I sat in an F Super Duty King Ranch at the show. Very intimidating but impressive truck. Biggest glarring fault was rear seat entry... the foot opening is quite narrow between B-pillar and the seat. These beasts are sure to be all over the place soon enough tho 
Ford's F-450 needs no modifications
Richard Truett | | Automotive News / February 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
How much truck is too much truck?
With its 24,500-pound towing capacity, medium-duty axles, commercial-grade frame and 176-inch wheelbase, Ford Motor Co.'s new F-450 takes consumer pickups into uncharted territory in terms of size and power.
The F-450 starts at $51,280, including delivery, and can cost as much as $62,000 and change for the fully loaded King Ranch model. The trucks have just begun arriving at Ford dealerships.
Just one body style of the F-450 is offered: a four-door crew cab with a pickup bed.
The only engine is the new 350-hp Powerstroke turbodiesel, teamed with either a five-speed automatic transmission or six-speed manual. Four-wheel drive is optional. The F-450's interior shares the same size and layout as the F-250 and F-350, but the vehicle's wheelbase is about 4 inches longer.
Ford's key selling point for the vehicle: It's the first pickup of its size that is ready to go to work right out of the box. No longer will truck drivers who tow and haul industrial-sized payloads have to buy a half-built truck and then ship it off to an "upfitter" to have a rear body section grafted on.
Before the 2008 F-450, the only way consumers could get a truck with the same towing capability was to buy what the industry calls a chassis cab model. That's a stripped-down truck with the drivetrain, frame, axles and cab but no rear body structure.
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Ford's monster truck
7 things an F-450 can tow
1. Hubble Space Telescope
2. 2 empty UH-60 Black Hawk Army utility helicopters
3. 5 base-model 2007 Toyota Tundra pickups
4. 7 Volkswagen New Beetles
5. 8 fully grown male bulls
6. 10 Clydesdale horses
7. A 42-foot sailboat
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An upfitting experience
Then the buyer had to work with an upfitter to have the rear of the truck built for a specific purpose. That could cost between $8,000 for a bare-bones pickup bed to more than $20,000 or more for a fully equipped work truck. Chassis cabs are often made into dump trucks, flatbeds, tow trucks or work trucks with built-in storage bins.
Because trucks as large and as powerful as the F-450 are used mostly by companies and fleets, no automaker has offered a fully built truck the size of the F-450. The equivalent Chevrolet, GMC and Dodge trucks are available only as chassis cabs. Toyota and Nissan don't build heavy-duty trucks -- yet.
Ford studied the way that some Super Duty buyers were using their vehicles and found that many would overload the trucks to cut down on the number of trips to save time, said Robert Keller, Super Duty marketing manager.
"We knew there was demand out there from people who are towing," says Keller, 39. "The big RVs are heavier now with appliances in them and marble countertops and things like that. There are also bigger horse trailers."
Ford officials won't give a sales estimate for the F-450. But Ford has said that about 40 percent of F-series sales are Super Duty trucks. Of that, between 20 and 30 percent are F-450 or F-550 chassis cabs.
Ford sold 796,039 F-series trucks in 2006, so the potential market for the F-450 is sizable. If a third of F-450 buyers opt for the pickup, sales could be between 10,000 and 15,000 units a year. The F-450 is built in Ford's Louisville, Ky., truck plant.
More truck than ever
It isn't just the completed body and medium-duty axles that make the F-450 different from other pickups.
The giant truck comes with a rugged new frame that uses thicker metal and is stronger than the frames on Ford's F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks. That and a new 6.4-liter twin turbodiesel V-8 give certain versions of the F-450 a tow rating 24,500 pounds, the highest of any pickup on the market.
Pete Reyes, Ford's chief engineer for Super Duty trucks, said the F-450 may be huge, but it is still as easy to drive as a regular Super Duty pickup. He said engineers paid close attention to such things as the turning radius. The F-450 has 49-foot turning circle, Reyes said.
Buyers still can choose a chassis cab F-450 model and outfit the truck as before.
