The Ford F-Series of trucks has been the best selling line of trucks in the United States for nearly 40 consecutive years. It has also been the top-selling vehicle of any kind for over 30 years. The F-Series line was first released in 1948 and has been continually modified and improved year after year since its inception.
When Ford released the 1948 F-Series truck, it was their first post-war line of new vehicles. They came with three engine options and a range of cab and chassis configurations. The smallest of these being the F-1, and the largest being a 3-ton beast of a vehicle, the F-8.
In 1953, Ford celebrated its 50th anniversary and completely redesigned the F-Series truck line. The F-1 was replaced by the F-100, and the F-2 and F-3 models were both replaced by the F-250. It was also the first year that an automatic transmission was offered in Ford's truck line and the last year for the Ford flathead V-8 engine, which is still popular with retro hot-rodders today.
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1959 marked the first year that a factory installed 4-wheel drive option was available on both the F-100 and the F-250. Before this time, only aftermarket conversions were available. Ford's decision to offer their F-Series truck line with factory 4-wheel drive was influenced by the increasing public interest in off-roading recreational vehicles. This was also a time when the pickup truck began to enjoy some popularity as a personal vehicle, instead of just a work truck.
In 1975, the first Ford F-150s were released. It was intended to be a heavy-duty version of the popular F-100 with a higher payload and stronger springs, but eventually its popularity far surpassed that of its smaller counterpart and, in 1984, the F-150 replaced the F-100 as Ford's base model full-size pickup truck.