(first posted 10/23/2012) 1924 was a mere eighty-eight years ago. So put on your traveling clothes and let’s take a figurative trip back in time. There is a substantial automotive task facing us and your assistance is needed.
And just what is this task? You need to buy, maintain, and repair a large fleet. Sound like fun? As you prepare for this task, you will need to adjust to your new surroundings. It is likely a safe wager that 1924 preceded the year of birth of nearly everyone reading this, so before getting down to brass tacks, let’s take a minute to think about 1924. After all, you will need to become acclimated.
Calvin Coolidge was re-elected President of the United States. My grandfather, “Albert”, was born in March of that year. You met him when he went to Texas, and when I went fishing with him.
The 1924 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France. France earned the most medals, 401, with Great Britain second with 239.
The Washington Senators won the World Series.
Now that we’re peering directly into the year 1924; specifically, early in July, there is work to do. You are charged with managing the fleet of a state transportation agency. For reference, your state is the United States’ 21st largest in area and its 18th most populous, containing 118 counties and two major cities.
Your agency is just over 10 years old, and as the fleet manager you are responsible for tracking costs for the previous six months. Your budget is limited (but when hasn’t it been?). Now, here’s your task: Working within a fixed budget, you must optimize the amount of equipment you purchase yet continue to perform all necessary repairs (mechanical things do tend to break, and these are tax dollars, after all).
What would you do?
You have to maintain an optimal balance of cars, pickups, dump trucks, tractors, and other assorted equipment within your fleet. Sounds challenging, doesn’t it? Well, I can tell you about someone who was confronted with this very scenario back in 1924. So what actually happened? Let’s take a peek at the first half of the year: 1924 Fleet Spreadsheet
Two of my earlier pieces on Curbside Classic recounted my experiences during my brief stint as a part-time fleet manager (here are Part 1 and Part 2), during which I acquired a lot of information (fleet managers tend to both share knowledge and seek the experience of others). The other day I stumbled across this vintage spreadsheet, which I had acquired during that time, and it spurred me to consider how things have changed in the past four score and eight years.
So let’s take a look…
Listed were a total of 37 Dodges whose cumulative mileage for the year approached 143,000 miles. They averaged 12.7 miles per gallon with an average fuel cost of $0.187 per gallon. Yes, times have changed.
In a sense, however, times have not changed. Dodge vehicles remain a fixture in fleets throughout North America. The one thing missing for this car, as well as the others you will see, is its purchase price; that particular element of cost-tracking would prove fascinating.
There were 30 Oldsmobiles in fleet service for the Missouri State Highway Department. Averaging 14.7 miles per gallon, they were much easier on gasoline than were the Dodges. Heck, these Oldsmobiles were better on gas than the 155 Ford Model Ts, which averaged 13.9 and 12.8 miles per gallon for roadsters and touring cars, respectively. Due to the greater numbers of them in service, the Model Ts (including pickups) racked up 634,000 miles, while the Oldsmobiles were operated a total of 121,000 miles.
In terms of automobile fleet use exclusively, Nash was the fuel economy champ. The Nash “4” Touring achieved 15.8 miles per gallon. However, there were only two Nashes in service, so the picture may well have been different had there been more.
There were even a few Hupmobiles, Stars, and Studebakers in the fleet. Yes, 1924 did offer a quite a bit of variety.
Anyone remotely familiar with a highway department knows they must have dump trucks, and a fair number at that.
www.vintageadbrowser.com
Until I started researching this piece, I’d never heard of Service Motor Trucks. There was a grand total of one in service, pardon the pun. A search for “Service Motor Trucks” and related permutations yielded nothing on Wikipedia; a little further browsing in Google revealed that the truck was built in Wabash, Indiana, but produced nothing else of consequence. With only one of them having been purchased, I’m speculating that a fleet manager was hedging his bets. It did get 4.0 miles per gallon, which is much better than some others that got between 1.0 and 2.0 miles per gallon!
If anyone has further knowledge about this truck or any of the others presented, please don’t be shy.
www.wikipedia.com
With 142 units in service, Liberty trucks were the most numerous in this fleet. This picture is the better of the two Liberty truck photos I found. These trucks were designed by the Society of Automotive Engineers, and produced by various manufacturers for use in World War I. With 52 horsepower, these rigs had a top speed of 15 miles per hour and fuel consumption of 1.5 miles per gallon. Only about a dozen are known to exist today.
Given the time frame, I’d speculate that these Liberty trucks were World War I surplus. Purchasing from U.S. government surplus is an age old practice, and I bought numerous vehicles from the General Services Administration during my time as a fleet manager.
www.packardinfo.com
Packard did not always limit itself to building cars; for a time, the company produced trucks as well. Shown above is a 1920 Packard truck being used in Helsinki, Finland. Nevertheless, it is likely quite comparable to the 14 Packard trucks in the Missouri state fleet–which, in true luxury car fashion, achieved a fleet average of 1.9 miles per gallon.
www.pierce-arrow.org
Pierce-Arrow, another of the era’s “Three P’s” of luxury automobiles, went through its own truck-producing period. As demonstrated by this moving-truck chassis, Pierce-Arrow actively sought business beyond building fire trucks, as it also pitched bus and vocational-truck markets. Shown here is a moving truck on a Pierce-Arrow chassis. Only four were in service, apparently turning in a typical 1.4 miles per gallon. With purchase prices lost to the ravages of time, one cannot help but wonder if acquisition cost was one reason why so few Packards and Pierce-Arrows were in fleet use.
The hallmark styling of Pierce-Arrow cars is also quite evident in their trucks.
As with the Service truck, only one Denby was purchased, and information about Denby trucks is pretty scarce. As nearly as I can ascertain, Denby was Detroit-based with a Canadian branch for its export business. A variety of weight ratings, up to five tons, were available. This ad is from 1916 and again, if you have further information, please speak up.
If you are a big spreadsheet geek, the spreadsheet I presented earlier contains lots more information I haven’t even touched upon, including the costs of oil consumption and consumable items and repairs. Yes, as an engineer I occasionally do get excited about such things, but this is also an intimate glimpse into an otherwise forgotten aspect of, and finite period in, automotive history.
There are a number of other types and makes of equipment I didn’t touch upon. A Cadillac tractor? Yes, it seems that such a creature existed. I did learn that General Motors produced just over 1,500 Cadillac V8-powered artillery-moving rigs during World War I. Although not tractors per se, I have a hunch they could be one and the same, considering the time frame. Sadly, pictures thoroughly eluded me.
I have also been made privy to the number of horses and goats used by the Missouri State Highway Department (now Department of Transportation) in days of yore. Not a bad idea when you consider that a single bulk purchase could be self-perpetuating. And just what were the horses used for? Obviously, something had to pull the motorgrader…
www.modot.gov
I was hoping that modot might have had some Denmo trucks manufactured by the Denneen Motor Co. in Cleveland, OH. Denmo was started by Francis S. Denneen, my first cousin. Denmo wasn’t around for very long and I believe was purchased by General Motors before 1920. Deneen went on to establish The Ohio Crankshaft Co. (as TOCCO, it exists to this day). Denneen is best known for inventing and patenting the process for electrically induction hardenening metal surfaces. Virtually every crankshaft journal made since Parckard used this process for its V12s in 1937 can trace its lineage to Denneen’s process.
If the Service Motor Truck was built in Indiana, then you can bet that it was exceedingly well built, but too far ahead of its time to be appreciated by the rubes in the other 47 states. 🙂
Fuel mileage of vehicles of that era is something that never comes up. The fact that in 1963, a 5,000 pound Cadillac that could probably hit 130 mph could get about the same gas mileage as a 4 cylinder, 20 horsepower, Model T is just amazing.
I would imagine that the quantities of motor oil used by a fleet like that would be just staggering by today’s standards. I would guess that, what, 20% of it just dripped onto the ground?
For someone who is a history geek, this was a great piece. I can’t resist a Coolidge story here. Silent Cal was a man of few words. I have read that someone once said to him that he had made a bet that he could make the President say at least three words. Coolidge’s reply: “You lose.”
There a column in the “spreadsheet” for that. Average across all the cars was 71.4 miles per quart of oil!
I agree about the fuel economy, although the Fords’ were worse than I would have expected. Keep in mind that the Fords were running at 25 -40 mph. If you drove a ’63 Caddy at that speed, it would probably get 20+ mpg.
What was the compression of a T? 4.0:1? 5.0:1? That alone accounts for a substantial portion.
And although they leaked some, all these old cars burned oil regularly (obviously). That’s one of the reasons the had to be de-carbonized regularly, one of the advantages of the T’s detachable head. That was a selling point.
Even the Model A lacked a real oil seal at the back of the crankshaft, instead using a slinger that caught the oil flowing back and threw it back towards the front of the engine. Every time you would shut the engine down, however, the car would drool a 4 inch diameter puddle of oil on the ground. I would bet that the T used the same system.
Prior to the advent of the “junkyard formula” (stock engines and frames) at the Indy 500 in 1931 or ’32, it was not uncommon for race cars at that time to use in excess of 15 GALLONS of oil during the race! Most of that went onto the track. The junkyard cars showed that the gasket technology used in production cars was far superior to what was found in the racing world. In 1937 new rules limited the amount of oil a car could start the race with. Adding oil during the race was now cause for disqualification. This rule exists to this day.
Good lord. 15 gallons? When I was doing motorcycle roadracing, literally any visible oil was a DQ.
JP, I’m coming to the conclusion that behind Michigan, Indiana was quite formidable in automobile brands. Studebaker, Auburn, Cord, Duesenburg, and a few others (I’m wanting to say Wills St. Clair) – all from Indiana. Now the Service Motor Truck.
I do have a few more of these spreadsheets tucked away…
I once read that over 200 brands of cars & trucks have been built in Indiana. Some of these, of course, only built a hand full of vehicles. I have even read that there was a car built here locally, but can’t find any info on that. It was probably some tinkerer’s home project. On the other hand, the Graham family was and are local people but didn’t build vehicles here. They did build trucks, which later became Dodges in Evansville, though. Our city owns two Graham trucks, a 1920’s Express and a fire truck.
Yet Silent Cal gave 520 press conferences, more than any before or since. And he inaugurated Presidential use of the radio, created the Federal Radio Commission (succeeded by the FCC), and was the first to be filmed with sound. But more to topic, Coolidge had a 1923 Lincoln Town Car, reportedly 8 mpg.
All I can say is “Wow!”. This is really cool. There’s so much info in that “spreadsheet”. What a great idea.
“I have also been made privy to the number of horses and goats used by the Missouri State Highway Department (now Department of Transportation) in days of yore.”
Goats Mow Maryland Highway – “Avoiding and minimizing environmental impacts is a challenging part of highway maintenance and construction,” said Neil J. Pedersen, SHA Administrator. “Using goats to maintain turf in an environmentally sensitive area is not only an innovative idea, it clearly demonstrates our vision of a greener highway system.”
Goats are used to clear brush around wetlands in the office park I work at.
Goats are also probably *the* most effective way to clear Kudzu. Put a herd of goats in an area infested with Kudzu and they’ll eat it straight away–they love the stuff. They do a thorough enough job that it usually won’t come back, either.
Minor quibble: Coolidge was never re-elected, as VP he finished Harding’s term and was elected in his own right in 1924.
I wish there was a total cost to own and operate (including depreciation) these cars; it would be fun to compare to current ones.
“I have also been made privy to the number of horses and goats used by the Missouri State Highway Department (now Department of Transportation) in days of yore…”
Man, Mitt Romney could have used this information last night… 😉
Thank you Jason, this was a terrific article. Let’s have some more time travels like this.
I take it the low gas mileage of the big trucks is because they were heavily loaded, at least half the time.
Thank you, I have a few more of these up my sleeve.
Something nobody’s brought up yet (and I’m surprised): You look at the spreadsheet for car listings and what do you see? Ford, Ford, Ford, Dodge, Dodge (still an independent marque at that time), GM, GM, GM, GM. Nash and Studebaker are the only ones of the important independents represented. The Hupp was a smaller independent and the Star was a product of Durant Motors which, in the mid twenties still appeared strong enough to give the illusion that it was a worthy competitor of GM.
So, even back that far the “Big 2” plus Dodge were running the show as far as purchasing went, and the independents that survived WWII were just about the only exceptions. It shows that, despite the plethora of makes back in the twenties, the ones that actually mattered were the brands familiar to most of us. Even during the twenties, the independents were on the long road to marginalization.
Syke, you have an intriguing point. One could even extrapolate that point out further to the trucks. That’s a factor in why I opted to not touch upon the GMC’s, Mack’s, or Ford’s.
However, IHC was a very minor player as recorded here. Interesting how times have changed as that agency’s fleet is now almost exclusively International.
For more on the Service Motor Truck you might try the Online Forum for the American Truck Historical Society or do a search of back issues of their journal “Wheels of Time”. There are all sorts of orphan, low production trucks featured in Wheels, I always smile when a new issue appears in my mailbox.
http://www.aths.org/wheels-of-time
Might even want to talk to the truck museum located in Brooks, Oregon
My neighbor has that model of grader. He picked it up at an auction a year or two ago with the intention of using his draft horses to pull it. Haven’t seen it in action yet…
Interesting tidbit #147: Four Door Coupé in 1924!
Very interesting post Jason. I’m looking forward to more of these “Spreadsheet Classics.”
The ramshackle Liberty Truck is an interesting contrast to its German counterpart. Really shows that design-by-committee should only be done in the Soviet Union.
$.187 / gallon in 1924 = $2.53 / gallon today. Times haven’t changed *that* much.
Alex, and minimum wage was maybe .25 cents an hour back then compared to $7.35 now. Gas is $3.39 a gallon for regular here in Little Rock. Your Lion’s grocery bagger could buy 1.33 gallons of gas per hour back then, now it ‘s 2.2 gallons for the burger flipper’s sweat and toil, less taxes, so it’s pretty much the same.
And 1.33 gal/hour x 12 mpg for a Model T (let’s round down since it’d be an old model – if someone making 25 cents an hour in the mid-20s could afford a car at all it’d be an old Ford)= 15.96 miles of driving on an hour’s pay.
Let’s assume our current example drives a ’90s Civic that gets an even 30 mpg – 2.2 gal/hour x 30 = 66 miles per hour’s pay. Even if they do have a pickup or some other gas-guzzler (plenty of cheap old SUVs out there) 2.2×12=26.4 mp/$/hr.
Although there was no Federal minimum wage in 1924- that came in with the New Deal.
One big factor affecting the low fuel mileage numbers back then was the poor conditions of the roads of the time. Paved roads were almost unheard of in most places so mud and wheel spin were both very detrimental to economy. Also a lot of roads have been rebuilt, filling in the ravines that used to exist that forced the use of lower gears. These old trucks never could achieve that sweet spot where speed and economy meet with their low gearing.
Cadillac tractors? I’d like to see that, Caddy built lots of great seven seater service cars back then a friend of mine restored NZs only surviving example of a 1913 Caddy four banger, but those cars were used on the famous Nairn transport Beruit to Baghdad mail service, those and Buicks were used exclusively after proving the most durable and reliable vehicles they could get at the time so a gun tractor was probably very well made.
Very interesting article written from a great angle, Jason. Here are a couple of scans about the Service Motor Truck from Georgano and Naul’s definitive 1979 book “The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles” that provide a little more information about the brand.
Page 2….
I grew up near Lima, OH, and had no idea any trucks were ever built there!
Packard was one of the builders of Liberty trucks. I posted a couple of photos of one (from a Memorial Day parade last year) to the Cohort.