modified model t snowmobiles

Mail-to-your-door service began in America's cities in 1863. Rural Free Delivery, which brought mail to people in sparsely populated areas, began in 1896. The early rural carriers made their runs over roads that often were difficult and impassable with horses, wagons and sleighs due to rains, floods, mud and snow.

Many years ago, my older brother told me that our mail carrier used a Ford Model T modified for snow use to deliver our mail. I asked him about the details of this vehicle, but he had no other information.
A few years ago, I met a delightful gentleman in his late 80s by the name of Lloyd Mortice. Lloyd had many interests and hobbies and was very knowledgeable in mechanical devices.

Lloyd had been a rural mail carrier for 36 years, starting in 1926. He said he made a 1926 Ford Model T and later, a 1929 Ford Model A, into snowmobiles. Lloyd's mail route was in the Remsen/Steuben region of northern central New York State that receives some of the deepest snowfalls east of the Mississippi River.

For the 1926 Ford Model T snowmobile, he ordered parts from a company in Vermont. The first tracks were made of canvas, and didn't hold up in the wet conditions; they would freeze and break in two. The company then made a steel track which was much better. The track went around the rear drive wheel that had a standard tire and tire chains. Then it went around another idler wheel bolted on in front of the rear drive wheel.

Lloyd said that the original track drive system did not work too well. He redesigned the track drive system so that the front idler wheel was spring loaded. That allowed the track to maintain better contact with the ground surface over rough terrain. (This sounds like the very first suspension system design.) The factory heard about it and sent two men out to look at it. As Lloyd said, "They brought a pencil and paper and drew a picture of it." The next year, the factory's design was the same as Lloyd's.

The snowmobile's cab was a homemade, canvas-covered, wooden frame. The front skis - which were strips of hardwood, steamed and bent up - were made by a blacksmith and similar to a bobsled design. A narrow strip was mounted on the bottom to act as a rudder. Metal strips covered the skis' bottoms and were frequently replaced. (These, of course, were the first wear bars.) The Model T Snowmobile on display at the Smithsonian Institution, to be described later, has metal fabricated front skis.

Once, on a terribly wintery stormy day, Lloyd was driving the Model T snowmobile. Visibility was zero, so he stopped to see where he was. He looked down and saw something black. It was the railroad track at the crossing of North Steuben. He had stopped short in the middle of the tracks! He knew that a train was due shortly. As he tried to back up, the engine stalled. He jumped from the cab. He was able to grab the snowmobile tracks and roll the vehicle back before the train came along.

His next snowmobile was made from a 1929 Ford Model A car. By this time, the snowmobile parts vendor had moved from Vermont to Madison, Wisconsin. This snowmobile had a drive wheel and two boogie idler wheels on each side. The car's rear drive wheels were replaced with special hard rubber tires that had lugs that fit into the steel track. Lloyd found out that by placing tire chains on the front idler wheels, it prevented the track from icing up and slipping. The front end had a level to select either wheels or skis, depending on conditions.

Lloyd's snowmobile was about the only traffic on these roads in wintertime. However, spring was the toughest time. The melting snow and the frost leaving the ground turned the roads into a sea of mud. He often had to go back using the horses at this time of year.

I asked Lloyd if he ever got lost on his postal rounds. He said one time, during a blizzard, he got lost in this large open field. He went around and around and back and forth and finally found the way back to the trail. He said never carried a compass, but it would have been a good idea.

In the summer of 1992, material on old-time rural mail carriers was collected for a new National Postal Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. A short essay on Lloyd's experiences was sent to Washington. The Smithsonian had acquired a Ford Model T snowmobile for their exhibit, but had no information on its construction, use or application. The museum requested a picture of Lloyd's Ford Model T snowmobile and a videotaped interview with Lloyd.

Shortly after the interview, Lloyd's health began to fail. Lloyd Mortice died on Feb. 14, 1993, at the age of 90-plus years. On July 30, 1993, the National Postal Museum opened its doors. A photo of Lloyd Mortice and his snow-equipped Model T appears in the Customers and Communities gallery.