The Scout II debuted in April of 1971 and incorporated vehicle improvements that engineers had determined necessary during manufacture of the original Scout.

The International Harvester Scout was one of the first production American civilian off-road sport utility vehicles. It was originally created as a competitor to the Jeep, and like that vehicle, early models featured fold-down windshields. The first generation Scout and second generation Scout II were produced as two-door vehicles with options of a half cab pickup truck or a removable full hard or soft top. Scouts were manufactured from 1961 to 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Scout II's were manufactured from mid year 1971 to 1980. The Scout II, Terra and Traveler were produced from 1976-1980. Terras and Travelers had fiberglass tops; half top for the Terra or full top with hatchback type liftgate on the Traveler. The SSII (Soft-top Safari II) was built from 1977 to 1979 in order to compete with the Jeep CJ. This model included a soft top with soft doors, Jeep style mirrors, plastic door inserts, special plastic grille and a roll bar, among other options. Several SSIIs were champions on the off-road racing circuit during the late 70s. The Scout II is most identifiable by its different front grilles. The 1971 - '72 Scout II shared the same grille, three horizontal bars between the headlights and chrome rings around the headlights. 1973 Scout II's had 14 vertical bars between the headlights, a split in the middle, seven bars on each side surrounded by chrome trim pieces and an "International" model plate low on the left side. 1974 - '75 Scout II grilles were the same as 1973, with the addition of a vertical bar trim overlay. The 1975 had chrome & black square trim rings around the headlights. 1976 had the same headlight trim rings as 1975, a chrome center grille of 15 horizontal bars split into three sections was used in this year only. 1977-'79 Scout II's used the same grille between the same headlight bezels the new chrome grille had two large horizontal bars with three vertical support lines and the "International" nameplate moved up to the center of the grille on the left side. In 1980, the final year of production for the Scout, the grille was a very distinctive design, available with black or silver, a one piece grille with square headlights, made of ABS plastic. Both grille color options had imprinted chrome trim around the headlights and an "International" name located on the left side.