Tuesday Torque: Model A Ford High Wheeler

 Merle spotted this beauty. This Model A would be just the thing to deliver mail down rutted mud roads. Grinding along in first gear would be tiresome, but you hardly have to touch the steering wheel when the ruts guide you! Model As and Ts were great mudders, with lots of room around the wheels. Later models built up mud in the wheel wells. Cars with bigger engines were prone to breaking axles while fighting mud. I've visited with old oilfield hands who remembered the 30s and 40s, and winch truck drivers typically carried a  couple of extra axles on the headache rack of their trucks. Ford V-8 winch trucks could really throw the mud when digging in to winch heavy pulls, but they could also bust an axle when doing that type of work. Truck drivers were good at self rescue back then. Don't leave any bits of axle in the housing when replacing an axle. They will get in the differential and then you will be done.