bmanning wrote:
I for one think it's cool that, in a sense, Ford offers 2 three-quarter-ton options to the market.
Imagine you needed a 3/4 ton, liked Ford, but for whatever reason hated the styling or something about the Super Duties.
Voila, enter the F150HD with Max Tow & HD payload pkgs.
It wouldn't be necessary per se for GM or Ram to follow suit, as the body style, ergonomics, etc. remain consistent between 1500 and 2500/3500 series trucks.
No mater the payload and max GCVWR an F150 is no F250!
Lighter frame, smaller brakes, lighter drive train. How do you think they get large payloads with lower GVWR? It almost takes an engineer to read and decipher the tow rating tables.
The biggest difference is the basic strength of the load carrying rear axle! With a few exceptions the rear axle is a semi floating (car like) axle. This design the the axles shaft performs two functions it spins the tire, and supports the weight on it. This is a single small bearing ridding on the axles it's self.
On 3/4 ton and up (again with a few exceptions)use full floating rear axles. This is where the axle shafts only job is to spin the wheel. The weight is supported by TWO large bearings supported by the axle housing, a much stronger design.
Now put a 35' to 38' TT behind a light F150 and the first semi or gust of wind and you can have quite a hand full.
That and the fact that about 75% of people only look at the dry weight of the trailer, and not the GVWR of the trailer, some time a 2K to 3K difference!
