Is Lightweight Aluminum Tough Enough for the Ford F-150?
It’s easy to call the Ford F-150’s aluminum body panels into question, but it’s important to have all the facts before making a decision.
When the first Ford F-150 with aluminum body panels hit the market for the 2015 model year, truck buyers and industry competitors were vocal about their skepticism over its strength and durability. We’re now several years into the grand experiment, and Ford hasn’t shown any signs of turning back, but some owners have found reason to seriously question the decision.
Two posts to the Ford Truck Enthusiast forums raise questions about the strength of Ford’s aluminum. One relates to the F-150’s ability to handle tough loads and the other calls the trucks’ body integrity into question. But before you light the torches and head to Detroit, it’s important to understand what’s going on.
Ford’s aluminum decision probably wasn’t an easy one to make, but there are plenty of real, tangible benefits to using aluminum over steel. Anyone who lives in a place where the air hurts their face for a decent portion of the year (cries in Maine) and where the roads are consistently treated with salt will understand the upside to using a less corrosive metal. Then there’s the fuel economy benefit, which is due to aluminum’s weight and density advantages over steel.
We could argue all day about whether that decision was the right one to make for a Ford F-150 line that could be used for anything from mall duty to hauling concrete paver stones. That said, the forum posts show trucks that could have been protected more carefully or that have high mileage. The first post fails to show any sort of bedliner protection in the truck, which could have prevented the axle puncture issue. A few years ago, one of the nation’s largest dealers reported that 80 percent of its new trucks leave the lot with a bedliner. As far as the second post goes about body panels cracking, that person has already driven 200,000 miles in their truck in just three years, suggesting there could be more going on than faulty panels.
Images: Forum posts/Ford Motor Company
