TRAVIS LANGNESS: Welcome to the Arizona desert.
I'm Travis Langness for edmunds.com.
And behind me is the 2020 Ford Super
Duty, the F-250 in this case.
This is one of three heavy duty trucks
on the market that have been completely redesigned
in the last few years.
Now, while this one hasn't been overhauled nearly as much
as the Ram and the Chevy models have,
there's some pretty significant updates.
We're going to be getting in a few trucks today,
see the different trim levels, and the whole lineup
to see what this new Ford Super Duty is all about.
What do you get on the inside of the F-250?
Well, you get pretty much the same
you get as Ford's full size offering, the F-150.
The steering wheel's the same.
The controls are the same.
The dashboard looks the same.
You get the same Ford Sync screen.
A lot of space here in the center
console, just like you would get in any full size truck.
And that's great, because those full size trucks these days
are super comfortable.
And if you're used to one of those,
you're upgrading to something bigger,
you want a familiar layout.
You want something you're used to that
won't take forever to learn.
Now, some of the controls are kind of
hidden away here over on the side, hard to reach.
But there's good visibility here, just like the F-150.
There's this little dip down so you
can see the big tow mirrors.
That's especially helpful when you've
got a big trailer behind you.
But everything comes to hand pretty easily.
And the small upgrades are things
that really only the heavy duty owners are going to notice,
things like the Trailer Backup Assist knob here
that was previously only on the F-150.
It's also nice to have things like adjustable pedals
and a tilt and telescoping steering wheel.
That's a leg up that Ford has on the competition.
And really, this is a premium interior.
If you're in the back of a crew cab heavy duty pickup truck
and you need more legroom, you should try out for the NBA.
This is a really spacious area, and all the stuff back here
feels nice.
Good seat material.
It's soft enough to sit on for a long road trip.
Plenty of space underneath the front seat to put your feet.
And there's lots of cup holder space.
There's USB-A and USB-C ports, a 110 plug,
and heated outboard seats.
This is as luxurious as any Mercedes was 10 years ago.
So this is the inside of the 2020 Ford Super Duty.
Now, that means the 250 and the 350,
those are included in Super Duty.
But what we're driving right now is the 250 Super Duty 4 by 4
with the 6.7-liter turbo diesel engine.
Now, that is an optional engine.
The base motor still is 6.2 with a six-speed transmission.
But this vehicle gets the new 10-speed automatic,
as does the other optional engine in this lineup,
the 7.3-liter V8.
That's 7.3-liter V8.
And that is the third engine in the lineup.
It also gets the 10-speed automatic.
That is the biggest motor you can buy.
Sure, there's the Bugatti Chiron,
which has more displacement and twice the cylinders,
but 7.3 liters, there's nothing else short of a W16
that you can get that's larger on the market.
Now, strangely enough, that 7.3-liter engine has less power
and less torque than this turbo diesel.
I guess the torque part is not that surprising.
But this 6.7-liter engine has the diesel.
It has 475 horsepower and 1,050 pound-feet of torque.
1-0-5-0, that's four digits of torque.
This is more torque than anything Ford's ever made.
Thankfully, it shows up in places like towing
and in payload.
Those are all improved.
I mean, if you're looking at like an F-450 with that engine,
now you can tow 37,000 pounds with that.
Really, it's out of the realm of anything people
are going to tow on a normal basis.
While the 7.3 liter has 430 horsepower
and 475 pound-foot of torque.
Now, that's not anything that to shake a fist at,
but it's not nearly as much as this diesel one.
Of the two, the diesel is what I prefer.
It's the one that gets more range.
You've got more towing power.
And it's going to be a little bit less expensive to fill up.
So what else is different about this vehicle?
Well, on the inside, it feels pretty similar to an F-150.
Sure, it's a little bumpier on the highway and a little bit
louder.
But you're really familiar with all of the switch gear.
Everything on the inside feels relatively premium.
Pickup trucks, especially heavy duty pickup trucks,
have been getting better and better at this stuff.
You can go on long road trips without getting tired.
Put down hundreds, if not thousands of miles
without getting road fatigue.
And you've got all the creature comforts you want, especially
on the top trim levels--
stuff like ventilated and heated seats, a heated steering wheel.
It's really easy to drive over long distances.
You might know the Ford F-150 Raptor
for its off-road prowess.
And what Ford has done to their Super Duty trucks
is add the trimmer trim to that lineup.
It's basically an off-road package
that you can add to multiple trim levels.
And it's a lifted ride height, wheels and tires,
the option even for an integrated front winch.
And what it does is increase this vehicle's
off-road capability.
Now, I wouldn't take something as large
as an F-250 on the Rubicon.
It's something that's more for deep mud ruts and kind of
splashing through water.
Although, it does have a new rock crawl
mode, which is pretty impressive,
and significant suspension articulation.
Now, they did have to mess with some of the sway bar stuff
up front, but the truck hasn't lost any towing or hauling
capability as a result.
One of the big improvements on the Heavy Duty Ford this year
is the addition of the Pro Trailer Backup Assist.
So what that does is it allows me to steer the vehicle using
this little knob as opposed to the steering wheel
based on where I want the trailer to go,
not based on where I want the truck to go.
That came up from the F-150 to the heavy duties this year,
and it's a game changer.
It's a really cool feature, especially when
you're towing a 42-foot trailer and you've
got to back it into a parking spot.
So we've spent plenty of time on the road in the F-250
with nothing behind it and nothing
in the bed, which is not what most heavy duty pickup truck
drivers do most of the time.
You don't buy these like you do with a full size
or a midsize pickup truck for the image.
This is for the work.
This is a workhorse.
And this vehicle is meant to tow.
The F-250 properly equipped can tow 20,000 pounds.
That's quite a lot.
Matter of fact, that's so much that if you're
towing that much, you need a commercial driver's license
for that kind of towing.
But what I've got behind me now is 11,000 pounds,
a big long trailer.
And we went up the mountain.
We're going back down the mountain.
And this feels really a lot more effortless
than I thought it would.
Modern heavy duty trucks do most of the work for you.
You know, they do the braking and the throttle work for you.
They've got smart computers for shifting.
We're in tow haul right now.
And it knows to hold before it shifts,
not shift early and give you a struggle up the hill.
Really, when it comes to the towing stuff, this is a breeze.
The last generation of this truck
was not bad at this either.
And what we're getting is evolutions on really impressive
technology.
That's the all new 2020 Ford Super Duty, the F-250
and the F-350.
It's not completely redesigned, but it's got big updates--
the new power trains under the hood, the new interior tech,
the new towing technology, and the cool new off-road package.
Is all that enough to keep up with the redesigned Ram
and Chevy products that it competes with?
Yeah, I think so.
This was already an impressive truck.
And what Ford has done is just breathed on it a little bit,
made it slightly better, and addressed
some of the issues we had with last year's model.
We can't wait to get the Ford Super Duty into the Edmunds
offices and put it through our full series of tests
and put it head to head against the Ram and the Chevy.
But for more information on the Ford and all of its rivals,
go to edmunds.com, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube
channel.