They don't build them like they used to

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begreen

Mooderator
Staff member
Nov 18, 2005
104,666
South Puget Sound, WA
Crazy demo of a 1920's vintage Dodge heading out to check the oilfields.



Note no helmets, airbags or seatbelts were used.
 
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Volvo's modern rebuttal.

 
Used to be a half owner of a 1922 Dodge open top touring car pretty much like that hardtop. Funny thing was the generator and the starter were the same unit. When it was cranking you just heard the engine turning over. No sound from the electric motor/starter/generator. It had been buried to the center of the headlights in a field for decades.
 
Funny thing was the generator and the starter were the same unit. When it was cranking you just heard the engine turning over.
Used on modern cars like the Prius too. They were ahead of their time.
 
Crazy demo of a 1920's vintage Dodge heading out to check the oilfields.



Note no helmets, airbags or seatbelts were used.

Must have been a posi rear.
 
The early 20's Dodge had a 12v positive electrical system too. They went 6v in 1926 when they dropped the starter/generator.
 
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The battery for that thing was huge. And expensive. And Goodyear only did one run of the tire size a year back in the seventies when we had the thing.
 
We would sit around the fireplace Brassoing the water stain out of half of the brass headlight reflectors.
 
The battery for that thing was huge. And expensive. And Goodyear only did one run of the tire size a year back in the seventies when we had the thing.
Word was that you could creep along in second gear with the starter pulling the vehicle if the motor wouldn't start.
 
With the size of that battery you should have been able to drive from Dallas to Cleveland on just the starter. >>
 
We had the engine overhauled and running like a top but not much done on the body restoration when I got transferred from Lubbock to Dallas and gave my interest in the car to my uncle who owned the other half. He had a new garage built around it to finish the job. He is gone now and I have no idea where the Dodge, more appropriately "Dodge Brothers", car is now.
 
Years ago I asked my father why his '37 was geared so low. "Pavement covered about 10% of all roads". Gravel and dirt roads were still common place. Common sense for the times.
 
First gear was granny gear designated to climbing up sheer walls. The Dodge brothers built their reputation on building tough vehicles. They barely changed the design for over a decade.
 
Note no helmets, airbags or seatbelts were used.

Not to mention no 30 inch mud boggers, no traction control, no limited slip, and not even 4 wheel drive - yet they still got though all that deep mud.

We are spoiled.
 
Starter generators are used on turbine powered aircraft. Going back to the 1950's
 
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