How strong is the Ford F-150 aluminum bed?
Now we watch the 2015 Ford F-150 face what might be its most punishing challenge yet. How strong is the Ford F-150 aluminum bed? See for yourself.
John Swanson works for Pete Wilson Stoneworks out of Portland Oregon, a company that makes dry stack walls. His task for the 2015 F-150? Do four months worth of pickup runs carrying the heavy, jagged Basalt rock used for the walls — in one day. Swanson’s hypothesis: “I don’t think it’ll do well.”
Starting in Corbett Quarry, they moved the rocks onto the truck beds using a large excavator, and then at the next location removed them directly again using a smaller excavator. “If you’re going to find a material that will mess up an aluminum bed, this is your material,” Swanson intones at one point during the video. Not only are the rocks going to be a challenge for the truck bed, the excavators have great potential to do damage as well. Vince Chimento, pickup box structures supervisor at Ford, was optimistic about the military-grade aluminum bed’s ability to withstand the challenge, though admitted they had not put the bed through such a rigorous real-world test before.
At the end of the day, the F-150’s bed had no punctures, the tailgate was in good working condition, and Swanson was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Want to learn more about what you can do with the new 2015 Ford F-150? Get in touch with us here at Holiday Ford!
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