By David Fleet

Editor

Hadley-It’s been 40 years since the H

artwig’s rather rusty 1917 Ford Model T truck first rumbled down Hadley Road for the Fourth of July parade.

“Next year it’s going to be 100-years-old,” said local resident Robert Hartwig. “It still draws a lot of attention whenever we take it for a drive.”

The truck was purchased by Roberts’ father, the late Gene Hartwig, in 1968 from the Copeman family, who lived near Oakwood and Herd roads in Brandon Township and were the original owners.

According to Ford Motor Company, in 1917 Henry Ford decided to get into the truck business after his customers were converting the popular Model T cars into vehicles for work. It paid off for Ford as about 40,000 Model Ts were built and shipped as a chassis only by 1918 at a cost of about $600.

“The buyers supplied their own body and box for the truck—most of the time it was just constructed out of wood,” said Hartwig. “That’s exactly what the Copeman family did. They purchased the Model T in 1917 brand new and used it to haul produce to the Eastern Market in Detroit from their Brandon Township farm.

The truck cab was actually purchased from a company that specialized in creating seats and floors of the vehicles.”

The simple wood cab has no door on the driver’s side and passengers slide over to go for a ride. The seat is a wood box with the transmission and exhaust exposed through the wooden floor. The roof is metal and there’s no glass for a windshield or side windows in the cab.

“The alternative at the time was a horse and buggy so the Model T truck was very attractive,” he said. “We built the wood box on the b

ack for hauling. Also, it’s a rather rough ride since there’s no springs or shock absorbers on the frame of the truck.. There’s also no muffler, just a straight pipe from the manifold to the back of the truck. The tires we use today are made of rubber which are air-filled, but they are replacements. The original tires were hard rubber, which did nothing for the ride either. The rims are original and made of wood.”

The truck is powered by a 20 hp—flathead four-cylinder engine with an estimated top speed of about 40 mph.

“Unfortunately, the engine is not ori

ginal to the truck—it’s from a 1924 Model T,” he said. “It has a crank start, but we have an electric start to get it going. Honestly, I’d never take it over 20 miles per hour—it really starts shaking bad.”

Hartwig said the old truck was a major attraction at the Sloan Auto Fair in Flint.

“The truck always draws a big crowd,” he said. “It’s part of the family.”