Autoblog

If you own a 2008 Ford F-Series truck, your Fun Friday is made less so by the news of a recall for your truck that involves its seats. Apparently, the front driver's seat on these trucks fail to comply with federal rules for seat back strength, as a weld that connects a bracket and the seat back could crack. The report didn't mention whether cracks have occurred during normal use of the seats or when they're subjected to high loads such as in an accident, though it did say no accidents or injuries had been reported due to the weak welds.

Of the 100,000+ vehicles subject to recall, 87,000 of the trucks are in the United States, while the remaining 14,000 are in Canada, and all are either F-250 or F-550 Super Duty Models.

Ford won't be sending notifications out until later this month, so F-Series owners who just can't wait can call Ford at (800) 392-3673 for more information.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Click image for a gallery of '05 - '07 F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks

If the Ford Escape Hybrid is "The Candidate's Choice," then the automaker's big, bad Super Duty trucks are "The Smuggler's Choice." You see, unfortunately for truck owners, drug and human traffickers are "choosing" to steal them from the public to use in their nefarious endeavors. The reasons are simple: they're big (plenty of contraband can be carried), rugged (they can handle running off-road in the border areas), powerful (handy when running from the police), and apparently easy to make off with (they can be "stolen with a screwdriver" according to the Houston PD). In 2007, 1,245 F-250 and F-350 Super Duties vanished from Houston driveways, a forty percent increase over 2006, and notable when you consider overall car thefts in the city were down. In response, Ford is enhancing vehicle security by using keys embedded with chips required to activate new 2008 trucks' electronic ignition systems. Of course, that may not help win back former owners whose trucks have already been stolen. The Chronicle article tells of one victim whose actions spoke volumes. He switched to Chevy.

[Source: The Houston Chronicle]

International and Ford haven't been the best of friends lately, with the two companies sparring over compensation for the Powerstroke 6.4L. International stopped making the engines in protest earlier in the year, but this time the union has walked out on International. Even with the strike, Ford hasn't yet suspended production of the Super Duty at its Louisville plant. If the strike lasts more than a few days, however, the blue oval will simply run out of parts with which to build the big truck.

Union rhetoric points to what may be a longer strike than we saw at GM and Chrysler, and if days turn into weeks, Ford could lose $22 million a week in lost profits. International supplies Ford with up to 250,000 Powerstroke 6.4L engines per year, and the oil burner reaps Ford's largest profit margins. We're pretty sure Ford is in no shape to lose out on $22 million a week, so lets hope this union spat ends quickly.

[Source: Auto News - sub. req'd]

For those complaining that the Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson introduced yesterday wasn't suited for real truck duty, here you go. It's the F-250/450 Super Duty version of Ford's cobranding enterprise with Harley-Davidson, and can surely tow a few more bikes behind its bed than the half-ton version. Since this big bruiser from Milwaukee via Dearbon hasn't been officially unveiled yet, we can't tell you any details beyond what the spy pics show. Expect a set of nice chrome wheels, a catchy paint job, and badging, lots of badging. The grille up front gets the same slim bars seen on the F-150 version, as well.

Man, how embarassed would you be rolling up to Sturgis behind the wheel of your 2007 F-150 Harley-Davidson and seeing some Hell's Angels fella bombing around in the Super Duty version? At least the F-150 Harley-Davison can be ordered with a $6,500 SALEEN supercharger/intercooler set up so you can smoke the other guy off the line.

When a vehicle rolls over, one of the critical components in assuring the safety of its occupants is the roof structure and its ability to protect, not injure its occupants. On the heels of nearly $250-million dollars in judgments relating to injuries caused in rollover accidents, Ford Motor Company has considerably stepped up its efforts to assure the roof strength of its vehicles.

A new standard proposed by NHTSA in August, 2005 raises the minimum force withstood by a roof structure from a multiple of 1.5 to 2.5 times the vehicle's weight while maintaining sufficient head room for a buckled-in average size adult male to avoid being struck by a crushed roof. Unfortunately, a final ruling could take as long as a year and would give the manufacturers until at least 2011 to comply.

In a letter to the NHTSA, Ford's director of automotive safety office, James P. Vondale, disclosed that some versions of 11 models would have roofs 20 percent stronger than required. For instance, the Expedition and Navigator, as well as some F-250 and E-series models would exceed the standard, matching the Volvo XC90, which has one of the strongest roofs on the market.

Follow the jump for more info and a list of the 11 models from Ford that will receive stronger roofs in the near future.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Minisites, sitelets, microsites -- whatever you call them, they're now a part of just about every product launch, whether it's for potato chips or Porsches. True to form, with last week's reveal of the '08 Ford F-Series Super Duty, the Oval followed up with a dedicated minisite for the new ginormous trucks. Its primary navigation elements are a set of links across the top of the page, each of which correspond to a specific background environment that gets dropped behind the black Super Duty sitting front and center in your browser window.

Arrows to the left and right of the truck let you cycle through the environments, which are a highway construction site, a boat ramp, a port facility/shipping terminal, a farm, and a field. Those environments serve as portals into detail pages related to power, capability, innovation, exterior, interior, and configurations, respectively. The detail pages generally feature a primary photo with rollover tabs that open extended explanations of the truck's features. In some cases you get slightly different content, such as 360-degree spin-o-rama views.

Finally, an 'Extras' link lets you register for email updates and has a set of desktop wallpapers available for download. This, along with the rest of the site's content, will likely evolve over time to keep things fresh over the year leading up to the trucks' arrival in showrooms.

I have to say that I found myself spending a lot more time playing around on the site than I thought I would. I normally get fed up with Flash-heavy sites like this after a minute or two, but the Super Duty site is fast, visually interesting, flows well and draws you in once you start clicking around. That's the whole point with any site, so credit Ford's interactive agency with a job well done.

Thanks for the tip, Ryan!

Once again Texas will play host to a major truck announcement. On Sept. 28th, Ford will unveil its new 2008 F-Series Super Duty pickup and new 6.4-liter Power Stroke diesel at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. The big news is that the new Power Stroke will be able to run on Ultra Low Sulfur Fuel, the sale of which will be mandated nationwide as of this October. The engine is larger in displacement than the perpetually plagued 6.0-liter unit it replaces and features some high-tech trickery to achieve particulate emissions levels that equal those of gas-powered engines. The most significant is the use of piezo-electric injectors in the common-rail fuel injection system, a first for a pickup engine sold in the U.S. Ford won't reveal the Super Duty's price or the Power Stroke's fuel economy and power figures until closer to the vehicle's launch in Dallas.

(Check out Ford's full press release after the jump)

[Source: Ford]

Last week we saw a picture of a heavily-camouflaged 2008 Ford Super Duty; this week brings additional shots of vehicles in more revealing livery - something that looks more like Mossy Oak. The sharp eye of Chris Doane found three examples - a single-rear-wheel truck, a dually, and a medium-duty flatbed - undergoing hot-weather testing in the desert.

The most obvious change is in the area of the headlights, with these vehicles sporting lamps that look much like the Ford Tonka concept of several years ago. The hood has a less-prominent budge than the current Super Duty, and the front fenders appear flatter along their upper edge. The openings in the front bumper appear to be larger and the grille has grown in height, likely to accommodate the increased cooling needs of a more powerful twin-turbo diesel. Those who tow trailers on a regular basis will likely appreciate the mirrors, which appear to be only slightly smaller than the average billboard and carry relatively large turn signals.

A peek at the interior shows some styling cues from the contemporary F-150, but it's hard to say what trim level we're seeing. A final assessment will have to wait until all the pieces are in place and the data acquisition equipment is removed.  

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

When a new Ford Power Stroke diesel comes along in 2007 to replace the current 6.0-liter model, it may represent the first use of piezo injectors in a pickup truck. The Siemens-built injectors should help International's 6.4-liter twin-turbo meet upcoming emission standards while also improving upon its predecessor's spotty reliability record, as well as giving the Blue Oval oil burner an European-like level of technological sophistication.

The injectors work via the piezoelectric effect, as the name might hint. They use a small disc of quartz-like crystalline material that deforms when subjected to a high-voltage low-current source, which provides the injector opening and closing action. With cycle times as low as 0.2 milliseconds, such injectors are several times faster than conventional solenoids, which in turn is said to allow up to seven injector events during each compression stroke. The precision of each injector is also increased, with injector-to-injector variation of only a few percent.

All of this adds up to a significant improvement in emissions and fuel economy, but at a price; piezo injectors are reportedly up to twice as expensive as the traditional solenoid-based squirters. With the average pickup truck diesel engine carrying a $5,000 premium, we're guessing that there's plenty of room in the budget.

[Source: Automotive News/Autoweek]

 

Those waiting to do a spot of stump-pulling with Ford's revamped 2007 Super Duty pickups will have to hold their horses a little longer. The fortified F-Series trucks won't hit dealers until January, despite internal plans to release it in the fourth quarter of 2006. As a result, the Blue Oval's profit-rich big boys likely won't reach the market ahead of rival General Motors' revamped heavy-duty variants of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the delay has something to do with quality measures on its new diesels, among other issues.

Regardless of the reason for the holdup, analysts are predicting that the push-back will likely hurt Ford's earnings for 2006.

[Sources: Detroit Free Press; Inside Line]