Who the hell wants a new 4x4?

[drivesafe]

"Oilfield Dodge" Promotional Film 1920s Dodge Brothers Wild Ride - YouTube

[Graeme]

Locked diff?

[manic]

Those big super skinny wheel/tyres are impressive in the mud!

Love the roll over.. wind in the windows, roll it over, wind windows back up again.. no damage... brilliant :BigThumb:

[Chucaro]

Dad used to have Ford T back in the very early 90's and he used to tell me that it was one of the best vehicles to drive on the mud and the only one capable to get in and out of the farm :)

Model T Ford Tractor Plowing #2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30bygLsPSr8)

[Bigbjorn]

High ground clearance and skinny tyres that cut down through the mud to the firm going underneath. When I was a youth in Winton, the old bushmen were pretty well unanimous that the Dodge 4 was the best bush car before the ready availability of 4WD's. Ford T was considered damn good also. These cars were light, low geared, had flexible alloy steel chassis. Buick and Hudson were the preferred vehicles of mail contractors in the teens through thirties. Rugged and reliable and often loaded beyond belief.

[Fatso]

Any one remember the old Redex Trails , Gelicknite Jack Murry and old Ford cusso,s and Plymiths etc , all the way around oz an all sorts of roads ,flat out and sideways around curves :eek: with none of the fancy 4x4,s of today , great memorys .

[Roverlord off road spares]

Notice the rubber necks on the bridge stopping to gawk, they even had rubbernecks in 1920;)

[AnD3rew]

That is amazing, but I have to say I think I prefer the ride on my D3, I think ou would need a month at the physio after that trip.

[drivesafe]

Any one remember the old Redex Trails , Gelicknite Jack Murry

My Grand mother lived next door to his garage in Curlewis Street in Bondi and as a kid, I had a good look around all the vehicles he use to keep there.

Unreal place.

[mick88]

Obviously very dependable vehicles but doesn't it also make you appreciate modern roads and road making machinery! It's one thing to go out and have fun in the bush but to have to endure those conditions day in day out would soon take the shine off driving a motor vehicle.

Cheers, Mick.

[carjunkieanon]

How about that. Even back in the 1920's car enthusiasts were filming their driving and posting the videos to YouTube. I wonder what the comments section was like....

[djam1]

Must have been photo shopped we all know that you can only travel off sealed roads in Patrols with 5 inch lifts, diff locks and modified engines.

I think it needs a set of Koni Raid Shocks though

[UncleHo]

My old boss up at the farm has his grandfather's 1923/4 buckboard Chevrolet 4 it has 1/4 ecliptic springs and external contracting brakes on the rear wheels only,it was used to take milk and cream to Caboolture about 20miles away,all dirt/muddy roads,it came as a chassis/scuttle with the wood and plans to build the body,it is still a good goer,it is the deluxe model with electric lights and horn,we took it to the Nambour Swap Meet a few years ago,up the Bruce Highway from Caboolture at 28 MPH,was a real hoot! We plan to take it next year just for the fun of it,it gets used every Sunday to motor down to the local shopping centre and get the Sunday papers.
And it is still on full registration.
cheers

[olbod]

Obviously very dependable vehicles but doesn't it also make you appreciate modern roads and road making machinery! It's one thing to go out and have fun in the bush but to have to endure those conditions day in day out would soon take the shine off driving a motor vehicle.

Cheers, Mick.


Not so Mick.
I hate NOW.

[V8Ian]

My old boss up at the farm has his grandfather's 1923/4 buckboard Chevrolet 4 it has 1/4 ecliptic springs and external contracting brakes on the rear wheels only,it was used to take milk and cream to Caboolture about 20miles away,all dirt/muddy roads,it came as a chassis/scuttle with the wood and plans to build the body,it is still a good goer,it is the deluxe model with electric lights and horn,we took it to the Nambour Swap Meet a few years ago,up the Bruce Highway from Caboolture at 28 MPH,was a real hoot! We plan to take it next year just for the fun of it,it gets used every Sunday to motor down to the local shopping centre and get the Sunday papers.
And it is still on full registration.
cheersOld Q plate?

[UncleHo]

No,has newer green plate,couldn't find the paperwork for the original plates at the time and now that PPQ is around to dear.

[Epic_Dragon]

wow!! those things loved it! LOL! anyone i now see saying their old cars like this are soft and dont like dirt etc haha im going to show them this clip!! thats sensational!

[OffTrack]

Youtube obviously came late to Oz, so haven't been able to find any footage of Francis Birtles Darwin to Melbourne record drive in 1926, nor of his London to Melbourne drive in 1928.

Original road warrior on display (http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/original-road-warrior-on-display-20121029-28g1z.html)

NMA Collections Search - Francis Birtles' Bean 14 car, which he named 'The Sundowner' (http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?app=tlf&irn=37917)

Crossing Coopers Creek in a 1915 Oldmobile (possibly in 1924).
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/08/1009.jpg

Central Desert
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/08/1010.jpg

Man [Francis Birtles?] trying to dig the car out of a bog on the Leichhardt River, North Queensland
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/08/1011.jpg

[OffTrack]

The last pic seems to be from 1913. There is a pamphlet called "Across Australia in A Ford" by Francis Birtles. It's basically a Ford advert but covers his travels from August to December 1913.


August 18 - Crossing a clay pan the crust suddenly gave war, car bogged up to the springs. Put coconut matting down, car promptly sank that aid deep down into the shiny mud. Decided to lighten the car by unpacking the "furniture", and carry this to a sandy bank a mile distant. Tried to dig the mud away from the wheels; it was so gluey that each shovelful had to be dug off the spade, for which purpose "hands and claws" were the handiest. Process long and tedious. Fasted a rope to a telegraph pole, and attached the after end to the back wheel cap of the car. Set engine at top speed -- there was a great whirring sound -- two fountains of slush were thrown high into the air by the back wheels -- and the telegraph post came up by the "roots".

and so it goes on... you can download the pdf from here: http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn3886602

[isuzurover]

That is amazing, but I have to say I think I prefer the ride on my D3, I think ou would need a month at the physio after that trip.

People were obviously a bit tougher in those days... Many would have done that on a daily basis - with no physio sessions.

[Davo]

People were obviously a bit tougher in those days... Many would have done that on a daily basis - with no physio sessions.

Yes, and I don't think they expected to live forever as we do, and just got on with things and assumed their backs would give up in their forties when they were "old". And if you'd grown up with horses, these cars must have been a revelation. I always find it so strange now that up here when people are bogged or even just driving somewhere, it has to be as fast and as easy as possible or they start panicking.

[manic]

I always find it so strange now that up here when people are bogged or even just driving somewhere, it has to be as fast and as easy as possible or they start panicking.

We have a puncture in the middle of nowhere, don't panic, just for gods sake don't panic..... I know what to do, call the RSPCA, no the RAC or whatever... look in the glove compartment... OMG, I totally have no cell phone reception!?..... Stand on the car woman.... reach up.... Google, 'tyre change a toyota'... FML we have no internet??? Panic, heart attack -> *dead*

The modern world ey. :p

[bob10]

When I was a young fella, living with Mum & Dad on sheep stations around Longreach, Hughenden & Ilfracombe, late 50's, [about 3 or perhaps 4 properties] Dad had a Morris ute. Went everywhere, with a bit pushing sometimes. The mail was delivered by Blitz truck, Got thru most times, but in a big flood [ sometime in the 50's] Dad had to ride his horse , leading a packhorse, over a river & a couple of creeks, to get food . All we had was a plate full of scones mum had made, and during the night, the cat got up in the cupboard and ate some of them. We can laugh about it know, but bbq cat was on the menu, if Dad hadn't arrived home in time. Good times, I miss them. Life is too fast now, how I miss those days when people had time for one another. [ one reason I enjoy this forum, in the main , people on here do]. Bob

[isuzurover]

When I was a young fella, living with Mum & Dad on sheep stations around Longreach, Hughenden & Ilfracombe, late 50's, [about 3 or perhaps 4 properties] Dad had a Morris ute. Went everywhere, with a bit pushing sometimes. The mail was delivered by Blitz truck, Got thru most times, but in a big flood [ sometime in the 50's] Dad had to ride his horse , leading a packhorse, over a river & a couple of creeks, to get food . All we had was a plate full of scones mum had made, and during the night, the cat got up in the cupboard and ate some of them. We can laugh about it know, but bbq cat was on the menu, if Dad hadn't arrived home in time. Good times, I miss them. Life is too fast now, how I miss those days when people had time for one another. [ one reason I enjoy this forum, in the main , people on here do]. Bob

Sorry bob, but your story reminded me of this:

Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen - YouTube

:D

[bob10]

Sorry bob, but your story reminded me of this:

Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo)

:D

Except I'm not English, but I do have a sense of humour. And I remember this radio show, Bob ;)


Dad and Dave Radio show - YouTube (http://youtu.be/W3CgSFwBvPU)

[UncleHo]

Aah! Dad & Dave loved it,by Steele Rudd