I ha e seen on some aftermarket taillights that they don't fit XLT or flair side models. Is there a difference from the flair side to a standard bed truck? They look pretty similar to me but I figured I would ask to make sure.

 

There is absolutely 0% difference. Any tail light between 93 and 11 will bolt on. The only thing you need to be aware of are 'two bulb' and 'three bulb' setups.
A three bulb setup refers to where your turn signal and brake light are separate. Turn, brake/park, reverse.

A two bulb setup refers to a system where the brake, turn, and park lights are all combined onto one bulb, vs two; also known as a 'combination' signal.

On the Ranger, the three bulb setup was used up until 2000 (from 1993, at least), 1999 being the last year. In 2000 and all the way to 2011, the two bulb system was used.

While two bulb vs three bulb doesn't change whether or not it will bolt onto the truck, you may find you have a problem getting the actual lights into the housing. For the most part, just looking at it and seeing how many 'chambers' (where the bulb twists into) is a dead giveaway.

 

I really appreciate your response. For once someone actually took the time to really explain the answer. Again, thank you.

 

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

 

This might be some useless info but I had to take a dremel to my reverse light plastic twist in part to get them to go into the 06 tails. The brake/turn signal was the same though. So just expect little snags like that. I had a 2 bulb set up btw.

 

I take it the socket was keyed differently?

 

Yeah. Just a little work with the dremel and it was good to go

 

The 2 bulb tails looks cleaner than the 3 bulb. Particularly 06 and newer. There's a couple threads where guys bake them and paint parts of the chrome black so they look tinited but they are not.

 

While in some cases, yeah they look cleaner, I find having seperate turn signals is a lot better than combination signals. Never been a fan of combination signals.

There's actually a couple of reasons for that, other than personal preference. I'll link a couple of articles which explain it better than I can in a short paragraph or two. Article 2 is a little more in depth, but article 1 just covers the idea of it.

1: Question Of The Day: Why Are Automakers Still Allowed to Use Combination Turn Signal Brake Lights?

2: Preventing accidents with amber turn signals