Diesel is a dirty word around the world. From the San Francisco Bay to the tight streets of Paris, the word diesel is synonymous with pollution But there is one place where diesel remains king, and that’s in The U.S., bolted to the frames of great pickup trucks. One of those trucks is the 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke, and this big red machine is so good at towing heavy things you’ll want to drive across the country towing trailers just for the fun of it.
The end of July was a busy month for me. I spent nearly a whole week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 right before racing down to North Carolina to save a 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe from a long slumber. None of it would have been possible without the big red F-250 that Ford was kind to toss me the keys to. The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 hauled trailers for a good 2,400 miles that week, and it didn’t break a sweat even once. I even consistently got fuel economy well above my expectations.
(Full Disclosure: Every year, I hitch a different truck up to my family’s 6,300-pound camper to see how the pickups handle the job. Ford loaned me a 2024 Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke for a week to do some hauling with. I paid for my own fuel and DEF, then returned the truck as it was delivered to me.)
26 Years Of Heavy Hauling
Last year my tow rig was a bright orange 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro hybrid. It towed the camper well, but guzzled a surprising amount of gas for a hybrid drivetrain. At the same time, the truck constantly got compliments and more attention than some of the planes did.
This year, I wanted to keep tradition going by bringing a truck that was just a little different. Maybe a Ford Raptor or perhaps a Ram TRX? Then it hit me. Why don’t I hitch the wagon to some diesel power? In 2023, I attended Ford’s launch of the fifth-generation of the Super Duty series. I got to tow 40,000 pounds with a Ford Super Duty F-450, which remains one of the highlights of my towing career. But I really wanted to tow in what would be a real-life situation for me. Boom, Oshkosh was just that!
Now, if you’re not well-versed in your Ford truck history, you might be wondering what on earth I mean by “fifth generation.” The F-Series has definitely been around far longer than that. Don’t worry, I have you covered. Back in 1998, Ford split its F-Series truck brand into two distinct lines. The F-150 half-ton continued down a development path, which led to that truck becoming a softer, more family-friendly vehicle.
However, Ford recognized that the buyers of heavier F-Series trucks still wanted their pickups to do hard work, even if it compromised traits that made the F-150 such a great daily driver. Thus, the Super Duty line was born. I wrote about this before:
For the past [26] years, the higher-capacity trucks have slotted into what Ford calls Super Duty trucks. Now, on the surface, this is a bit confusing. Ford has definitely sold big trucks for far longer than 25 years and the Super Duty name certainly wasn’t invented in 1998, so what gives? Well, Ford says it goes back to the very first F-Series trucks from 75 years ago. Back then, you could buy the half-ton F-1 and the classes climbed all of the way up to the F-7 and F-8 “Big Job” trucks. So, heavy-duty trucks built for hard work have always been a part of the Ford truck formula.
Those early trucks had a Gross Combined Weight Rating (truck plus trailer and payload) up to 41,000 pounds and a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (truck plus payload) of up to 22,000 pounds. As the F-Series marched forward, Ford saw demand for an engine better suited for heavy work. Thus, in 1958, the brand launched the Super Duty engine. The Super Duty name made a return in the late 1980s for a Class 4 chassis cab truck.
The Super Duty has cornered its market space ever since. Chances are your utility company uses Super Duty trucks, and it’s likely the same for local emergency services, construction, and maybe even mining. Then you have the ranchers and just everyday people who want a truck with a bit more meat than a half-ton.
Ford says 90 percent of Super Duty owners use their trucks to tow things. I thought that number was shocking, but after living with one for a week I believe it. You buy something like the F-250 or larger for its ability to haul huge loads without stress.
Ford improved the Super Duty for the fifth generation in many key areas, some of which I discuss here when I talked about the 2023 model:
There are a ton of changes for the Super Duty line this year, and Ford starts them off under the hood. New this year is a 6.8-liter V8 gas engine making 405 HP and 445 lb-ft torque. This is the standard engine in the F-250 and you’ll also find it in the XL trim of the F-350. A step up from that engine is the 7.3-liter V8, affectionately known as the ‘Godzilla’ engine. This plant makes 430 HP and 485 lb-ft torque. From there, you have the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 diesel, which churns out 475 HP and 1,050 lb-ft torque. Finally, we have the High-Output 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8, which cranks the power up to 500 HP and 1,200 lb-ft torque of stump-pulling, 40,000-lb trailer-pulling power. And payload? At best, you can haul a whole 8,000 pounds in the bed. Ford says that payload also accounts for occupants, so it’s not 8,000 pounds minus people in the cab.
Oh yeah, when equipped in a specific (read, super cool) way, the Ford F-450 will tow an incredible 40,000 pounds, placing the Super Duty at the top of the towing charts. Ford says the extreme towing ability, which bests the 2022 model by 3,000 pounds, was done by tweaking the frame. The Super Duty’s frame is similar to the outgoing P558-generation trucks, but optimized and strengthened in key areas. Ford says there were updates to the interface between the hitch and frame as well as updates to the fifth wheel crossmember. I got to drive that truck and haul its massive load around Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds. The experience of pulling half of the maximum legal weight of a Class 8 tractor remains mind-boggling, so much that you’re going to read about it in a separate entry.
To get us back on track here, all Super Duty variants come with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Meanwhile, every chassis cab comes standard with a power take off connection and four-wheel-drive is now standard starting with XLT trim levels and up.
Ford is thorough in listing the capabilities of each and every possible configuration of Super Duty. You can give yourself a headache flipping through all of it, so here’s a handy couple of bulletpoints:
- Gooseneck towing of 40,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- 5th-wheel towing of 35,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- Conventional towing capacity of 30,000 pounds with F-450 pickup.
- Gooseneck towing of 38,000 pounds with F-350 pickup.
- Conventional towing of 28,000 pounds with the F-350 DRW.
- Conventional towing of 25,000 pounds with the F-350 SRW.
- Gooseneck towing of 23,000 pounds with F-350 Tremor HO Power Stroke.
- Conventional towing of 22,000 pounds with F-350 DRW 7.3-liter Godzilla V8.
- Conventional towing of 18,500 pounds for the F-350 Tremor (gas and diesel).
- Gooseneck towing of 21,000 pounds for the F-350 Tremor (gas and diesel).
- Gooseneck towing of 23,000 pounds with F-250 HO Power Stroke.
- Conventional towing of 22,000 pounds with the F-250 HO Power Stroke.
All of that is insane, right? My loaner truck was a 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat. Under the hood was a 6.7-liter High Output Power Stroke V8, which meant 500 horsepower and a monstrous 1,200 lb-ft of torque. In other words, I was basically driving a freight locomotive! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but it certainly felt like I was strapped to an impossible amount of power.
This truck is equipped with four-wheel drive, the 11,100-pound GVWR package, and the Sport Appearance Package. Its rear axle has an electronic locker and a 3.55 ratio, and out back is a 6-3/4′ box; the whole truck rides on a 160-inch wheelbase. Ford says an F-250 in this configuration can tow a whopping 18,200-pound trailer from the hitch just below the rear bumper. This same truck could haul a 20,000-pound gooseneck. The Sport Appearance Package nets body-color bumpers, black trim, running boards, and black 20″ wheels.
The first trailer involved in this trip was a 2007 Adirondack 31BH by Thor. This trailer weighs 6,292 pounds empty and measures 35’5″ from bow to stern. This truck was totally overkill for the job and a half-ton could have handled it just fine. But I wanted to hear the heartwarming clickety-clack of a diesel, and this truck is currently the smallest truck Ford sells with a diesel.
A Different Diesel Experience
Motor City Solutions of Detroit dropped off the truck the Friday before the big air show, and I was like a kid in a candy store. I put on my cowgirl hat, fired up that mighty Power Stroke, and went for a cruise.
If you’ve never driven a diesel truck before, there will be one thing that immediately jumps out at you. These newfangled engines aren’t anything like the 7.3 Power Strokes or 5.9 Cummins that so many covet. Yes, I know that these engines are worlds apart in terms of technology, but it’s the character of these new engines that will surprise you.
If you stand vaguely in the vicinity of those old diesels you will smell diesel burning, and if they aren’t exactly right you might see black soot or even some black smoke. None of that is happening here with this Ford’s engine or with many diesel engines from the past 15 or so years. You can stand directly behind the exhaust of this truck, and the smell will be best described as “hot” rather than anything else. You don’t get diesel fumes or any of the nasty stuff commonly associated with older diesels.
Then there’s how quiet everything is. These new trucks idle quieter than some gasoline cars I’ve run across. If you’re looking for the kind of mechanical clanging that wakes people like me up in the morning you won’t find it here. Now, this isn’t me trashing this truck. A lot of people complain about the sights, smells, and auditory sensation of having to listen to a diesel. Modern engines are nothing like that.
This experience of refinement is further amplified when you hop into the cab. The interior of my Lariat tester featured large thrones wrapped in soft leather and there were expansive glass panels that ran the length of the roof. To your right is a command center with real buttons for HVAC controls and comfort options including dual-zone climate, heated seats, ventilated seats, and power for everything in there. Want to open the rear window? Just hit the switch! Want to put your mirrors into towing mode? Boom, hit a switch for that.
Once you hop into the interior of the Lariat, you begin to understand that while the F-250 and bigger trucks are built for work, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer to get the job done. In fact, the interior of the Lariat was so comfortable that on one night I slept inside of the truck instead of stopping at a hotel, but we’ll get to that later.
At the same time, you can tell that Ford turned a work truck into a luxury pickup. The interior has nice soft-touch materials on many surfaces, but then those surfaces transition to the kind of hard plastic you’d expect to find in a city bus, not a luxury truck costing just short of $100,000. None of it is a dealbreaker, but you’d expect better for the price you’re paying.
The truck makes up for it in other ways, such as the Bang & Olufsen Unleashed 14-speaker. Now, look, I’m not an audiophile like Thomas is. I’m a pretty simple gal who likes her music played at 11 with everything still there loud and clear. Well, I don’t know who the Bang & Olufsen guys were, but the sound system absolutely lives up to the first half of the name. The B&O sound system hits so hard you’ll feel it in your heart at only halfway up the volume dial, and if you dared crank it all of the way up it would probably make you go deaf in little time. No matter what song I punched through the truck it came out clear, loud, and with just the right amount of bass. This system ranks near the top of sound systems I’ve used in regular vehicles. The jobsite has never sounded better.
This brilliant soundstage was paired with a suite of sweet tech from Ford Co-Pilot360 2.0, a HUD, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, automatic emergency braking, wireless charging, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Ford SYNC 4 running through a gigantic 12-inch screen. Another 12-inch screen was used for the instrument cluster.
All of this tech was amazing to have, but what I loved the most was how this truck drove. In the past, moving up from a half-ton sometimes meant trading comfort for capability, but this wasn’t the case here. I fired up that Power Stroke at the touch of the button and the cab was so well insulated that I barely heard or felt it.
After adjusting my seat and setting everything from the HUD position to the B&O’s bass it was time to roll, and Ford gives you a deeply satisfying column shifter to put the truck in Drive. This era is full of digital shifters, yet this relic of the past still felt great. It’s a big physical lump that only adds to the realization that I’m harnessing mountain-pulling 1,200 lb-ft of torque under my size 10 slip-on.
Setting off, this new Power Stroke is unlike its predecessors. There wasn’t much in the way of lag when I gave the accelerator a foot-full. Instead, my head got pushed into the cushy headrest, I finally heard the engine spooling up, and I thundered down the highway way faster than a truck this size had any right to be going. Sure, the Power Stroke didn’t have the instant torque last year’s Toyota Tundra TRD Pro hybrid did, but putting the hammer down in the diesel was infinitely more fun. Mind you, this truck is only 200 horses short of my favorite truck, the F-150 FP700. This felt darned close, but with the intensity turned down from 11 to about a 7 or 8.
Of course, you don’t have to drive the truck this way. You could also be gentle on the pedal, which I was most of the time. When you do that, the truck gradually and silently builds speed. You’ll be rewarded at the pump as well. My test truck got in the high 20 mpg range when unloaded. That’s great for a vehicle so long it requires 1.25 parking spaces at the local supermarket.
The suspension is also impressive. Again, I’ve driven some older Super Duty trucks, and some of them felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. The ride quality in this burly truck was better than some new cars I’ve driven. I won’t say it’s 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton soft in there, but I’d prefer this truck’s ride over a Toyota Corolla. All of this was just driving around unloaded, too.
Hitching Up The Wagon
The Ford Super Duty F-250 felt like a decent daily driver, but that isn’t really what it’s meant for.
On Saturday, Sheryl and I picked up my family’s Adirondack camper from storage. I’ve been towing trailers for almost as long as I’ve had a driver’s license. My dad was an over-the-road trucker for years, even owning his own business. To give you an idea of how old this trucking business was, it was called Streeter & Son Trucking Co. Anyway, dad taught me everything I know about towing.
If you don’t do much towing, it isn’t just dropping a tongue on a ball and hitting the road. You have to consider increased stopping distances, trailer swing, trailer sway, proper trailer loading, proper trailer hitching, payloads, tire loading, and so much more. Too many Americans lash a trailer up to whatever tow vehicle they have, not knowing that both the truck and trailer are overloaded.
Last year, Ford challenged journalists at the Super Duty launch event to back up to a trailer’s tongue on their own and to back up a trailer on their own. I was the only one able to complete these tasks without using Ford’s suite of trailer assists. That comes from so much experience doing all of this myself.
This is what I did on my very first try during that event:
One of the things I loved about the F-250 was its suite of cameras, giving you a 360-degree view of the truck. Normally, I hitch up a trailer to a truck myself by centering the trailer in the middle of the rear window and then inching my way back. Trucks with backup cameras make it a little easier by giving me a better view of the rear.
The F-250 is even better than that, giving me a camera looking right at the tow hitch. The camera view also has a dotted line going from the hitch to where the truck will end up. This makes hitching absolutely effortless. I just point the truck towards the trailer, drive until the ball is under the trailer’s tongue, then bam, hit the parking brake. It’s so easy that it feels like using a cheat code.
If you aren’t as good as I am with trailers, Ford offers a system called Pro Trailer Hitch Assist where the truck will reverse itself straight to the tongue of the trailer, even steering itself there. If simply having a camera is like a cheat code, this is like having a bot program!
Other neat tech onboard includes a function that simplifies backing up a trailer, from my review a year ago:
Pro Trailer Backup Assist. This is another system that does more or less what it says on the box. Another challenge for people who don’t tow often is backing a trailer. When you’re reversing a trailer, turning your steering wheel right results in the trailer swinging left. Turning left results in a trailer swinging right. Oh yeah, and when you’re reversing straight, you still have to turn the wheel to keep the trailer straight. Don’t forget, depending on the design of your trailer, turning too late can get you stuck in a tight spot. Again, if you tow all of the time, you can probably back a trailer with ease.
For those who are terrible at the job, just activate Pro Trailer Backup Assist. In this system, which has been simplified since its application in the F-150, you just put a sticker on your trailer, let the truck identify the trailer through the sticker, then use a dial to reverse the trailer. Left on the dial makes the trailer go left, while right makes the trailer go right.
Then there’s how you can use the truck like a scale. The truck monitors ride height changes recorded by the ride height sensors and then runs that data against a calculation to arrive at an estimated weight. This is useful for both the Onboard Scales function and the Smart Hitch function. When you load the truck’s bed, it’ll use its change in ride height to estimate how much weight you’ve put in the back. Plug in your trailer data and the truck can even tell you if you’ve loaded your tongue weight beyond safe margins. The truck will use its display as well as LEDs in the taillight to give you a clear indication of what’s going on.
Again, experienced haulers won’t need any of this stuff, but I’m glad it exists. Not everyone can hitch up or back a trailer on the first try. Not everyone knows their trailer weights right from the top of their head. It’s great to have a truck that tries its best to keep you from becoming a highway disaster.
Anyway, hitching up the Adirondack was a cinch thanks to the tow ball camera. From there, it was as simple as loading up and hitting the road.
On The Road
It didn’t take long for me to figure out why people buy these bigger trucks for loads a half-ton can haul.
Journalists sometimes say that a vehicle tows so well that you don’t even feel the trailer back there. This is hogwash. I don’t care how capable a truck is, you will feel that trailer back there. However, the Super Duty is the first truck that gets as close to that claim as I’ve ever experienced before.
The F-250 Power Stroke hauled that 6,300-pound Adirondack like it was a puny 850-pound U-Haul motorcycle trailer. A 6,300-pound brick did slow the truck down a little, but it still accelerated faster than traffic normally would on an on-ramp.
The Super Duty with that 6,300-pound trailer still accelerated so fast that flooring it on an on-ramp may break something inside of the camper or damage a wall.
Once I was on the highway, the truck drove with more confidence than a Disney movie villain. It held straight and true no matter the speed, dry or wet, still or windy. Winds on I-94 in Wisconsin are notorious for whipping up and wagging trailers around. The F-250 didn’t care and kept the Adirondack on track and in its lane.
The diesel powertrain was also a bright spot here as well. The truck found its sweet spot and stayed there. The engine remained a low-ish RPM for the whole trip and largely stuck to the same gear as well. That was delightful to see as some trucks end up hunting around for gears and revving high when towing the Adirondack. If the F-250 could talk, it would have said “is this all you got?” Granted, I sure hope it wasn’t breaking a sweat when this trailer was just a fraction of its incredible 18,200-pound tow rating.
I ended up hauling the family camper about 400 miles, and my average for the whole drive was about 10.2 mpg. That is the best mpg I’ve gotten yet towing the camper with any vehicle. Certainly, it was lightyears ahead of the 7.2 mpg the Tundra TRD Pro hybrid got last year. What’s better is the fact that this truck has a generous 34-gallon tank, which means decently long legs when towing.
Sadly, the F-250 Lariat, which I nicknamed Big Red, wasn’t as popular at Oshkosh as the Tundra was. Some people gave the truck a thumbs up, but most people didn’t care. Maybe the truck should have been even redder.
To date, I’ve towed the Adirondack with a 2011 Ford Expedition EL, a 2011 Chevrolet Suburban 1500, a 2016 Ford Super Duty F-350 XL Crew Cab, a 2015 GMC Yukon Denali, and a 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Out of all of those trucks and SUVs, the F-250 comes out on top and it’s not even close. The level of comfort and capability combined of this F-250 is unmatched by those other vehicles and only the F-350 V8 gasser comes close on fuel economy.
If I could describe the towing experience of the F-250 in one word, I’d have to conjure up a term I said earlier: sublime. The F-250 makes towing so easy, so painless, and so relaxing that I arrived at Oshkosh just as fresh and just as clear-minded as I left home.
Yet, the ultimate test for this truck wasn’t Oshkosh.
Once I dropped off the camper, I ran to U-Haul, hitched up an Auto Transport, and drove a thousand miles down to North Carolina. This gave me the ability to see how the Ford performed on a truly long trip.
The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat (and yes, that’s the official way to say it) is an excellent travel companion. A U-Haul Auto Transport weighs 2,210 pounds empty, so the truck barely noticed it back there. That allowed me to take in the truck as a road trip warrior. The truck is phenomenal at this task. I’m a “cannonball” type of traveler. By that, I mean that I set my sights on a destination and try to get there as quickly as possible. I stop for fuel only in an effort to get in as many miles as possible.
The Super Duty is one of the kings of long trips. I got 18 mpg hauling the empty U-Haul trailer down the highway and through Appalachia. That meant a smidge over 600 miles of range or more than halfway to Stephen Walter Gossin in Wilmington, North Carolina in just one go. Why is the F-250 a king of road trips? Well, it goes back to the Lariat package and options here. I set adaptive cruise and sunk into my comfortable leather throne. Mile after mile passed and that seat never made me feel pain. Handling the beast of a truck never wore me out, and the ventilated seat kept me feeling great. Here’s also where that insulation came in “clutch,” as David would say, as the outside world stayed outside, further reducing fatigue. The truck kept me so fresh that I drove through the entire day, hitting three in the morning before I realized that I should get some sleep.
But where do you even find a good place to sleep at three in the morning in West Virginia? Most of the motels and hotels with vacancy at 3am on a Saturday morning were bedbug specials, so I chose to put a blanket down on the truck’s rear bench and that’s where I slept.
I won’t say that sleeping in the F-250 was the best sleep that I’ve had — that distinction goes to the Chevrolet HHR — but it was far better than expected. I actually caught some dreams, which I couldn’t say about sleeping in my Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI.
I finally reached Wilmington in the early afternoon that day, where I parked the Super Duty at Gossin’s house and readied myself to rescue the lovely Plymouth below.
As I wrote in my Plymouth rescue piece, Gossin, a couple of readers, and I worked through the soupy humidity of North Carolina to load my new project car. Then I drove off into rural North Carolina, bound for home. Adding another 3,000 pounds or so to the U-Haul trailer didn’t impact the F-250 too much. It began its weekend by towing a 6,300-pound camper; 5,200 pounds of U-Haul trailer and vintage American car was nothing.
What was interesting was that the 5,200 pounds of trailer and classic car was such an easy pull for the F-250’s HO Power Stroke even in the truck’s regular driving mode. But I mostly kept it in the truck’s towing mode, which holds gears longer, just to be safe. To illustrate how powerful that Power Stroke is, the truck climbed through the mountains on the way home often without needing to downshift.
Going down those mountains was equally cool, as the truck’s built-in engine braking often negated the need to even pump the brake pedal. This time around I didn’t have time to stop. Google said I had 14 hours and 1,000 miles to drive. Ford’s people were scheduled to come in only hours after I got home. So this was the ultimate road trip test.
Well, adding a Plymouth didn’t change much to my road test notes. The ride was smooth with low fatigue and high-bass from the Mercedes Jam Session-Approved sound system. I even returned an acceptable 13 mpg with the Plymouth in tow and driving a smidge faster on the way back than I drove on the way down. All of that is excellent. Even the gargantuan mirrors were perfect at giving me a wide view of the world behind me.
A Few Complaints
What wasn’t so excellent were the problems I had with other parts of the truck.
Let’s start with the obvious. The F-250 is just far too tall. Look, I get it. I love big trucks and I cannot lie. I love those trucks big, tall, and diesel-powered. Gosh, these things are so fun to drive.
However, these trucks are not fun to load. The bedsides of the F-250 are so tall that it’s difficult to toss things into the bed from the sides. Getting things out of the bed from the sides is extraordinarily difficult. I have to climb up on a bed step, grab the thing I want to retrieve, put it on the bed side, jump down, and then grab the object.
Likewise, loading things into the rear requires lifting things to at or around boob level, which is just too high. Ford tries to alleviate this with a handy bed stairway. But you know what would eliminate the need for stairs to get into your bed? Dropping bed height down. I like big trucks, but I’d be okay with a lower bed height.
It doesn’t end there with the bed, either. The hood is also too darn high. Normally, I take pictures of engines to show our readers but I couldn’t here. There was just no way for me to open and close the F-250’s hood without having a step stool or something. That leads us into another problem and that’s with visibility. I can see pretty well out of the truck, but shorter drivers are likely to miss multiple children or animals under the hood or tailgate when pulling out of a driveway. That makes using the cameras absolutely necessary when you’re maneuvering around. Again, dropping the trucks closer to the ground would help here (though of course that’s going to have significant implications on the overall package/on performance).
There was one quality issue I found, and it was either some early corrosion or bad paint on the tailgate. This was disappointing to see on a new truck, but not one that would be too hard to have fixed.
Finally, the whole diesel exhaust fluid thing is a bigger headache than it should be. See, modern diesel engines need DEF to meet strict emissions regulations. Thankfully, the F-250 has a gauge that estimates when you’ll need to fill up on DEF next. This estimate seems to be based on the truck’s current load and the estimate doesn’t appear to be anywhere near accurate. So, you’ll check the readout and see that is says 1,800 miles remaining, but then 500 miles later the truck will tell you that you have 500 miles remaining.
Normally, I wouldn’t complain about this, but too many fuel stations make getting DEF harder than it needs to be. In my case, I needed DEF when I was driving through Indiana on my way home. Truck stops on the way back offered two ways of getting DEF. I could buy a 2.5-gallon jug of the stuff for $24 or pull up to one of the big truck pumps and pay $4 a gallon. Unfortunately, I ran into multiple stations that just didn’t have DEF in stock. The ones that did have DEF refused to dispense it when I swiped a regular credit card or bank card. A trucker advised me that the best way for someone like me to get DEF was to go into the truck stop and pre-pay for a few gallons. That was stupid, but it worked!
It seems my friends with modern diesel trucks just stock up on DEF from Walmart or similar and that’s how they roll.
I’m Addicted To Power
I arrived home on Monday morning just as the sun crept over the horizon. I had the F-250 for a little over a week and put about 2,400 miles on it. To say that I adored every mile would be an understatement.
As far as pricing goes, you better bring some cash to the table. $44,970 gets you in the door of the F-250 with the XL. If you want a Lariat like you see here, that starts at $64,740. Exterior options for my tester include $495 for the pretty Rapid Red, $12,995 for the HO 6.7 Power Stroke, $430 for the electronic locking axle, $5,075 for the Lariat Ultimate Package, $2,880 for the Sport Appearance Package, $1,495 Moonroof, $595 Tough Bed bedliner, and $400 for the Ford Pro Upfit Integration System. Interior options included Pro Power Onboard 2kW for $985, Onboard Scales & Smart Hitch for $650, and Max Recline Seats for $335.
All in, you’re looking at $92,520, and this truck is a great way to spend nearly six figures.
The 2024 Ford Super Duty F-250 Power Stroke is such a delightful truck that I see why people own these things as daily drivers. It makes towing effortless, eats miles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and towers so high over everything else on the road that you feel like a king or a queen. You can pull a mountain while still getting reasonable fuel economy and all of those things you hate about diesel power just aren’t present here. Toss in the jammin’ sound system and you have a frankly addictive combination. I learned during my trip that Ford’s position as a market leader is well-deserved; the company got me to fall in love with the exact opposite of my typical car.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I do agree that a standard license allowing 26,000 pounds (or more if you’re driving an RV) is not a great idea for most drivers.
The state I live in, Illinois, is one of a handful that does things a bit differently. Your regular license gets you to 16,000 pounds total and you need to upgrade your license before driving larger vehicles from there. I’m talking about non-CDL licenses, here!
The exception to the rule is if you’re driving a rental, then your regular Class D can get you to 26k. Something like my bus would require a non-commercial Class B (yes, that’s an Illinois thing), as would many Class A RVs. One of these days I want to write about how it’s like to get a non-commercial Class A, which in my state is somewhat similar to a CDL, but without the federal requirements.
It’s not perfect, but it’s something!
I gotta say I disagree. A 26,000lb box truck is just not that difficult to drive. Yes, there are MASSIVE issues with our drivers education and testing systems in general, but if you can’t drive an automatic uhaul truck, I question whether you should be driving a regular car.
If 26,000lb is too much for most drivers(and I think it is), the problem lies with the ‘most drivers’ part and not the ‘26,000lb’ part.
I agree that a box truck isn’t hard to drive. Heck, my bus isn’t rocket science either! I think I would be fine with robust driver education taking the place of my state’s license classes, but something should change. In my state, you won’t fail your driving test so long as you don’t crash and don’t commit any major offenses in the couple of miles you’ll drive. It’s wild how easy it is.
In Idaho it’s a little stricter than that(depending on which tester you get, they’re pretty variable because they’re independent contractors and not DMV employees) but still easier than it should be.
If you want to drive a semi truck, you need to pass a driver’s test in a semi truck. But if you want to drive a 26,000lb Class 6 medium duty truck, it’s just fine to take the test in a Yaris?
I am an advocate for drivers training and testing to happen in actual medium duty trucks. I became a significantly better driver after I got some real seat time in a truck.
So why are the DMV testers not DMV employees? Or all the things to sub out…
The P15 Plymouths make outstanding race cars in flathead or 3800 supercharged forms. Just wear a mask when removing the tar-covered horsehair seat cushions to prep for the track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Nj7iTzbAw
For an extra $50 Ford will even disconnect your turn signals for optimal highway Truck Bro driving
and im back to hating capitalism. on their build site ford in its infinite wisdom wont just let you get a base f350 with the 7.3. it forces the stx package and some other xl package and a 360 package then bumps the price up 9620$. like toyota wont let you get a manual in the base cheapest tacoma without a 7k price bump. one of many reasons theyll have to pry my 99 f350 with the 7.3 from my cold dead hands.
Ford are terrible with their option packages. You can’t get a heated steering wheel and power fold mirrors (two options I care very much about due to climate and parking situation) below a Lariat trim, and even then I think they might be an additional upcharge on top of that already-expensive trim. It’s a big reason I’m not driving a 2.7 F-150 right now.
Thank you for not resorting to that tired hyperbole. Although one of the few times I might believe it is when you were towing an empty car hauler behind a 3/4 ton. Even my half ton made that a pretty uneventful experience.
Having cross-shopped trucks recently and sat in at least one example from each of the Big 3, I’m not surprised to hear this. Even on a mid-range XLT trim I thought the F-150 felt cheap inside. I’m sure some surfaces got upgrades in the Lariat trim, but unless they fundamentally re-did the interior materials some of that had to carry over. Both the GM twins and the Ram have much nicer interior quality right now, IMHO.
I’m consistently amazed how backing up a trailer is a black art to even people who tow. I’ve been randomly complimented on my trailer backing skills multiple times for parking jobs I didn’t think were particularly impressive. I suppose that’s the reason the Pro Trailer feature exists.
Having very recently towed a car on a dolly behind a ’95 F-150, it’s amusing to read how easily this thing can tow 6000+ pounds behind it. Mine was struggling with its 3200 pound load, downshifting to 3rd on many medium hills. I guess that’s what over twice the hp and nearly four times the torque will get you.
Also, this red color is killer. I’ve seen a couple of duallys with it and they look fantastic.
I love a truck for highway driving and country roads. But maneuverability in some city streets isn’t their forte. Even my ’95 C1500 with extended cab and 6′ bed had issues in DC and Baltimore. I can’t imagine navigating some of the smaller parking lots in my current city.
That pic of the backup challenge needs a ‘nailed it’ caption and to be inserted in some random spot in every 7th article published on this site. If I’d pulled off something like that yall’d never hear the end of it.
I appreciate a (finally) positive review of a 3/4 ton pickup truck.
While many struggle to find reasons to like the luxurious heavy duty truck, I see several target markets (outside of the bro-dozer demographic).
1) Snowbirds/Nomadic Retirees. They travel the country with large 5th wheel RV’s living their best life, and often only have the truck to travel in. Why shouldn’t it be nice?
2) The hot shot driver. These guys rack up ridiculous miles every year. Why shouldn’t their mobile office have a few niceties?
3) Rich people who want to be a bit under the radar (most people don’t look at Super Duty’s and see uber rich, like they would a McLaren or a Bentley.
I must admit, I didn’t get the luxury pickup truck, until I experienced it. I saw the light… these luxury trucks will never replace the European luxury cars; they replaced the American luxo barge! Think about it: both had big, torquey engines, both could tow a trailer, both had HUGE trunks, and both could hold 4-6 people in opulent luxury. The difference is that the new trucks are MORE efficient and can tow the equivalent to the Earth’s rotational mass.
One of the things that makes America great is that we often have freedom of choice when it comes to our purchases (more so than most places). If you have the money for a loaded F250, good for you! Americans also buy things for what they can do than what they are actually used for. Will most people tow a 20,000lb trailer in their lifetime? No. But the feeling that you could is oddly liberating.
If money was no object, I would happily buy a similarly spec’d F250 (adding the Tremor package though) and daily it, because I could.
Nope. Still sucks to daily drive. I had a F250 I had to drive at my last job; harsh suspension wasn’t comfortable and climbing in and out of it gold old even though I’m average height man (5’10”). It was worse than a half-ton for daily use in almost every way (except when the plow was attached). And I personally feel that any full size truck is worse than a car or CUV and most SUVs for daily use.
Great article. I love our Powerstroke F250 at work. It is a bit older but still quite the workhorse.
For the bed height comments, I was wondering how tall you are? Boob height can vary pretty widely between folks.
My house. Because hotels are weird and close registrations at ten in most places unless you’re in Route 50, I-77, or I-79. Taking Route 33? Nope. Taking Route 219? Nope. Taking I-64? Haha, nope. The one exception is 119, where it crosses over with I-79 in a few places, and the further south you are the less likely you are to find some place open.
Thus I do not stop driving until I reach my house. I will drive the entire length of the state just to do so. Including doing the crossing over the mountains from Maryland or through the snakeways from Kentucky.
My wife and I drive from central Indiana to the Adirondacks every other year or so. We stop in NY on the way there so we’re not showing up hungry in the dark…but on the way home, it’s straight through. It’s so nice to be home vs a hotel.
Although I have limited interest in trucks, I really enjoy reading Mercedes’ articles. This was a good read. I don’t have an opinion on the discussion, because I’ve only ever driven a more modest U-haul truck and a 5-ton(?) rental dump truck from the local gardening supply company.
Nice truck, personally I prefer the Cummins to equally condom-sounding Powerstroke or Duramax. My new work truck is a Ram 2500 Bighorn, put about 7k miles on it within the first month, it’s comfortable, quiet and gets decent mileage for a truck loaded down with a bed topper, tools and parts.
Diesels catch a lot of flak, some of it well deserved, but they have their place in the automotive landscape.
That is a beautiful truck and I am so glad you got to experience it. I also revel in the knowledge that this is one of those trucks you will see bombing down the road 20+ years from now.
Long live the Cliffords!
I think its cool but honestly my beef is that these vehicles exist in a carved out exemption that other drivers don’t get the pleasure to enjoy.
Even a small 2.0 turbodiesel in a passenger vehicle that would get 50mpg or more with todays technology cannot exist due to being hamstrung on emissions rules. The few that tried were regulated out of existence then called a cheater for trying to stick around.
Yet a nearly 7 liter V8 behemoth with 500 horsepower and 1200ftlb slips by because “its a work truck”. Pff even half the comments here say its just a luxury daily. These are no more work trucks than a Jetta TDI towing a trailor would be but the TDI is where? Banned?
I just personally feel that there needs to be some limits to stop these from being daily luxury vehicles if they get to ban the vehicles that we should be driving when not working.
CDL should be required. Even for unloaded driving. If these get exceptions my small diesel cars dont get, then they should be for work.
150hp diesel car is just polluting and ruining the environment at 50mpg yet somehow after banning those through over-aggressive emission targets, a 500hp truck is fine for a regular daily without ever even towing anything.
Fix the rules. Its a joke at this point.
CDL Enforcement
They are already following the rules.
So you want to make trucks worse performers? I think the rules should be lightened for diesel passenger vehicles to have same regulations as the trucks. That way everyone can enjoy diesels big or small. You can’t say you don’t like the regulations that are in place and then in the same paragraph say that they should be implemented on other vehicle types instead. The way you’re talking is like saying “I’m not happy so you can’t be either”.
Of course the rules are a joke, but the solution is not to make diesel pickups just as bad as diesel cars lol.
Diesel passenger vehicles aren’t over regulated. They simply are now required to meet the same emission regulations as gasoline vehicles instead of having their own regulations that allowed them to emit more NOx. It is the same for medium and heavy duty trucks – gas and diesel have the same regulations.
The difference is that with a $60,000 to $100,000 truck like this it is easier for the buyer to absorb the $10,000+ cost of making an emissions compliment diesel. That cost will only go up again when EPA 2027 kicks in and the aftertreatment for a diesel engine like this bumps the price by another $10,000 – $15,000.
Unfair regulations didn’t kill light duty diesels – economics did. The diesel engine cost more to buy, 15% – 20% more per gallon for fuel, and then you get to spend thousands once the vehicle has 100K miles or more and is out of warranty to replace the DPF and SCR components. Driving a diesel doesn’t make sense for total cost of ownership unless you are doing a BUNCH of miles while towing.
BTW with EPA Tier 4 DI turbo gas engines will be getting particlate filters too. Some vehicles like the 2025 Maverick Ecoboost are getting them already. These are new for the USA but not really new. Europe has been using GPFs since 2014 and China since 2020.
where are you getting your $ #”s from? 10k now, and an additional 10-15K? your #’s and maybe you are high
Maybe the upcharge for the diesel engine versus the gasser?
We’re did I get my numbers?
For the cost of a current Powerstroke I went to Ford’s website. On a F250 the normal Powerstroke is an $10,495 option. The High Output version costs $12,995.
Jump to a F450 chassis cab and the Powerstroke is $10,495 more than the base 7.3L gas V8
As for the cost to meet EPA 2027 – you can get a range from the regulatory filings. The regulators say about $8000 to the manufacturer but the say massively increasing the useful life for emission systems and warranty terms are free. Those of use in the business know that isn’t true. The EMA (engine manufacturer association) says the cost is $16,000 for a 6 to 7 liter diesel and $29,000 for a 12 to 13 liter diesel
I work for a medium and heavy duty truck manufacturer so I know what tech is required to meet the regulation and what we are charging customers for a CARB 2024 truck today – which is very similar to EPA 2027. While I won’t be giving specifics as I want to keep my job – $10k – $15k is what you can expect to see as the cost to meet EPA 2027 with a diesel.
“Called a cheater for trying to stick around”, no, they (VAG) were indeed cheating, got caught, had to pay fines (not enough), and still remain in business. Others were also found to be cheating but not as egregiously. Lots of companies burned significant R&D money trying to match the “clean diesels” that actually weren’t that clean.
Yeah and if you check the year by year rules for those emissions you will see a slow gradual increase then around 2005 a massive exponential jump into an area hard to meet. Effectively banning them thru policy, then called cheating by simply meeting the rules that were previously A-OK.
Oh very much so. But that happens a lot with emissions and safety rules, and OEMs are given years of lead time to try to bring their offerings within compliance before the deadlines.
What made VAG remarkable is that they deliberately flouted the new standards, but even advertised their vehicles as “clean” when they very much weren’t comparatively. Whereas modern diesels – with DEF and other modernizations – do have fairly clean exhausts. Even the author noted how there wasn’t soot and an abundance of nasty smells coming from the exhaust.