2023 Ford F-350 Super Duty Diesel

I'm Brian Wong with Edmunds, and we're here with something big today-- or I guess I should say a few big things, because we have here the fully redesigned Ford F-Seires Super Duty lineup, all of which get really big changes for the 2023 model year. Now, looking at the exterior of these trucks, it might not seem like the changes are that big, because to me, they kind of look a lot like the last generation of Super Duty trucks. But once we dive in a little bit and get under the skin, we see that these changes run very deep indeed. There are two new powertrains and really big upgrades when it comes to technology, all of which are designed to make the Super Duty easier to live with than ever before. We're here at Ford's Michigan proving grounds, and we're going to have the chance to drive these trucks on road, off road, and tow with them to see how they handle all the different environments that an owner might throw at them. [MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN WONG (VOICEOVER): Under the hood, the Super Duty will be offered with four different engine options, two of them all new. The new base engine is a 6.8-liter V8 that replaces the outgoing 6.2-liter V8. And at the top end of the range, there's a new high-output version of the 6.7-liter Power Stroke Diesel V8 that produces a whopping 500 horsepower and 1,200 pound feet of torque. That's enough power to move some serious loads around, as we'll show you later. And all of them come mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. The big Fords also come in a range of cab sizes, bed lengths, and six different trim levels. And on top of that, you can also add a Tremor off road package to give the Super Duties more appeal for overlanders or anyone who likes to drive off road. More on that later as well. That's a lot of specs to take in. And if you want more info on the F-Series Super Duty trucks, check out edmunds.com for all the details. - I'm here in the Ford F-350. I'm in a Crew Cab Limited, which is the biggest, swankiest cabin that you can get on the Super Duty. And under the hood, we have one of the two new engines, that high-output diesel. Now, this engine is not going to be taxed by anything that we're going to do here on the road. That engine really meant for towing, and we're going to see how it does with that later. BRIAN WONG (VOICEOVER): Now, we know it's kind of weird to start a heavy-duty truck review talking about interiors and ride quality instead of towing and hauling, but that's the way that this event was organized. And besides, here in the interior, there's still plenty of new technology stuff that's happening that we're excited to show you. - Ride quality is fine. It does a decent job of taking some of the bumps out of the roads here in Michigan. The steering feel is light, and there's a little bit of play with the wheel, like you might expect out of a big truck. These vehicles are really designed primarily with capability in mind, so you know they're not going to drive the best on road. But it's got plenty of power, and it's good enough that you could drive it around town without too much trouble. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're here in a limited model that's the top trim model. So instead of the standard 8-inch touchscreen, you're going to get the larger 12-inch touchscreen here and a 12-inch digital display for the instrument cluster as well as a HUD. So the screen, even though it's a familiar SYNC 4, it has those new technology features as well. And then this navigation system can also detect when you're towing, and it can plan smart routes for you. So let's say you have a big trailer in the back. You don't want to do a lot of sharp turns and things like that. The navigation can help you figure out an optimal route for that situation. Here, the limited trim things are pretty nice. I would say that this is still a step below what you'll get in a Ram heavy duty. That kind of sets the standard for the interiors in this class. But the leather on the seats is nice. Also have this really nice big panoramic glass roof. But there is still a lot of hard plastic up front to remind you that the basis of these trucks is work. In the back seat, tons of rooms. It's big enough that it allows you to carry four or five people, even comfortably. Even though that middle seat in the back is not particularly comfortable, the outboard ones are definitely good enough for adults. Here in the back with the center console, we also have a 120-volt household outlet if you need to charge something like a laptop. Front seats pretty comfortable. They come with seat heating and ventilation. And in this limited trim, they also come with something that they call Max Recline. Now, this is a feature borrowed from the F-150, and it means that these seats go all the way back. The new Super Duty also has a few new upgraded safety features as well, so adaptive cruise control. There's also front and rear brake assist. And if you have the Ford app and a trailer hooked up and someone tries to unhook your trailer while the vehicle is locked, it'll send you a notification. [MUSIC PLAYING] Also new for 2023, there's a power tailgate which you can activate using a small button here next to the steering wheel or by the key fob. Now, the nice thing is to put the tailgate up. I can do that from inside the cabin now, or if I'm in the back, I just give it a little bump up, and then it goes up the rest of the way. The other very nice thing, though, that I might like even more than that is an industry-first tailgate cam. So now I'm lowering the tailgate. If I shift into reverse, I still have access to the backup camera, and I still have access to the surround view camera as well. It's just a really good solution to a problem that, before this, all trucks faced. Another very cool feature-- onboard scales. So one of the tough things when you're loading payload is knowing exactly how much you're putting in, but this truck actually makes that very easy. But once you overload it a little bit, it turns red so you know. Another cool feature is that you can turn on these tail lamp LEDs in the back. So as you're loading, you can actually see how close you're getting to that max payload capacity. Again, a very simple solution to what is a really big truck problem. One of the other things that Ford has done with the new Super Duty that we really like is that they've really improved all aspects of trailering. And that happens even before you hook the trailer up. So this vehicle that I'm in right now is equipped with Pro Trailer Hitch Assist, and it kind of needs to be seen to be believed. When I hit this Pro Trailer button right here, it's going to ask you if your trailer is corrected. I'm going to say no. And it's going to detect this trailer right behind me. And then now all I have to do now is I have to back it up. Now you have this handy little circle, and I just keep the hitch of that trailer in the circle. This indicates to the system that this is, in fact, the correct trailer. And then I just press and hold this Trailer Pro button, and it will take care of the rest. As you can see, it's doing the steering. It's doing the brakes. And I just hold this button down until we're kind of docked in there. It's going to actually stop in a second and make sure that we can go back and check if the trailer is the appropriate height. And we will say it is because we checked it before this. And now it switches to the useless top-down view, and all I do is hold down the button again. Watch that red line because that's where my bumper is. And it should just dock right in there. Done in a snap. BRIAN WONG (VOICEOVER): In this redesign, Ford has also increased the Super Duty's towing and payload figures to where they are both class-leading. Maximum payload for the F-150 tops out at 4,268 pounds, but to get to that class leading 8,000-pound figure, you'll have to jump up to a specific configuration of the F-350. Most single-axle variants of both trucks can carry somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds with the dual rear-axle versions of the F-350 coming in around 6,000 or 7,000 pounds. The towing figures have also increased. The F-150 tops out at 23,000 with a gooseneck trailer, a 3,000-pound advantage over the Ram and a 4,500-pound advantage over the Chevy if you're keeping score. And the F-350 can tow up to 38,000 pounds with a gooseneck trailer as well. That's some serious weight. - I'm in an F-350 with the high-output diesel engine, so we have that 500 horsepower, 1,200 pound feet of torque. And we're going to see how it does going up that grade with 30,000 pounds behind me off of a fifth-wheel trailer. Let's go. Now, 30,000 pounds is near the maximum that you can put on a fifth-wheel trailer with this vehicle. It tops out at 35,000 pounds. But again, pretty big load, and it's going up this grade with what I would call relative ease. I'm about half throttle right now. We're pushing 40 miles an hour. We're still accelerating slightly. We're going to see how it does later in the off road, but for towing, there's really nothing that I can think of that's better out there. This torque and the way that it puts power down, and it's smooth-- it just went up this hill like it was nothing. I would have more trouble walking up this hill, probably, with 100 pounds on my back. So the fact that they can do this with 30,000 pounds-- really, really impressive. Out here at Ford's proving grounds. I'm now in an F-250 with the Tremor package. The Tremor package includes things like 35-inch all-terrain tires, skid plates, a limited slip front differential. You're also going to get a little bit of a lift from the front, and then there's blocks in the rear. Not too much over the regular truck, but this thing is definitely plenty capable. I've actually driven the versions with both engines, so both the gas and diesel. And the diesel engine just has so much torque that you barely actually have to touch the throttle at all on a trail like this. You kind of just let it run, and it just goes over obstacles, both very good as well when you're rock crawling. This truck has plenty of clearance. And for any kind of trail or something like this, it makes short work of it. This is really light effort for this truck. It's probably not as crazy capable as what you're going to get in a Power Wagon, but it's not really built up in the same way that the Ram is. Other things that we really like about the Tremor-- the off-road camera. So it actually stays on when you're in Off-Road Mode, no matter what speed you're at. Plenty of different camera views, too, so you get even a 360 view, a front view, a view of each tire, a view down the sides, whatever you really want to see. So if you're out there without a spotter, it's still pretty easy to get around. So we're out here in some of this soft stuff. And one of the cool features that the Tremor package also comes with is something called Trail Turn Assist. So right now, I'm doing these wide circles around these cones. The truck is taking long arcs. But if we turn on the Trail Turn Assist right here, so push this button, it will actually brake the inside wheel on the rear and allow you to turn in really tightly. So these circles, instead of being maybe 30, 40 feet wide, turn into maybe 10, 15 feet wide. If you have this on a harder pack trail or something like that, when you release the steering wheel, it's going to be a little bit abrupt. But in the soft stuff like this, it allows you to have really tight turning radius around things and get around obstacles you probably couldn't otherwise. Super Duties start from around $43,000 for a basic F-250 two-wheel drive work truck, but the prices do climb very quickly from there. For a crew cab model in the limited trim, you're looking at nearly six figures without any options. And with a long list of customizations available, it's not too hard to get an F-50 or an F-350 that ends up well into the six figures. So the Super Duty can now tow and handle more payload than ever before. And with that high-output diesel powertrain, it makes really impressive power figures. But what has me most impressed about this truck is just how easy it is to live with. All the technology updates seem to have taken the pain points of truck ownership, so things like loading up a payload or hooking up a trailer, and made them easier than ever before. And to me, that impresses me more than 40,000 pounds of towing ever could. Now, the previous generation of the Super Duty had an Edmunds rating of 7.7, and that was good enough to put it second in our heavy-duty truck rankings. But if I had to speculate, I think this new truck might have what it takes to jump up even higher and maybe take the top spot in those rankings. [MUSIC PLAYING]