The working man's Raptor. That's exactly what you're getting with
Ford's F-250 Tremor up next on "The Haul."
What's up, guys? Justin with americantrucks.com, and on today's episode, we have an absolute unit
of a truck behind me, that can really do it all. That's right. I'm talking about Ford's F-250.
It's a 2021 model year, but more importantly, it is equipped with the Tremor package, which,
for just south of four grand, will equip your blue-collar work rig with enough off-road goodies
and capabilities to party hard on the weekends off-road. Now, at the very top of this video,
I mentioned something about this being the working man's Raptor, and I'm sure
a lot of you guys watching this probably rolled your eyes on that one. But listen, as someone who
has lived with and driven a Raptor for the past five years, I have some honest feedback on that
comparison that I think you guys are going to want to hear, and I'll get to that in a little bit, but
for now, Ford hooked us up with this absolutely beautiful truck to review, so let's get to it.
All right, guys, let's start out up front, because what you're looking at is a recently refreshed
front end. As you may or may not know, Ford did freshen things up for the 2020 model year. Well,
that remains unchanged here for '21, but also the '22 model year, coming out in the next couple
of weeks. Now, outside of that, we have that traditional "Super Duty" badging stamped into the
hood, our unique Lariat grille here, in chrome, along with that bumper. Personally, I'm more of
the color match fan with the grille and bumper, or, if you can spring it, go for that $4,000
blackout package. Really sharp, because you're getting the color match bumper and blacked-out
grille, but you're also getting some unique wheels and black LED headlights. Speaking of headlights,
Ford, come on, man, we need to talk here, because, halogen headlights on a $76,000 truck? Come on.
LED should be a non-negotiable on a truck at this price point. But, personal gripes aside,
we do get our first subtle indication of the Tremor package up front, and you have to look
really close to find it. It's actually this stubby little air dam down there. It's about five inches
shorter than the traditional F-250's air dam, and that's in place to help increase approach angle.
Now, if you didn't know what that was, basically an off-roady term,
to give a truck the ability to approach and climb over an obstacle off-road, without
interference from the bumper, or, in this case, the air dam. And at 34.5 degrees, by the way,
that's a half-degree better than a 35-inch tire-equipped Raptor, while the departure angle,
the same off-roady term for leaving an obstacle, is actually a half-degree better as well. So,
small advantages, sure, but advantages just the same. Now, also available but not shown
here on our Tremor is the optional 12,000-pound winch from Warn, offered by Ford Performance,
that really can be installed on any Super Duty out there for about 3,000 bucks.
Now, that winch is going to live in this opening back here. It does install rather seamlessly, and
it looks very, very good once in place, but for a truck like the Tremor that's really gunning for
off-road supremacy in the HD market, this needs to be a standard piece, much like RAM's Power Wagon,
which, at the time of this video, is the only other truck to offer this from the factory.
But it's the side of the truck where things become immediately obvious that this isn't
your run-of-the-mill work truck, right? Let's talk suspension, because that's obviously a biggie here
on the Tremor. This particular truck is equipped with a slightly longer spring,
working with the 35-inch Goodyear dirt track tires to combine for about 2 inches of lift over your
run-of-the-mill F-250. Now those 35-inch Goodyear dirt track tires, I like them. They do produce a
little noise on the road, but it's a nice hybrid tire, meaning you're getting the good bits of an
all-terrain along with some bits of the mud train, to really dig in deep off-road. Those
tires are wrapped around an 18-inch satin black wheel here, is specific to the Tremor package,
and altogether, the ride height, the wheel and tire combo is enough to really make a visual
statement on the road, and again, separate this from the standard F-250 and F-350s.
You're still getting work truck things like your power-operated telescoping mirrors. That's a
biggie. I wish they would have done a little bit more badging here, but that's neither here nor
there. Side steps. Your standard Tremor side step is going to be pulled directly from the Raptor,
guys. It looks identical. I like it. It's giving you that off-road look, along with plenty of
traction to help your passengers in and out. As you can see, we don't have those, right? Instead,
we've been upgraded to the power step, which I like even more, right? It's killer. Very trick.
Gives you a nice clean look once they're retracted, along with a little bit more break-over
angle here as well. Cherry on top is the Tremor badging. Now, I'll admit, guys, Ford can sometimes
be a bit overkill with some of their graphics or badging. Not the case here with the Tremor. It's
subtle, and it's just the right amount to show you that this, again, isn't your standard F-250.
But there's a lot more going on underneath the surface here, making this truck worthy of the
Tremor name. For starters, guys, you're looking at skid plates protecting some of your vitals
underneath the truck here, including both the fuel tank and your transfer case right above
me here. Those are unique to the Tremor package. You're also getting a locking rear differential,
along with a limited-slip front diff. Both of those are going to be very important to providing
traction to those Goodyears in tricky situations off-road. Now, both those front and rear axles,
along with your transfer case, do receive what is called water fording tubes, which
sounds a lot cooler or a lot fancier than it really is. Basically, it's just some long piece
of rubber hose that vents both the axles and the transfer case, and does allow you to go through
33 inches of standing water, which is pretty impressive, and, by the way, 1 inch better
than both the TRX and the Raptor. Now we already talked about the unique front springs working with
the 35-inch tires, to help contribute to that 2 inches of lift, but, of course, we can't forget
about the rear blocks back here as well, which altogether does add to that lift.
But maybe one of the most exciting parts about the Tremor from a suspension standpoint are the
unique dampers, both front and rear. Now, these guys do feature 45-millimeter internal pistons.
That's actually 10 millimeters larger than the standard Super Duty dampers,
and will certainly help contribute to a more controlled ride off-road. Now, because this is
a diesel-powered Tremor, Ford automatically kicks in what is called the high-capacity tow package,
and that includes things like a beefier rear axle, along with what is essentially the F-350's rear
leaf pack. Now, that is going to add to a slightly rougher ride while on the road,
but, at the same time, does allow this monster to pull roughly 15,000 pounds
with the bumper, and over 18,000 pounds when using a 5th-wheel or gooseneck hitch.
Now, making those towing figures possible in this case will be the tried and true
6.7-liter Power Stroke, that turbo diesel V8, backed by a 10-speed automatic transmission. Now,
for the 2021 model year, it's pumping out 475 horsepower, and get this,
an earth-moving 1,050 pound-feet of torque to the crank. Now don't get me wrong. Ford
also has a very awesome engine in the 7.3 gasser. It is also available in the Tremor as well, but
for sheer brute strength, worthy of the working man's Raptor, accept no substitutes. Now, me
personally, I'm kind of curious to see what over 1,000 pound-feet of torque at the crank means at
the tires. So what do you say we try to strap this monster down and see if we can't break the dyno?
Well, guys, I'm sorry to say the dyno is still in one piece, but that doesn't mean that dyno run was
not impressive. Let's break down these numbers. Again, you remember 475, 1,050. That is at the
crank. We did the dyno in seventh gear here, which is closest to the one-to-one ratio
with the 10-speed automatic, and let's talk about what that means at the tires. This truck
just laid down 422 horsepower and 870 pound-feet of torque at the wheels. "Well, that's not what
you told us earlier." Well, again, guys, that's something called drivetrain loss. Now, typically,
with something like this big old truck, 35s, it takes a lot of energy to spin the drivetrain and
those tires, which typically works out to be about 15% or so on average for your drivetrain loss. So
do some quick math. Torque is about 15 to 20 low. Horsepower is actually over-performing. So,
at the end of the day, this thing is almost right on par with those crank-rated horsepower
and torque numbers, and it makes all of that fun in about 2,000 RPM. Look at that. Between 1,000
to about 3,200 RPM, you're having a blast, and then it's time to shift. So, definitely a little
bit different from the gasser numbers that I'm used to for the Mustang world, the F-150 side,
and look at that torque curve. Whee. That looks like a lot of fun. But enough about the numbers.
What do you say we get this thing off the dyno. Let's go for a spin. We'll talk about some of the
interior stuff which we haven't covered yet, and we'll get back to that Raptor comparison.
All right. What do you say we feel what 900 pound-feet of torque to
the tires feels like with a little bit of launch, shall we? Stall it up a bit.
Not bad. Not bad at all. All right, guys. So, here we are in the interior of the 2021
F-250 Lariat with the Tremor package. This looks identical to my 2017 Raptor. No big deal,
because 2022, they do freshen up the interior a little bit, mainly in the center stack here.
You're finally getting that 12-inch screen like a lot of people see in the '21 F-150.
And it does make a world of difference here on the interior of a 70-plus thousand dollar truck,
right? Because I keep coming back to that. Yes, I know the Super Duty, at this price point,
is more than just amenities, right? You're getting the engine, you're getting the suspension.
But you also want to feel like you're getting some plush stuff as well at that price point.
Headlights are a perfect example, right? I mean, how much money does it cost Ford to throw an LED
headlight into a truck like this, as opposed to those stock halogens? Honestly, inside the truck,
you're not getting a lot that would otherwise distinguish this from a run-of-the-mill F-250,
until, that is, you start diving into the menus a little bit, and you stumble across your drive
modes. Now, the Tremor does kick in a rock, or crawl mode, and that's huge, right? Because that's
going to help you put that hardware to the test, you know, get this thing off-road, gonna help you
get those lockers in play as well. Speaking of which, there is also trail control built into
the Tremor as well, and that is basically your off-road cruise control. You can set your descent
or ascent speed to whatever you want, and at that point, you take your foot off the gas,
you take your foot off the brake, and the truck does the rest. So, that's pretty cool,
and again, it kind of lends itself to the more off-road focused nature of the Tremor package.
Well, that bump signifies a great time to talk about the ride quality of the Tremor
here. And there is an obvious trade-off when it comes to being able to tow essentially a house,
and being able to soak up bumps, ruts, whatever, off-road. You can't really have it both ways,
right? As such, the Raptor can't tow a lot of weight, because of the softer suspension.
This thing, on the other hand, is meant to tow, and it has the equipment to do so,
namely in the beefier rear axle, which you don't really feel per se driving, but you really start
to feel the F-350 rear leaf pack, along with the dampers. And, of course, you got the Super Duty
tires here working at atmospheric level. So all of that combined leads to a pretty rough ride
unladen, right? But it just goes to the heart of the matter, which is, is this a working man's
Raptor? The Raptor does a lot of things off-road very well, but it does one thing in particular
very well, and that is high-speed off-road. That is the one area I would say the Tremor probably
wouldn't excel at, because of the dampers, the spring rates, everything else. It would be a
rough ride once you get this thing in the ruts. Everything else, I'm sure it'll crawl just as
good, if not better, over hard rocks than a Raptor with that solid front axle. Outside of that,
listen, once you start up in the speeds a little bit, and the terrain gets a little rougher,
I'm sure the Raptor is certainly going to feel a lot better inside while you're hitting that stuff.
But again, for all intents and purposes, and calling this thing the working man's Raptor,
I do think there is a case to be made for that, because when we're talking work stuff,
there's no denying this thing can hang, right? Obviously, the towing capacity's there.
Even with the six and three-quarter bed, you have plenty of room to haul stuff. And it's just got
the sheer brute force to tow basically whatever you need to, whenever you need to. As far as the
Raptor aspect, well, listen, you're not getting that high-speed desert-running capabilities, but
it's also no slouch, right? You got the hardware, you got the ability to get through some deep
stuff. You got the tires to climb, along with all of the lockers, the limited-slip front diff,
the tech aspects, with all of your modes built in. I think it does a
great job of being able to do both, and to be pretty good at both at the same time.
All right. So, what are my final thoughts here? Well, listen, at the end of the day, there's no
denying that Ford's diesel F-250 with the Tremor package is still going to be work truck first,
off-road toy second, right? However, Ford has done an awesome job of blurring the more traditional
lines of needing a dedicated rig for each. So, what does that mean? Well, you have a truck that
can get it done Monday through Friday towing the heavy machinery, and then come the weekend time,
trade that heavy machinery for the boat, the camper, the side-by-side,
get gnarly off-road, bury this thing in the mud, and then be back in time for work again on Monday.
Guys, we hope you enjoyed this brief look in the Ford's F-250
with the Tremor package. Drop us a comment wherever you're watching this video,
and let us know what you think. But in the meantime, I'm Justin. Thanks for watching.
For all things F-250 and Tremors, keep it right here at americantrucks.com.