gerry100

to clarify, I think Al may be a better alternative to steel in body panels.beds etc.

All pickup frames are steel and will be for quite a few years. Aluminum has low fatigue resistance which means it has to be designed so that it can't flex. Any frame design in Al would be useless even if possible.

I think GM might have screwed up with the ads showing tool boxes gouging holes in Ford beds

dlq04

Ford says its "military grade".

Scooterboy

That’s advertising BS. The military uses all grades.

Vanishing Point

Ford addressed this concern by electro-coating the aluminum and to avoid galvanic reactions they used coated hardware where the aluminum would normally come into contact with the steel frame.


2015 Ford F-150 - How Ford Torture-Tested Its New Aluminum F-150

dlq04

That didn't sound like BS to me.

dlq04

Since we are on the subject of trucks, I'll toss this in FYI:

HONDA RIDGELINE UPDATE
Last year was the first full year of sales for the redesigned Honda Ridgeline, so how’d it do? Sales came to nearly 35,000 pickups, which was up substantially from the year before when the truck was only on sale for part of the year. What should worry Honda is that in the last three months, sales of the Ridgeline fell 25%, while the other small pickups in the segment increased sales, except for the GMC Canyon which also saw a decline. But the Canyon didn’t fall off nearly as much as the Ridgeline did. That’s a fairly significant drop for a fairly new truck. And so we’ll have to keep an eye on this to see if Honda starts boosting incentives to sell more Ridgelines.
HONDA RIDGELINE U.S. SALES
All 2017 34,749 +47%
Oct-Dec 8,173 -25%
Source: WardsAuto

dlq04

Through June Ford has sold 450,000 F-series trucks and is on course that could top its best year ever 2004 (940,000). Its been the best selling truck in the US since 1977.

tof

Oh, the phrase "Military Grade" Is absolutely marketing B.S. I'm not saying anything about the ruggedness of the F150, but neither does the "Military Grade" label. It can mean whatever the advertiser wants it to mean.

There is no such classification for anything within the U.S. armed services. Notice they did not say "milspec" Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...itary_Standard

dlq04

cosmomiller

Brings to mind the term "Space Age" that was used extensively during the 60s and 70s. You also have "Doctor Recommended"; some doc said sure and earned $100K from Marlboro.