This might seem like a dumb question, but how did Ford come up with the F150,250,350 names?
I always thought it came from the early trucks cargo capacity of 1500lbs for the F150, 2500lbs for the F250, etc.
Anyone know how it all started?

 

I'll chime in with an experienced guess. Back in the 70's, I think it was YM 1974 or 75, but the difference back then was the F-100 had an engine configured to run on leaded gas and the F-150 was configured to run unleaded. They were the same truck but the differences were the fuel used. I bought a 74 F-100 not wanting the F-150 unleaded engine. FWIW, I still have that truck and it will out work most new F-250s and you don't need a ladder or a rake to get anything out of the bed either. The new trucks are bloated pigs. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

AFAIK, yes. Just like GM/Dodge with their 1500/2500/3500 lines.

 

i've always wondered why ford went with 150 instead of 1500.

 

It has nothing to do with the weight capacities as the F-100 and F-150 have 2 at 5000lbs and 5500lbs, the F-250 has 3 and the F350 has 4 different capacities, all in the same YM. As far as the 1500 & etc, who knows. Maybe it would have cost an additional 50 cents for the extra chrome numbers.

 

Dodge used to be the same 3 digit weight capacity on the fender.

Dad's '93 D250 is a 3/4 Ton truck, which after '94/'95 changed to the 2500 ( no D in it ).

Wiki has a write up on the life span of the F Series trucks, from the F-1 to the current F-150.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F-series

The F-1 was rebadged as F-100 & F110 ( depending on the GVWR ) and the F-2 became the F-250, etc.

Seems to be a marketing name change from simple 1/2 ton, 3/4, 1 ton, etc names in chronological order, to a marketing terms with an easy to ID change over.

BTW : I had a '81 F-100, and the only difference between that and the F-150 that year was the GVWR. Seems the previous MYs had the same thing, GVWR based numbering. There seemed to be 20 different variants of a 1/2 ton range pickup in the 70s.

 

Available payload, not GVWR. So, GVWR - curb weight. Payload is about 1500 pounds in an F-150, 2500 pounds in the F-250, and 3500 pounds in the F-350.

 

The F-150 grew out of the F-100. In 1975, which was the first year of catalytic converters, vehicles over 6000# GVW had less restrictive emissions regulations that could be met without a converter (except in California). Therefore, the F-100 had to have a converter, and unleaded gas. For marketing purposes, the big 3 built a "heavy" 1/2 ton with a 6050 GVW to still allow leaded gas. Ford differentiated it from the F-100 by calling it the F-150 and it stuck. GM and Chrysler did the same thing - 10 to 15. When the F-100/C-10/etc. completely disappeared due to tighter emissions regulations and increase in GVW across the board, they started calling all 20 series 25 series and 30 series 35 series for consistency.

Labnerd, you had it backwards.

 

I had a 75 f100 it has my first truck it also had the explorer package with the fancy hood emblem but it did have cats

 

When I had my F-100 custom, there was also a F-150. That was a 1981 MY truck, straight 6 with a cat, and used unleaded fuel.

Thought the F-100 went away for economy of sale for production reasons. Why build 2 different trucks with slightly different payloads, and little money difference.
If someone wanted a F-100, for another 600.00 they could get a F-150 ( think that was the delta on them, I got mine used so I cannot recall new sticker prices ).

The year after the Range came out, the F-100 was end of life'd.