What Do Designations 'C', 'NE', and 'TA' Stand For?

[Iowa Dave]

Raise your hand if you had or have an F-1.
My first pickup back in the 60s with the flathead V-8.
My youngest brother had a 1929 model A pickup.
Iowa Dave

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Raise your hand if you had or have an F-1.
My first pickup back in the 60s with the flathead V-8.
My youngest brother had a 1929 model A pickup.
Iowa Dave

Yeah and the Model T came out before the Model A. IF Ford was a movie, you'd call the Model T a "prequel." What does model A and T mean anyway?

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Yeah and the Model T came out before the Model A. IF Ford was a movie, you'd call the Model T a "prequel." What does model A and T mean anyway?

Hi: Donna D... Just to spice things up a little... Mr. Webster says a "Trailer" can be an extract from a movie, or a wheeled vehicle for towing. In 2014 Reace asked my opinion for a name for the trailer we both have. I said he had already established a name 5.0 and he added the TA to it!!!
Early snapshot!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Iowa Dave]

Hello Donna
I have a friend in Cedar Rapids who I’ve known since high school. He is a widely recognized expert on all things Ford from the early cars into the early 50s. I don’t ask him a question unless I have a couple hours to burn. So instead of getting Leland to post the history of Ford Motor Company nomenclature I opted for the Wikipedia version which feel is pretty accurate as I remember past conversations. I was interested in the references to production constraints and the production problems similar to production challenges Escape is experiencing.
Iowa Dave

[J&B Mitt]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Yeah and the Model T came out before the Model A. IF Ford was a movie, you'd call the Model T a "prequel." What does model A and T mean anyway?

And what about Ford tractors? The model '8N' came AFTER the '9N', with the model 2N in between(?!?).

And what the heck did 'N' mean? It meant "TRACTOR". Really!

[Iowa Dave]

I will tell you this about ford N tractors. When you slid off into the ditch in the Iowa countryside in the winter snow, the grey “ N” red tractor with chains coming down the road from a nearby farmstead looked pretty good. Everybody seemed to have one as a utility tractor and they were willing to lend a hand.
And don’t forget the Jubilee edition.
Iowa Dave

[MrLynn]

FYI, if you're interested in old tractor history, check out the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association Museum in Kent, Connecticut:

Home Page | The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association - Welcomes You! | Jim Anderson, CAMA webmaster

They've got a whole range of tractors, including some steam-powered from the turn of the (19th to 20th) century.

Worth a stop, if you're in the area.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by J&B Mitt

And what about Ford tractors? The model '8N' came AFTER the '9N', with the model 2N in between(?!?).

Amusingly, the digit was the last digit of the model year of introduction

• 9N: 1939
• 2N: 1942
• 8N: 1948 (introduced late 1947)

This reminds me of the "Y2K" mess, in which idiots used two-digit years leading to nonsense when "19xx" was replaced by "20xx".

Originally Posted by J&B Mitt

And what the heck did 'N' mean? It meant "TRACTOR". Really!

Yes, it was just a letter for the product line, arbitrarily assigned. This is the sort of thing that works fine internally, but doesn't help customers.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Yeah and the Model T came out before the Model A. IF Ford was a movie, you'd call the Model T a "prequel." What does model A and T mean anyway?

Ford assigned each car designed a letter, consecutively through the alphabet, starting with the first Model A in 1903. Most didn't make production, but the "T" (and 8 others before it) did. European manufacturers tend to do something similar - the VW and Porsche type numbers and Jaguar letter ("E-Type", etc) are examples.

The later (1928) Ford Model A was the result of starting again at the beginning of the alphabet (apparently because at Ford it was seen as the start of a "new generation"); until then, the internal designation worked as a model name which indicated to customers how new the design was, if they bothered to think about it. Of course now, with all but the Model T and Model A long forgotten by the general public - and apparently even most Ford fans - it doesn't make much sense.

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by MrLynn

Coming from the idiosyncratic MFG world, it took me a while to realize the most mainline (stickbuilt) RV makers use fairly standard abbreviations for length and floorplan, e.g. 21FB (Front Bedroom), 25RQ (Rear Queen), 19RT (Rear Twin), etc. Bigfoot uses them; wouldn't hurt Escape to do so as well: always better to convey more information than less.

'Length' BTW is confusing, as the MFG makers define it as total length, including hitch, while the stickies use the length of the body alone. I am never sure about some, though. I was just looking at ads for used Airstream 'Sport 16' models. But are they really 16' feet long, or (by our MFG standards) 19'?

Bigfoot has just re worked their website. Its all glitz now. In the past they built 25 ft Rear Twin beds as occasional production runs but not on a regular basis. Now they have a 25 Rear Twin as part of the lineup. Try to find it on the website, its, get this, a 25RQ-2 (HUH!) who thought of that crap? and its found under the 25RQ if you go looking.

Charles

[Iowa Dave]

Seems logical to me. RQ-2 : Twin: 2 beds. The queen gets a queen, the hubby gets a 16 inch wide strip of 3/8 plywood with a sleeping bag nailed to it. Simple
Iowa Dave

[DGLP]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Ford assigned each car designed a letter, consecutively through the alphabet, starting with the first Model A in 1903. Most didn't make production, but the "T" (and 8 others before it) did. European manufacturers tend to do something similar - the VW and Porsche type numbers and Jaguar letter ("E-Type", etc) are examples.

The later (1928) Ford Model A was the result of starting again at the beginning of the alphabet (apparently because at Ford it was seen as the start of a "new generation"); until then, the internal designation worked as a model name which indicated to customers how new the design was, if they bothered to think about it. Of course now, with all but the Model T and Model A long forgotten by the general public - and apparently even most Ford fans - it doesn't make much sense.

I have to smile. My dad was a Ford guy. He stored 3 flathead blocks in the corner of the garage for years and could recall the part number for a Model A steering wheel for a specific year 40 years after he last ordered one for a customer. For all the gear heads out there, the Reynold's Museum in Alberta is worth a visit, I've heard. Never been there, though I lived in Edmonton, Alberta for nearly 50 years.

https://reynoldsmuseum.ca/exhibitions-displays

Harley Davidson model designations baffle me. FLHR = Road King. Really?

Cheers,
Darrell

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by DGLP

Harley Davidson model designations baffle me. FLHR = Road King. Really?

Cheers,
Darrell

Flipping Loads of Hemorrhoids Really.

[DGLP]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Flipping Loads of Hemorrhoids Really.