Ford has gone all in with the redesign of its critically important Super Duty series of large pickup trucks. The Super Duty had been refreshed and updated, but it hadn't been completely rethought in two decades.
Ford makes a lot of money off these ginormous F-Series pickups, so a new Super Duty was a big risk. Customers from this type of truck, optimized for work and for towing, are among the most demanding in the auto industry.
Americans are also loving great big luxurious pickups, as my colleague Danielle Muoio has noted.
Ford had already taken one huge risk with its legendary F-150 full-size pickup, switching to aluminum from steel in production. That worked out well, so Ford moved on to the Super Duty lineup, the F-250 and its larger stablemates.
While I had checked out the new F-150 and been pleased, I had never actually driven a Super Duty. It was a big missing piece of my ongoing professional development.
Plus, who doesn't like a big ole pickup? So when Ford told me I could borrow a 2017 F-250 Super Duty Platinum 4x4 Crew Cab, with a mighty 6.7-liter Powerstroke turbo diesel engine, I said heck yes!
Here's what it was like to have this mountain of a pickup in my driveway for a few days:
Our borrowed Super Duty arrived in a "Magnetic" gray paint job.
This pickup tipped the scales at around 6,000 lbs. — three tons!
I think the tree was intimidated. I didn't even think to ask my Prius how it felt. It was acting like it wanted to go hide in the garage.
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