Although I am not new to this site, this is my first post.

I am curious about my brothers '97 F150 4x4 w/ ORP. My '97 F150 4x4 w/ ORP has the assembly date as being June 1997 while my brothers I believe is something like December 1995.

When is the earliest these trucks were assembled when they first came out, He has had a few problems with his, and mine has been virtualy maintainance free and has about 126,000 miles on it.

Any one with earlier assembly dates?

 

I forgot to add that this is the date located on the sticker in the drivers side door opening. Just to clear things up

 

1997 model year production began for the 4.2L equipped F-150s on November 1, 1995. I imagine the F-150s equipped with other engines began about the same time.

Ford had a lot of wrinkles to iron out through the entire 1st year of production. A 1997 model year truck built in early 1997 is a bit more refined than a 1997 model built in early 1996.

Clearly, Ford uses early production owners as guinea pigs for their designs.