Forum Discussion

bjohns's avatar
bjohns
Explorer
Jul 17, 2017

2017 Ford Superduty Beds

Any reports on any bed issues from anyone with the 2017 Ford Superduty? We're wondering how the aluminum beds on these trucks hold up to loading and unloading truck campers.
  • I don't think Ford hid the fact that the entire body was going to be aluminum on the Super Duty trucks. They were pretty clear about it in the commercials I've seen.

    GM doesn't poke fun at Ford's aluminum body panels, because 2014-up Silverado/Sierra 1500s all have aluminum hoods.
  • No problem with the bed so far.
    I recently pulled out my old emergency CB radio to see if it would still key up. The magnetic antenna would not stick, anywhere. It is not just the bed that's aluminum, it's the entire body.
  • tattoobob wrote:
    Kayteg1 wrote:
    Mine bed is still pristine after 7000 miles on the truck, 1500 with camper.
    The sides are tall and I had to add plywood to clear the cabin.
    I was skeptic about strength of tailgate, but when I was loading roof tiles, I had about 500 lb on tailgate with no problem.


    I was told it was 3" higher is that true? or is the whole truck 3" taller?

    Mine is RWD and old truck was 2007 RWD.
    By the feel the truck floor is about the same level, but on older truck I had good gap between camper sides and bed railing.
    On new one when 1st I set it, the sides of the camper were resting on railings even with factory mat, what adds at least 3/8"
    So with 3/4" plywood I am good to drive, but loading without seeing how the camper goes into bed blocks has to be with high precision.
    In some moments the only help was flat phone camera.
  • Mortimer Brewster wrote:
    Here's a video on the Chevy commercial where the maker of the video explains why he feels the commercial was deceptive.


    More some since the reports I've seen GM is going the aluminum beds also.
  • Kayteg1 wrote:
    Mine bed is still pristine after 7000 miles on the truck, 1500 with camper.
    The sides are tall and I had to add plywood to clear the cabin.
    I was skeptic about strength of tailgate, but when I was loading roof tiles, I had about 500 lb on tailgate with no problem.


    I was told it was 3" higher is that true? or is the whole truck 3" taller?
  • I have about 5500 camper miles on mine with no problems and 13000 total miles.
  • No issues at all with mine thus far and would not expect any.
  • Here's a video on the Chevy commercial where the maker of the video explains why he feels the commercial was deceptive.
  • Mine bed is still pristine after 7000 miles on the truck, 1500 with camper.
    The sides are tall and I had to add plywood to clear the cabin.
    I was skeptic about strength of tailgate, but when I was loading roof tiles, I had about 500 lb on tailgate with no problem.
  • While I don't have any direct experience, thinking logically and critically about this, I would have to conclude that the beds will hold up just fine, and here's why:

    Any rough handling of the camper that would damage the bed, would also damage the camper. Since you don't want to damage the camper, odds are you will be careful to the point where you won't damage the bed.

    The Chevy anti-aluminum advertisements show loaded metal tool boxes being dropped on their corners, or large chunks of crushed stone being dumped by a loader from several feet. You won't be doing either of those things with your camper, so I would not have a moment's worry about the aluminum beds.