I found this interesting link to an engineering handbook from 1921 and it has a lot of information on electric vehicles prior to 1921. I purchased the book and I'm waiting on the mailman.

I've decided, at least for now, that I'll preserve it rather than restore it. Its a unique piece of American history and I'd like to preserve that as it existed. My plans are to replace the wood bed around the edges. Red Oak 2" thick, that'll be needed to refasten the steel band that goes around the edge of the bed. Theres a 1/4 inch steel plate on top of it. Next I'm going to see what I can do to rejuvenate, rebuild or what ever is necessary to get the batteries back into working condition. The batteries have always been rebuilt vs replaced. Huge wooden battery boxes. Nine in all.

I've removed the cab and I intend to set it up as a display on the back of the truck. It'll help show the changes the truck went through during it's life. Charlie Wacker designed the cab he was a long time ATHS member and has passed on. There is quite a bit in print about him and his family's truck body building business and I'll post what I can as I find it. Heres a little teaser,,



Nice old truck. I couldn't help thinking of a long time ATHS member (who has since passed on) by the name of 

Charlie Wacker --he was a genuine character who was a "pistol" in his eighties -- I can't imagine how he was in his youth. Anyway, his grandfather started a body works near Philadelphia over a 100 years ago and Charlie worked there his whole life . What he didn't know about truck bodies, wasn't worth knowing. One of his pet peeves was restored trucks from the early part of the 20th century with finely finished wooden bodies, that is, the wood was stained and clear coated or varnished. Charlie ALWAYS pointed out that the bodies were NEVER done this way, but rather painted, as you have done. Charlie would have told you, "You done in right"

One of the books I have tells this story, from "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles" by Albert Mroz.

1907 -1928 _ The Commercial Truck Company of America was founded in 1907 in Philadelphia Pa. The vehicles were battery powered electric, although a few were gasoline-electric hybrids were also built by 1915. For 1908 the company advertised itself as the Commercial Truck Company, and showed a 35 passenger omnibus as well as a 30 passenger sight seeing coach. Already by late 1907 a 3-ton and a 5-ton chassis were available.


Other early models consisted of a 1/2 -ton to 3 1/2-Ton capacity. The 1/2-ton delivery van sold for $2200. The larger models used General Electric motors geared to each rear dual-wheel. The 3 1/2 ton truck had a wheelbase of 114 -inches and weighed 10,000 lbs. Top speed was 7 MPH.

By 1912 C.T. trucks were available in six different capacities from 1/4-ton to 5-ton. Worm-drive was adopted in 1913. The gasoline-electric hybrid tractor was introduced in 1915 and continued to be built but only for two years. A 6-ton model was added in 1921, and lighter models were improved. Most of the heavier models had four-wheel-drive with an electric motor mounted on each wheel.

As an example C.T.electric trucks were successfully operated in Philadelphia by the Curtis Publishing Company. A fleet of 22 was used by the publisher of Jack and Jill, Holiday, Ladies Home Journal, and Saturday Evening Post. Two of the trucks were  used exclusively to haul coal, while the other 20 delivered the periodicals throughout the city. Loaded with 10 tons of paper and traveling at 10 mph, they silently plied the streets in the early morning hours with nary a puff of exhaust. Curtis used the reliable C.T. fleet as late as 1962. By that time, the trucks were over 40 years old on the average. They still used the original 85 Volt 10 amp drive systems that consisted of an electric motor in each wheel. 

By 1928 C.T. offered 12 different models to chose from, but the diminishing market for slow electric trucks with a limited range forced C.T. to be acquired by the Walker Vehicle Company, an electric truck builder that lasted until 1942.

 

I am completely amazed at the numbers of electric and hybrid trucks made before the 1930's. I have compiled a list of those who made electric commercial vehicles using just one source.

1. A & B The American and British Manufacturing Co. (hybrids)
2. ACF/ACF-Brill/Brill (Hybrids)
3. Ahrens-Fox
4. Ajax Electric
5. American Electric
6. American Lafrance (hybrids)
7. Andover
8. Anheuser-Busch
9. Argo
10. Asprooth-Leoni Electric
11. Atlantic
12. Auto-Car (not to be confused with Autocar)
13. Autocar
14. Automatic Electric
15. Bailey Electric
16. Baker
17. Baker (2)
18. Battronic
19. Beardsley
20. Blue Bird
21. Borland
22. Brecht
23. Broc Electric
24. Bronx
25. Buffalo
26. Buffalo Electric
27. Caffrey Electric
28. Calectric Delivery
29. Cantono Electric
30. Capitol
31. Capitol (2)
32. Carl
33. Champion
34. Champion (2)
35. Champion Electric
36. Chicago Electric
37. Clinton E Woods Motor Vehicle Co.
38. Collins
39. Columbia
40. Connersville
41. Couple-Gear
42. CT (Commercial Truck Co) (electric and hybrid)
43. Custer Electric
44. Dayton
45. Detroit Electric
46. Detroit Taxicab
47. Dunlap
48. Edison
49. Eldridge (hybrid)
50. Electric Vehicle
51. Electrocar
52. Electro-coach
53. Electromobile
54. Elwell-Parker
55. Ewbank (hybrid)
56. Fifth Avenue Coach
57. Fisher (hybrid)
58. Fritchle Electric
59. Gas-Electric (hybrid)
60. General Electric
61. GMC
62. Great Western (hybrid)
63. Greene
64. General Vehicle
65. Hewitt-Lindstrom
66. Hunter Electric
67. Illinois Electric
68. JactoJenkins
69. Joliet
70. Joly &Lambert
71. Kelland
72. Knickerbocker
73. Lansden
74. Lansing
75. Leoni
76. Loomis
77. Milburn
78. Morris & Salom
79. Morrison
80. M & P
81. Munson (hybrid)
82. Nordskog Electric
83. OB
84. Ohio Electric
85. Oldsmobile (first electric vehicle built in 1887)
86. Phipps- Grinnell
87. Piercy (hybrid)
88. Pittsburg
89. Pope-Waverly
90. Purity
91. Quadray
92. Quadru (hybrid)
93. Rauch & Lang
94. Riker
95. Roland (hybrid)
96. Sampson (Hybrid) (the Road Train an 18 wheeler in 1910)
97. Standard (hybrid)
98. Steinmetz Electric
99. Storms
100. Studebaker
101. Synnestvedt
102. Tek-Truk
103. Thorne
104. Turbine
105. Universal Gas Electric (hybrid)
106. Urban
107. Van Auken
108. VEC
109. Versare
110. Voltacar
111. Wagenhals
112. Walker
113. Ward
114. Washington
115. Waverly
116. Westcoaster
117. Wood
118. Woods

Here are some photos of the batteries and the battery box. THis is a battery box you wouldn't want dropped on you. It has to be total over 4 or 5 thousand lbs. The last photo shows how little room there is over the batteries.

 

I've come to the conclusion that the best plan is to put the truck up on blocks, Build a table beside the battery box. This will allow me to slide one battery at a time out of the truck where it can be examined. To accomplish this I purchased a bunch of cement blocks and some 2 X's for a table top. Cement blocks for the bottom and 2 X 8's to make a wooden bench top out of. Another strange event was that the next door neighbor has become enthused with the truck and wants to help. What a glutton, LOL, I'm sure he'll be a very valuable addition.

Frank was kind enough to think of me when he ran across an old document published in the early 1920s. Its a manual to teach a technician how to diagnose and rebuild batteries. I printed it out and even though I printed it using both sides of the paper its still 2" thick. I've learned enough that I'm confident I can pull a battery out of the truck and look it over, test it and determine if it is serviceable and if it needs repair determine what repair is needed and rebuild it. This all assumes I can find the materials I need. At least it's a huge step in the right direction.

Heres a few more photos. I've pulled the cab off, it's now sitting on the bed. The first Photo is whats left of the signs that were on each side. There is just enough left to determine what they said and the layout. This should be handy when its time to redo them.

You can barely make out the top line which read

 







 



 

Oh the joys of discovery, I bought a book on eBay titled "The Electric Motor Truck" by Edward E La Schum. How's that for a name?  The book was published in 1924. The first dozen pages are devoted to automotive history, from a 1924 perspective.

Some of the highlights have been.

The possibility of a self propelled vehicle was first predicted in the 13th century. The first successful vehicles were built in the 1820 with several having been built as early as the 1760's. The first American automobile was constructed in 1805 by Oliver Evans of Philadelphia.

By the mid 1820 several vehicles had been produced. With a trend starting to develop horse owners banded together and demanded they be banned from the roads. This caused financing to dry up for the rest of the 1830's. More development occurred in Europe in the 40 's & 50's.  

The first electric vehicle was built in 1851. The automotive industry as we know it began in the 1890's.

ln 1911 it took 5 acres to support 1 horse. It cost $4 a day to keep a horse. One horse could haul one ton and cover 22 miles a day on average, with 11 miles loaded at a cost of 36 cents a ton mile. A 5 ton truck cost $15 a day to own and could haul 5 tons and average 50 miles a day, with 25 miles loaded at a cost of 12 cents a ton mile.  

So then I start skipping through the sections and find one on the CT Electric trucks. So guess what,, I'm reading it next. LOL Everything's going good I'm looking at photos of my trucks components exactly as I see them under my truck and I get to the motor descriptions. Two different motors, two different voltages and corresponding battery types.

60 Volt Motors designed for use with Edison batteries. 

85 Volt Motors designed for use with lead acid batteries.

So now thinking I'm armed for bear, ready to tear into a battery and perform whatever repairs, refurb, etc. is needed.  I don't even know what kind of batteries I have.

Sooooooooooo,,, Can anybody tell me what a Edison battery is?

Answer

One problem with electric cars, however, was that the lead-acid batteries that they used (similar to the batteries used to start gasoline-powered cars today) were extremely heavy. Another was that the acid corroded the lead inside the battery, shortening the useful life of the battery.

Edison began looking for a way to make batteries lighter, more reliable, and at least three times more powerful so that they could become the basis of a successful electric car. Edison and his team conducted tests of all sorts of metals and other materials, looking for those that would work best in batteries. The tests numbered in the thousands and lasted until 1903, when he finally declared his battery finished. The battery used potassium hydroxide, which reacted with the battery’s iron and nickel electrodes to create a battery with a strong output that was reliable and rechargeable.

As usual, Edison announced the new battery with great fanfare and made bold claims about its performance. Manufacturers and users of electric vehicles, which now included many urban delivery and transport trucks, began buying them. Then stories about battery failures started coming out. Many of the batteries began to leak, and others lost much of their power after a short while. The new nickel-graphite conductors were failing. Engineers who tested the batteries found that while lightweight, the new alkaline battery did not significantly out-perform an ordinary lead-acid battery.

Edison shut down the factory immediately, and between 1905 and 1908, the whole battery was redesigned. Edison came up with a new design, and although the new battery used more expensive materials, it had better performance and more power. By 1910, battery production was again underway at a new factory near the West Orange, NJ laboratory.

I found an odometer on the CT Electric that had been painted over. I'd looked at it at least a dozen times and did not realized what it was. The book I've been reading said there was a hub odometer so I went looking and found it. It's tiny! 1" in diameter.

It has the name Veeder on it. After staring at it for 15 minutes I've decided it says the truck has 262,877 miles on it but I'm not sure. Thats only 120 miles a week for 45 years. I'm going to have to take another look.

It's Nice to Know How Far You Go
Almost 30 years later in 1895, Curtis Veeder, the founder of Veeder Manufacturing Company, invented a Cyclometer to record the miles traveled on a bicycle. He promoted the Cyclometer with the slogan, It's Nice to Know How Far You Go. The Cyclometer's success led to a full line of Veeder counting devices.

In 1928, the Root and the Veeder Companies merged to form Veeder-Root, Incorporated of Hartford, Connecticut, the largest manufacturer of counting and computing devices in the world.




This is the wheel with the odometer, you can see how I originally missed it. Heres the odometer, remember its 1" in diameter.

 

This past weekend provided some progress.

With the truck level and up on blocks my time was devoted to getting a battery out of it. I had my table set up and ready to receive the battery. No matter how much I pushed it wasn't going anywhere. I decided to do a house moving job on it. I lifted the battery just enough to put some hardened steel rollers under it. I managed to move it 6 inches the first time and another 4 inches before it refused to move any further. I decided it was time to find out just how strong the handles on the battery boxes were. I was of the opinion that they would not survive trying to use them to move the batteries around, I was wrong. In the end I used a come along tied between the old oak tree and the battery handle and out it came, quite effort less I must add.  Now I know.

With the battery out where I could look it over I found some numbers and letters which I promptly entered into google with no success. Pulling the cap from a cell revealed several things. First I need distilled water, lots of it. I will stop at Wally world on the way home and pick up 10 gallons. I hope thats enough to fill this battery box. On a long shot if it doesn't run out the bottom I'll be putting the battery charger on it for a couple of hours, days or weeks depending on whether or not it looks like it will accept a charge.


 The cells have a rubber cover over the top of the plates. The rubber cover makes it difficult to determine what shape the battery is in. At least I now know there are five batteries in each wooden battery box. Frank says the number of cells don't add up to the voltage of the motors, 60 Volts, so there's another mystery. There are 4 lugs on each battery, so to my way of thinking there are two cells in each battery, this makes 10 cells per box times 9 batteries for a total of 90 battery cells. Looking at the tie straps that wire the cells together also is a mystery to me that I'm going to have to figure out.



 



 



Stopped at Walmart on the way home and became the proud owner of 5 gallons of distilled water. Took three gallons to top off the five batteries in the set. Two don't hold water, but three did. My first guess would be frozen. Time to figure out where I can find replacement cells. OK Start laughing, but, if I have to rebuild the batteries it might be a good idea to get the battery boxes in shape while I'm at it.

Stay Tuned

     Same Channel.

Its March 20th 2009 and spring is here.

I've spent the last year trying to find someone, anyone that could help with the batteries on this beast. Yesterday I had a permanant smile installed on my face when I found a company, a local company no less, that could help me with them. I was informed that they could not only help with the batteries but also could build new boxes for them if needed.

I've also had some inquiries from people looking at the two CT's fo sale by Brad over on the left coast. To satisfy some of their request for what information I could supply I uncovered the truck yesterday and took some more pictures which I'm posting below. They are mostly photos of the area under the seat. The control room if you will.

 





Eddy Lucast

http://kbs.justoldtrucks.com