A Ford made for fording

• 
• 

With e-mails and downloadable applications, sending an instant message has never been easier, but delivering real, tangible newspapers and letters to your door can still be a challenge, as this postman found out decades ago, distributing the post in rural Tennessee.

With recipients living in remote areas, he must have found he needed a suitable vehicle to deliver the mail, even if fords, rivers or swamps needed to be crossed. No such car was readily available in the 1920s, so building it was job for either the skilled amateur to do themselves, or for the specialist builder to undertake on behalf of a client. What resulted was a car with a difference: the suspension jacked-up and heavily modified and the body sitting at a lofty height. The steering system required some wild modifications, and it makes you wonder how this thing actually drove.

We came across another picture of a 1920s Model T Ford with an even higher, tilted body. Apparently, it's a ‘Ford Model T with optional high-water kit sold by Trilacoochee Ford in Green Swamp, Florida’, however despite all the ingenious or madcap conversions being advertised in the Ford Owner and Dealer magazines of the time, we're not aware of there being any high-water ones, nor is there any record that we know of naming a dealership in Green Swamp.

While the high-water Model T must strike some modern eyes as rather preposterous, in the 1920s it was an extremely laudable idea, assuming it actually worked. For the motorist of the era, there were few obstacles quite so hazardous as river crossings. It wasn't just strong currents and the risk of flooding the car which posed a threat. One of the biggest challenges was driving across the silty, gravelly river bed without sinking into it and becoming stranded, as happened to the unfortunate driver of the car in the second photo, taken on New Zealand's Canterbury Plains.

He had a fairly lucky escape. When he returned the next day with some farmer's horses to pull his car out of the mud, he found it more or less intact. Unfortunately, others weren't so fortunate. We understand that drowning was one of biggest causes of accidental death in New Zealand in the 1920s, occurring especially during river crossings. It's worth bearing in mind just in case you get lost one day and find yourself driving through uncharted territory in your Vintage car - a Trilacoochee high-water kit could be a lifesaver.


Words: Jeroen Booij; picture via Allan Wright
 

Make a comment, ask a question, give your opinion, share additional information or start a discussion by filling in the fields below.