Big Muddy: 1920

Can you turn the truck by 90 degrees please Dave?
I think I see a banner with "DUPLEX" in in the middle of it.

[There's a photo of the banner in the third comment from the bottom. - Dave]

No A ever had a radiator shell like that, and there is no way that truck is 4 wheel drive. Take a look at the front axle... Duplex is the brand, but maybe they were responsible for the 4wd conversions for As. If the date is correct, the picture predates the A by about 8 years too!

[On the radiator it says "The Duplex Limited." Below, a 1922 ad. - Dave]

This appears to be a Duplex Model A - powered by a 4 cylinder engine generating an impressive 25.6 horsepower (hold on tight!)

If you have a heavy hauling problem and do not already know the Duplex 4-Wheel-Drive, talk to the Duplex dealer and let him give you the facts at first hand.

The Duplex Truck Company is the Originator of the 4-Wheel Drive principle and today its most successful exponent.

There is pull and power in every wheel — and the Duplex 4-Wheel drive keeps going under conditions that are simply impossible for any rear wheel drive trucks.

The Duplex 4-Wheel drive is setting new records of truck efficiency for lumber and Logging Company; Road Builders; Oil Companies; Coal Companies Mining Companies; Grocery Companies; Trucking Contractors—in fact in all lines where there are heavy loads to be hauled.

The point is the Duplex 4-Wheel Drive is daily proving to a very economical truck for hundreds of owners who used to say it was too big for their needs.

A couple of Google Book links:

• 1922 Official Handbook of Automobiles
  (page forward to see other models)
• Motor West (1920 advertisement)

At full size view I was not detecting that they had numbers on them; in your attached blowup I am willing to own that they are license plates indeed - even where I come from! Can't get away with hanging my plates underneath on my front axel axle in Virginia today (I despise having to mount front plates on my 1930 Model A 5-window coupe!)

As I was navigating my way over icy pavement this morning, I was cursing it and thinking that back before roads were paved, it was a lot easier to walk on it during the frigid winter months. But this photo has reminded me that pavement is a very good thing indeed!

Does anyone know what those two rectangular panel-like things are which are strapped to the front axle and are dragging in the mud? I know a few things about vehicles of this period but I have never seen anything like it.

[Where I come from we called them "license plates." - Dave]

Then get out and walk!

Can anybody make out what the banner in the bed of the truck says?

["Washington D.C. -- 'On Time All the Time' -- Baltimore Md." - Dave]

"Yeah, right, we'll go with you and get stuck in the mud" ... is what I can picture the smart young ladies in the background saying.

Is he testing the road first and then going back for the girls?