Truck Writer HEALED By Pickup's Soothing Seats
Five days in an '04 F-250 cures back problems, and by the way, the '05s have more power and bolder styling.
Tom Berg
Equipment Editor
Maybe this story should be in a supermarket tabloid like the World Globe News, but it's true. Lower-back problems that plagued my body for a year almost entirely disappeared after about 1,000 miles in a 2004 Ford F-250. I borrowed the pickup from Ford's fleet agency near Los Angeles to drive to the press introduction of the '05 SuperDuties near Kingman, Ariz. The '05s just began showing up at dealers, so I'll talk about them first.
Ford's 2005 F-250 and F-350 SuperDuty pickups have gotten stronger powertrains to go along with bolder front-end styling. A higher, bulging hood and more pronounced grille are the most obvious changes, and new paint schemes are included in a couple of special models - the Amarillo, with bright yellow covering most exterior surfaces; and the Harley-Davidson, in black or dark blue with "wet-on-wet" flames applied at the factory.
The 6-liter PowerStroke diesel remains at 325 horsepower and makes 570 lbs.-ft. of torque - up by 10 from the previous rating - but the torque is spread over a wider operating range, and Ford says the engine can outpull the Cummins "600" diesel offered in Dodge Heavy Duty pickups.
To prove that, engineers and marketing executives had reporters run drag races at Ford's Arizona Proving Grounds in mid-summer. Sure enough, a PowerStroke-powered Ford always pulled away from Dodge and GM diesel competitors. Similar results were shown with gasoline-powered Ford, Dodge and GM pickups.
By emphasizing pulling power and declining to trump the 600 lbs.-ft. now advertised with the Dodge-Cummins Turbodiesel, Ford seems to have called a truce in the diesel horsepower/torque war of the last couple of years. Dodge still claims numerical superiority, of course, and GM has quietly announced that the Duramax V-8 is being bumped to 605 lbs.-ft. That will put Chevrolet and GMC back in the lead of the race it started with its 300-hp Duramax V-8 diesel in 2000. Ford executives won't care, claiming to sell more Power Stroke diesels than Dodge and GM combined.
High-Tech Gas Engines
Aside from the diesel, Fords can also be had with Triton gasoline power, which make more sense in trucks not running the 20,000 or more miles a year to justify the $4,500 to $5,000 price premium for the more economical (by 30 to 50%) diesel. For '05, both the 5.4-liter V-8 and 6.8-liter V-10 now have three valves per cylinder and other advancements for better breathing, power and economy. The V-8 makes 300 hp and 365 lbs.-ft. while the V-10 (essentially an Eight with two more cylinders) produces 355 hp and 455 lbs.-ft.
Every gasoline or diesel engine put into a SuperDuty is now mated to Ford's beefy 5-speed TorqShift automatic or a ZedF 6-speed manual transmission. The TorqShift was developed for the latest PowerStroke, but Ford executives say it will serve all SuperDuty customers well because most of them haul big loads or tow heavy trailers. About nine out of 10 buyers opt for the automatic.
Two out of three buyers take the diesel, and that also hold true among buyers of Dodge Heavy Duty pickups (GM says 25 to 30% take Duramax diesel). Only the one, powerful rating is offered in any of the Big Three's diesels because market research shows even commercial customers for pickups don't express any interest in less horsepower. Meanwhile, Ford and Dodge report that seven of 10 also choose four-wheel-drive. Customers might not need really diesel 4x4s, but they buy 'em anyway.
The '05 SuperDuty 4x4s get a coil-spring front suspension, which provide added articulation and a smoother ride. A couple of trips through the proving grounds' off-road course showed excellent poise and very little shock (though my spirited driving jostled my FoMoCo passengers a bit). And the pickups can now be ordered with a built-in trailer brake controller that not only activates a trailer's electric brakes but also works with the truck's ABS to modulate the amount of force applied. Controllers in several trucks hooked to heavy four- and six-wheel trailers worked very smoothly.
My Aching Back
Now back to the real news - for me, anyway. The trip to the Ford event fixed something that began the summer before last, when I helped my neighbor load some heavy horse-corral sections onto a trailer. Almost immediately I noticed problems in my lower back. It was weaker and I had trouble lifting things like 80-pound sacks of horse feed, and I noticed aching and numbness in my legs. "Oh-oh," my doctor said. But most of that is now gone, thanks to the borrowed F-250's seats.
I should note that the green SuperDuty pickup had the 6-liter PowerStroke diesel and TorqShift 5-speed autotranny. It went like a west wind blasting across the desert, which of course, is what I had to do driving from the L.A. Basin to Lake Havasu City, then eventually back home by way of Oatman, Kingman, Flagstaff and Prescott. The four-door crewcab had more than enough room for me, my wife and a granddaughter ("You can say that the backseat is very comfortable," declared Katherine, age 12, who slept through much of the trip).
The truck had the King Ranch interior package, which included leather seat coverings - thick leather, like on that Wilson baseball mitt you had as a kid, or maybe the chaps no doubt worn by wranglers on that huge namesake spread in South Texas. The front buckets were nicely contoured and very comfortable for my wife and me.
Somewhere toward the end of the trip I noticed that my back didn't hurt anymore. And when we got home, it occurred to me that numbness I sometimes felt in my right leg was gone, and the aching in my left leg was considerably subdued. I declared myself healed, but waited a while to say so in print because I wanted to be sure. I told this story to a colleague and he speculated that what my back needed was confinement in a full body cast, and maybe that's what the seats in the King Ranch Ford provided. Maybe, too, any good seats would've done the trick.
Not so incidentally, the big Ford pickup was remarkably easy to drive. "I had no problems with it," reported Jackie, my wife, who used the F-250 to scoot around Havasu while I was at the proving grounds. And the diesel was both powerful and economical, easily keeping up with or outrunning traffic and moving the truck against strong headwinds at 75 mph. It averaged 18 miles per gallon overall - pretty good, I thought.
With a sticker price surpassing $42,000, the truck should be good, but of course dealers were discounting them by $9,000 or so during the '04 closeouts.
Considering the truck's amazing medical benefits, maybe I could write off part of the purchasing price.
Excuse me while I go talk to my tax accountant.
Drive Tests continued...
