mesquiteforge

That would be a great history for this vehicle, unfortunately-if memory serves me(confirmed with a bit of internet browsing) the Pershing Expedition to find/fight Pancho was 1916-1917 and the plate on my FWD is 1918.......too bad, so sad for me-that would have been a colorful history. I am doing as much research through family records as I can, but the resources are limited. My best guess is that my great grandfather purchased the vehicle from military surplus in the 1920's to use in his -then growing-sand and gravel material business in San Antonio. He was deeply involved in the growth of San Antonio, Texas' downtown area. He supplied masonry base materials for the construction of San Antonio landmarks such as the Nix Hospital, the Medical Arts Building (now the Emily Morgan hotel), Smith Young Tower and many more. In 1930, he sold the business and used the funds to buy my family's ranch about an hour south of San Antonio. My guess is that the truck was brought to the ranch around that time to assist in ranch work and construction. The only kink in that idea is that the ranch land he bought-used to be a townsite. The truck could have come from inhabitants of the town-which was named Crowther, Texas. Some New England developers planned on prosperity in South Texas, but after realizing that water was to deep to dig to, quickly abandoned the project. A railroad was planned through the town (Artesian-Belt Rail), the grades were built but track never made it that far South. Curbs and Sidewalks were poured and numerous businesses and homesteads were created. A few remnants of that time still exist today-possibly the truck being one of them...?????...

Somewhere in between....Military configuration as far as structure but with a different color scheme. I do not want to get ahead of myself though. I have a full time job that is more than full time-about 80-90 hours a week-so finding time to dedicate to this is going to be hard, but now that it is moved-I am anxious to get to work on it. It was last used by my great grandfather in his building material business in the late 1920's and early 30's. I want to research the dump bed a bit more, because if it is not correct I would like to turn it into a flat bed truck or a stake bed truck which would be more practicle-if such a vehicle could still actually have a practicle use in these modern times. Now is the time that I am really going to start putting this forum to its intended use. Thank you all in advance for all of your input. I will get more detailed pics of the engine compartment etc... when time allows.

Phase one and a half has begun..... moving the truck. Got it moved this week, it is now sitting outside our shop where we can begin a long project.

All wheels roll, but the front axle is steering towards the righ and locked in that position(for now) so a simple tow is not an option. I took the front end loader on the tractor and attempted to lift the front end of the truck to get the steering issue out of the way-but as I attempted to lift the FWD, the rear tires of the tractor came off of the ground enough to prevent me from getting traction to move. I am going to fabricate a quick car dolly out of some old axles I have laying around and then cradle the front and rear wheels and move it about 2 miles down a gravel road to a barn/shop where I plan on keeping the FWD. It does have the specification plates on the "firewall/bulkhead". I will get pics of those plates too, when snapping my next shots.

Thanks for the good notes... I posted a pic of my FWD on one of the threads this morning, but I'll post it here too for ease of viewing. I'll get some better pics soon-when I devise a way to get it moved out of the bushes that it is currently buried in.

Howdy from Texas, USA, Found this website and forum while searching for more information about early FWD trucks. I have a FWD (I believe a Model B) and am looking for more information about the truck and pictures to plan a future restoration. Thank you all-ahead of time-for all of the information that I plan on gleaning from you and this wonderful site. Happy Motoring-:-D Jeff mesquiteforge South Texas, USA.

I am new to the forum, searching for more info about FWD's and found this wonderful compendium of knowledge.... I have this FWD at my family's ranch. My great grandfather had a sand and gravel business in the 1920's-1930's and he used the truck to haul material. It has a crude dump bed on it and solid steel wheels(not spokes)like some of the trucks pictured in this forum. It is a long-long way from running, but is in relatively decent shape. Radiator looks solid without much damage to fins, FWD logo intact, spot light broken-but there, bonnet covers on sides so engine has not been exposed too much, but what appears to be the intake manifold has a hole in it. I have tried numerous times to move the truck using a 120 hp farm tractor-with no luck-the darn thing is heavy. My dream someday, when time and $$ allow, would be to restore it. My near future goal is to just get it safely moved into a place that will prevent further decay until I can secure the means to get it rolling.