The constant push to one-up the competition while at the same time meet ever tightening fuel economy standards is driving a transformation in America’s most traditional vehicle segment, the full-size pickup truck. This year, perennial market leader Ford has tried to leap-frog the competition with a dramatic shift from the traditional steel body and bed construction to aluminum intensive construction along with an all-new mainstream twin-turbocharged V6 engine. Is it enough to keep the F-150 out in front of the pack? I spent a week driving one in search of some clues.
Back in 2008 when Ford first announced its new gasoline, turbocharged and direct-injected (GTDI) EcoBoost engine lineup, then product development chief Derrick Kuzak said these downsized engines would be part of a holistic approach to weight reduction throughout the vehicle. Up until the late 2014 launch of the new F-150, we’d seen plenty of EcoBoost rolled out to almost every Ford vehicle in North America but not much additional lightweighting.
That all began to change when the Atlas concept truck was shown at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A thinly disguised preview of the new production truck, the Atlas featured an all-aluminum cab and bed sitting on top of steel ladder frame. All of this was carried over completely to the new generation production model. Over the past two decades, Ford had actually accumulated a lot of experience working with aluminum structures during the time that the company had owned Aston Martin and Jaguar-Land Rover. While those premium brands were sold off in the post melt-down years, the institutional knowledge of forming, riveting, bonding and painting aluminum was retained.
While those Ford-owned brands had built aluminum vehicles, the production volumes were paltry compared to those for the pickups with total cumulative production likely less than one years worth of F-150s. Ford had to work with its suppliers to figure out how to scale the technology from thousands of units per year to more than half a million. As I write this in mid-March 2015, Ford has just begun production at the second F-150 plant in Kansas City, Missouri, joining the Dearborn plant that came on line late last fall. By all accounts the production ramp up has gone relatively smoothly although Ford had to completely gut and re-tool both plants to handle aluminum at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars each.
So what does it all mean to the way this truck drives? Well let me say right up front, that this is no Lotus Elise. But then again no one would expect a vehicle capable of hauling over one ton in the bed and towing nearly four tons to behave like a sports car. This is a big brawny truck that is as capable as anything in the segment. Like its competitors from GM, Chrysler, Nissan and Toyota, this machine is designed and built to work. If want you want is a daily commuter to drop the kids off at school, run to the gym and Whole Foods, then you’d best look elsewhere.
No matter what the skin and structure is made of, any vehicle with a 145-inch wheelbase (and this is the mid-size SuperCab with the short bed, long-bed models and SuperCrews stretch out to 163.7-inches between the axles) is going to have maneuverability issues in tight places.
With that out of the way, let’s look at what this truck can do. The XLT is one step up from the entry-level XL which is the workhorse truck typically used commercial fleets and utilities. The XL’s black-painted grille and bumpers and steel wheels get replaced by a metallic finish grille, chrome bumper and standard aluminum alloy wheels. Inside the industrial-grade vinyl upholstery is replaced by high-quality fabrics and a long list of standard and optional amenities like bucket seats with power adjust and heat, center consoles and more become available.
The 2.7-liter “Nano” EcoBoost V6 provides more than enough power and torque to move a big pickup
The base engine in the XLT is Ford’s normally aspirated 3.5-liter direct injected V6, but the largest share of customers are expected opt for the all-new 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6. While the term all-new is often misused and abused in automotive marketing and PR, in this case it’s actually applicable. This is not a downsized version of the existing 3.5 EcoBoost but a completely fresh design. Unlike it’s all-aluminum big brother, Ford opted for an iron block on the “Nano” V6, but not just any old pig iron lump. This is the first gasoline-fueled engine to use a compacted graphite iron (CGI) block. Until now, CGI has only been used for diesel engines like Ford’s big 6.7-liter PowerStroke and Audi’s all-conquering Le Mans prototypes.
While the CGI is moderately heavier than aluminum, it’s much stiffer, helping to meet the durability needs of a truck while also transmitting less noise. As configured for the F-150, the 2.7 generates a bountiful 325-horsepower and 375 lb.-ft. of torque at just 3,000 rpm. If you climb into this truck without looking at the specs and start driving you’d likely never guess that the engine is so small. The engine never feels strained and there’s no shortage of bang per cubic inch here. I didn’t do any towing with this truck but other tests have shown it to be perfectly capable. Depending on which of the myriad combinations of rear or four wheel drive, cab size, wheelbase and final drive ratio you select, the 2.7-liter tow ratings range from 7,600 to 8,500 lbs.
One thing to keep in mind with all of Ford’s EcoBoost engines and most other turbos is that you can generally have Eco or Boost but rarely both at the same time. Engines make power by mixing fuel with air in a precise ratio and igniting it. If you force in more air, it’s going to consume a lot more fuel to go with it. Getting the best fuel economy requires a light touch on the accelerator. The 2.7-liter F-150 does feature standard auto start-stop which is supposed to shut down the engine to prevent idling when you come to a stop, automatically restarting when you release the brake pedal.
However, during the week I drove the truck the engine never shut down once. The system is designed to monitor electrical and thermal loads such as lights and climate control and prevent shutdown when it will impact other systems. During the early part of the week temperatures were still below freezing so I wasn’t surprised that the engine stayed on. However, as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees, I was surprised that even though the instrument cluster display indicated everything was normal, the engine kept running.
I let my contacts at Ford know about this unusual behavior and they promised to check it out when they got the truck back. It turned out the truck I drove was a pre-production unit which had been subjected to a wide variety of tests in the months since it was built. Somewhere along the way a connector on the voltage quality module (VQM) had been damaged. The VQM is part of the aforementioned system that monitors loads and without a solid signal indicating that there was sufficient voltage in the electrical system, it prevented the engine from shutting down just as it’s designed to.
A second test truck with a properly connected voltage quality module consistently shut down the engine at red lights and stop signs, saving gas.
Two weeks later, Ford got me another identical truck for a short followup test. At an ambient temperature of about 50, within two minutes after starting the engine was sufficiently warm so that when I arrived at a red light, the tachometer needle dropped to zero and the auto start-stop indicator in the instrument cluster went from white to green. The 2.7 is very quiet at idle and only the slightest vibration was perceptible when it shut down. As soon as I released the brake pedal, the engine restarted and was ready to go by the time my pedal hit the accelerator. Like Mazda, Ford uses the direct injection system to spray some fuel into the cylinder that is best positioned for a power stroke to help the starter motor get things going again. Engine restarts were just barely perceptible but never objectionable. Unless you happen to be drag racing you’re unlikely to have any issues with the timing of engine restarts, but in that case you can always disable the auto start-stop with a button above the radio. When the temperature later dropped below freezing, the auto start-stop was again disabled.
With the original truck, I managed about 17.1 mpg during a week of mixed city and highway in temperatures that ranged between about 20 and 40 degrees compared to the EPA label estimates of 18 mpg city and 23 mpg highway. With the second truck that had functional auto start-stop and temperatures around 50 degrees, I quickly matched the 17 mpg mark in city driving. Auto start-stop definitely makes a difference in stop and go urban driving where it’s generally estimated to provide up to a 10 percent improvement with an overall bump of 3-4 percent.
The SuperCab offers room for five although leg room is more restricted than in the longer SuperCrew
My test truck was the SuperCab version with seating for five and rear hinged second row doors. Compared to the longer SuperCrew, legroom in the second row is definitely tighter although adults can still sit there without getting too cramped. For those that regularly need to carry up to five people, the SuperCrew is definitely a better choice but it also means stretching out the wheelbase even more, hurting maneuverability.
The new F-150 is available with Ford’s complete suite of advanced driver assist systems including adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, blindspot information and active park assist to automatically parallel park. My tester had none of these features so parking was done the old school way, looking over shoulders and checking the spotter mirrors and the rear backup camera which is standard on all 2015 F-150s. Somewhat surprisingly given Ford’s focus on technology, the F-150 was somewhat stingy on power ports, especially compared to the Chevy Silverado. The cab featured just one USB and three 12-volt power points compared to the five USBs plus a pair of 110-volt AC outlets in the Chevy.
Every year as winter fades into spring, the roads in Michigan increasingly resemble some war torn region of the world with potholes that look like the residue of an IED. This four-wheel-drive truck has a surprisingly supple suspension despite its impressive payload capability. Even over the nastiest of roads, the whole truck felt solid with no shuddering or flex from the high-strength steel frame. Not so long ago, while driving a truck along these roads would and glancing at the mirror you could regularly see the bed vibrating independently of the cab. Now it feels like the whole thing has been carved from a solid billet of aluminum.
Ford has taken a huge risk with this truck, not so much from a technical perspective but from a marketing one. Using aluminum as a material in vehicles that require strength and durability such as aircraft and military vehicles is nothing new. Building aluminum intensive vehicles in these massive volumes is new but Ford seems to have figured out how to do it. However convincing truck buyers who tend to have more traditional views of what a truck should be may be the toughest part. I think if people try this truck any concerns about using aluminum will quickly fall by the wayside.
The F-series has been the top-selling vehicle in America for nearly four decades and the full-size truck segment is now as competitive as it has ever been. Ram and GM are both making outstanding trucks that have some unique elements to recommend them. Meanwhile the all-new second-generation Nissan Titan is coming this fall with a new Cummins turbodiesel V8. Each of these trucks has it strengths and is worth cross-shopping so the F-150 will have its work cut out for it. 2015 F-150s start at $25,420 and my 4WD XLT tester clocked in at $44,850 including delivery charges.
Click here for full specifications of the 2015 Ford F-150
