Book excerpt: Ford Medium-duty trucks are rugged, dependable, economical, and easy to work on. Ford helped ease the growing pains of American evolution by building hundreds of thousands of tough trucks for medium-duty service. From early conversion kit trucks used mainly by farmers, Ford's trucks and chassis became common for utility maintenance, construction, school bus transportation, towing, dumping, firefighting, and camping. This book focuses on Ford's medium-duty line—everything is covered from the early Canopied Express and continues through the various models and engines, sales figures, styling and technical developments, and much more.