MTFCA Forum

Posted: **Fri Sep 20, 2019 11:52 pm**

Space for carrying stuff can be a problem with a Model T, especially a runabout.

I love web chairs. At home. Taking this one off every time I wanted to get something out or put it away got mighty tiresome. So I went to our friend Mr. Google in search of something more convenient.

The result of the search was this Ozark Trail backpacking chair sold at Walmart for $19.64. It's claimed to hold 250 pounds. That might have been risky in my fat days, but at 100 pounds less it's not a problem.

The chair makes a package a little under 16" long, easy to stash on the running board or in the trunk. They make a chair that sells for less than half the price, but it makes a much less compact package, three feet long.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:34 am**

Steve, now all you have to do is add leg extensions. Sis has several and although comfortable I have a hard time getting out of them because most are too low to the ground.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 7:18 am**

Hey Steve. I’ve been thinking of doing some camping with my wife in our T and realized that the runabout can’t carry enough. So, for the few times we will camp I figured I would replace the turtle deck with a pickup box. It’s only four bolts and about a half an hour to switch them out. Here’s the one on our car.

I recently found another vintage box. The guy want’s $400 if you’re interested. It’s on a trailer right now but he could take it off and only ship the box.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:25 pm**

Period correct trailers

Or sleep in luxury

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:31 pm**

If you put an extension on that box that slides out when you park, you can add a canvas top and you have a portable tent like Dean has. He does not have to pull his trailer any more if he does not want to. I do not have a picture but maybe Dean can add one.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 1:06 pm**

Good tip on a telescopic pickup box. It’s not long enough for me to sleep back there as it is.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 1:21 pm**

Steve, I had one of those backpacking camping chairs and it lasted all of two camping trips. One of the plastic socket pieces that the tubing plugs into broke while I was camping on the way back from the Bakersfield swap meet earlier this year. Once that happens, the chair is rendered useless. I do like how they breakdown into a light compact package. They are surprisingly comfortable as well.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 2:00 pm**

For really long trips

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 3:52 pm**

32 inch tailgate works great .mirror still work.

Posted: **Sat Sep 21, 2019 5:01 pm**

: This camper did the Park to Park Tour with Dean. Weighs only 400lbs

Posted: **Tue Sep 24, 2019 8:29 pm**

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑
Fri Sep 20, 2019 11:52 pm
Space for carrying stuff can be a problem with a Model T, especially a runabout.

Steve, this thread sent me back in time. In 1972, Anja and I married in Holland, and in 1974 we bought our 1936 Austin Ten Sherborne. In 1976 our daughter was born and in 1977 we decided to move to the U.S. We had already been on several camping tours with the Austin Ten Drivers Club, so we decided to ship the Austin to New York, to fly over and then to start a camping trip in New York that would end in St. Louis. Basically, we left New Rochelle NY on 4th of July weekend and arrived in St. Louis on Labor Day weekend. We decided we would camp except for the times we stayed with friends. We had shipped a tent, all our camping gear, our clothes and luggage, and we set out. In hindsight, I think we had more enthusiasm than common sense, but it worked. Your comment about space was spot on. Instead of one adult alone, we were two adults and a 15-month-old child. The car was a sedan, but smaller than a T.

The only time we didn't sleep in the tent or with friends was in Moncton, New Brunswick, where it was raining too hard to set up the tent and we stayed in a motel.

After about a week or so, packing and unpacking became automatic. We knew where everything went and were pretty fast at it. (Elisabeth, at 15 months, pretty quickly figured out that we would wake up in the morning, have breakfast, pack our home into the car and go somewhere else. It seemed perfectly normal to her!)

I wish I had better photos of the trip, but these are a couple that indicate what we looked like:

The trunk lid folded down and became a shelf, on which we had a foot locker, a suitcase, a 2-gal gas can and several miscellaneous containers, the back seat had a "nest" for Elisabeth where she wore a harness and was attached to a vertical seat belt. The rest of the space was for tent, camping gear and other stuff. There was also a roof rack with even more stuff. The trip ended up being 6,500 miles in nine weeks. Highest temperatures were in Virginia at almost 100 degrees and the lowest in Canada at almost freezing.

What I remember is that packing and unpacking became so automatic that it didn't require thought and everything ended up in the same place. What a great summer!

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:00 am**

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑
Fri Sep 20, 2019 11:52 pm

.... They make a chair that sells for less than half the price, but it makes a much less compact package, three feet long.

I think I out-frugalled you on this one. Since I have a touring and only take the chair to local car shows, I bought the cheap one.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:56 am**

Steve -- I second Mark O's suggestion of swapping out the turtle for a pickup box. The turtle (as you have found) is practically useless. The pickup bed, on the other hand, makes the car much more versatile. As much as you travel in your car, a pickup bed would make a world of difference.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:58 pm**

I second Mark O's suggestion of swapping out the turtle for a pickup box.

I've seen that many times, of course, but never considered doing it myself. I'll meditate on the practicality versus the aesthetics.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:35 pm**

If you don't like the look of a pickup box, perhaps a variation of a peddler's box:

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:07 pm**

Ok, this is such a great thread that I risked life and limb to dig out the treasure that "Crazy Albert" left me.

I'm not sure how it is supported at the outside end, but it can't be too complicated.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:08 pm**

Two carriage bolts attach it to the running board rather than the C-clamps I used. Some common sense fasteners at the end suggest a covering as shown in the ad.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:16 pm**

Well I can't compete with an auto bed, but I also have a 1915 roadster, with limited storage. I found this camp stool at American Science & Surplus. It is advertised as good for 350 lbs.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:49 pm**

Camping in style https://www.autoevolution.com/news/in-1 ... ml#agal_12
Note : when the back doors are open and a shelf slip ou the interior is now a sleeping compartment.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:11 pm**

Just thought I'd add a photo of a trailer I came across and dad rebuilt for me/us. The right trailer can sure be a nice hauling accessory behind a T, although I'd imagine you'd want accessory brakes if a trailer were used.

Andy B.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:57 pm**

One of our guys has one like this set up covered wagon style To haul camping stuff & sleep in.

Posted: **Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:02 pm**

speedytinc wrote: ↑
Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:57 pm
One of our guys has one like this set up covered wagon style To haul camping stuff & sleep in.

This one could be used for that.. but it dumps also. The frame up to thr tounge is a pinched t frame. Real nice riveting on the angles to reinforce everything.

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:47 am**

I don't know, myself I'd prefer one of these, but since I'd have to probably build it on a car, that means I'd have to buy a chassis and build it up from there....of course my wife my have other ideas about that, but one of these days I'm going to try it all the same. It carries 100 gallons of fresh water and has a 14 gallon fuel tank, lots of stowage cubbies for all the little things you need to drag along with you and two full length closets on either side of the rear door and a canopy for over that door as well.

Still haven't finished the dimensioning on one of the pages and I've got the tents, roof and the roof spar hangers to complete....but I'm working on it.

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:25 pm**

You'd need to build that on a TT chassis. 100 gallons of water weighs about 830 lbs, exclusive of any container. 14 gallons of gasoline would run to about 90 lbs. I think you'd easily be over 1 ton for the entire outfit.

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:47 pm**

I'm really enjoying all of these. I built a trailer for my Speedster back in the 70s. It held a lot of stuff and towed well but I found it hard to find parking.

In researching the Stoll Mfg. Co that made my Auto Bed, I found they made an Auto Refrigerator also.

"In 1915, Stoll Manufacturing was founded in a garage basement in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin."

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:49 pm**

The Ford Running Board Support was another of it's products.

Matthew Stoll died in 1930, leaving his widow, Agnes, to run the company until roughly 1933. It became one of many small factories across the country that did not survive the Great Depression.

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:04 pm**

I lived in downtown LaCrosse while I was in grad school. Nothing in my basement.

Posted: **Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:30 pm**

Here's my grandfather, Ben Ostergren Sr. having breaksfast in a farmer's yard near Rockford, IL on Sept. 14, 1916

Grandpa's brother Herb, Sept. 13, 1916, breakfast east of Cashton, Wisconsin

A couple more from the same trip.

Posted: **Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:46 am**

My Mom's friend Wes:

I suspect a Chevrolet.

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