelbases, added
“The Model TT literally turned the agricultural economy on its head.” Joe Phillippi, principal of Autotrends consulting
new bodywork and sold them as trucks.
“Henry Ford saw thousands of Model Ts being converted by other companies and said, ‘This seems like something we should do in the factory,’ ” Kreipke said.
Ford’s first stab at automaking had been building a handful of delivery vans at the Detroit Automobile Co., a short-lived company he ran from 1899 to 1901. The company failed, but Ford remembered what he learned about truck customers.
“The 1917 Model TT had a 1ton chassis and a longer, stronger frame than the Model T car,” Kreipke said. “The rear suspension was much stiffer, and the rear axle was beefed up.”
Unlike the modified cars other companies sold, it was engineered to be a truck from the ground up.
Ford stepped up its game when it replaced the Model TT with the all-new Model AA truck in 1928. The AA had a 1.5-ton chassis, more powerful engine and slightly more stylish appearance. It added power when it got Ford’s pioneering Flathead V-8 in 1932.
The transition from workhorse to everyday vehicle began during the Great Depression, when thousands of families left their farms carrying everything their pickups could handle from the Dust Bowl to California and cities around the country.
There’s no exact record of how many TT and AA pickups Ford built, but it had sold more than 4 million trucks by 1941, when production of civilian vehicles stopped for World War II.
The F-series pickup was born in 1948, arriving at a vital time as Ford introduced the first all-new vehicles developed after the war. It introduced modern streamlined styling and introduced F-series names including the F1 and F-100 that would remain in use for decades.
The F-150 name arrived in 1975. It was joined by the Super Duty name for the heavy-duty F-250 and F-350 pickups for the 1999 model year. Originally intended for heavy jobs on farms and construction sites, Super Duties have grown to become popular personal-use vehicles that account for about a third of F-series sales.