I wasn't quite sure where to put this, so if it's in the wrong place, do move it where it should be. I recently bought a 97 F350 PS (or at least that's what year the dealer had it as and what the original window sticker i found in the glovebox said). They only thing that confuses me is that the date of manufacture on the door says 10/97. I've always heard that anything made after 9 of one year is actually the next model year. So technically wouldn't this be a 98?

Hope you don't mind, but I gotta show it off lol

 

as far as I know, there were no 98 h.d. ford trucks. The new body style truck was being developed around this time, and the very early 99 models were actually being made in early 98. Mine is a May 98 model, but it's a 99. I worked at a ford dealer for 7 years or so, and have never seen a 98 h.d. ford. Yours is a 97, the last year for that body and chassis. everyone feel free to correct me, I could be wrong...according to my wife, I usually am...

 

You are right. Ford sold new trucks in early '98, but were called '99s. They had to take a little while off to retool for the new body style.

 

If it's a Super Duty, it's a 99. If its the old square body (OBS, aka old body style) its a 97.

 

That's a sweet F350! Those are very hard to find especially in such great condition. Well done!

 

Date of Manufacture (DOM) does not indicate model year. You can infer model year if you knew nothing else based on the rule of thumb you mentioned earlier, but it's not concrete. You really have to base it off of the VIN. Everything everyone has told you is right, and you will find that sometimes you have difficulties with parts for the 97 Heavy Duty trucks.

 

Thanks for the compliment Furian! It does look a lot better washed but I had just gotten back from wheeling.

It's not a Super Duty or Heavy Duty, but I ran the VIN decoder on here (just found it and it's an awesome tool btw) showed it to be a 97. I wasn't aware that Ford took some time off between the two different body styles so that was my mistake. I was going off prior experiences too. At least I can say I have one of the last F350s with this body style and in such great condition. The engine only has 262,000 miles on it but it runs as smooth and quiet as ever. My dad's 95 doesn't even run this good, but then again it's been dogged and it has an unknown amount of true miles since the speedo was out for who knows how long before he got it.

Also at the time of posting I did not realize that there was a gallery section where I could've uploaded my pics (PS I'm doing it now). If I knew then I would've just posted this pic there along with a few others I have. But in the end it turned out to be better that I did include a pic because it helped.