That new Ford F150 is going to cost you

wcjeep wrote:
Some time ago I was watching a documentary on aluminum use in airplanes. It mentioned the cracking problem. Boeing got around this issue with thicker material. It also mentioned all aluminum had an end date. The aluminum can only withstand stress for a set period of time. Steel does not have an end date. Steel can continue to work.

Neither material has an end "date". What they do have is a limit to how many times they can be stressed to a given percent of yield strenght. Steel can take an infinite number of stress cycles if the stress is kept to 50% or less of its yield strength. Aluminum does have a limited number of cycles at any stress level but the number does get very large with lower loads. Keep in mind that we are talking body panels here, not frame or axle components. How often do you stress your fender?

Steel does have other limits to its life, mainly rust. I would love to replace the bed on both of my trucks but cannot afford a new one and all of the used ones I can find are rusted out. Neither truck has every had any body work done to it so right now on a new truck I would rather have a rust resistant material than one that is easy to repair. Life is full of tradeoffs and personal preferences. Drivers that wreck a lot may well prefer the steel.

I do have two aluminum trailers already and they both seem to be tougher that steel equivalents. Also, things don't seem to slide around as much on the aluminum as they do on steel. I would welcome that in a pickup bed.