I see OBS in a lot of threads. what does it stand for?

 

"Old Body Style", 1992-1996 ('97 for the HD trucks).

Ford F-Series ninth generation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The 92-97 trucks are known as the "old body style" or OBS

 

Old Body Style. The trucks like ours with vent windows. The good trucks, before Ford ruined them.

The term also applies to the good Chevys/GMCs (sometimes also referred to as SBS, for Square Body Style, also with vent windows) and Dodges (once again, with vent windows). The term means you have a quality truck, before the big 3 ruined trucks by making them look like melted candy bars that ride like cars and for all their bluster can't hold up under real use nearly as well as ours can.

 

I love how everyone refers to our trucks as the last of the real trucks. I don't see myself getting anything newer than a 97 hd truck or 96 f150 ever again. My dad has an 07 that rides nice but I'm afraid to abuse it like I do mine.

 

Old Beatup ****

 

LOL, a lot of these do appear that way

 

Most do but they won't die.

 

I just got home from the hospital a few days ago after having gastric bypass surgery and I am surprisingly cranky when the pain meds wear off and I am not due for another dose yet. I tend to speak more reservedly than that because I don't like to make anyone mad; I am very much a live and let live kind of guy.

However, I have got to say that it is truly how I feel. The same goes for cars. I will take a Crown Vic or a Caprice (or if we reach back in time far enough, a Dodge Diplomat) over any car built today. I don't care about the 0-60 time, the slalom speed or the braking distances. I don't care about blue tooth or satellite navigation, or automatic climate control (the one thing I hated about Lincoln Town Cars and Cadillac Fleetwood Broughams). Those cars are safe, smooth, reliable, good looking, durable, and easy to work on. The square bodies were better, but even the aero body ones were great.

And furthermore, they can keep all their Town and Countrys, Windstars, Edges, Caravans, Odysseys, Flexes, Siennas, Venzas, Equinoxes, Traverses, Aerostars, Astros, GMC Safaris and all the other minivan/crossover gobbledygook. I'll proudly drive a fake wood panneled Caprice Estate, Country Squire, Colony Park, Electra or Lesabre Estate, Custom Cruiser, or PONTIAC Safari right past their fancy pants high tech nonsense and be glad I didn't get stuck riding in the greatest argument in favor of public transportation since the stage coach Vs the Steam Train.

Damn! Where's my Vicodin! Not for another 20 minutes!

P.S.: I won't be driving anything until at least another week from tomorrow.

 

Old But Sexy

 

I've always included the '87 to '91 in the OBS category... not sure where else they'd go otherwise. Not sure what the early 80's guys call theirs, but the Bullnose, well that's a 'Bullnose'...

 

'80-86; Bullnose

'87-91; Bricknose

'92-96 & 97 F250/350; OBS

I think the F-Super Duty (F-450) series was built until '98 so they are OBS, too.

Ray

 

This has been coming up a lot lately, but we definitely need to nickname the 92-96/97HDs

 

Agreed on all counts. Especially these. Some of the new body styles (not just trucks but other types too) are atrocious.

When the 97-04 F-150's came out, I figured whoever designed the front must have been inspired by staring at a tampon. Ford kinda went back to an actual "truck" look with the 05+ but still not as good as an OBS, since we have things they don't like drip rails and vent windows.

Then there's even uglier things like the Nissan Cube... An outhouse turned on it's side with a couple axles and a 4-banger to make it go.

Yeah, I'll stick to my beloved OBS series trucks.

Although I do want to say that as far as reliability with the newer trucks are concerned, it ain't ALL the manufacturers faults, especially with diesel trucks. The friggin' EPA likes to mess with the manufacturers, telling them they have x number of years to come up with a clean-burning engine that emits rainbows and glitter from the tailpipes. Of course the manufacturers have to comply with this which forces them to try new things that ain't always reliable or proven yet. That's why Ford had the recall for trucks with flaming exhaust pipes... the emission control technology used on them was still new to the light truck market and they had to make a few tweaks.

 

I hate all the smog **** crap. The world is going to end due to overpopulation before it becomes a problem.