Hudson on a Hill
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A couple of weeks ago I had both Hudson's out at a local park called the Muckenthaler Cultural Center. We were asked to climb a steep grassy hill and park near the summit in view of the house so patrons could see & visit the cars.
SoCal had been enjoying the first liquid sunshine in nearly a year and just a few days before the event it really came down drenching the grass and making the sod rather spongy. I warned the folks in charge that a two ton Hudson on high pressure "motorcycle" tires was likely to furrow their grass pretty good. Being Californians and not really familiar with the concept of "wet" they said it'll be OK!
Fair enough, they had been warned, one dry type to another.
When my pal Herb & I got to the park at the appointed time and climbed on the grass, it quickly became apparent that this dry weather sort had neglected another factor. Sure the ground was soft & spongy just as expected but it was also slick. In the lead in the '29, I could feel the wheels sinking in right away, no brakes were needed for a quick stop.
After a quick look at the ground to chose a path that was reasonably even and required little change of direction to miss trees, we started off. In grandma, even a moderate application of throttle got wheelspin, that grass was slick. Snot on a doorknob came to mind. Nonetheless, a steady application of throttle and minimum steering inputs rewarded us with a steady climb for the '29. I parked with the saggy spring on the uphill side and shut it down and set the handbrake.
While making my own climb, I could hear my friend Herb having his problems with the '26. The '29 has tires that have some small cleats that were able to grab the grass as long as the tires were not spinning. The '26 has tires that are old & rock hard, worse, they have only smooth fore & aft tread, nothing to grip the sod at all. The '26 just spun its rear wheels and started to dig in. Herb tried it twice and decided to wait at the bottom.
Normally I start the '26 in second and I thought this might be very good for this hill climb as the wheels would have less tendency to spin and loose their grip. A quick attempt showed this was not going to work. The tires had to try to climb out of the depression they were making in the grass and this required too much throttle to sustain. That wasn't going to work.
The next try was from as far back on the level as I could get and climb in grandma just like the '29 did. The hope was that by gaining momentum, the tires would have less tendency to spin and loose their tenuous hold on the grass. This proved to work fine. Even so, any overzealous application of throttle resulted in wheelspin. I have included a photo to show where we ended up, but it really doesn't show how steep the climb was.
We had one other bit of fun & games on this trip. When dusk arrived and it was time to go, the '29 fired up reluctantly and soon stopped. Repeated trys would not restart it. Herb noticed that the fuel filter was dry. Humm . . .
The carb was still well below the vacuum tank so gravity feed should not be an issue. I had checked the main fuel tank by dipping it with a rubber hose showing a good inch or more in the tank before we left the barn so we should have plenty of gas there too.
Can you guess what the issue was? We were parked nose uphill with a hard roll to port . . .
The '26 started easily and ran happily. It had about half a tank. We drove it home and got a gas can and a bit of fuel line with a Coleman lantern funnel clamped on one end. Speculation was that the fuel had drained to one side of the main tank and uncovered the fuel supply tube that fed the vacuum tank. The motor started and was working on warming up when the vacuum tank ran dry and called a halt to proceedings.
We filled the vacuum tank and the car fired right up. Rather than wait for the tank to empty while the motor warmed, we pointed the nose downhill and made for level terrain where we experienced no more issues at all.
I have been burning this old bad gas up. I would say it is high time to get some fresh in it now!
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1923 Ford Model T Runabout
1926 Hudson Anderson Coup
SoCal had been enjoying the first liquid sunshine in nearly a year and just a few days before the event it really came down drenching the grass and making the sod rather spongy. I warned the folks in charge that a two ton Hudson on high pressure "motorcycle" tires was likely to furrow their grass pretty good. Being Californians and not really familiar with the concept of "wet" they said it'll be OK!
Fair enough, they had been warned, one dry type to another.
When my pal Herb & I got to the park at the appointed time and climbed on the grass, it quickly became apparent that this dry weather sort had neglected another factor. Sure the ground was soft & spongy just as expected but it was also slick. In the lead in the '29, I could feel the wheels sinking in right away, no brakes were needed for a quick stop.
After a quick look at the ground to chose a path that was reasonably even and required little change of direction to miss trees, we started off. In grandma, even a moderate application of throttle got wheelspin, that grass was slick. Snot on a doorknob came to mind. Nonetheless, a steady application of throttle and minimum steering inputs rewarded us with a steady climb for the '29. I parked with the saggy spring on the uphill side and shut it down and set the handbrake.
While making my own climb, I could hear my friend Herb having his problems with the '26. The '29 has tires that have some small cleats that were able to grab the grass as long as the tires were not spinning. The '26 has tires that are old & rock hard, worse, they have only smooth fore & aft tread, nothing to grip the sod at all. The '26 just spun its rear wheels and started to dig in. Herb tried it twice and decided to wait at the bottom.
Normally I start the '26 in second and I thought this might be very good for this hill climb as the wheels would have less tendency to spin and loose their grip. A quick attempt showed this was not going to work. The tires had to try to climb out of the depression they were making in the grass and this required too much throttle to sustain. That wasn't going to work.
The next try was from as far back on the level as I could get and climb in grandma just like the '29 did. The hope was that by gaining momentum, the tires would have less tendency to spin and loose their tenuous hold on the grass. This proved to work fine. Even so, any overzealous application of throttle resulted in wheelspin. I have included a photo to show where we ended up, but it really doesn't show how steep the climb was.
We had one other bit of fun & games on this trip. When dusk arrived and it was time to go, the '29 fired up reluctantly and soon stopped. Repeated trys would not restart it. Herb noticed that the fuel filter was dry. Humm . . .
The carb was still well below the vacuum tank so gravity feed should not be an issue. I had checked the main fuel tank by dipping it with a rubber hose showing a good inch or more in the tank before we left the barn so we should have plenty of gas there too.
Can you guess what the issue was? We were parked nose uphill with a hard roll to port . . .
The '26 started easily and ran happily. It had about half a tank. We drove it home and got a gas can and a bit of fuel line with a Coleman lantern funnel clamped on one end. Speculation was that the fuel had drained to one side of the main tank and uncovered the fuel supply tube that fed the vacuum tank. The motor started and was working on warming up when the vacuum tank ran dry and called a halt to proceedings.
We filled the vacuum tank and the car fired right up. Rather than wait for the tank to empty while the motor warmed, we pointed the nose downhill and made for level terrain where we experienced no more issues at all.
I have been burning this old bad gas up. I would say it is high time to get some fresh in it now!
Paul O'Neil
SoCal
1923 Ford Model T Runabout
1926 Hudson Anderson Coup
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