1941 saw lots of new things from Henry.
The first Mercury woodie station wagon.
The big news was the new Ford passenger cars (but with last years engine, axles, radiator etc carefully hidden under the new larger body and chassis.. and available 6 cylinder power in addition to the V8!
Why a 6 banger? Because Chevrolet had just outsold Ford by 200,000 cars in 1940! For every 3 cars Ford sold, Chevrolet sold 4. Not to mention, the nation was going into economy mode, and the V8 was too thirsty for many pocketbooks. We were also nervously watching the going's on in Europe.
In light duty commercial, the 1941 offering was basically the same old chassis design dating from 1935. The sheetmetal was basically a rerun of leftover 1940 production parts. Externally, the commercial had some minor trim changes but nothing like the "all new car" in 41.
The real commercial change in 41 was the little V8 was gone, replaced by a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder, with the larger V8 still available. Imagine, 3 engines, but only one is a V8!!
Ford advertising of the period stressed economy of operation with testamonials in the ads from plumbers, bakers, florists, etc extolling the virtues of their 4 and 6 cylinder pickups, sedan deliveries, panel deliveries, etc.
Exactly how many of these combinations with 4 and 6 cylinders were produced is unknown to me, yet I am sure in the post war economy many 4 and 6 cylinders were upgraded to 59AB's etc. (some even got SBC's but that's another story) The point is this: Ford made many of these in 1941, and the few surviving 4 and 6 cylinder commercial vehicles seem odd and rare today.
Odd and rare is why I think the three on tree column shifter existed in a pickup and was factory installed. Every sedan delivery already had a column shifter beginning in 1940, as did every Ford car since the 39 model, so why not make it available to the panel delivery and light truck buyer in 1941? These buyers typically used the vehicle in light duty applications, so offer the modern car like column shift. A car type shifter would give the pickup a broader market and Ford needed every sale they could get.
To put the shifter on the column of a pickup was simple: design a column drop. That's it! Nothing else needed to be designed! Everything else was already in production..ie: side shift trans, column and shifter. The expense to do this was peanuts, the potential rewards too great to ignore.
Besides, there was already lots of engineering changes under way to accomodate the 4 and 6 cylinders. In retrospect, alot for a chassis in it's last year. Here are a few; new radiator mounts, new radiators, new front crossmember with deep "U" shape to clear 6 cylinder sump (this was one year only as new chassis was in works for 42), new engine mounts, special spacer beneath fender wishbone mount and a host of others for sure. Externally, even the tailgate got changed as the V8 was deleted. This gate was in production exactly one year because the wider box arrived in 42.
If a tailgate can be produced for one year and a frame crossmember and all the other stuff can be produced for what turns out to be a one year run, it stands to reason that the column drop to install a shifter on the dash of a truck or panel delivery could also be produced. Perhaps 1941 is the first column shifter in a Ford truck, and only offered for a short period because of WWII.
I have seen and heard of these column shifted pickups and in each case they were 41's. Anybody else got one?
