Perhaps our standards for a litmus test are somewhat ambitious, but Ford engineers consider how a high-strength steel frame handles over 60,000 pounds suspended from a crane in mid-air to be a pretty telling indicator of its products' durability.
The 2017 Ford Super Duty's redesigned military-grade aluminum-alloy body trimmed substantial weight while simultaneously improving its utilitarian capabilities. What America's leading pickup in its class lost on the scales translated into unrivaled strength where it means the most. To say the least, it was a landmark even by "Ford Tough" standards.
So, how could we quantify that?
John Brenkus and the crew of Tough Science had an idea or two. Being open-minded automotive pioneers, we were as curious as they were to see what would happen when the 2017 Super Duty's frame had to hold up eight similarly sized pickups, weighing in around 4,700 pounds each, and a Tonka F-750 dump truck, tipping the scales at more than 13,000 pounds, on its own.