Appearing to be a solid survivor, and an interesting one with its exposed surface rust on the hood and roof (or is that patina?) (crickets), this 1978 Ford F-250 Ranger SuperCab 4×4 is listed here on eBay in Lakewood, Washington. The seller has it listed as a no-reserve auction, so this one is going to a new owner. The current bid is $8,700 with three days left on the auction.
As nice as these trucks were, most pickups in this era weren’t used for daily commuting as they are today. The SuperCab configuration makes it a winner in my world, giving a perfect amount of added space without being too much, or having two extra doors for someone to pry open in the middle of the night to see what you have back there. I mean, not that it ever happens… but you never know. It’s hard to beat this Bahama Blue and Light Blue “Tu-Tone” paint scheme. Another nice feature is the built-in tool compartment on the outside of the right-rear bed.
A long-bed truck is nice to see. Or what I think of as a long bed, even though it was a normal or regular bed size back then. Today, most trucks are considered short-bed models as most pickups for consumers have four doors, so the bed has to be shorter. I love the size of the wheels on this truck, most that we see are super-sized, and these are perfect. Or even a bit smaller would be perfect in my world, like this one. Inside that long (normal) bed looks good. You can tell that this has been used as a working truck; what a concept. The seller has provided several underside photos along with a nice variety of photos. Well done!
The two-speed manual… just kidding, that’s a two-speed transfer case, this truck has an automatic with a column shift. As expected for a Pacific Northwest vehicle, this truck looks great inside without a lot of the issues you’ll find in vehicles located in the desert Southwest. I think it’s the best spot in the U.S. for vehicles, but shipping can be a major buzzkill for those of us in the Midwest or the Eastern half of the country. The SuperCab space looks equally great, and that seat bottom folds down for carrying loads of stuff. The glove box door says “Custom,” which I assumed would make it a Custom trim with a Ranger package, but the Custom would have had round headlights for this one last year, and everything else says Ranger to me. Bob, help! One of you will know the exact trim and packages on this big, blue beauty. It’s wearing a Custom trim level vinyl seat, but also has carpet, and a Custom would have had black vinyl flooring.
The engine is Ford’s 400 (402-cu.in.) OHV V8, which had around 170 horsepower, and in this case, it’s sent through the two-speed transfer case and Cruise-O-Matic automatic to all four wheels as needed. This one really looks like a nice truck. With a no-reserve auction, this would be one to watch if you’ve been looking for a nice sixth-generation F-250 4×4. Hagerty is at a whopping $40,400 (!) for a #3 good-condition truck: how much would you pay for this one?
I remember these here and there years ago, but I don’t remember there being a lot of them with the Super Cab. This one looks really solid, nice truck. I don’t mind the wide steel rims with the Ford Hubcaps. Overall it looks pretty good.
Looks like the fan shroud is missing a big piece…
Looks like the fan shroud is missing a big piece…what else?
Sh&$@in’ out bolts and pi&@ing gasoline, rollin’ down the road at 8 miles a gallon….
I know that song
Had one exactly like this for several years – even same color scheme. Bought from original owner with about 70,000 miles. Once to Hershey, once to Atlanta Buick meet, towing a trailer, and countless trips with my car trailer all over trailering cars. Boy, did it eat gas!! Great truck, but it rusted something awful here in Ohio.
How the time flies when you’re having fun. Crew cabs were around for the better part of 20 years by this time, but they were holding their own as far as numbers went. I remember my Dad getting an SWB crew cab in ’69 and the guys in the coffee shop looking sideways at him for buying a “Hutterite Wagon.” Then Dodge, with it’s “Club Cab,” the truck with the “Hip Pocket,” in ’72.
Somehow the Club Cab and later, Ford’s “Super Cab” got more popular. GM finally got into the act with its “Extended Cab” (Yaaawwwnnn) in ’91. Then Ford came out with its “Super Crew” and the rest is history.
Wonder how long it will be before 6-door trucks become the norm?
Yes, this truck. Well, out west, they were the proverbial flies on a dead horse until the full crew cabs got popular. My brother had on very similar to this one. Then, the long wheelbase with crew cab and the joys of parking. It’s always humorous during rodeo season when every parking lot is filled with long wheelbase crewcabs, and the poor couple out with an anemic little Mini, trying to find a space before they get crushed under a herd of “Cowboy Continentals.”
Still lots of work ahead for this piece of history. Don’t give up on it until its wheels are in the air…
In our barrel racing community there’s a family which pulls a big new 3 horse/living quarters gooseneck trailer with a duplicate of this truck, except it’s black and silver. It’s in great condition and they never seem to have any trouble with it….almost 50 years old!
SG, I too am not sure what is going on here with respect to trim packages. The factory trim levels were Custom, Ranger, Ranger XLT, Ranger Lariat. The interior here has all the Custom markings, while the exterior has all the Ranger markings. A Marti would sort it out, but it might not tell the story. A factory error? A later alteration or rebuild?
In any case, I’m not sure it matters. Take it for what it is: a used but generally solid F250, from a generation of F-Series which have become collectible.
Trivia from the brochure: 17 colors available, and three two-tone configurations, which meant that there had to have been 100+ different paint combinations available. Plus five interior colors. Amazing, compared to today.
Had one just about like this one, only just the solid dark blue. Very little trouble with it……did everything I needed done. Best mileage I ever got was 12.5….I have had several pickups since then…..none of them got much better.
I could be wrong but didn’t the ’78’s have round headlights and the ’79’s were rectangular?
RoadDog (I love your Sirius/XM trucking channel, by the way!), the ’78 Customs were the last to have round headlights on pickups and Broncos. The other trim levels had rectangular headlights that year, and they all had them from 1979 on.
And it’s interesting that, for the Custom trim level, the pictures in the 1978 and 1979 brochures are the same…. except for 1979, the picture has been altered to show the rectangular headlights.
Thanks for the clarification, Scotty! As for the Sirius/XM trucking channel; sadly, I am not that particular RoadDog. But I totally agree with you on the channel. It’s a good one, especially on long road trips. Keep up the good work!
Option 78 standard 79
Pretty clean straight Ford truck here right down to the original hubcaps, bumpers, tailgate, and bed tool boxes. Back in the 1980’s living in New Jersey these trucks were rusted out after about 10 years of use mostly on the rocker panels and the beds. This one is in excellent shape that has survived the times.
Auction update: this one sold for $18,900!