How much of a PITA it would be to find a 92-97 F-250 Supercab shortbed 4x4 with 351 engine and manual trans? I don't see many Supercab ones around me at the moment.

Can do a 460 or diesel but prefer not to, don't have anything real heavy to tow now or in the foreseeable future.
Can do a 350 only because I wouldn't mind the solid axle, but can always swap that same axle to a 250 as well.

Pretty much I want my truck but in 250 form with a manual trans. The 250 will make sure I get manual 4x4 and a ZF trans instead of the Mazda trans and potentially electric short on the fly oops I mean SHIFT on the fly 4x4 in the 150.

And yes I can just swap a ZF into my truck but it's pushing 300K so I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet. Runs great but needs a lot of minor and a few semi-major things... I may just keep it for parts for my next one.

 

When I bought mine (super cab 460 5 speed) I spent nine months finding one with a manual transmission...and that was in 2001!

 

Just bought a 94 F250 5.8l ZF 5spd supercab longbox with 185000 km on it up in Saskatchewan. Want to come up here? I may sell it!

 

I did a cars dot com search for 92-97 V8 manual & unlimited distance from me. Didn't specify super cab, but if you notice some of the pics don't match the description "regular cab"

55 results, not all come close but I think something you spec'd is in the list. How far you wanna' drive?

Used 1992 Ford Pickup - in 39042 Area - Manual on Cars.com

 

IIRC, all SuperCabs of this era are F-250s. SuperCab short bed is the rarest of all cab/bed combinations. Also, I was just down your way (Ft Myers / Lehigh) in September, and my wife and I noticed that there are a lot fewer 4x4 trucks, proportionally, than there are up here. Seems to be more of a preference for DRWs. So you're shooting for a narrow target, for sure.

 

I have Supercab shortbed F-150 now so not just limited to F-250 unless you are only talking 3/4 ton and up?

That's what I was afraid of... SCSB being the rare combo for the 3/4 ton and up.

I'm northwest of Lehigh and there's a fair mix of 4x4 and dually trucks around here. Probably more 4x4 up there due to snow, where it's about an even split here with 4x4's for guys that go off road for fun or work, and dually trucks mostly for guys doing car hauling or lawn service.

 

Hmm... considering there's one of them 97 F-150's in HD form listed as having a 7.3 in it, I can see why they can't even figure out the proper names for the cab configurations. Lol.

I won't be buying for at least the next few months. I got laid off a couple weeks ago when my company shut down the plant I've been working at for the last 8+ years. About a year ago a Canadian company bought the place from the company that originally owned it and that originally hired me, and they decided to shut it down and move to Canada. Right now I'm thinking of selling my boat and buying a little Ranger to drive so that I can save money on gas while I find a new job. Once I am financially stable again I plan to buy another OBS Ford like the one I'm asking about in this thread. As for my current truck... she needs some work that I can't really afford either the downtime or money to do at the moment in my current situation.

-Found another crack in the frame, nothing bad yet but it will need attention.
-Needs 4 tires
-Entire front end needs rebuilt again.
-Shocks and springs need replaced
-Rear end is starting to seep from the pinion seal. At this mileage it's probably about had it anyway, and I don't have the knowledge to set up a gear set on my own.
-Needs a transfer case.
-Needs brakes (already have parts for this, I won't tolerate anything with bad brakes).
-Cowl is rusted out and leaking... not sure how that ever happened but I didn't find out til weeks after I bought it that there was a thumb-size hole right behind the gauge cluster. Which of course caused the cab floor to rust out. All fixable but no time to really do it at the moment... and rust never sleeps.

In other words it's more or less a beater right now. If I had the play money to do it I'd just make it a mud truck and take it to RYC.

When I can get a used Ranger in decent shape for $2000 it makes more sense to go with a truck that needs less work, is cheaper to insure, and is cheaper to operate. I am not sure what I'll do with my current truck but if it goes for parts I'll definitely be keeping a lot of them for my next OBS.

 

I just kept on hitting Craigs list till I found mine. I wanted an extra cab and a short bed but couldn't pass on the one I bought, a long bed. I would look at S. Carolina area as well as N. Carolina or any place else that would have a rust free truck. Stay with it you'll find one, though you might settle if the right truck shows up.

 

Yep... I only want a shortbed because the shorter wheelbase is easier to maneuver off-road. Supercab because it's nice to be able to take more than one or two people with me, be able to fold the seats down so my dog can lay down back there or I can put stuff back there I don't want getting wet during our daily summer rainstorms.

When I'm ready I wouldn't mind taking a road trip to the Carolina's or anywhere really for the right truck. Even if I have to fly there and drive it back.

 

To my knowledge, the only years that got a 3/4 ton and up truck in the SuperCab/Short Bed config were 96/97.
So looking for that body for any year previous to those probably wont yield much of anything.

 

Ah, okay then. Back to the ol' "search for a specific year + configuration and hope like **** I find it" game. Maybe I will set aside some money to buy it sooner rather than later. This sounds like one of those things where IF you are lucky enough to find it you had better have the money ready RIGHT NOW and be out the door and on the road before you even call to see if it sold yet.

How about a supercab longbed or a regular cab shortbed? More common?

 

Here in texas, supercab longbed trucks are a dime a dozen.
Picked up a '92 for 600$ delivered to my door a month ago.

Single cab shortbeds dont exist in the 3/4-1 ton flavor. Only F150.

EDIT:
Here's a *rough* F250 Gasser manual.
https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/5291035477.html

Another rough one, 2K:
https://houston.craigslist.org/cto/5314225472.html

 

Got it, thanks for the info. So the possible choices are:

RCLB
SCLB
SCSB (96/7 only)

 

Correct.
If I remember correctly in 96/97 the crew cab/short bed option was also available for the 3/4 ton trucks.

I'm partial to the supercab short/ crewcab short bed trucks.
Ended up with what I thought was the ugliest combo, but at the end of the day it runs and drives.

 

... and from what I've read here, the F-250 SCSB only came with a 460 or a PowerStroke. Brad would be the expert on that, but I think your only hope of finding what you're looking for is finding a '96 - '97 F-250 SCSB that someone swapped a 351 into.

And any F-250 crew cab you find will be a short bed. F-350 crews are all long beds.