Ford Model AA is First Produced

Ford Model AA is a truck from Ford. As the Model T and TT became obsolete and needed to be replaced, Henry Ford began initial designs on the Model A and Model AA in 1926. Basic chassis layout was done rapidly and mechanical development was moved forward quickly. Body design and style was developed and then outsourced to various body manufacturers, including Briggs and Murray. The designs of the Model A shared parts and materials with the Model AA Ford, notably the body, engine and interior. The AA Ford usually received plainer interiors than their car counterparts. The Model AA Ford followed similar design changes that the Model A Ford underwent during the four year production, but often those changes followed on a delay, anywhere from three to nine months. The mechanical changes and upgrades were done during production of the vehicles. Body changes that occurred between 1929 and 1930 were also integrated into the Ford AA production, but leftover parts were used longer in the heavy commercial trucks.

The Model AA Ford is powered by the same 201-cubic-inch (3.3 L) engine Inline-4 engine that the Model A Ford used. The engine produced a maximum of forty horsepower at 2,200 rpm. The engine featured an up-draft carburetor, six-volt generator, 2-blade fan, mechanical water pump, mechanical oil pump, electric starter and four-row radiator. All of these features were identical to the Model A Ford except the radiator. The engine could also be crank started if necessary by a hand crank that is inserted through a hole in the radiator shell. The Model AA was based on a chassis that was similar in design to the Model A Ford, except it was substantially larger and heavier to accommodate the work this truck was designed for.

GAZ AA, a license built version of Ford AA by GAZ 1932-1942.
Model AA Ford has a four-speed transmission. The transmission is geared lower than the Model A Ford to provide more power to move a loaded truck. This lower gearing reduced the top speed...

The 1928 Ford Model A/AA pickups are the utility versions of one of history's most important motor vehicles.

On December 1, 1927, Henry Ford bought full-page ads in 2,000 newspapers to announce the 1928 Ford Model A automobile, the long-awaiting replacement for the Model T.

"We believe the new Ford car is as great an improvement in motor car building as the Model T was in 1908," he declared. "In appearance, in performance, in comfort, in safety, in all that goes to make a good car, it will bear out everything I have said here." He could also have been describing the 1928 Ford Model A/AA pickups.

People rushed to showrooms to see the Ford Model A, and soon it became quite fashionable to be seen in the new Ford. Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York bought one for use around his Hyde Park estate, and every star from Lillian Gish to Will Rogers seemed to own an A.

While the Model A car was offered in an array of body styles, so was the 1928 Ford Model A/AA pickup. They included a sedan delivery (basically a Tudor sedan with rear windows filled in and cargo space behind the seats), a handsome roadster pickup, a canopy delivery with fixed top and roll-down side curtains (for the cargo but not the driver), a long-wheelbase panel, and 1 1/2-ton stake and platform trucks. The roadster pickup was the most common body, and the one most seen today.
Specifications for the 1928 Ford Model A/AA pickups mirrored those of the Model A car and were straightforward: four cylinders on a conventional ladder chassis with mechanical brakes. The L-head engine, rated 40 horsepower, displaced 200.5 cubic inches and was twice as powerful as the Model T's -- also lighter and more efficient. No longer was it bolted to the complex and outdated planetary transmission, but to a modern three-speed gearbox with a dry multiple-disc clutch.

Engineers abandoned the time-honored magneto with its maze of wires, adopting a modern battery and ignition system, with distributor atop t...