Diesel is a dirty word around the world. From the San Francisco Bay to the tight streets of Paris, the word diesel is synonymous with pollution But there is one place where diesel remains king, and that’s in The U.S., bolted to the frames of great pickup trucks. One of those trucks is the 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke, and this big red machine is so good at towing heavy things you’ll want to drive across the country towing trailers just for the fun of it.
The end of July was a busy month for me. I spent nearly a whole week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 right before racing down to North Carolina to save a 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe from a long slumber. None of it would have been possible without the big red F-250 that Ford was kind to toss me the keys to. The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 hauled trailers for a good 2,400 miles that week, and it didn’t break a sweat even once. I even consistently got fuel economy well above my expectations.
(Full Disclosure: Every year, I hitch a different truck up to my family’s 6,300-pound camper to see how the pickups handle the job. Ford loaned me a 2024 Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke for a week to do some hauling with. I paid for my own fuel and DEF, then returned the truck as it was delivered to me.)
26 Years Of Heavy Hauling
Last year my tow rig was a bright orange 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro hybrid. It towed the camper well, but guzzled a surprising amount of gas for a hybrid drivetrain. At the same time, the truck constantly got compliments and more attention than some of the planes did.
This year, I wanted to keep tradition going by bringing a truck that was just a little different. Maybe a Ford Raptor or perhaps a Ram TRX? Then it hit me. Why don’t I hitch the wagon to some diesel power? In 2023, I attended Ford’s launch of the fifth-generation of the Super Duty series. I got to tow 40,000 pounds with a Ford Super Duty F-450, which remains one of the highlights of my towing career. But I really wanted to tow in what would be a real-life situation for me. Boom, Oshkosh was just that!
Now, if you’re not well-versed in your Ford truck history, you might be wondering what on earth I mean by “fifth generation.” The F-Series has definitely been around far longer than that. Don’t worry, I have you covered. Back in 1998, Ford split its F-Series truck brand into two distinct lines. The F-150 half-ton continued down a development path, which led to that truck becoming a softer, more family-friendly vehicle.
However, Ford recognized that the buyers of heavier F-Series trucks still wanted their pickups to do hard work, even if it compromised traits that made the F-150 such a great daily driver. Thus, the Super Duty line was born. I wrote about this before:
For the past [26] years, the higher-capacity trucks have slotted into what Ford calls Super Duty trucks. Now, on the surface, this is a bit confusing. Ford has definitely sold big trucks for far longer than 25 years and the Super Duty name certainly wasn’t invented in 1998, so what gives? Well, Ford says it goes back to the very first F-Series trucks from 75 years ago. Back then, you could buy the half-ton F-1 and the classes climbed all of the way up to the F-7 and F-8 “Big Job” trucks. So, heavy-duty trucks built for hard work have always been a part of the Ford truck formula.
Those early trucks had a Gross Combined Weight Rating (truck plus trailer and payload) up to 41,000 pounds and a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (truck plus payload) of up to 22,000 pounds. As the F-Series marched forward, Ford saw demand for an engine better suited for heavy work. Thus, in 1958, the brand launched the Super Duty engine. The Super Duty name made a return in the late 1980s for a Class 4 chassis cab truck.
The Super Duty has cornered its market space ever since. Chances are your utility company uses Super Duty trucks, and it’s likely the same for local emergency services, construction, and maybe even mining. Then you have the ranchers and just everyday people who want a truck with a bit more meat than a half-ton.
Ford says 90 percent of Super Duty owners use their trucks to tow things. I thought that number was shocking, but after living with one for a week I believe it. You buy something like the F-250 or larger for its ability to haul huge loads without stress.
Ford improved the Super Duty for the fifth generation in many key areas, some of which I discuss here when I talked about the 2023 model:
There are a ton of changes for the Super Duty line this year, and Ford starts them off under the hood. New this year is a 6.8-liter V8 gas engine making 405 HP and 445 lb-ft torque. This is the standard engine in the F-250 and you’ll also find it in the XL trim of the F-350. A step up from that engine is the 7.3-liter V8, affectionately known as the ‘Godzilla’ engine. This plant makes 430 HP and 485 lb-ft torque. From there, you have the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 diesel, which churns out 475 HP and 1,050 lb-ft torque. Finally, we have the High-Output 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8, which cranks the power up to 500 HP and 1,200 lb-ft torque of stump-pulling, 40,000-lb trailer-pulling power. And payload? At best, you can haul a whole 8,000 pounds in the bed. Ford says that payload also accounts for occupants, so it’s not 8,000 pounds minus people in the cab.
Oh yeah, when equipped in a specific (read, super cool) way, the Ford F-450 will tow an incredible 40,000 pounds, placing the Super Duty at the top of the towing charts. Ford says the extreme towing ability, which bests the 2022 model by 3,000 pounds, was done by tweaking the frame. The Super Duty’s frame is similar to the outgoing P558-generation trucks, but optimized and strengthened in key areas. Ford says there were updates to the interface between the hitch and frame as well as updates to the fifth wheel crossmember. I got to drive that truck and haul its massive load around Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds. The experience of pulling half of the maximum legal weight of a Class 8 tractor remains mind-boggling, so much that you’re going to read about it in a separate entry.
To get us back on track here, all Super Duty variants come with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Meanwhile, every chassis cab comes standard with a power take off connection and four-wheel-drive is now standard starting with XLT trim levels and up.
Ford is thorough in listing the capabilities of each and every possible configuration of Super Duty. You can give yourself a headache flipping through all of it, so here’s a handy couple of bulletpoints:
- Gooseneck towing of 40,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- 5th-wheel towing of 35,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- Conventional towing capacity of 30,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- Gooseneck towing of 38,000 pounds with F-350 pickup.
- Conventional towing of 28,000 pounds with the F-350 DRW.
- Conventional towing of 25,000 pounds with the F-350 SRW.
- Gooseneck towing of 23,000 pounds with F-350 Tremor HO Power Stroke.
- Conventional towing of 22,000 pounds with F-350 DRW 7.3-liter Godzilla V8.
- Conventional towing of 18,500 pounds for the F-350 Tremor (gas and diesel).
- Gooseneck towing of 21,000 pounds for the F-350 Tremor (gas and diesel).
- Gooseneck towing of 23,000 pounds with F-250 HO Power Stroke.
- Conventional towing of 22,000 pounds with the F-250 HO Power Stroke.
All of that is insane, right? My loaner truck was a 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat. Under the hood was a 6.7-liter High Output Power Stroke V8, which meant 500 horsepower and a monstrous 1,200 lb-ft of torque. In other words, I was basically driving a freight locomotive! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but it certainly felt like I was strapped to an impossible amount of power.
This truck is equipped with four-wheel drive, the 11,100-pound GVWR package, and the Sport Appearance Package. Its rear axle has an electronic locker and a 3.55 ratio, and out back is a 6-3/4′ box; the whole truck rides on a 160-inch wheelbase. Ford says an F-250 in this configuration can tow a whopping 18,200-pound trailer from the hitch just below the rear bumper. This same truck could haul a 20,000-pound gooseneck. The Sport Appearance Package nets body-color bumpers, black trim, running boards, and black 20″ wheels.
The first trailer involved in this trip was a 2007 Adirondack 31BH by Thor. This trailer weighs 6,292 pounds empty and measures 35’5″ from bow to stern. This truck was totally overkill for the job and a half-ton could have handled it just fine. But I wanted to hear the heartwarming clickety-clack of a diesel, and this truck is currently the smallest truck Ford sells with a diesel.
A Different Diesel Experience
Motor City Solutions of Detroit dropped off the truck the Friday before the big air show, and I was like a kid in a candy store. I put on my cowgirl hat, fired up that mighty Power Stroke, and went for a cruise.
If you’ve never driven a diesel truck before, there will be one thing that immediately jumps out at you. These newfangled engines aren’t anything like the 7.3 Power Strokes or 5.9 Cummins that so many covet. Yes, I know that these engines are worlds apart in terms of technology, but it’s the character of these new engines that will surprise you.
If you stand vaguely in the vicinity of those old diesels you will smell diesel burning, and if they aren’t exactly right you might see black soot or even some black smoke. None of that is happening here with this Ford’s engine or with many diesel engines from the past 15 or so years. You can stand directly behind the exhaust of this truck, and the smell will be best described as “hot” rather than anything else. You don’t get diesel fumes or any of the nasty stuff commonly associated with older diesels.
Then there’s how quiet everything is. These new trucks idle quieter than some gasoline cars I’ve run across. If you’re looking for the kind of mechanical clanging that wakes people like me up in the morning you won’t find it here. Now, this isn’t me trashing this truck. A lot of people complain about the sights, smells, and auditory sensation of having to listen to a diesel. Modern engines are nothing like that.
This experience of refinement is further amplified when you hop into the cab. The interior of my Lariat tester featured large thrones wrapped in soft leather and there were expansive glass panels that ran the length of the roof. To your right is a command center with real buttons for HVAC controls and comfort options including dual-zone climate, heated seats, ventilated seats, and power for everything in there. Want to open the rear window? Just hit the switch! Want to put your mirrors into towing mode? Boom, hit a switch for that.
Once you hop into the interior of the Lariat, you begin to understand that while the F-250 and bigger trucks are built for work, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer to get the job done. In fact, the interior of the Lariat was so comfortable that on one night I slept inside of the truck instead of stopping at a hotel, but we’ll get to that later.
At the same time, you can tell that Ford turned a work truck into a luxury pickup. The interior has nice soft-touch materials on many surfaces, but then those surfaces transition to the kind of hard plastic you’d expect to find in a city bus, not a luxury truck costing just short of $100,000. None of it is a dealbreaker, but you’d expect better for the price you’re paying.
The truck makes up for it in other ways, such as the Bang & Olufsen Unleashed 14-speaker. Now, look, I’m not an audiophile like Thomas is. I’m a pretty simple gal who likes her music played at 11 with everything still there loud and clear. Well, I don’t know who the Bang & Olufsen guys were, but the sound system absolutely lives up to the first half of the name. The B&O sound system hits so hard you’ll feel it in your heart at only halfway up the volume dial, and if you dared crank it all of the way up it would probably make you go deaf in little time. No matter what song I punched through the truck it came out clear, loud, and with just the right amount of bass. This system ranks near the top of sound systems I’ve used in regular vehicles. The jobsite has never sounded better.
This brilliant soundstage was paired with a suite of sweet tech from Ford Co-Pilot360 2.0, a HUD, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, automatic emergency braking, wireless charging, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Ford SYNC 4 running through a gigantic 12-inch screen. Another 12-inch screen was used for the instrument cluster.
All of this tech was amazing to have, but what I loved the most was how this truck drove. In the past, moving up from a half-ton sometimes meant trading comfort for capability, but this wasn’t the case here. I fired up that Power Stroke at the touch of the button and the cab was so well insulated that I barely heard or felt it.
After adjusting my seat and setting everything from the HUD position to the B&O’s bass it was time to roll, and Ford gives you a deeply satisfying column shifter to put the truck in Drive. This era is full of digital shifters, yet this relic of the past still felt great. It’s a big physical lump that only adds to the realization that I’m harnessing mountain-pulling 1,200 lb-ft of torque under my size 10 slip-on.
Setting off, this new Power Stroke is unlike its predecessors. There wasn’t much in the way of lag when I gave the accelerator a foot-full. Instead, my head got pushed into the cushy headrest, I finally heard the engine spooling up, and I thundered down the highway way faster than a truck this size had any right to be going. Sure, the Power Stroke didn’t have the instant torque last year’s Toyota Tundra TRD Pro hybrid did, but putting the hammer down in the diesel was infinitely more fun. Mind you, this truck is only 200 horses short of my favorite truck, the F-150 FP700. This felt darned close, but with the intensity turned down from 11 to about a 7 or 8.
Of course, you don’t have to drive the truck this way. You could also be gentle on the pedal, which I was most of the time. When you do that, the truck gradually and silently builds speed. You’ll be rewarded at the pump as well. My test truck got in the high 20 mpg range when unloaded. That’s great for a vehicle so long it requires 1.25 parking spaces at the local supermarket.
The suspension is also impressive. Again, I’ve driven some older Super Duty trucks, and some of them felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. The ride quality in this burly truck was better than some new cars I’ve driven. I won’t say it’s 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton soft in there, but I’d prefer this truck’s ride over a Toyota Corolla. All of this was just driving around unloaded, too.
Hitching Up The Wagon
The Ford Super Duty F-250 felt like a decent daily driver, but that isn’t really what it’s meant for.
On Saturday, Sheryl and I picked up my family’s Adirondack camper from storage. I’ve been towing trailers for almost as long as I’ve had a driver’s license. My dad was an over-the-road trucker for years, even owning his own business. To give you an idea of how old this trucking business was, it was called Streeter & Son Trucking Co. Anyway, dad taught me everything I know about towing.
If you don’t do much towing, it isn’t just dropping a tongue on a ball and hitting the road. You have to consider increased stopping distances, trailer swing, trailer sway, proper trailer loading, proper trailer hitching, payloads, tire loading, and so much more. Too many Americans lash a trailer up to whatever tow vehicle they have, not knowing that both the truck and trailer are overloaded.
Last year, Ford challenged journalists at the Super Duty launch event to back up to a trailer’s tongue on their own and to back up a trailer on their own. I was the only one able to complete these tasks without using Ford’s suite of trailer assists. That comes from so much experience doing all of this myself.
This is what I did on my very first try during that event:
One of the things I loved about the F-250 was its suite of cameras, giving you a 360-degree view of the truck. Normally, I hitch up a trailer to a truck myself by centering the trailer in the middle of the rear window and then inching my way back. Trucks with backup cameras make it a little easier by giving me a better view of the rear.
The F-250 is even better than that, giving me a camera looking right at the tow hitch. The camera view also has a dotted line going from the hitch to where the truck will end up. This makes hitching absolutely effortless. I just point the truck towards the trailer, drive until the ball is under the trailer’s tongue, then bam, hit the parking brake. It’s so easy that it feels like using a cheat code.
If you aren’t as good as I am with trailers, Ford offers a system called Pro Trailer Hitch Assist where the truck will reverse itself straight to the tongue of the trailer, even steering itself there. If simply having a camera is like a cheat code, this is like having a bot program!
Other neat tech onboard includes a function that simplifies backing up a trailer, from my review a year ago:
Pro Trailer Backup Assist. This is another system that does more or less what it says on the box. Another challenge for people who don’t tow often is backing a trailer. When you’re reversing a trailer, turning your steering wheel right results in the trailer swinging left. Turning left results in a trailer swinging right. Oh yeah, and when you’re reversing straight, you still have to turn the wheel to keep the trailer straight. Don’t forget, depending on the design of your trailer, turning too late can get you stuck in a tight spot. Again, if you tow all of the time, you can probably back a trailer with ease.
For those who are terrible at the job, just activate Pro Trailer Backup Assist. In this system, which has been simplified since its application in the F-150, you just put a sticker on your trailer, let the truck identify the trailer through the sticker, then use a dial to reverse the trailer. Left on the dial makes the trailer go left, while right makes the trailer go right.
Then there’s how you can use the truck like a scale. The truck monitors ride height changes recorded by the ride height sensors and then runs that data against a calculation to arrive at an estimated weight. This is useful for both the Onboard Scales function and the Smart Hitch function. When you load the truck’s bed, it’ll use its change in ride height to estimate how much weight you’ve put in the back. Plug in your trailer data and the truck can even tell you if you’ve loaded your tongue weight beyond safe margins. The truck will use its display as well as LEDs in the taillight to give you a clear indication of what’s going on.
Again, experienced haulers won’t need any of this stuff, but I’m glad it exists. Not everyone can hitch up or back a trailer on the first try. Not everyone knows their trailer weights right from the top of their head. It’s great to have a truck that tries its best to keep you from becoming a highway disaster.
Anyway, hitching up the Adirondack was a cinch thanks to the tow ball camera. From there, it was as simple as loading up and hitting the road.
On The Road
It didn’t take long for me to figure out why people buy these bigger trucks for loads a half-ton can haul.
Journalists sometimes say that a vehicle tows so well that you don’t even feel the trailer back there. This is hogwash. I don’t care how capable a truck is, you will feel that trailer back there. However, the Super Duty is the first truck that gets as close to that claim as I’ve ever experienced before.
The F-250 Power Stroke hauled that 6,300-pound Adirondack like it was a puny 850-pound U-Haul motorcycle trailer. A 6,300-pound brick did slow the truck down a little, but it still accelerated faster than traffic normally would on an on-ramp.
The Super Duty with that 6,300-pound trailer still accelerated so fast that flooring it on an on-ramp may break something inside of the camper or damage a wall.
Once I was on the highway, the truck drove with more confidence than a Disney movie villain. It held straight and true no matter the speed, dry or wet, still or windy. Winds on I-94 in Wisconsin are notorious for whipping up and wagging trailers around. The F-250 didn’t care and kept the Adirondack on track and in its lane.
The diesel powertrain was also a bright spot here as well. The truck found its sweet spot and stayed there. The engine remained a low-ish RPM for the whole trip and largely stuck to the same gear as well. That was delightful to see as some trucks end up hunting around for gears and revving high when towing the Adirondack. If the F-250 could talk, it would have said “is this all you got?” Granted, I sure hope it wasn’t breaking a sweat when this trailer was just a fraction of its incredible 18,200-pound tow rating.
I ended up hauling the family camper about 400 miles, and my average for the whole drive was about 10.2 mpg. That is the best mpg I’ve gotten yet towing the camper with any vehicle. Certainly, it was lightyears ahead of the 7.2 mpg the Tundra TRD Pro hybrid got last year. What’s better is the fact that this truck has a generous 34-gallon tank, which means decently long legs when towing.
Sadly, the F-250 Lariat, which I nicknamed Big Red, wasn’t as popular at Oshkosh as the Tundra was. Some people gave the truck a thumbs up, but most people didn’t care. Maybe the truck should have been even redder.
To date, I’ve towed the Adirondack with a 2011 Ford Expedition EL, a 2011 Chevrolet Suburban 1500, a 2016 Ford Super Duty F-350 XL Crew Cab, a 2015 GMC Yukon Denali, and a 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Out of all of those trucks and SUVs, the F-250 comes out on top and it’s not even close. The level of comfort and capability combined of this F-250 is unmatched by those other vehicles and only the F-350 V8 gasser comes close on fuel economy.
If I could describe the towing experience of the F-250 in one word, I’d have to conjure up a term I said earlier: sublime. The F-250 makes towing so easy, so painless, and so relaxing that I arrived at Oshkosh just as fresh and just as clear-minded as I left home.
Yet, the ultimate test for this truck wasn’t Oshkosh.
Once I dropped off the camper, I ran to U-Haul, hitched up an Auto Transport, and drove a thousand miles down to North Carolina. This gave me the ability to see how the Ford performed on a truly long trip.
The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat (and yes, that’s the official way to say it) is an excellent travel companion. A U-Haul Auto Transport weighs 2,210 pounds empty, so the truck barely noticed it back there. That allowed me to take in the truck as a road trip warrior. The truck is phenomenal at this task. I’m a “cannonball” type of traveler. By that, I mean that I set my sights on a destination and try to get there as quickly as possible. I stop for fuel only in an effort to get in as many miles as possible.
The Super Duty is one of the kings of long trips. I got 18 mpg hauling the empty U-Haul trailer down the highway and through Appalachia. That meant a smidge over 600 miles of range or more than halfway to Stephen Walter Gossin in Wilmington, North Carolina in just one go. Why is the F-250 a king of road trips? Well, it goes back to the Lariat package and options here. I set adaptive cruise and sunk into my comfortable leather throne. Mile after mile passed and that seat never made me feel pain. Handling the beast of a truck never wore me out, and the ventilated seat kept me feeling great. Here’s also where that insulation came in “clutch,” as David would say, as the outside world stayed outside, further reducing fatigue. The truck kept me so fresh that I drove through the entire day, hitting three in the morning before I realized that I should get some sleep.
But where do you even find a good place to sleep at three in the morning in West Virginia? Most of the motels and hotels with vacancy at 3am on a Saturday morning were bedbug specials, so I chose to put a blanket down on the truck’s rear bench and that’s where I slept.
I won’t say that sleeping in the F-250 was the best sleep that I’ve had — that distinction goes to the Chevrolet HHR — but it was far better than expected. I actually caught some dreams, which I couldn’t say about sleeping in my Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI.
I finally reached Wilmington in the early afternoon that day, where I parked the Super Duty at Gossin’s house and readied myself to rescue the lovely Plymouth below.
As I wrote in my Plymouth rescue piece, Gossin, a couple of readers, and I worked through the soupy humidity of North Carolina to load my new project car. Then I drove off into rural North Carolina, bound for home. Adding another 3,000 pounds or so to the U-Haul trailer didn’t impact the F-250 too much. It began its weekend by towing a 6,300-pound camper; 5,200 pounds of U-Haul trailer and vintage American car was nothing.
What was interesting was that the 5,200 pounds of trailer and classic car was such an easy pull for the F-250’s HO Power Stroke even in the truck’s regular driving mode. But I mostly kept it in the truck’s towing mode, which holds gears longer, just to be safe. To illustrate how powerful that Power Stroke is, the truck climbed through the mountains on the way home often without needing to downshift.
Going down those mountains was equally cool, as the truck’s built-in engine braking often negated the need to even pump the brake pedal. This time around I didn’t have time to stop. Google said I had 14 hours and 1,000 miles to drive. Ford’s people were scheduled to come in only hours after I got home. So this was the ultimate road trip test.
Well, adding a Plymouth didn’t change much to my road test notes. The ride was smooth with low fatigue and high-bass from the Mercedes Jam Session-Approved sound system. I even returned an acceptable 13 mpg with the Plymouth in tow and driving a smidge faster on the way back than I drove on the way down. All of that is excellent. Even the gargantuan mirrors were perfect at giving me a wide view of the world behind me.
A Few Complaints
What wasn’t so excellent were the problems I had with other parts of the truck.
Let’s start with the obvious. The F-250 is just far too tall. Look, I get it. I love big trucks and I cannot lie. I love those trucks big, tall, and diesel-powered. Gosh, these things are so fun to drive.
However, these trucks are not fun to load. The bedsides of the F-250 are so tall that it’s difficult to toss things into the bed from the sides. Getting things out of the bed from the sides is extraordinarily difficult. I have to climb up on a bed step, grab the thing I want to retrieve, put it on the bed side, jump down, and then grab the object.
Likewise, loading things into the rear requires lifting things to at or around boob level, which is just too high. Ford tries to alleviate this with a handy bed stairway. But you know what would eliminate the need for stairs to get into your bed? Dropping bed height down. I like big trucks, but I’d be okay with a lower bed height.
It doesn’t end there with the bed, either. The hood is also too darn high. Normally, I take pictures of engines to show our readers but I couldn’t here. There was just no way for me to open and close the F-250’s hood without having a step stool or something. That leads us into another problem and that’s with visibility. I can see pretty well out of the truck, but shorter drivers are likely to miss multiple children or animals under the hood or tailgate when pulling out of a driveway. That makes using the cameras absolutely necessary when you’re maneuvering around. Again, dropping the trucks closer to the ground would help here (though of course that’s going to have significant implications on the overall package/on performance).
There was one quality issue I found, and it was either some early corrosion or bad paint on the tailgate. This was disappointing to see on a new truck, but not one that would be too hard to have fixed.
Finally, the whole diesel exhaust fluid thing is a bigger headache than it should be. See, modern diesel engines need DEF to meet strict emissions regulations. Thankfully, the F-250 has a gauge that estimates when you’ll need to fill up on DEF next. This estimate seems to be based on the truck’s current load and the estimate doesn’t appear to be anywhere near accurate. So, you’ll check the readout and see that is says 1,800 miles remaining, but then 500 miles later the truck will tell you that you have 500 miles remaining.
Normally, I wouldn’t complain about this, but too many fuel stations make getting DEF harder than it needs to be. In my case, I needed DEF when I was driving through Indiana on my way home. Truck stops on the way back offered two ways of getting DEF. I could buy a 2.5-gallon jug of the stuff for $24 or pull up to one of the big truck pumps and pay $4 a gallon. Unfortunately, I ran into multiple stations that just didn’t have DEF in stock. The ones that did have DEF refused to dispense it when I swiped a regular credit card or bank card. A trucker advised me that the best way for someone like me to get DEF was to go into the truck stop and pre-pay for a few gallons. That was stupid, but it worked!
It seems my friends with modern diesel trucks just stock up on DEF from Walmart or similar and that’s how they roll.
I’m Addicted To Power
I arrived home on Monday morning just as the sun crept over the horizon. I had the F-250 for a little over a week and put about 2,400 miles on it. To say that I adored every mile would be an understatement.
As far as pricing goes, you better bring some cash to the table. $44,970 gets you in the door of the F-250 with the XL. If you want a Lariat like you see here, that starts at $64,740. Exterior options for my tester include $495 for the pretty Rapid Red, $12,995 for the HO 6.7 Power Stroke, $430 for the electronic locking axle, $5,075 for the Lariat Ultimate Package, $2,880 for the Sport Appearance Package, $1,495 Moonroof, $595 Tough Bed bedliner, and $400 for the Ford Pro Upfit Integration System. Interior options included Pro Power Onboard 2kW for $985, Onboard Scales & Smart Hitch for $650, and Max Recline Seats for $335.
All in, you’re looking at $92,520, and this truck is a great way to spend nearly six figures.
The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke is such a delightful truck that I see why people own these things as daily drivers. It makes towing effortless, eats miles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and towers so high over everything else on the road that you feel like a king or a queen. You can pull a mountain while still getting reasonable fuel economy and all of those things you hate about diesel power just aren’t present here. Toss in the jammin’ sound system and you have a frankly addictive combination. I learned during my trip that Ford’s position as a market leader is well-deserved; the company got me to fall in love with the exact opposite of my typical car.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I do agree that a standard license allowing 26,000 pounds (or more if you’re driving an RV) is not a great idea for most drivers.
The state I live in, Illinois, is one of a handful that does things a bit differently. Your regular license gets you to 16,000 pounds total and you need to upgrade your license before driving larger vehicles from there. I’m talking about non-CDL licenses, here!
The exception to the rule is if you’re driving a rental, then your regular Class D can get you to 26k. Something like my bus would require a non-commercial Class B (yes, that’s an Illinois thing), as would many Class A RVs. One of these days I want to write about how it’s like to get a non-commercial Class A, which in my state is somewhat similar to a CDL, but without the federal requirements.
It’s not perfect, but it’s something!
I gotta say I disagree. A 26,000lb box truck is just not that difficult to drive. Yes, there are MASSIVE issues with our drivers education and testing systems in general, but if you can’t drive an automatic uhaul truck, I question whether you should be driving a regular car.
If 26,000lb is too much for most drivers(and I think it is), the problem lies with the ‘most drivers’ part and not the ‘26,000lb’ part.
I agree that a box truck isn’t hard to drive. Heck, my bus isn’t rocket science either! I think I would be fine with robust driver education taking the place of my state’s license classes, but something should change. In my state, you won’t fail your driving test so long as you don’t crash and don’t commit any major offenses in the couple of miles you’ll drive. It’s wild how easy it is.
In Idaho it’s a little stricter than that(depending on which tester you get, they’re pretty variable because they’re independent contractors and not DMV employees) but still easier than it should be.
If you want to drive a semi truck, you need to pass a driver’s test in a semi truck. But if you want to drive a 26,000lb Class 6 medium duty truck, it’s just fine to take the test in a Yaris?
I am an advocate for drivers training and testing to happen in actual medium duty trucks. I became a significantly better driver after I got some real seat time in a truck.
So why are the DMV testers not DMV employees? Or all the things to sub out…
At $45k base price, this is cheaper than the average new car sold. But that money buys a 2WD RCLB with the base gas engine. Oxford White, vinyl seat. IOW, a work truck.
The fact that *this* truck costs more than double the base price, helps me understand that Ford is a truck company that happens to sell a few SUV on the side.
Don’t forget the higher price is what makes the money to go into EV and Hybrid development.
Good, then automakers won’t need massive grants and sweet term loans from the government.
Oh, wait:
https://www.transportation.gov/rural/ev/toolkit/ev-infrastructure-funding-and-financing/federal-funding-programs
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/22/23769966/ford-doe-loan-ev-battery-factory-sk-avtm
Whatever.
“Sport Appearance Package” on a 3 ton vehicle that’s closer to a Semi than anything else you can drive without a CDL.
*facepalm*
Except, you know, Class 3, 4, 5, and 6 medium duty trucks. All of which are closer to a semi but can be driven without a CDL.
This.
About 10 years ago, my Focus ST was totaled and I was given the choice of Nissan Sentra or Ram 1500 quadcab rental. As an avid truck-hater, I chose the Ram as I wanted to see why people love driving these behemoths. Maybe it would convert me??? I mean, I loved my family’s full-sized Bronco, so I’m not anti-bigger vehicle.
I hated every minute. They’re huge and cumbersome, a pain to park, take forever to brake, you feel completely disconnected from the road, ride rough, didn’t fit in the garage, poor mileage (even compared to my aggressively driven Boss 302), changing lanes is always a guessing game, give it any gas and the rear tires would squeal, etc etc etc.
That experience made me wonder more than ever, why would anyone want to drive this daily??? When not being used as a tool they’re just miserable.
Ride rough? I had the exact opposite experience. I rented a Fiesta and found it to be cramped, severely underpowered in the midrange, and the suspension crashed at every pothole and expansion joint on the road. I’ll take a truck a truck anyday.
Yeah for real. I’m not in love with trucks but a fiesta rides way worse than a ram 1500.
I’ve never owned a truck but I did drive a Tacoma once. Even that was unpleasant for me.
Tacoma’s have some of the worst ergonomics in any vehicle.
This sounds more like a you problem than a truck problem, except for fitting into a garage and mileage.
I’ve got an F-150 Lariat Max Tow. We took it on a cross country trip over my E93 BMW convertible. The truck was quieter, longer legged (1700 revs/mile vs 2000), roomier, smoother riding, with more comfy, all day chairs. Gas mileage was not as good as the BMW (18 vs 26mpg), but the comfort was pretty good.
My sister drove a 1 ton dually monster truck everywhere for years. Why? She felt totally invincible whether she was on the road or in a WalMart parking lot. Like riding around on an Indian war elephant and looking down on all the lowly creatures. You ARE the King of The Road, and you can crush anyone getting in your way. Big truck truck swagger.
I bought a 4/6” lowering kit for my Silverado 1500. My dogs and I can get in and out easily now and I can load the bed from the sides like it ought to be. 4×4 still works just fine and it’s not slammed. It’s the same roof height as an everyday CRV or RAV4 or any other innocuous crossover.
I’ve been looking at dropping my Colorado a little. At least the rear so it is easier to get stuff into the bed. But, when I search for leveling kits all I find is 100 kits to raise the front. I really want a cheap and effective way to drop the rear maybe an inch and 1/4 and level out the truck.
BUT, I still want to haul max payload without bottoming out. Any thoughts on that?
Airbags with drop shackles?
If you just lower the rear a bunch your headlights will need to be readjusted. I have an airbag helper spring kit installed. So I can pump it up for when I tow or load the bed a lot. DJM and IHC might have kits, but I’m not very familiar with the Colorado. My truck’s bed side height is perfect now. The: “rest your elbows on it while leaning and talking to someone” like a 70’s truck ad. Stock wheels, no rubbing, no issues and I still have a wheel gap, just not a monsterous one.
Diesel also remains king in Africa, India, Australia, SE Asia, and many parts of South America.
Places with low emission regulations and horrible urban air quality.
The part at the beginning about the fifth generation Super Duty and the history of the name-
I don’t know why Ford calls the current F-150 the 14th generation F-series, treating the F150 like it is the mainline F-series, while treating the Super Duty as an unrelated model. Because that’s wrong.
I got the chance to compare an Aeronose 9th generation F-series, a jellybean ’10th generation’ F150, and a ‘first generation’ Super Duty. And it became clear upon close inspection that the Super Duty is an evolution and improvement of the old chassis, while the Jellybean is a completely unrelated model.
We should really call the current f250/350/450/550/650 the 14th generation F-series, and call the current F150 the 5th generation F150. The F150, starting with the jellybean, is a totally different model from the f series that came before.
Also, the part about the ride quality was spot on. The new Super Dutys ride so so nice. In fact, they ride noticeably better than 2024 f150s. I don’t know how that works.
If your contractor pulls up in one of these trucks, you know you’re gonna pay too much for whatever it is they’re fixing or building.
If your contractor pulls up in one of these it shows he has a good accountant that knows how to use all the tax breaks out there including business depreciation and tax exemptions for vehicles with a GVWR of over 6,000 pounds.
If he pulled up in the $40,000 work version – sure. Not if if he pulls up in a $100,000 version. Tax breaks are great you still pay to drive a massively more expensive vehicle
Slap a sign on it and call it advertising.
Not always true.
“I Drove A 2024 Diesel Ford F-250 And Now I Get Why People Daily Drive Huge Trucks”
Sounds like fun. Ok let’s see what other fun things we can come up with:
I Won $3 In Powerball And Now I Get Why People Lose Their Life Savings.
I Tried Heisenberg’s Pure Blue And Now I Get Why People Smoke Meth Even After Their Teeth Fall Out.
I Had Unprotected Sex With Several Sketchy Random Strangers In A Filthy Gas Station Bathroom And Now I Get Why People $#&@ Hate Condoms.
I Tried Autoerotic Asphyxiation And Now I Get Why People End Up In The ER Trying Too Hard To Explain Themselves.
Ugh, no thanks! Some things should be left for very occasional use..or left alone completely.
You seem to think that driving a new Super Duty is an unpleasant experience. I can tell you, it isn’t. They are luxury cars, at luxury car prices, being sold to luxury car people, and luxurious they are.
“I went to my local Target to practice shooting, and now I get why people love guns!”
Admittedly, not fair to Mercedes because she used this for its intended purpose, but for the people who use them as daily drivers (and especially those who put on sketchy lift kits, roll coal, etc)?
They are not luxury cars, they are luxury behemoths. Those of us who actually drive luxury CARS are seeing our options shrink because of these things being mistaken for “cars.”
No one said it’s unpleasant. I’m sure it’s great. There are lots of things that are fun but which are bad for society in general and should probably be curtailed. This is one of them.
It is absolutely absurd that any rando with a regular driver’s license can drive something like this with 30,000 pounds hanging off the bumper. That should require special licensure, increased liability insurance, regular inspections – just like the commercial semi drivers have. You want to cosplay as an OTR trucker? You’re gonna have to take all the safety steps they do because at the end of the day, whether I get hit by almost 40,000 pounds of gravel truck or almost 40,000 pounds of F150-and-camper doesn’t really matter to my next-of-kin.
We let people who have no idea what they’re doing haul semi-weight trailers around, and we let auto manufacturers skip out on safety, mileage and emissions regulations that regular cars have to meet, which makes it more profitable to sell trucks. So they market them as safer (they’re not) and useful (if you don’t use it to its capabilities, it’s not useful), and inject a heavy dose of “you have to drive one of these to be an alpha male” into the marketing to make damn sure they can sell as many as possible. Which they do, flooding the roads with these rolling mountains which studies have shown are responsible for killing more people than regular cars. Maybe because, as pointed out in the article, you can’t see pedestrians out of the damn things. Simply by holding trucks and their drivers to the same standards the rest of us have to meet, we’d solve the problem and start normalizing vehicle sizes again because no one wants the responsibility that should come along with the upsides.
“It is absolutely absurd that any rando with a regular driver’s license can drive something like this with 30,000 pounds hanging off the bumper.”
They can’t. Almost all states require a Class A CDL for trailer weights greater than 10,000lb. No, we don’t let people who have no idea what they’re doing haul semi weights around.
Your whole rant was based on faulty information.
And yes, it’s stupid to buy a pickup rated for 30k of towing when you can legally tow only 10k lbs.
Anyone who seriously thinks everyone with behemoth campers has a CDL is fooling themselves. Anyone who seriously thinks the cops are bothering to check is also fooling themselves.
“No one said it’s unpleasant.”
Actually I said it’s unpleasant.. at least for my use case.
OK Scarecrow.
“You seem to think that driving a new Super Duty is an unpleasant experience”
Depends on the use case. In my use case, something like a superduty would be very unpleasant
Just getting out of my driveway, which has a narrow section between two houses and backing onto a somewhat narrow side street with parked cars, would be a huge pain in the ass.
Plus, even with the diesel, the fuel economy would be terrible by my standards. Way worse than the 6L/100km I got with my previous car… let alone the 2.5L/100km I’m getting with my current plugin hybrid.
And I haven’t even gone into how the excessive height this thing has makes it outright dangerous in some ways… particularly to pedestrians.
No thanks… I’m with Cheap Bastard on this one.
Nope. I have zero interest in driving an aircraft carrier everywhere I go.
I drove a 2023 F-150 around the city for a week while my Maverick was in the shop and I can’t understand how anyone can use one as a daily driver much less an F-250. The thing just felt huge. I get it if you use one to haul stuff for work but they really don’t make much sense for anything else.
It’s easy if you don’t have to drive into the center of a city, if semis can get there a F250 is a cake walk by comparison.
You’re just not used to the size. When you hop out of a semi truck and into that 2023 F150, it will feel like a Miata.
Meanwhile, while my Maverick was in for recalls, I was hoping for a F150. I love driving them, and it’s my aspirational next vehicle someday.
Love the fair and balanced review!
Not that I don’t expect it from this site, but after years of reading typical screeds about “no one needs a truck like this” from magazines, websites, and commenters, a thorough, even handed review highlighting the good as well as bad is a real breath of fresh air.
You know what would be really fresh? If more people understood the difference between “need” and “want”.
That’s the entire discourse of this site’s comment section whenever trucks are mentioned; there would be nothing fresh about it.
Some people feel they have the right or even the obligation to police what they think others “need”, in their own sole estimation, and others simply don’t.
Such policing is absolutely valid when those faux “needs” are a clear threat to the safety and quality of life of others.
For example when a Canyonero can’t be parked without spilling over onto the neighbors driveway, any walkway or into the parking lot others have the right to criticize. ESPECIALLY if the Canyonero owner is an inconsiderate douche who leaves a shin cracking &%#! ball hitch permanently attached.
When Canyoneros have been proven to significantly increase the risk of death or injury to others, especially because of styling choices as a means to intimidate others those others have every right to complain, perhaps even pass laws to eliminate Canyoneros, or at least to reshape them to eliminate the threat.
When Canyonero solo commuters take up significantly more room on a contested roadway, others in smaller vehicles have a right to criticize.
Do SOME people actually NEED Canyoneros? Sure, but the number who do are far less than the number of people who own them only because of want.
Some people are just bad drivers, I’ve been around full size trucks 2500 or 3500 my whole life, most with manual transmissions. I typically park further back when I have a 4 door long bed because the length takes 2 stalls. I don’t remember ever needing to take up extra stalls for width. I’ve never spilled over into a neighbors driveway, only blocked sidewalks while loading or unloading something from the bed, etc.
As with any vehicle, drive what you want as long as you are safe. If you can’t drive a large truck safely, don’t. If you can’t drive a safe speed, don’t drive on public roads. A vehicle is a tool, use it properly and it’s no more dangerous than any other tool. Knives and guns don’t kill people, and neither do cars…yet (self driving cars are getting there).
They do take up more space on the highway but they pay for their extra space in taxes on fuel.
I do have to admit that new trucks are massive. They are bigger in every way than older trucks. Ford advertises the Tremor as having 35″ tall tires, but the limited comes with 34″+ tall tires anyway. In my area a great many are lifted further with wheels pushed way out, even on dual rear wheel trucks. Thankfully backup cameras are required and surround view cameras are optional.
“As with any vehicle, drive what you want as long as you are safe. If you can’t drive a large truck safely, don’t. If you can’t drive a safe speed, don’t”
Who says what a “safe” speed is though? Are you willing to stick to well below the posted speed limit in the rightmost lane to be as safe as the much smaller, much more agile cars traveling the speed limit? Especially if you are using that giant truck or SUV as it is intended; towing or hauling heavy things?
Why is a truck “unsafe” at the same speeds as a smaller more agile car?
KE=1/2mv^2: Canyoneros tend to have more mass, especially when being used to do Canyonero things like towing and hauling. So when a Canyonero hits something that thing is more likely to get broken.
Higher hoods: That wall of chrome and steel not only blocks the drivers view (cameras are a band aid ) but also substantially increases the risk of death or injury to those hit vs even a vehicle of the same mass and speed with a lower hood.
Higher center of mass: Canyoneros have higher centers of gravity so emergency handling sucks compared to a smaller more agile car.
Is it the vehicle or the driver that makes it unsafe?
Maybe both:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/the-hidden-danger-of-big-pickup-trucks-a9662450602/
https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/paul-prather/article269392007.html
Someone driving aggressively is going to be a greater danger in a Canyonero than a Miata.
It seems to me that on limited access highways the safest speed is the speed everyone else is driving – this you can find Sunday afternoon more stressful than Monday rush hour because on Mondays all the drivers do the drive every Monday and know what to expect.
If that were true, if everyone could be trusted to find the safest speed there would be no need for posted speed limits.
Unfortunately because there is a wide range of ability, competence and condition everyone has a different idea of what that safe speed is, what “safe” is or even whose responsibility it is.
Ask a coked up 20 YO, never held responsible for their actions trustfundarian in a 200 mph capable Porsche and a 80 yo grandpa with failing eyesight in a barely roadworthy 30 yo Buick and you will probably get a speed gradient of at least 70 mph.
That is why we have speed limits and why its a good idea we stick to them.
A policy of mine is to treat the opinion of anyone who uses “Canyonero” unironically as not a serious one.
I’m sorry the choices of others weigh on your mind so much.
You got something better than “Canyonero” as a generalized descriptor of massive pickup trucks and SUVs? Perhaps “Gas Guzzling, Environment Killing, Pedestrian Crushers For The Selfish?
No?
Well let’s stick with Canyonero then.
“I’m sorry the choices of others weigh on your mind so much”
If only it were just my mind:
“A massive carbon footprint
According to a summary analysis of a report by the International Energy Agency that was released on November 13, SUVs are the second-biggest cause of the rise in global carbon dioxide emissions during the past decade. Only the power sector is a bigger contributor.
The analysis, which surprised even its own authors, found a dramatic shift toward SUVs. In 2010, one in five vehicles sold was an SUV; today it’s two in five. “As a result, there are now over 200 million SUVs around the world, up from about 35 million in 2010,” the agency reports.
The preference for heavier SUVs is offsetting fuel-efficiency improvements in smaller cars and carbon savings from the growing popularity of electric cars. “If SUV drivers were a nation, they would rank seventh in the world for carbon emissions,” reported The Guardian.”
https://www.wired.com/story/suvs-are-worse-for-the-climate-than-you-ever-imagined/
Tall trucks, SUVs are 45% deadlier to US pedestrians, study shows
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tall-trucks-suvs-are-45-deadlier-us-pedestrians-study-shows-2023-11-14/
Trucks and sport utility vehicles with hood heights greater than 40 inches are about 45% more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than shorter vehicles with sloped hoods, according to new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Prior studies have shown SUVs and pickups are linked to higher fatality risks in pedestrian crashes. But the new study focused on the risks posed by vehicles with hoods taller than 40 inches using data from nearly 18,000 crashes.
Tall, squared-up hoods are signatures of some of the best-selling and most profitable vehicles sold in the United States such as the Ford Super Duty pickup, the Cadillac Escalade and other large SUVs.”
But sure, dismiss the concern because you don’t like “Canyonero”.
I have a hard time taking you seriously when you go on a rant about how absurdly huge and thirsty an f250 is……. An f250 which will be driving down the freeway next to a semi truck that’s literally 10x bigger.
I’m not saying it shouldn’t be smaller, but it’s just wack to pretend that an f250 is even a little bit close to the biggest, thirstiest, or most dangerous thing that you drive next to every single day.
The big difference is one is necessarily large because 99% of the time it’s on the road, it’s being used to haul freight to keep the wheels of commerce turning.
And the other is being used to go shopping.
No. Canyoneros are the bigger danger here.
Semis are driven by professional drivers with special licencencing to drive those vehicles.
Canyonero drivers have a licence that covers everything from a clown car to a motorhome. They are not trained specifically for a Canyonero. Their job is not dependent on a good driving record.
Some jerk in a Canyonero is far more likely to be reckless, careless or insecure with it than a professional truck driver in a semi. Semis don’t run red lights or roll coal on folks but jerks in Canyoneros sure do.
Semis also usually don’t back up outside of a truck stop or a load destination. Canyoneros back out of private driveways onto public streets.
Semis also are much less common on urban and suburban streets than Canyonero where pedestrians and cyclists are. Conversely there aren’t any pedestrians and cyclists on interstates where lots of semis are.
As far as danger to pedestrians and cyclists go Canyoneos are the problem, not semis. Unless you’re in a Steven King movie.
You’ve uncovered the real safety problem:
“Canyonero drivers have a licence that covers everything from a clown car to a motorhome.”
That drivers are incompetent and insufficiently trained. A Class D license certified that you are good to drive vehicles up to 26,000lb(in most states) and motorhomes up to 80,000lb. Yet most of us passed the test in a vehicle under 5,000lb, myself included.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that, if a Class D license certifies you to drive a big ass uhaul truck or haul a heavy trailer, you better have taken Drivers Ed and your driving test in a 26,000lb vehicle, and you should have demonstrated that you can do the basic pretrip inspection necessary to operate it safely.
And if you took the test in a Corolla and cannot drive a 26,000lb truck safely, then………. Well, really you just shouldn’t have a license, because driving a 26,000lb truck isn’t that hard and I don’t trust the driving skills of anybody who can’t figure that one out.
I also think you have an excessively inflated opinion of the skills of semi drivers, and the quality of their training. There are plenty of semis out there running red lights and worse.
I also think you have an excessively inflated opinion of the skills of semi drivers, and the quality of their training. There are plenty of semis out there running red lights and worse.
Does it happen? Sure. There are a LOT of semis on the road. It’d be ridiculous to expect perfection. The question is whether semi drivers are better or worse than a typical non commercial driver. My money is on better, after all their livelihood is dependent on it.
I’ve spent far too much time watching dashcam videos of semi truck steering wheel holders still on the go pedal when traffic around them is slowing, or visibility is near nill. Refusing to allow a vehicle ahead of them merge in front of them and causing a crash when they could absolutely avoid it. CDL license holders now feel like they are the reason interstate highways were developed and four wheelers are allowed on the road only at the benign dispensation of said CDL license holders.
My anecdotal experiences on the highway point
to professional truck drivers as more courteous than a typical light vehicle drivers.
Professional truck drivers also stand to lose a lot more if they are responsible for a mishap (it’s a lot harder for a semi to get away with hit and run).
My encounters w/ big rigs have been limited to “avoid being near them like the plague”. If I decide to pass one, I get the hell outta there as fast as possible. I do hate the elephant races on a 2 lane freeway where a big rig governed to 64 mph tries to pass a similar rig governed to 63-1/2 mph. I got held up in Nebraska on I-80 (flat as a pancake) for miles (along w/ 20 or so of my closest friends) while 2 inconsiderate asshats were fighting it out for supremacy. There were other drivers dodging & weaving to get around them. If the (very slightly) slower driver would have dropped his speed by 5mph for 5 seconds, the pass would have been consummated and all could have gone about their business, unimpeded.
20 years ago, I would have agreed that truckers are consummate professionals and courteous. Now, you have foreign nationals who may or may not speak English and understand the signs, recent graduates of BillyBob’s 6 week school of trucking clogging he highways as steering wheel holders, not real truck drivers.
Well I’m in CA where they are limited by law to 55 MPH which does not bother me since I’m also usually doing 55 MPH in the right lane.
I live in CA also, where on a busy holiday weekend the speed on I-5 is the speed of the 2nd slowest truck on the highway. But I have driven across the country on blue highways and interstates, multiple times.
I was slightly surprised to find Texas 2 lane highways w/ a 75 mph speed limit and multiple states w/ an 80mph interstate speed limit (including trucks). Maybe it’s just California, but the elephant races are not as prevalent in most states (perhaps the hills separate them more). Also, most states seem to imply that road boulders in the left lane will not be tolerated. Oklahoma posts signs admonishing drivers to not impede traffic in the fast lane, and Missouri tells drivers to “camp in the Ozarks, not the fast lane”.
Save for that incident in Nebraska, most drivers are courteous enough to stay out of the passing lane until the traffic gets heavy.
Strange. I drive I5 between Sac And Tracy and find cars tend to get around the big trucks just fine. Sure once in a while there’s an elephant race as you put it but those last maybe 4-5 minute then it’s business as usual.
Usually. I’ve had the misfortune to traverse I-5 between LA & Sac on a holiday weekend. Bumper to bumper in both lanes at 52mph and idiots brake checking the morons tailgating; with the resultant spin outs into the median. We had to pull off and declare dinner to let the madness thin out.
I’ve done Tracy to Sac on those same holiday weekends and that’s smooth sailing compared to 580/205. That’s more an issue of too many people crammed on the road though rather than big trucks driving poorly.
That stretch is anywhere from 2 lanes to 5 lanes. No comparison. Of course, California is insane to build in a 15mph speed differential on 1-5 down through the valley.
these are all facts but you cant convince them with facts. they dont care about their neighbors or their environment. they think their death machines are just a drop in the bucket but it’s not just a rainfall – it’s a waterfall. they must CONSUME! they compare their canyoneros to semi-trucks to make themselves feel better… those semi’s are filled with more crap that they make us think we need to CONSUME
Maybe you two would feel better over here.
https://www.bicycling.com/
The folks over there aren’t causing the problem.
That screen name is a signal not to bother engaging.
Depends on your point of view.
No it really dosen’t.
Cyclists aren’t mowing anyone down, nor are they polluting the air burning more fuel than is necessary, nor are they blocking anyone’s sightlines.
Cosplay cowboys are.
You gotta do some world class mental gymnastics to think otherwise.
I’ve seen many cyclists run over people on multiuse paths so don’t give me that crap.
They are self absorbed dweebs that think they are entitled to the entire road system and that all driving should be banned.
Those people didn’t die did they? And the cyclist suffered as much, perhaps more. When you hit something the size of a human while on a bike you risk being thrown and severely injured, maybe killed yourself.
That s nothing compared to someone getting lifelong injuries or killed by being hit by a steel wall by someone who risks no personal injury at all.
So no these things are not equivalent.
They think that they should tell others how to live. That’s the problem. And you know it.
I also find it disgusting that you dismissed the injuries caused by those bike riders because they weren’t driving a pickup.
“They think that they should tell others how to live. That’s the problem”
That’s the price for living in a functioning society with a functioning government. If you think you can do better feel free to start your own libertarian paradise. Have fun with the bears:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling
“I also find it disgusting that you dismissed the injuries caused by those bike riders because they weren’t driving a pickup”
Says the person who puts injuries caused by a bicycle on the same plane as injuries caused by a Canyonero.
You’re the one wearing the MAGA cap
WTF?
Now you’re just shooting blanks.
You “other” people who are different than you.
You hate people based on what they drive.
You call them murderers.
Wear your hat with pride.
Sorry, based on my readin in just this conversation, Cheap Bastard is far more likely to vote for Kommie Kamala than Maga Trump. The Democrats who want to be left alone regarding a single issue are the ones who want to require all consumers to drive electric cars, impose price controls, and otherwise take all your money and give it to the things they endorse, obliterating freedom of choice in all things (save one).
Whatever dude. You do you, randomly shooting blanks in the dark.
Prove it.
Say it out loud that people can drive heavy duty trucks if they want.
You don’t have to like them doing it but they have the right to choose and they aren’t murderers for choosing.
“You “other” people who are different than you.”
“You hate people based on what they drive.”
“You call them murderers.”
“Wear your hat with pride.”
“You’re the one wearing the MAGA cap”
Absolutely none of which is true, just random, weird, nonsensical insults in the dark.
That’s what I thought.
Your own posts here prove it.
Only in your own delusions.
I think driving a truck with weight ratings in excess of what should require a CDL (and letting those capabilities drive design with no concern for externalities) is a big issue though. We do have laws in place that dictate what a person with a standard driver’s license is capable of handling, but they seem meaningless.
CDL Enforcement
This truck has a GVWR of 11,100 pounds. 14,901 pounds less than what is required for a CDL.
From what I can find, a combined weight (truck and trailer) of over 26,000lbs also applies – some F-250’s are rated for more than that, and as noted in article, some Super Duties are rated to tow 40k lbs (which, if nothing else, doesn’t that dictate design such as grille size for cooling that trickles down to the 250’s)?
If the driver doesn’t hit the 26,001 pound mark, then it doesn’t matter if they have a CDL.
That higher strength and durability makes the truck more reliable and longer lasting.
Okay, but that’s still a hard point where we seem to rationally accept that there’s a limit to what people can drive without further qualifications. I think it’s reasonable to prioritize the safety of others over capabilities you can’t legally use.
I disagree with your last sentence as I never hear the same level of complaints against people who own Corvettes, Porsches, Supras, and other sports cars that can hit way over the legal speed limit. They don’t have special qualifications to drive these cars.
Same for RVs.
Same for Rental Trucks.
Same for heavily modified SUVs.
I’m not proposing banning excess capability, just that it’s room for improvement, safety-wise. I mean, from a performance standpoint, there are a handful of cars that can do the 1/4 mile in less than 10 seconds (where the NHRA demands a helmet), and I think that’s equally silly, and a point where we can also prioritize external safety over that level of acceleration.
You already have:
I really have one demand for change.
https://i.imgflip.com/91dyut.jpg
Here ya go.
In the defense of the modern pickup truck size – Pickup Truck +SUV Talk (pickuptrucktalk.com)
“That higher strength and durability makes the truck more reliable and longer lasting”
We’ve long past the point where strength and durability are the limiting factors for keeping vehicles on the road. The majority of vehicles are wrecked or discarded for fashion long before they wear out.
The exception might be rust but that’s something that affects all vehicles so Canyoneros have no advantage here.
Yep, we have the right and obligation what we think others need.
Here’s why:
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/14/1212737005/cars-trucks-pedestrian-deaths-increase-crash-data
Large vehicles are killing people at a higher rate than smaller vehicles. Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. When what you want to do increases the likelihood that someone else will die above baseline, it needs to be policed.
ahh yes let’s ban all vehicles which are above average size
Who sets the baseline? And where?
A semi is heavier than a box truck which is heavier than an F350 which is heavier than an F150 which is heavier than a Tesla which is heavier than an S class which is heavier than a Corolla which is heavier than a Miata which is heavier than a motorcycle which is heavier than a bike.
At what point on that sliding scale does the pedestrian danger become unacceptable to you? Only where the vehicles become something you wouldn’t personally drive? Because that seems to be the bright line for a lot of folks.
Math sets the baseline. The average vehicle in 2000 is smaller than the average vehicle in 2024, largely because of giant pickups.
We’re not just talking about weight. We’re talking about long, blunt, tall hoods. I was looking at a GMC truck yesterday at the state fair. I’m not a short dude. I’m almost 6 feet tall, but if I stood in front of that thing, the driver would just see the top of my head.
BTW, I do personally drive a truck, but it’s from a more sane size era where I can see things in front of the hood. I’m not against trucks. I’m against oversized war wagons disguised as trucks.
I work for a HD truck manufacturer. I find it crazy that while we are spending a lot of time to make commercial vehicles have better aero and better sight lines for the driver —light duty trucks are getting higher and higher hoods that reduce visibility so they look “tough”
Also that Powerstroke has more power than the diesels in a lot of class 6-8 commercial vehicles.
So as I said, the limit is arbitrary and seems to be defined by where you personally no longer care for the vehicle in question.
Your truck has a higher hood and weighs more than a Corolla. If I came on here and started screeching that your truck was oversized and should be banned because it’s more dangerous to pedestrians than a Corolla is, you’d rightly be annoyed, but I’d be technically correct. There’s no difference between what you’re saying and my example except for where you personally think the line should be.
You can keep saying that, but you keep, intentionally I suspect, glossing over the part about older trucks having enough visibility to see people walking in front of them, and new trucks don’t. That’s not an “I don’t like it” line, it’s a solid, objective line that involves what the driver can and can’t see.
If an average-height person walks in front of a new truck, the driver can’t see them. If the same person walks in front of my truck, I can see them. That’s not a matter of personal taste, it’s a verifiable fact.
Respectfully, you have no idea what you’re talking about. I question whether you’ve ever driven a modern truck, or if the seat was adjusted correctly if you have.
I have a 2019 F350 4×4 and there is no place an average or even below average height person can stand in front of me that I can’t see them. Even if there was, that’s an arbitrary line that you made up.
Kids, sure, but that’s been the case for every truck I’ve ever owned back to the mid 90s.
Well, that “arbitrary line” is 11 feet farther in front of your truck than it is in front of a car, and 7 feet farther in front of your truck than it is in a standard SUV.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/the-hidden-danger-of-big-pickup-trucks-a9662450602/?srsltid=AfmBOorVC-C8xLXZIYL1M8rSHJmCvuj0HAzI8po4HYIPfQ6Zy-SyGtJG
I know it’s awkward when the arbitrary line of actual facts intersects with your desire to drive giant vehicles, but that doesn’t invalidate the notion that the line exists and that it’s arbitrary solely because of a styling decision to make your truck look “cool.”
If a vehicle drives over a person, the issue is with the driver, not the vehicle. I’m less than ‘average height’ for a US male and can easily stand in front of any stock pickup and look into the windshield.
I’m guessing I was at the same state fair last weekend (MN). I sat in that truck and plan on buying one, but an AT4 instead of the AT4X. I’m 5′ 7″ and could see into the windshield when I stood in front of it. It’s certainly not a ‘war wagon’ by any stretch of the imagination. Outlaw all motorized vehicles and then we won’t have to worry about them killing people. It worked for drugs and will save me my annual membership to this site.
Nope.
Brilliant response. Must’ve really taxed you.
Yep.
Liberals have the unassailable knowledge they are correct
Liberals are sure that they are right, they are the anointed and righteous and enlightened and are compelled to educate you. A differing view couldn’t possibly be entertained because “well, I”m right, of course”. When proved wrong, they will say, “it hasn’t been done properly, yet. We’re going to do it differently”.
Counterpoint:
“According to the Governors Highway Safety Association SUVs and Trucks are twice as likely to kill a pedestrian if they are involved in an accident, but passenger cars are involved in a higher percentage of pedestrian fatalities than SUVs and pickup trucks combined,” Satterfield wrote. “2019 data showed that 2,264 fatalities involved a passenger car, while 1,070 involved SUVs and 889 involved pickup trucks.”
Full-size pickup truck safety: These 2021 rankings may surprise you – Pickup Truck +SUV Talk (pickuptrucktalk.com)
Whatever you’re quoting isn’t at the link you provided.
More recent counterpoint:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tall-trucks-suvs-are-45-deadlier-us-pedestrians-study-shows-2023-11-14/
Here you go.
In the defense of the modern pickup truck size – Pickup Truck +SUV Talk (pickuptrucktalk.com)
We’re debating studies from different sources. Pick the one you like.
What’s wrong with people wanting a truck? Literally who cares? The type of mindset you have is what led to the malaise era and is ultimately why there are less cool cars and why people want pickups. Current pickups and SUVs are the successors of the big American v8 cars of the past because those cars were regulated out of existence. It just sounds like you hate trucks and not like you actually care about needs and wants.
I’m not anti-diesel.
I drove 2000+ km in a Fiat Ducato diesel van with a 5-on-the-tree shifter in Italy for work and then 15 years later, a diesel, 5M Fiat Chroma estate in Italy on vacation. (And a few years before, a 5M Peugeot 307 estate in France.)
It’s not the diesel part I hate. I put 161K miles on a 2001 Jetta TDI that I loved. Until diesel became almost permanently way more expensive here in the states. And VW got caught.
What I hate is the jacked-up trucks (almost always Fords) in Texas that I was closing in on at a combined 150 mph approach speed, at night with their LED headlights not adjusted for their new height on the many two-lane highways there. They’re not all diesels.
Driving into Houston from a smaller town almost into Louisiana, it was so effing annoying to have some NASCAR wannabe dude in an F-250, 10 feet off my bumper while driving in the middle lane of a 5-lane wide freeway. I left two lanes to my left for you to go around me if my 10 mph over the limit wasn’t fast enough for you.
But I never brake-checked them. You never know if they’re packing a gun. (Except for the ones that had a populated gun rack in the back window.)
The Jetta, the BMW X5 and the Acura MDX we replaced it with, all could brake harder and shorter than those tailgators. (Lots of alligators in SE TX, so pun intended.)
The weird (maybe not) thing about all those pickup trucks in Texas was that they almost never had anything in the bed of the truck or something heavy hanging off a trailer hitch.
It kind of ties in with Rivers’ adjacent article about over-capable vehicles.
And the Corvette owner’s compensation trope. I saw lots of short guys climbing in and out of jacked up pickups, using the side steps hanging under the cab. Some open-carrying handguns. Pathetic.
I’m here in rural-er Texas too. Daily drive normal cars (350z and CT200h.) The blinding lights of a f350 racing behind me at 120 mph is very annoying and frustrating, especially knowing that the f350 is being used to haul around their huge ego and nothing more. I really wish big, comfortable wagons and sedans were still popular. It would mean a lot less blinding on the roads. (Still equal number of idiot drivers though)
What I hate is the jacked-up trucks (almost always Fords) in Texas that I was closing in on at a combined 150 mph approach speed, at night with their LED headlights not adjusted for their new height on the many two-lane highways there. They’re not all diesels.
Hell, that’s been going on since the 70’s. They call it driving, “East Texas style”.
Any diesel reliant on DEF is a no-go for me.
So, one that pollutes everyone’s lungs? Weird of you.
Considering others is for the weak, apparently.
Refer to my reply above.
Mazda figured out how to make a modern diesel that complies with modern emissions that doesn’t rely on DEF. How small minded of you to assume all Diesels need DEF to pass emissions.
No they didn’t. They said they did just like VW said their diesel didn’t need DEF right up until the point they got caught cheating and we’re fined billions. That was a wake up call that emission regulations would be enforced and almost all the light duty diesels disappeared.
International almost went bankrupt trying to meet 2010 emissions without DEF. Now they are owned by VW who provided them mith modern diesel tech.
You’re almost correct.
Mazda was trying their damnedest to make a diesel that didn’t require DEF, even exploring wildly unconventional methods for doing so (later used on SkyActiv-X) but couldn’t make it happen.. So SkyActiv-D did make it to market, and sold in the US as just the 2019 CX-5 Signature (top trim) Diesel. There was quite an upcharge on it, and being relegated to only the top trim really limited its accessibility, which was arguably intentional.
The SkyActiv-D used DEF.
From Car & Driver:
“The 2.2-liter diesel-fed Skyactiv-D four-cylinder engine powering that CX-5 has drifted far from the moonshot promises Mazda has made—and changed—since 2010. It’s neither particularly efficient nor particularly powerful, and it relies on a urea injection system to clean up its emissions enough to pass muster.”
Yes, I know. I even said “but couldn’t make it happen”.
Compared to green and red algae, fluids that run off into the storm sewers, microplastics, roundup residue, burning carcinogens in daily fires, tar fumes from the asphalt itself as they repair and expand the roads?
Give me a break.
Seems like a lot of extraneous stuff if you’re interested in towing. Oh, you really need is something like this
https://eagletugs.com/eagle-bob-tail-tow-tractor-eb2-8
All you really need. Not Oh, you really need.
I wish the correction button worked better with the iPhone, I don’t really write like Dr. Seuss. The iPhone does this meat tricke of “correcting” what you wrote just as you press the submit button.
I like my meat tricke medium rare, please…
I share your annoyance with autocorrect. 🙂
I especially like the “new” AI feature. WTF Apple?
I can still figure shit out on my own thank you.
Fuck AI…
Reading the beginning of this article I wondered “why aren’t there any diesel hybrids?“
40 seconds on Google and I see that the world is full of diesel hybrids, just not in the USA. Why is that?
Diesels are really great at constant output, electric motors are really great at filling in the gaps, and the hybrid transmission like Toyota’s, which they license to several other manufactures, would be perfect for a diesel.
I was told it’s because fuel is too cheap to justify the expense. But if I made diesel pickup trucks I’d do it anyway and I’d call it a DieselsaurusREX.
(If you like that you’ll LOVE the horn!)
Diesels are really good at constant output, although not any more so than a gas engine is. The advantages of a hybrid play into a gas or diesel exactly the same.
We don’t have diesel hybrids in the US solely because we don’t have diesel small cars, and we don’t have hybrid 3/4 ton pickups, both for a strange mix of legal, practical, and cultural reasons.
Ford has announced they will be making a hybrid Super Duty. I suspect they won’t be the only one once EPA 2027 kicks in and drops allowed NOx by another 75% and PM by 50%
As an old, I kind of miss the cheap basic trucks that could tow and haul a lot. At least new trucks have headrests.
The old cheap trucks have a piece of safety glass right behind your head, which gives nicely if you whack it hard enough. I know this from experience.
$97,000 for a pickup is just nuts.
Welcome to America where more is ALWAYS better. Right? /s
Nothing succeeds like excess!
(Not really /s, unfortunately.)
Which is why mine is 34 years old and cost me 5k. I need a truck for hauling heavy loads, and needed 4 doors because kids, so I went OBS f350. I won’t pretend it’s as luxurious as a modern truck but it’ll get the job done, plus big block for nostalgia.
Modern diesels are even more quiet and make zero emissions when they break down and leave you on the side of the road
I still remember the Rampage concept years back https://www.drivingline.com/articles/rampage-this-fwd-hemi-v8-powered-half-minivan-half-pickup-is-one-of-the-strangest-trucks-ever/
With Maverick and other FWD seems to be back in vogue, it should be obvious? Would be so nice to be able to go to lumber store, just push the purchase off the cart and into the bed and load. Like a flat bed.
I get it that bigger the power, the need for bigger the diff and driveline. How much displacement is considered ridiculous?
I have been shopping for trucks, and I think I have settled on used commercial flat deck ones. Easier to load (but need straps and sides), not stupid extended cab and bare minimum in comfort.
Appreciate the write-up.
Did the truck have the Max Recline seats?
Do you think the height of trucks is due to larger frames, or moreso from overly-large wheels and tires adding to ride height? Or is it a design choice, since cabs are so tall and roomy (both from a practical perspective but also due to added crash structures) so they raise the beds and hoods to keep the classic truck silhouette, rather than some cartoonishly awkward shape of a tall cab with a “normal” hood and bed height?
I attribute a lot of it to wheel and tire size. I’m not an engineer, but I suspect the bigger tires are what are helping get towing to such high numbers. Back in the day, full size trucks were coming with 35-inch tires and were only doing 13k pounds towing. I’d happily go back to lower towing ratings if it meant a lower load and hood height. I don’t need 20k.
Most of the big trucks I see have ludicrously large rims and flimsy tires that I’m surprised can hold the truck itself up.
Google shows plenty of 225/75R15 14-Ply Load Range G 124/121M tires, good for 3525 lbs capacity per tire.
It’s a nice idea but no manufacturer is going to open themselves to pummeling they would get in the commercials: “That’s not a truck! THIS is a truck!”
Two words, safety regulations. I park my OBS f350 next to my co worker’s new f350 and mine looks like a baby truck, but I have more interior space. It took a god bit to figure out that his truck has crumple zones and whatnot integrated into it all around while mine doesn’t. In a crash with a similar sized vehicle, or a rollover, I’d much rather be in his as mine would either go right through the other vehicle, or much more likely fold in half, but then there’s the adage, “No airbags. We die like men.” Perhaps not the most optomistic point of view but there you go. Also my kids no longer ride in my old truck as the family car, we take the wife’s modern one for that.
The other funny thing is that despite being taller with large wheels and tires, the front bumpers are as low or lower than the older trucks. I’m sure regulation dictates that.
My opinion: Why does a Power Wagon come with 33″ tires when the Tremor has 35’s? Because Ram knows many customers will put the larger tires on the truck anyway, so meeting the bumper height requirements with a 33″ tire means you’ll have higher clearance when you put 35’s or 37’s on, which both fit without additional lift.
Ram says it’s because they won’t fir on the truck carriers but who knows.
A lot of the height has to do with suspension travel. Back in the day a truck with these capabilities was horrible to drive empty because you rode “on top” of the suspension, just bouncing whatever give the tires and bushings gave you. If it was loaded it rode fine.
Now you ride in the suspension the whole time, and if you watch the wheels hit things it’s easy to see the difference. If you’re going to have 6 inches of travel empty and 6 inches of travel at full payload you’ve just added half a foot to the height of the old truck.
It’s not suspension travel. A 1980-1997 Ford pickup has just as much travel as a new one while somehow being like 18″ lower.
The height comes from:
1. The cab is like a foot taller, floor to ceiling, with a MUCH more upright seating position,
2. The tires are 4-6″ taller
3. The frames, or how the cab sits on the frame, is taller; the frame is probably a taller section and the cab sits higher on top of it to get a flatter floor
It is wheel size / truck size / styling. Put 16 inch wheels like may dad’s Silverado has on a modern truck and people say they look too small I’m a world where a Prius has 19 inch wheels. So trucks get giant wheels and tires – which require large wheel openings – which require a taller vehicle
Just to point out how far this has gone – plenty of pickups have the same size wheels as a Class 8 semi today.
My Max Tow F-150 has 20” wheels w/ 275/55 tires (32” tall). There is a *lot* of empty wheel well above the tire. It seems to me that it could be 3-4” lower w/out affecting the ride or payload. The hood could slope down another 3” to give a better sight line.
I’m not a tall man, but I can wear a tall hat inside the cab w/ plenty of headroom. The back seat has limo legroom, but the fold up seats have plenty of room for luggage. How about another 6” of bed length?
We have the pickup to tow our travel trailer. For 3 years, my wife would drive it around town, empty. We finally bought another, small car to drive and the truck is mostly used for truck stuff.
I’m trying to resist but may have to go with a gas 3/4 ton in a year or two. My current 6.5′ bed 1/2 ton makes me want a larger bed size. So many times I wish I had just another foot. So the criteria for my next truck is an extended cab (not a crew cab), 4×4, and a long bed. It’s hard to find such a package in a 1/2 ton anymore. And the ones out there are… meh.. I don’t need the towing or overall hugeness of a 3/4 ton though.. Grrr idk what to do
Good luck on that. I will continue to stay mad that the Performative Truck fad means shortbed and half-bed crew-cabs are everywhere while longbed extended cabs are thin on the ground. I put “nice used truck” money into repairs on our old girl because I doubt we’ll find another rig that’ll haul horses, a camper, dogs and friends all at once but still fit in a standard parking place.
I had a coworker that said “It’s not a truck if it doesn’t have an 8′ bed” the usefulness of an 8′ bed is more than the extra 1.5′ would make it seem, but if you need a 4 door for the family or crew it makes for one long truck!
What’s the difference between a gooseneck and a 5th wheel?
The shape of how it connects to the hitch.
Gooseneck is a ball hitch in the middle of the bed, usually used for horse trailers and flatbeds. 5th wheel is a semi-truck style plate hitch in the middle of the bed, usually used for larger camping trailers. I’d love to know the reasons for this.
Gooseneck is heavier duty, but no lateral stability and much more difficult to hook.
Back when trucks didn’t have back seats (or cameras everywhere), hooking up a gooseneck trailer was way easier to do solo than an ordinary ‘bumper pull’ trailer. You just turned around and backed the gooseneck ball under the gooseneck coupler.
Our farm trucks always had diesel tanks and tool boxes, so the back window was useless
Weight carrying capacity is a big part of why semis have a 5th wheel plate like they do, as the “tongue weight” on the tractor can be close to half the weight of the loaded trailer.
I’m not sure to what degree the higher weight carrying capacity applies when towing a travel trailer with a 3/4 or 1 ton truck, since you’re way more limited by axle capacity (when compared to a semi tractor), but it stands to reason that a 5th wheel hitch may still be able to carry more tongue weight than a gooseneck.
It probably could, if pickup fifth wheels weren’t elevated so far above the frame. I think it is a geometry issue
Fifth wheel hitches used on campers normally incorporate rubber isolators, so the ride is much nicer to wood frame camper trailers.
Fifth wheel hitches offer zero flex, meaning the trailer cannot roll independently of the pickup. This makes it tow significantly nicer down the highway, which is nice for campers.
Unfortunately, fifth wheel hitches offer zero flex, so they perform absolutely terrible on uneven ground. Utility and farm trailers cannot use a fifth wheel for this reason.
Aaahhh, thank you. I wan’t sure what “flex” meant in this context (ability for the truck and trailer to be at different roll angles) but you totally explained why each type is used where it is.
I think I’ve even seen offroad-oriented travel trailers that use a gooseneck.
Fifth wheel is a flat round plate with a hole for a trailer to put its pin in. Gooseneck sets on a ball in the bed. Best part about gooseneck is, it leaves more bedspace to use. And if you buy the correct one, the ball can be flipped over and it is completely out of the way. 5th wheels are big, but much easier to hook, and more lateral stability.
I was just thinking about bed height yesterday, cleaning out a storage unit for a friend, entirely by myself. I got a chest of drawers into the bed, barely, by myself, and that was using the slope of the hill to my favor. A modest lift or any situation additional ride height would have made my day (and many other days before it) considerably worse.
Edit: 2014 F-150 XL, still has the uhaul odometer tampering sticker in the footwell. People seem to like that when I point it out.
Eh. I cannot abide. I use my tow vehicles for towing. Rest of the time I like being in a hot hatch or classic car. And for 100k, yeah it better be nice. But then you’re stuck in this weird position of a 100k car depreciating you arent’ using unless you’re towing, or depreciating a lot if you’re towing a lot. I’d rather just not have a 100k tow vehicle.
I agree $100k is too much for a tow vehicle. You can get an diesel F250 XLT 4×4 for the mid 60s, though (my 2021 was $61k; a comparable 2024 is $67k). They are still very nice trucks with a lot of luxury features. Mine has most of the features Mercedes mentioned in this article. I’m amazed people are willing to spend $100k to get a high spec truck when the lower spec trucks are far cheaper and just as good.
The $45K version of this truck could do the basic same tasks as this $92K version did, yes. But if you’re doing cross-country hauling the extra nice ties really make themselves felt and worthwhile.
“Time is money”, and being able to hitch a trailer in, say, 5 minutes (including checking it out and doing safety checks after connecting)
instead of 30+ minutes can be huge.
Having extra sets of eyes in the form of cameras to prevent a collision that would set you back hours or days or worse are absolutely worthwhile.
Being able to take a refreshing nap or even sleep overnight in a rig instead of a questionable motel – from personal experience and the author’s – is its own haven. Not to mention the sad increase in criminal activities at roadside stops and such, being able to stay with your rig can be the difference between making payday or “losing your shirt”, even with insurances.
Being comfortable and aware is huge on the road. Normal fatigue coupled with the potentially hypnotic drone of travel and lane markers can quickly turn into a moment of inattention yielding massive disaster. How many times have you seem a massive pile up and traffic backup just from a small accident, let alone one involving trucks and trailers?
Just because it’s not for you doesn’t make it worthless.
“Time is money”, and being able to hitch a trailer in, say, 5 minutes (including checking it out and doing safety checks after instead of 30+ minutes can be huge.
Being able to take a refreshing nap or even sleep overnight in a rig instead of a questionable motel – from personal experience and the author’s – is its own haven.”
Unless your a C level exec at a Fortune 500 or better your time ain’t worth anywhere close to that kind of money.
“Having extra sets of eyes in the form of cameras to prevent a collision that would set you back hours or days or worse are absolutely worthwhile.”
Because there is absolutely no way, no how to add aftermarket cameras to a cheaper tow vehicle.
“Being comfortable and aware is huge on the road. Normal fatigue coupled with the potentially hypnotic drone of travel and lane markers can quickly turn into a moment of inattention yielding massive disaster. How many times have you seem a massive pile up and traffic backup just from a small accident, let alone one involving trucks and trailers?”
Weird how professional truck drivers manage to do just fine all day, every day in trucks nowhere near as nice.
1: “Time is money” – I know a number of owner-operator’s who would heartily and even forcefully disagree with you.
2: Cameras: Yes, they can be added aftermarket. That doesn’t negate what I said. They also usually don’t have the factory integration to the level of what Ford and others offer, including the wireless trailer cameras they offer as accessories. Even moreso if there are parking sensors on the vehicle. Yes, those aren’t necessary, but having them in a wholly integrated package that just works is very useful and can be worth the expense. Especially if something goes wrong being able to take it to any factory dealership nationwide for diagnostic and repair instead of trying to find an electronics shop to do it or DIY.
3: Professional truck drivers manage fatigue and road drone just fine: Hahahahahahahaha. You make a good joke. Having been one, knowing a whole flock of them, and working with them, you are very wrong. Yes, there are some setups that are more spartan. But any OTR driver will get as many creature comforts as they can justify to make the job easier, especially owner-operators and hot-shot runners.
“Time is money” – I know a number of owner-operator’s who would heartily and even forcefully disagree with you
We’re not talking about professional owner operators here. We’re talking about people who hook up a trailer maybe once a week if ever.
But if you think an extra $47k on cameras, sensors and plushy seats is money well spent you go right on ahead. The rest of us cheap bastards will make do with Amazon special camera kits and seat covers that do the job well enough.
“Having been one, knowing a whole flock of them, and working with them, you are very wrong”
Could be. It makes sense there are among the 1,356,501 CDL holders in the US there are some bad apples, especially if they are managed by a bad company. There are a LOT more Canyonero drivers though and any way you figure total number, per capita, whatever there will be a lot more bad Canyonero drivers.
I’m in the same boat as you, but horses for courses, and I won’t tell someone how to show off their $100,000. Besides, I have my cheap adequate used F250 tow/hauler because someone bought a new top-of-the-line F250 25+ years ago.
If I win the Lotto I’m getting a RamCharger REV though.
Pedantry note: I just realized the “Ramcharger REV” is a BEV, while the “Ramcharger” is an REV. So actually I want a “Ramcharger” that’s an REV, not a “Ramcharger REV”.