Ford Aluminum Body

Ron3rd wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
I have never seen a drivable truck after a major fire steel or aluminum so what difference does fire make?

X2. FORD'S getting the same treatment the 2007 Tundra 5.7 got when it first burst on the scene with class leading 381 hp and 401 ft lbs of torque. The Tundra dominated every towing shootout by every major magazine. It destroyed the badly outdated and underpowered F150 so completely that Ford, grasping at straws, launched their "fully boxed frame" campaign. Remember how they showed their frame did not flex and the Tundra'so frame so badly it had to be a "toy truck"? Ford's getting a taste of their own medicine!

Toyota had their growing pains as well, under sized brakes and rear differential if I remember correctly.

colliehauler wrote:
I have never seen a drivable truck after a major fire steel or aluminum so what difference does fire make?

X2. FORD'S getting the same treatment the 2007 Tundra 5.7 got when it first burst on the scene with class leading 381 hp and 401 ft lbs of torque. The Tundra dominated every towing shootout by every major magazine. It destroyed the badly outdated and underpowered F150 so completely that Ford, grasping at straws, launched their "fully boxed frame" campaign. Remember how they showed their frame did not flex and the Tundra'so frame so badly it had to be a "toy truck"? Ford's getting a taste of their own medicine!

Hey, you can take those burned out steel shells, reinstall the hardware, paint them, and they'll be as good as new.

A friend of mine got a burned out door shell from a junkyard way back. He just reinstalled all the rubber and plastic parts, the glass, re-painted it, and it was fine !

Can't do that with an aluminum door.

Fordlover wrote:


But seriously, I don't ever want a vehicle back after a fire, being stolen, or really even a wreck unless pretty minor,

So if you buy a 2018 truck for say 60K, and you whack a deer and do 15K damage to the front bumper, grill, and fender, maybe tweak the frame horn a little requiring them to put it on the jig. Probably both headlight assemblies and a multitude of brackets, coolers and a ton of plastic. You're then going to unload it taking whatever loss which would most likely be huge? Nowdays a 15 to 20K deer hit is not uncommon.

Just curious.

colliehauler wrote:
I have never seen a drivable truck after a major fire steel or aluminum so what difference does fire make?

What do you mean, this is merely a flesh wound!

But seriously, I don't ever want a vehicle back after a fire, being stolen, or really even a wreck unless pretty minor, regardless of what material the body consists of.

Remember this incident? A 2016 Ford Super Duty prototype burned in a spectacular fire and explosion in Death Valley. It was widely reported and discused at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FS6oBuMxxU

Personally, I don't mind the aluminum. If it does the job, I'm fine with it.

Then again, some of us use aluminum anodes on the metal parts of the boats, so the salt does not eat up the stuff we want. Zinc and magnesium is also used, depending upon water type you are in, Ie fress vs straight salt, vs a briny salt/fressh mix if near a river/creek/stream outlet and salt water.

Some larger boats are using an equal to fiberglass hulls, and aluminum tops and vice versa. Look up Delta industries, Westport yachts among others. safeboats in bremerton washington, makes aluminum rib style boats for government entities. Mostly US Coast Guard. but many go to local police etc too. Quite a few aluminum boat builders here in Washington state. More of those than fiberglass I believe.

Marty

I have never seen a drivable truck after a major fire steel or aluminum so what difference does fire make?

Sorry, not a photoshop, but a cheap cell phone image. There are other shots from the passenger side showing the burn pattern. The reason the fender is intact is because the wind was blowing the fire towards the passenger side and rearward. The grass on the other side of the truck is heavily burned.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/when-aluminum-truck-catches-fire-417725/index4/#post5793657

If anyone has seen the aftermath of a plane crash where there was a fire, usually all that is left are charred bodies, wingtips, engines and maybe the tail, the rest is slag.

Those chevy commercials were also found to be highly faked, especially the tool box drop. As for dent resistance, it is better than steel. I had a prop fly off my plane and hit the side, not a mark, but on my last truck, same thing happened and dinged the door.

One more thing to think of, 5 Star, yes 5 star crash rating! Aluminum has this other property that steel doesn't, ability to absorb a lot of energy, and that right there helps give the F150 a 5 star rating as the body absorbs all that energy and doesn't transfer it to the occupants like steel does.

BTW, my 16 still looks like new underneath and I drive southern Wisconsin winters. Even the chassis is like new. I have a set of bilstien shocks with the aluminum body and they are both corroded from salt, but the truck is perfect.

Here is another one that burned. Not a photoshop.

Charlie D. wrote:
I have looked at some of the responses on this fire departments Facebook page with many claiming it had been photo shopped. Maybe is was, I don't know. A friend posted it on my Facebook page. It appears that it has surfaced widely within the last few days because many of the Facebook responses are within a few days.

Here is a response from the the FD yesterday: "This pic was posted for informational purposes to show firefighters how the aluminum alloy body reacts in fire. As for how the fire started it is unknown but looking at burn pattern of pics fire traveled from rear passenger area in the pick up box and moved forward toward the driver side.

Here is another response from yesterday: "Aluminum melts at a lower temp then steel approx 1221 f the alloy bumps it’s up to 1400 and steel melts at around 2600 degrees it’s just meant as information for firefighters for safety reasons and it will take a while for the vehicle to get to complete melting point like that....Has no impact on their safety ratings at all."

One poster posted this:

https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2017-01-1355/.

I am not going to pay $28. to read the report but to the right of the $28.00 is the link to preview the document. Not much information.

It is a photoshop job. Car fires burn very hot, over 1,500 degrees to melt the aluminum. The rubber on the front tires wouldn't be holding air if there was 1,500 degree fire less than 12" away.