Saw this in the local CL listings. F-155 is new to me, anyone else?
1948 Ford F155 antique truck

 

Well I'll be. It does say F-155.



Something is off. I could see a special designation like this after they started the F-100. But, 48 was F1, F2, etc. Hopefully our historians will enlighten us.

Edit: It does say made in Canada.

 

Yep, that was apparently a Canadian designation.

 

Good looking truck. I wonder how rare that F-155 badge would be?

 

Probably as rare as work boots standing in line at the bank on check day. LOL

What the heck was Canada's deal? I mean seriously? An F-47? And now this F-155?

 

Along with F68 and F135. Ford of Canada used several unique designations in 48-50.

 

And being that this was a Canadian built truck (I believe it is an F6) I find it hard to believe that it was purchased 'new' by an Arizona fire department.

 

The Canadian system used the GVW divided by 100 for the model designation. F-47 = 4700 GVW = F-1; F-68 = 6800 GVW = F-3 etc. I'm surprised we haven't see one like this before. There must also be some F-95's, F-110's, right?

Spectacular condition on this one! I don't doubt the fire equipment fitter was a Canadian company and sold to AZ.

 

Yup, the GVWR was part of the Canadian model number during the 48-50 era. The F-1/F-47 and F-3/F-68 as mentioned, but there was no F-2/F-57 sold in Canada to my understanding. What tickles me is the F-4 that has a 10,000 lb GVWR. Rather than call it an F-100, they called it an F-105. Stu

 

Because of tariff's that existed between the US & Canada, Ford & Mercury trucks assembled in Canada were only sold new in Canada, were not available in the US.

When the tariff's were abolished in late 1967, Mercury trucks were cancelled.

It doesn't make any sense that a Canadian assembled truck would have been bought new by an AZ fire department.

 

Well the 22000lb F-8 was a F-215. Make sense of that.

 

That's kind of what I thought. Adds to the BS of the seller in this case. I also noticed that it has an 8RT/8BA and if I am not mistaken, in 1948 the Canadian trucks actually had the 59AB engines in them.

 

My father in law sold fire equipment and trucks. They would buy chassis from any mfg and then refit it with the proper equipment. He use to say one of his best competitors in the early days was a Canadian company that had a USA division. They went belly up sometime in the mid fifties. So this could have been one of theirs.

 

Yea, but like Seagrave, who went to Canada and partnered with Bickle, when the built trucks in Canada, they used Canadian chassis'.

 

They used 59AB engines till serial number H48-20000 and 8RT/8BA from H48-20001.