When I was a kid, I used to play on my Uncle's junk Model T truck that had a Ruckstell 2-speed axle... I wish I had it now!

When my mother was young, her family had a Model T (I guess). Her older brother usually did the driving of the 5 kids to school. One day I guess he decided to let her drive. She was looking for Ruckstell and drove off the road. I think they walked the rest of the way to school. Thanks for posting this. I heard that story when I was 15, 55 years ago, and just today, just now, I've discovered what she was talking about! 😊

The fact you can get stuck in neutral and lose your service brake with the Ruckstell is scary. The standard emergency brake really isn’t that good. I think another option was Rocky Mountain brakes maybe to solve this issue. I have a standard T and once the brake band didn’t work on this really steep hill and the thing that saved me was using the reverse pedal as a brake. The emergency brake might have slowed me down a bit but I would have stopped by crashing if I hadn’t used the reverse pedal. Nice video and car.

You explained it perfect!

The Ruckstell is essentially an underdrive unit that lowers the overall ratio of the 2 existing Ford gears and differential. Normal street driving should only need to use Ruckstell low on Ford high as a "second" gear between the Ford low and high.

Great video, thank you! Amazing how you can go around tight bends with low rev’s in high gear you would expect the car to stall out. Think it would take some nerve to go hill climbing in one 😁

I have 5 model T's and each one has a Chaffin's Ruckstell kit. Love 'em! Under normal, flat-land driving, I rarely use anything except FORD low & high. But, in nearby hilly country the Ruckstell shifter gets moved back to Ruckstell High-- when I come to a hill. Back to FORD high at the top unless the hill goes back down then I leave it in Ruckstell high for gearing to slow me down. Rarely, do I have to shift to FORD low on a hill UNLESS I get behind a Model T that does not have a Ruckstell. IF I end up having to use Ruckstell low, then I know that I'm climbing a very steep mother! In my cars- all have std gearing: *fun/safe/comfortable driving speed in Ruckstell high is 22-25 mph. *fun/safe/comfortable driving speed in FORD high is 30-35 mph

Great! But, where do I plug in my iPhone..?

Ruckstel a gear splitter Shift in high leave it drive normaly If you need little more torque/ power the shift to low Ruckstel If your ruckstel has or gets into neutral you need replace/ rework shift detent for wear

We have a 1927Buick, even though we have a 3 speed trans, it would be nice to add something like a Ruckstell in it!

Great video. Lets me know I need to rebuild mine-as it really clunks/bangs into position…. …I didn’t hear any of that with yours. 👍

Add hydraulic brakes!, needed with or without Ruckstell, the Ford Driveshaft brake is inadequate by every measure (Rocky Mountain Drums is not nearly as good as hydraulic)

I am a new owner of a 1927 coupe and have been driving with only one quick lesson. I did not know how to use the Ruckstell until you showed me! Thank you! But is there a method to going back to the T’s two gears! How do you go from Ruckstell back to standard without hitting neutral?

Interesting. How does the Ruckstell actually work?

So when I transfer from low gear to ruckstell, do I let my clutch in neutral or release a little on clutch?

What is the top speed of the car when the both trans. engaged in high ?

Interesting, it's much like an 18 wheeler and its split transmission. LL, LH, HL, HH

I think i would leave it how ford designed it

Where's your reverse pedal?

why can't you just start out in high low, then shift to ruckstell high, be done