Fire Truck Of The Day: April 17, 2012

Today's car of the day comes from Firehawk73's collection and is Matchbox's 2000 Ford F-350 mini pumper.

The Ford Super Duty is a line of trucks (over 8,500 lb (3,900 kg) GVWR) introduced in 1998 for the 1999 model year. The F-250 to F-550 Super Duties are assembled at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky. The F-650 and F-750 Super Duties are assembled at the Blue Diamond Truck plant in Mexico.

The Super Duty trucks are larger, heavier built series pickup trucks with heavier-duty body-on-frame steel ladder frames, axles, springs, brakes, transmissions, more powerful engines, and all other heavier/bigger components (with much higher payload and towing capacities) than the older traditional equivalent F-250, F-250HD (Heavy Duty), and F-350 Ford truck lines. The two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive model frames are the same in the F-250 and F-350 series, making conversion from a two-wheel-drive model to a four-wheel-drive model less difficult than in other truck models. F-350 chassis cab, F-450 and F-550 frames are the same between the two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive models, and use the same suspension.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Ford Super Duty

For the 1999 model year, Ford shifted the F-250 and F-350 truck lines to a design mechanically and cosmetically distinct from that of the F-150. The F-350 was not available for 1998, while the F-250 was available that year with the F-150's body. By using two separate but related platforms for F-Series trucks, the inevitable compromises inherent in offering a wide range of load-carrying capacities were avoided. The main competition, General Motors, followed suit for the 2001 model year, when the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD were introduced.

These trucks were styled distinctly different for the first time from the smaller F-150 half-ton pickups. They did not share components with the F-150 platform at all (except V-8 gas engines, interior components, and cargo bed on earlier generations), even though it was still considered an F-series truck. The front was more boldly angular with a raised hood. Somewhat similar to the Dodge Ram, but Ford has a history of a raised hood in the middle. The Ford'd fenders are also upright and not sloping, while the dodge's slopes down following the center hood. As an industry first, 2 large complete ring-style front tow hooks were included. The side windows went lower forward in the door like a commercial medium to heavy duty truck (similar to a Kenworth "Daylight Door"), and the grille was also narrower and taller as if from a larger truck, and in 2001, optional manual telescoping Trailer Tow (TT) mirrors became available.

There were three cab options: Standard (2–3 passengers) with two doors, SuperCab (5–6 passengers) with 2 reverse-opening small rear doors (4 doors), and the crew cab with 4 full doors and seats for 5–6 people. The Super and Crew cabs came with 6+3⁄4-foot (2.1 m) and 8-foot (2.4 m) full-size bed options, but the Standard cab was only available with the 8-foot bed. The F-250 Super Duty would also be the base platform for the short-lived Ford Excursion which was the only passenger SUV larger than the Chevrolet Suburban and its twin, the GMC Yukon XL.

The Ford F-350 Super Duty first generation was also assembled in Venezuela as a commercial small truck from 1999 to 2010. For this market the F-350 featured the 5.4L V8 Triton engine with a 5-speed manual transmission with a choice of 4x2 or 4x4.

The Ford Super Duty trucks are built in Brazil since 2003. Brazilian trucks were widely exported to Australia (F-250), South Africa and Argentina (where they were sold as the F-100).