It really comes down to personal preference. I personally like the stepside on a Ranger and think they are really sharp, especially on a regular cab truck. You give up some bed space, but the side step is handy for certain situations, especially if you have a tool box towards the front of the bed its easier to access the tool box from the side of the truck.

 

Styleside is my preference. I don't like anything about the Flareside, ugly (IMO), more drag lowering highway mileage, less cargo area and I've used the extra space on numerous occasions. I also have a tool box in mine that wouldn't fit a flareside, or if they do make them, won't hold as much stuf, and it's full enough the way it is. I guess I just plain don't like them.
Also note that for 05, the Flareside is out.
http://www.fordaxz.com/pdf/2005.ranger.og.pdf
In the major product changes section.
While I don't like them, it's a shame to see them doing away with it there are a lot of people that do, and I see lots of them on the road. They just don't fit my style.

 

OK, but how do you REALLY feel about Flaresides?

 

I've owned both, and in my opinion the flareside bed is a joke. What's the point? The only thing that will fit back there is a push mower or maybe some groceries. In my opinion, Ford needs to offer the 7' styleside bed on ALL Rangers...then it would be a useful truck.

 

I've had 4 Rangers, three styleside and the present one is a flareside. All the replys I have read so far are valid. In my case I chose the flareside for 2 reasons none of which aforementioned. I feel like I'm waxing something different,but the primary reason is when "Carl Careless" says "Hey buddy how about letting me use your truck to haul some lava rock to put around my garden" I tell him "That's not a truck, look at the little bed, ask Jack, he has a real truck". If I need real big things, trailers are cheap to rent.

 

Well said, J McGuire! When you have a truck, it seems like everyone and his uncle wants to borrow it.

 

Have you forgotten the pick-ups of the '30's, '40's and most of the '50's? they were all Flare/Step sides, and they did the job.

 

Amen, Redranger!
I still lose out on the 'borrow a real truck' thing. I get the "it's more space than I got in my leased VW Tourag". and then they complain that the tailgate has to stay down to haul the new lawntractor they had to buy but were too dang cheap to rent a trailer to bring home!
Oh, well! I guess flairside is better than nothing.

 

Hi

I now this is a little off topic.

I am having trouble finding information to tell these boxes apart and what style they are.

I have a 76 short box style side or is it a flareside i believe it is a style side?

My box has the 90 degree bends. How similar are the boxes from a 73-79 and 80-86? Besides the bolt pattern for the fenders are they even near the same box?

All boxes prior to 73 had the 45 degree bend?

I can find no information explaining the differences in boxes, terminology and what is interchangeable.

Does anyone know of anybody or anyone that has the side panels for a 73-79 for sale?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

John

 

Flareside all the way. Mine is just reg cab though. I'd love to get a red extended cab flareside .

 

I previously owned a 2002 F350 long box crew cab dually. I loved the dually for hauling the 9500 pound fifth wheel around. Since I upgraded to a motorhome, I sold the fifth wheel and the Dually. Well sometimes you just need a truck. I opted for the Ranger with the flare sides just because it looks like my old Dually and has the appearance of the bigger truck. I got a sweet deal since this Ranger has already had the 97 Explorer V-8 and AWD drive train added. It is a 4 door flare side so it still looks like a Dually with the "wide hips" as my wife called them, and now I have the rumble of the 5.0 V-8 to boot...Hope yall like the picture. Dave

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