2011 Ford Super Duty
By
Ray Wert
Ford's big profit fiesta won't be the dinky li'l car almost finished moving around 'merica. No, the bread n' butter for FoMoCo is the trucks. The first look at their newest — the all-new
2011 Ford Super Duty — below.
Revealed today at the Texas State Fair, the
2011 Super Duty features both an all-new diesel and gasoline engine mated to a new transmission. We already know all about the new diesel, the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 turbocharged diesel engine, was designed, engineered and built in-house by Ford. On the exterior, the Super Duty's front face is looking more and more like the
Super Chief concept revealed in Detroit a few years back. But it's what's inside that counts.
The 2011 Super Duty features increased towing and payload capability, extending its best-in-class rating, and also offering more towing from inside the bed. New is the first-ever factory-installed fifth wheel with warranted gooseneck substructure directly attached to the frame. All this means the Super Duty F-450 pickup maintains its class-leading gross combined weight rating of 33,000 pounds — and it does it with a completely different frame. Well, not from the new F-350, but from the old F-450. Huh? Here, we'll explain.
Today's F-450 pickup is a "hybrid" pickup truck — it's got the chassis cab front end of a Ford F-450 and F-350 back end. However, in order to increase fuel economy and increase speed past 85 MPH (why you'd want to do that at max-capacity tow, we just don't know) on the new 2011 model, the F-450 Super Duty now uses mostly F-350 frame components rather than a chassis cab front end. So, look at the F-450 as just the superest and bestest F-350 you can buy.
We'll have more shortly once we're done digesting the press releases.
