Short Bed Supercab: 1974 Ford F250 Ranger XLT
Ford’s new-for-1974 Supercab offered the flexibility and security of greater in-cab cargo capacity and either two center-facing jump seats or a three-passenger bench. This 1974 Ford F250 Ranger XLT in Not-Boise, Idaho looks ready for anything on those massive 37 inch tires. Images of a claimed 390 V8 escaped the listing along with many other useful shots. Thanks to lov2xlr8 for some details.
This is the best interior shot showing what looks like a re-upholstered bench seat and green door panels. Wing windows direct ambient speed-conditioned air toward occupants using separate driver and passenger controls. A silver crank handle with a black knob raises and lowers the larger side window to any desired height from fully open to completely sealed. One of this truck’s most interesting features, the Supercab, is documented in multiple outside pictures.
Ranger XLT trim offers “greater insulation and luxury appointments,” according to the original brochures, including wood grain on the dash and shiny trim all around. With an oddly sequential odometer reading of 12345, we’ll assume that’s rolled over at least once.
This pair represent the sort of honest blokes who appreciate and enjoy a vehicle like this. Manual hubs offer reliable locking of the front axles on this 4×4. The item location here on eBay shows as Boise, and we see Idaho plates, but the listing notes the item is not located in Boise. From the factory, a 360 would have been the only V8 in a 1974 4×4 F-seres. A claimed 390 V8 and four-speed manual should offer plenty of power to turn those 37s. The “$1,500 disc brake job” should help slow things down when you run out of mesa. Crew-cab rigs of this vintage bring top dollar and sometimes turn up as $150k resto-mods. With three days left in the auction as we go to press, this Supercab has attracted 87 watchers, but none willing to click Buy It Now for $25,000. Maybe it will return with real pictures, accurate details, and an actual location. Would you modernize this Supercab 4×4 or abruptly leave the highway and blast through the forest?
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Comments
Not a factory SuperCab 4×4 since those didn’t come along until 1978 – so stuff got swapped in here.
The supercab was in fact available in 74.
Correct. However it was 4×2 only until 1978 when the 4x4s became available.
I’m triggered already.
Methinks that kid’s hat is in reverse…
And drinking a truely
They removed it already.
When the Supercab began production, I wonder what Ford execs thought about its future. The world of pickups had had a (very) limited number of crew cabs, but would something with more interior space but not ‘full’ seating capacity be successful? (The brochure Todd provided shows a kid and a dog in the back seat.) As it turned out, it was successful. Which, not surprisingly, morphed into the sweet spot of today’s pickup market, the full-size four-door.
For me, those 37 inch tires make the vehicle look cartoonish, but I realize they are popular nowadays.
In hindsight, it was very successful, Bob! My Dad bought a F250 SuperCab brand new in 1977. My brother and I were young at the time (8 and 5 respectively) and we ended up riding in that backseat (Dad built a custom one for ours that had 2 jumpseats that also folded out into a bench seat). We ended up riding back there on numerous trips back and forth across the country (from AZ to OH and back) and tons of other trips around the Southwestern US – often kicking and punching each other along the way :).
Bob
I think Ford knew super cab would be a success as the Dodge came out with the extended cab in 69 and it was a big success. Follow the leader in auto industry only GM did not catch on until 88
And to others this really is not a site for politics
The Bureau of Land Management used to buy fire apparatus on Navistar chassis with extended cabs, expecting two of the crew members to climb in the front passenger door, go between the two front seats and wedge themselves into the back of the cab on small seats. I asked a supervisor how they were supposed to get out in a roll over (a not unheard of occurrence). I don’t think that I had anything to do with it, but they switched to crew cab chassis with full rear bench seats not that long afterwards.
Test comment
Whether someone buys the truck or not, Please vote Trump 2024
I mean seriously, I can see a large Trump 2024 flag flying off the back of this truck
Thank You Gus! Get the word out-MAGA!
lol 👍
Also nice truck here, I own a ‘77 F250 Highboy and a ‘97 F250 regular cab,both trucks are working and reliable!
I promise you that even with the windows cranked up that cab is not “completely sealed”. Not by a damn sight.
Still, nice truck. A fella could get things done with a rig like that.