31 mail delivery

Tom Morookian

Tom Morookian

Well-known member
In Rhode Island the other day I met a guy with a 31 "mail delivery". I've never seen one before. It appeared to be a heavy duty truck chassis, the rear springs where not transvers and had about 8 leaves. 4 banger.

The body was an oak woodie standing about 5 feet above the frame, 6 feet wide and about 8 feet long with a door in the back.

Sure wish I had a camera with me!
 
The mail truck was built on a "AA" chassis, a 1.5 ton chassis. Enough steel in the chassis to build close to three Mdl A chassis. The mail trucks are quite difficult to find. To use a well done term, "rare", the most over used term in the automobile hobby. I'm in No. CA, just north of SF and there are a couple of them here that I'm aware of. I've not seen them but have talked to those that have and are aware of what they are. If you want one you better be well healed. Very pricey. All that aside, they are an interesting model that were built by the aftermarket body builder(s), not Ford to the best of my knowledge.
 
For clarification, the Model T's heavy truck was designated TT, commonly refered to as a Ton Truck as they were rated as a one ton vehicle. I'm not real familiar with Model T's, but I believe they also had mail bodies placed on them as well. Perhaps someone out there who is up on Model T's can clarify the above.
 
We seem to be talking here about the US Mail Truck on the Model AA chassis. The bodies for the AA truck were procured in three procurements, totaling 2900 bodies, all mounted on the Ford AA chassis. There were two procurements totaling 950 bodies for the 1 ton Chevrolet chassis. For the Ford chassis August Schubert Wagon Works built the first 400 bodies, Metropolitan Body Co built 1,000 and General Motors Truck Division built 1,500, For the Chevrolet chassis Weatherproof Body Corp built 400 bodies and General Motors Truck built 550.

Data is also available on the US Mail Truck bodies for the passenger car chassis as well, but I have quoted only for the AA chassis.

Credit for the data I have given is from the book
The Ford Model A Mail Truck", by Aldie E. Johnson Jr.
 
Thank you Barnstuf, that's was really a good post and I appreciate the referrence to the book "The Ford Model A Mail Truck". That's going to cost me :>), but it's going to be worth it as it'll add to my referrence library for AA trucks.
 
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