Behind the wheel of a new 2020 Ford Super Duty F-350 XLT Tremor, I waited for instructions.
“Ready when you are,” said my passenger, Robbie Calkins, Super Duty vehicle integration engineer. He pointed straight ahead. “Let’s go.”
I laughed, hoping he was joking. The jagged pile of boulders in front of us could’ve doubled as the surface of another planet, the kind where the astronauts know they’re in big trouble as soon as they open the hatch. And this was just the first obstacle in the off-road course Ford had set up to demonstrate the Tremor’s capabilities.
How did I get here? More importantly, like the astronauts, how am I going to get out of this?
Basically, this is what happens when a journalist strays from his lane. All I needed was a cover photo. As we do every January, Trailer/Body BUILDERS features a preview of The Work Truck Show. The show is the biggest event of the year for that part of our readership that builds and sells truck equipment (it’s also one of the biggest commercial vehicle exhibitions, period), and we try to leave a copy of the magazine on about any elevated horizontal surface in the Indianapolis Convention Center.
So I’m thinking (uh-oh) that, for 11 months of the year any truck on the cover of the magazine is just there as a platform for a new trailer or a distinctive body design. Of course our readers love trucks—where else would the body go?—but there are plenty of magazines devoted to pickups with hero shots galore. It’s just never been a TBB thing. But still, this time, let’s actually feature a truck for The Work Truck Show preview cover. Genius!
I recalled that somewhere in my email inbox was an invitation from Ford asking if I’d be interested in a test drive of the new 2020 Super Duty. And, as fate would have it, because of a three-day holiday weekend, our print deadline for this issue would be delayed. I could get to Phoenix and back just in time.
I called Elizabeth Kraft, the Ford CV communications manager, to make sure a real, bodied-up work truck would be available at the Super Duty launch. She assured me that I could get behind the wheel of a Super Duty with a dump body or one with a utility body; and, if so inclined, I could also take a Super Duty with the Tremor Off-Road Package for a spin.
Well, if I must. Little did I know what I was getting into. And it came down to this: “You’ve got to trust it,” Calkins said calmly. “You trust me; I trust the truck.”
For full details of my adventure in the Arizona desert, see Gallery: 2020 F-Series Super Duty in action.
Later, I spoke with Tim Stoehr, Ford’s North America region product line manager. While I admitted to being impressed, I questioned whether there was a business case to be made for the Tremor package. (A business case for commercial customers, that is—not just for Ford, which no doubt will sell quite a few off-road adept Super Duty pickups to recreational users.)
“Besides everybody having fun, [the demonstration] highlighted the extreme capability that this truck has,” Stoehr said. “I think it blew most people away on the grades it was able to climb; the rocks that it was going over; the water it was fording.
“There’s a huge safety factor in that. In a fleet that has vehicles that are being driven in off-road environments, you’re going to have drivers of different capabilities. If you could level that out, you’re going to improve your operating costs and minimize damage to the vehicles.”
And fleets already are adding their own equipment to make their trucks more dirt worthy, he pointed out.
“Many, many commercial operators put more aggressive off-road tires on the vehicle immediately when they purchase it,” Stoehr continued. “Now our new Tremor package has skid plates all around to protect the underside of the vehicle, which is extremely important in off-road commercial applications. It’s got off-road running boards that bleed the mud off and are slip resistant. Anything that minimizes accidents from the operators of our pickups is extremely important to them.”
Beyond the hardware that catches everyone’s eye, however, the real commercial advantages come from the technology that’s available. He pointed to the brake-saving trailering system, and the Co-Pilot360 suite of advanced safety features.
“It’s quite simple what commercial customers want,” Stoehr said. “They want to maximize uptime; they want a durable, reliable vehicle; and they want anything that’s going to lower their operating costs and improve their bottom line. And from a towing or hauling perspective, these are by far the best trucks we’ve ever built.”
Off to Indy.
