World Ranger Day is celebrated every July 31st, as a way to honor the service and sacrifices of Park Rangers all over the planet, so we figured today would be a good chance to talk about this F-100 that rolled into Summit Racing a while back.
When folks think of the word “Ranger” in the Ford lexicon, they often picture today’s late-model truck—or at least the compact sport truck that had its heyday in the 1980s and ’90s.
Truth is though, the Blue Oval has been using the name Ranger long before that. While it appeared earlier in the 1950s, Ford’s first widespread use of Ranger began under the Edsel marque in 1958, denoting a base spec trim on some of its coupes and sedans.
Once the Edsel brand was shuttered, the Ranger name resurfaced as a trim level on Ford’s F-series trucks in 1965. Initially, the Ranger package include a few interior upgrades, namely bucket seats, before expanding to more cosmetic accents outside as the F-Series trucks evolved during the 1970s.
…Which brings us to today’s Lot Shots feature.
When this 1968 Ford F-100 rumbled in the Summit Racing Retail Store parking lot near Akron, Ohio a while back, we immediately noticed the “Ranger” badge on the rear flanks. That subtle emblem indicates that this particular Ford F-Series truck carries the Ranger trim, the top cosmetic package on Ford trucks at the time.
Checking the Ranger box on the order sheet in 1968 got you things like chrome molding, along with chrome bumpers fore and aft. Inside you had more aesthetic upgrades, and in 1968, a choice of bucket or bench seats.
We’re not Ford truck experts around here, so we came across this fantastic trim ID resource at Fordification.com—it’s worth checking out if you really like getting into the weeds on the nuances between the various years and trims of these 1960s/70s F-Series trucks.
What we can tell you is that this particular F-100 is in great shape. While we couldn’t find the owner to get many details, it’s clear that there’s some serious pride-of-ownership at work here. If you have any insight into this humble hauler, let us know in the comments section below.
Interestingly, our research revealed that 1968 was also the first year Ford offered air conditioning as an option on its F-Series trucks—which takes some mystery out of our earlier Lot Shots feature on this 1956 Ford F-100.
As for the Ranger name itself, Ford would continue to use it to denote trim levels on F-Series trucks, adding suffixes like Ranger XLT and Ranger Lariat as the 1970s stretched on. After 1981, Ford removed the Ranger trim from the order sheet, opting to use Ranger as a standalone nameplate for its nascent compact truck line that was hitting showrooms in 1983.
The Ford Ranger continues as a standalone truck model to this day.
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