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The 2011 Ford Super Duty Trucks - Challenge
The 2011 Ford Super Duty Trucks - Challenge
The 2011 Ford Super Duty Trucks - Challenge 1 - Fuel Efficiency
The 2011 Ford Super Duty Trucks - Challenge 1 - Fuel Efficiency - Mike Rowe hosts a head to head fuel-efficiency with a 2011 Ford Super Duty, a Ram and a Silverado.
2011 Super Duty - Challenge 2 | TowingWatch as Super Duty, Ram and Silverado compete to see which truck can best handle a potentially hazardous swaying trailer.
2011 Super Duty - Challenge 3 | TorqueSuper Duty, Ram and Silverado are challenged to pass a slow-moving tanker on a treacherous mountain road.
2011 Super Duty - Challenge 4 | Fuel Efficiency Rematch - Super Duty Vs SilveradoWatch as the 2011 Super Duty Diesel, with best-in-class 400 horsepower and best-in-class 800 lb.-ft. torque, motors past the 2011 Silverado Diesel once again.
2011 Super Duty - Challenge 5 | Max Towing - Super Duty Vs SilveradoTake one F-350 DRW and one Silverado 3500 DRW. Hook them up to a trailer to tow their maximum weight. With even more horsepower and torque, the F-350 DRW easily outdistanced the Silverado 3500 DRW.
2011 >Super Duty - Challenge 6 | Gas Engine -- Super Duty Vs Ram and SilveradoSuper Duty versus Ram and Silverado to see which gas engine delivers the best fuel efficiency.
PHOENIX, Ariz.—Has the definition of leadership in the heavy-duty/super-duty truck segment changed since the last time Ford, Chevrolet/GMC, and Dodge brought out new truck bruisers? Make no mistake: Horsepower, torque, towing and payload are still the primary fields of battle for winning over ranchers, construction workers and contractors. But we can add another event to the heavy-duty Olympics, according to those customers—fuel economy. That's right. Even with gas and diesel comfortably below $3.00 a gallon in most parts of the U.S., fuel economy has become the new torque when it comes to impressing customers. Ford, in fact, named fuel economy as its leading concern when it set out to build a new diesel engine after severing its relationship with diesel-engine supplier Navistar. The results are surprising, and may well entice Dodge and Chevy owners.
The SpecsThe best bits of the redesigned Ford Super Duty are under the hood, in the bed, and behind the instrument panel. Cosmetically speaking, the front end has been redone to get the SD in line with the new Ford F-Series design introduced for the 2009 model year. That means a front fascia and grille that looks like Ford bought a few warehouses of chrome cheap last year when companies were throwing over ballast to raise money. Bigger headlamps are at the corners. The hood features a new inverted power dome sculpted to conceal an all-new, Ford-designed Powerstroke diesel engine.Inside, the flow-through center console (aka contractor's desk drawer) has 60 percent more storage space, with 70 possible configurations. A handy 12-volt power point is inside the console, as well as a second power point and AC plug in the rear of the console, making laptops easy to plug in without an adapter. The rest of the interior layout is sharpened up, with evolutionary changes, which isn't bad considering the interior of the outgoing Super Duty model was more than respectable, especially in the top-of-the-line King Ranch edition. In the center stack, there's a new 4.2-inch "LCD Productivity" display that not only shows data like fuel economy and exterior temperature, but also allows drivers to log accumulated mileage on different trailers. Checklists for various trailer connections pop up as well. The input from customers on how to make it all user-friendly is in abundance. Under the hood, the powertrains are all new. The 6.2-liter 16-valve V8 replaces the 5.4-liter. It's rated 385 hp at 5500 rpm and 405 lb-ft at 4500 rpm of torque. It's mated to Ford's new Torqshift six-speed automatic transmission. Even with the higher displacement, Ford said it managed to improve fuel economy by 15 percent. The optional diesel engine is the big story at Ford. Divorced from Navistar as its diesel supplier, Ford developed its own new Powerstroke engine. The diesel is rated at 390 hp at 2800 rpm and 735 lb-ft. of torque at 1600 rpm. Ford offers no manual transmission in the SD. Conventional towing for the flex-fuel spark-ignition SD maxes out at 15,000 pounds of trailer weight. The Powerstroke diesel maxes out at 16,000 for the F-450 4x4 Crew Cab. That's for hitch-mounted trailers. Use a fifth-wheel trailer that connects to the bed above the rear axle and the Powerstroke tops out at 24,400 pounds. Maximum payload rating for the flex-fuel SD is 4600 pounds, and the max for the Powerstroke diesel is 6520. Especially useful, if not downright ingenious (for the category) is the first-ever factory-installed and warrantied fifth-wheel and gooseneck substructure directly attached to the frame. Now, instead of paying a dealer or converter over $1000 to literally tear up the bed and understructure of a brand new truck to install cross-bracing and the gooseneck receiver, Ford has made it a clean $400 factory-installed option that only requires prying up a bed plug to access. We'd still like Dodge's bed-storage system in every truck, but this is a pretty big "gee-whiz" item for fifth-wheel towers. And let's not forget the availability of Ford's SYNC system and Ford Work Solutions. With these systems, the driver can wirelessly tie into a work office computer through the dashboard display. Ford has a dizzying number of packages and versions, and too many combinations to list here. The styling packages, though, carry over from the outgoing SD: XL, XLT, Lariat and King Ranch. Dual rear-wheel versions are, of course, available. Prices will be very similar to today's trucks. The XL starting price today is $25,875, while the King Ranch version will be north of $60K. The DriveWith all the attention on work-related performance, it's easy to overlook the ride. But as the ride quality of light-duty pickups has dramatically improved over the last five years, the pressure has been high to bring even the big boys in line. The new frame, leaf springs and shocks have been optimized to improve overall suspension compliance, compared with the outgoing model. Indeed, the comfort and steering responsiveness are the things that jump out whether you're driving on the highway or pulling a 23,000-pound trailer up a 6-degree grade. We noticed it right away. But since we're not driving these trucks very often, we asked some extreme truck, towing and off-road journalists on the test-drive trip what they noticed first about the new SD. They seconded our impressions.Ford truck vehicle-dynamics supervisor Dan Gompper says the goal of the group was to decrease suspension harshness without sacrificing payload or trailering or getting away from "the DNA of Super Duty." Gompper says one of his supervisors asked him how he felt about a car-like ride for a pickup truck when he started working on the 2009 F-Series about six years ago. "I told him ‘that sounds like a minivan, not a truck I'd want to drive,' and so it's right that nobody should mistake this ride for a car." The 4x2 F-250 and F-350 have modified steering system geometry to take better advantage of the twin I-beam suspension unique to Ford. The purpose of the design is to combine the performance of an independent suspension with the durability of a solid-axle suspension. It all adds up to a much greater sense of control and confidence behind the wheel. Whether driving on the road with 1000 pounds of cement in the bed of a Ford 350 Lariat or behind the wheel of a Ford 550 Powerstroke hooked up to a 26,000-pound load, the steering felt as smooth and responsive as a Taurus. The feeling of control in the ride and steering bloomed in a 3-mile descent at about 6- and 7- degree grades. The Super Duty also has Hill Descent control. It allows a driver to set a maximum speed and then the computer automatically works the throttle and brake to make hauling a load down a steep grade less stressful. Rolling downhill with a 10,000-pound trailer and letting the system do its work felt like the automotive equivalent of a trust fall. But the system did lead us through an unwavering downhill plunge. Heavy-duty trucks like the Super Duty aren't required to post official EPA fuel-economy numbers, leaving buyers a little clueless about how much fuel these rigs drink. Even though fuel costs have stabilized, Ford says fuel efficiency is a huge selling point. Furthermore, the company claims that its internal tests achieved between 23.5 and 26 mpg with the diesel. We'll have to do our own testing to confirm those numbers, but using the onboard computer with a truck loaded with 1000 pounds, we averaged an impressive 24.5 mpg. If that number holds up, the diesel Super Duty could be a class leader. The Bottom LineHaving kept out of Chapter 11, the Ford brand has huge momentum right now, and the new Super Duty should keep it going. Truck buyers are notoriously brand-loyal. But they also like winners and low cost of ownership. The Super Duty checks all the boxes, and with features like the optional fifth-wheel hitch and Ford Works, it even has some items that might lure new buyers. Look for an upcoming PM comparison test of all the new diesel pickups.Citation added: Kiley, David. "2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty Test Drive - Popular Mechanics." Automotive Care, Home Improvement, Tools, DIY Tips - Popular Mechanics. Hearst Communications, 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.
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