What's in a name? Here's how the Ford F-Series was born
Cars
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The Ford F 150.
You've seen them, you know the badge.
You may have even owned one, but do you know why it's called f 150?
I mean, why not the Ford roughneck or the Ford countrified.
Now for decades we've lived among Ford's and their f 150s f 250s f 350s.
But let's take things back a bit and find out how we got here.
Wait not that far.
There we go.
Now most of us know about the Ford Model T the first vehicle.
Well the first mass produced vehicle, the one that was meant for the ever man, you know, you mean Hank down the street, Martha next door.
Yep.
Old Henry Ford was the original Oprah Winfrey of his day.
You'll get a car.
You'll get a car.
You'll get a car.
Now the T Badge basically came from it being the next letter down the line.
He started with the model A and by the time we got to the assembly line mass produce car we were at T.
Although many of those other letters never actually made it into production.
Now as things evolved, demands grew, people wanted to whole more they wanted bigger, heavier, better, you know, the American way.
So in 1917, Ford introduced the model TT and no that does not stand for trophy truck.
Instead, the TT use the Model T cabin engine but swapped in a heavy duty frame that was able to carry one tonne of payload.
While they sold pretty well, people were happy and as with most things, timing on people wanted even more.
So around 1928 Ford built a truck with a one and a half ton chassis named the Model A that evolved even more in 1933 with the model BB, which to my knowledge has no relation to BB eight from Star Wars.
Now those were mostly designed for very specific industries like deliveries and ambulances.
And then two years later, Ford introduced the 1935 model 50 pickup powered exclusively by its famous Ford Flathead VA engine.
Things shifted to the war effort in 1941.
Let's consider this the college years.
Ford as a company learned and grew during this time as we all do.
So after college, what do you do?
You take what you learned, you move on to the next phase of your life, settle down, get a job, buy a house family maybe.
Similarly after the war, people pack their trucks and move to urban and suburban areas and they settled down.
By 1948.
Ford began developing the next generation of their Ford track for those new families.
Ford, the next generation or what is known as the F series bonus built trucks, which is really a mouthful to say, but now we're finally getting somewhere.
The new F series names ranged from F one to F eight and were denoted based on payload capacity.
The F one being the baby boy with a capacity of a half a ton.
And then in 1953, the second generation f series began, and with it more power and new names, the F-1 became the F-100, F-2 and F-3 were merged to be the F-250.
And the higher numbered f eight got tossed out of that pool completely and into the commercial or the C Series category.
Now these new F series started getting what we like to call standard features.
I mean, it was nothing like Lane Keeping Assist just power steering was just in its infancy and I assume at the time it would take more work to get a car to turn out of the lane then worry about actually keeping it in there.
No, those standard features were more like armrests, dome light and sun visors.
Ha, luxury.
There is nothing like a good armrest These trucks also supported a wider cab, integrated front fenders and a more aerodynamic design.
This is the time we really get into trucks as more comfortable transportation options.
In fact, a truck with even more car like amenities was tested in 19 In 57, with what was called the Falcon Ranchero and that so far is my favorite truck name ever.
I mean, I have no clue if it's supposed to be a majestic, powerful bird or an eating challenge at the local Tex Mex restaurant, but either way I am so in.
Now let's get back to the story.
Marketing came into play here with this slogan more than a car more than a truck, which kind of feel is an ancestor of what we get later with this SUV truck combo.
I mean, do you remember the Ford Explorer sport track?
I mean, do you want an SUV?
Do you want a truck?
Can I have an option with both?
Yeah, I'll take it.
Alright, let's move on, shall we?
1961 you get the 4th Generation of the truck and in 1965, the twin IBX front suspension debut.
an upscale Ranger package began in 1967 that brought comfort, value and durability.
A bigger super cap model popped up in 1974 that had better seating for your ever growing families.
Some of which may have taken that colossal four Ranchero challenge that I talked about earlier and they can use the extra space.
Now the F 150 might be the name that actually stuck around but it didn't really show up until 1975 as sort of a middle ground between the F 100 and the F 250.
The F 100 finally gave up his entry level crown in the early 1980s.
And in 1977 we get built Ford tough.
I mean, that's not really relevant to the topic, but it's just a little added nugget of info.
Now over the years different packages were created rafters emerged more tech and countless commercials of people pulling boats and dumping large amounts of gravel and dirt happened.
And Toby Keith was around a lot for some reason.
Wild.
Trucks keep getting more and more comfortable and capable.
Sure has been a journey.
All right, so the nuts and bolts of it.
F stands for Ford and the number tells you the relative payload capacity.
Simple and sweet.
Of course, the idea that a half-ton truck has a half-ton of capacity hasn't really been true for decades.
Payload numbers have gone way up and the idea that bigger numbers on the tailgate relates to improve capability that remains true.
I think we can all be happy that Ford isn't renaming each new generation after its true capacity.
Otherwise we'd have F75 and F238 which don't really roll off the tongue.
And this all seems to be a standard truck thing too.
Chevy and RAM does this with their trucks but it's something closer to the actual numbers so a 1500 would be the equivalent to the F150.
The F250 would enter the Thunderdome with anything from the 2500 series from ram or Chevy I mean the numbers vary but the main categories are their Ford Super Duty is basically the same as saying heavy duty in Chevy land.
Other manufacturer equivalent to the F150 would be things like the Toyota Tundra.
Why is it called tundra?
It's time I'll leave that up to you.
So let us know what vehicle names you'd like to know more about.
BMW is in their three and five series with all that various nomenclature.
Perhaps we can try to understand Cadillacs, new crossover badging and what they may or may not be implying.
Comment below on why you think we've got truck names like Tundra, or even Raptor and Ranger.
And what's your favorite truck name or trim?
I mean, why can't we get back the Ford Ranchero name?
It's so good.
