Being a western truck for the last five decades, this 1972 Ford F250 Ranger XLT Camper Special appears to be solid. It was built in San Jose, sold to an owner in Seattle who moved to Phoenix, Arizona and it has stayed there ever since. The seller has it posted here on craigslist and they’re asking $12,500 or serious offers. Thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip! Here’s the original listing.

When a seller mentions that a vehicle is rust-free and then you can see big expanses of patina – i.e., surface rust – on it, that usually comes up in the comments. I bet they meant that there are no rust holes and/or no serious structural rust, not surface rust, and it does look solid. We had a brand new 1969 Ford F250 Ranger Camper Special that had many rust holes less than a decade after we bought it and we even paid to have it rust-proofed at Ziebart in 1969.

Fancy! I love the woodgrain trim on the tailgate. That wasn’t an option for our truck in 1969 which was also a fifth-generation Ford F250 like this 1972 truck. We had the same wheel covers, too, man I miss that truck. I wonder what it looks like back there when you open the tailgate? It looks like this. The seller bought this truck from the son of the original owner but they don’t say how long they’ve owned it. You can see the optional storage box on the passenger side in this photo, that’s a great place for a jack, wheel blocks, or whatever else a person needs to carry when you’re hauling a camper or trailer. Not to mention that this truck looks almost perfect in that side photo!

The interior looks like it’s in outstanding condition, especially since it’s been located in the dry, hot desert southwest for years or maybe even decades – we don’t know the location timeline of this one. The seats look great in this truck with the plastic still on the back portion, although they aren’t perfect. This interior brought back some real memories for me as we also had factory air-conditioning in our 1969 Ford Ranger Camper Special which was quite a thing in 1969 for a pickup.

Our truck had this exact same setup where most of the regular glove box was taken up by the added equipment so Ford added the little extra glove box towards the passenger side floor. The door was horribly cheesy, soft, warped plastic and it would open on its own at any time. The worst part was that the AC would constantly drip water on our feet from under there somewhere. It was nice to have AC and it saved us while we sat on black vinyl seats on our camping trips across the west, but Ford needed to figure out this system much better than they did. Apparently, it lasted at least until 1972 if it looks the same here. The seller says that the AC isn’t currently working so at least it shouldn’t drip on your feet.

The engine is Ford’s 390 cubic-inch V8 with around 200 horsepower and it was the biggest engine available in this generation of F-Series pickups. We had a 360 V8 in our truck and it seemed underpowered, although I think the 360 may have had a little more horsepower in 1969 than this 390 did in 1972. It sounds like this truck was used more for hauling a trailer than a camper as it has a trailer towing package and electric trailer brakes. The top end was rebuilt and a four-barrel and new intake were installed recently, according to the previous owner. NADA is around $11,500 for a low retail value for a similar truck, what is this one worth?