2021 Ford Super Duty Pros and Cons Review: The Big Get Better
Ford takes its toughest trucks—a former TOTY winner—in for an overhaul.
Pros
- Fantastic engines
- Phenomenal transmission
- Exceptional towing ability
Cons
- Disappointing interior
- Tremor's off-road experience
- Pricey
Going into to this year's Truck of the Year competition, the refreshed Ford Super Duty was the odds-on favorite. In 2017, the then-new Super Duty took home the Golden Calipers; this year's edition just went through a particularly thorough refresh.
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Even though the honey-do list was short, much has been updated. The big news is the most torque in the segment—a muscular 1,050 lb-ft from the 450-hp 6.7-liter turbo diesel V-8. Even bigger, a pushrod 7.3-liter gasoline V-8 replaces the ancient 6.8-liter Modular V-10. Then there's the new 10-speed automatic transmission. Also cool: a new harder-core off-road package called Tremor, which is available on several trim levels. Let's see how the new Super Duties fared against our six key criteria.
"Advancement in design is not the Super Duty's strongest suit," features editor Christian Seabaugh said. Between you, me, and the wall, the big Fords look just like the old ones. Same goes for the interiors. Sure, a grille got tweaked here, and there's a new color trim there, but you'd be hard pressed to visually tell the 2017s apart from the 2021s. This is fine for the exterior, as this Super Duty generation is handsome. The interior is a problem, however; the Ram Heavy Duties (last year's TOTY winner) have a nicer interior with a significantly larger and more functional touchscreen. The Ford remains the same.
The two Fords—we tested both an F-250 Tremor and a F-350 Limited dually—did impress us in terms of engineering excellence—especially that big boy F-350. "The engine is smooth and refined, the transmission shifts gears at the right time, and the steering gives you a great feel of what's happening at the wheels,"MotorTrend en Español's Miguel Cortina said. "It's hard to believe that this truck has over 1,000 lb-ft of torque given how refined and quiet it is."
Then there's towing. "This truck is only vaguely aware that 5,200 pounds of trailer has been attached," features editor Scott Evans said. "The weight is inconsequential to this engine."
The same is true for the Tremor when saddled with a 2.5-ton trailer. "Trailer never wagged the truck in the slightest," Evans said. "The 7.3-liter V-8's got a ton of power. I wouldn't worry at all pulling a heavier trailer. The transmission is at the top of its game, which made towing a breeze."
If only the Tremor was as loved off-road. "It's like exploring the world with an anvil," associate road test editor Erick Ayapana said. Although it's crazy-capable, the Tremor's massive weight (7,240 pounds) gave it a brutal ride off-pavement, even after airing down the tires. Said Cortina: "Its ride is stiff, bouncy, and jittery. Even on the parts where the trail seems smooth, there's a lot of vibration in the cabin." Seabaugh added that it "rebounds poorly over bumps and lacks the body control of a Power Wagon."
Why? Because unlike the competition, the Tremor actually offers impressive payload capacity, up to a claimed 4,053 pounds. However, it's billed as an off-roader. This means that the F-250 Tremor stumbles a bit against one of our key criteria, performance of intended function.
We also struggled saying definitively that the refreshed Fords are better than the Ram Heavy Duty trucks that won it all last year, save for towing, where we all agree that the F-350 Limited dually can out-tow an airport tug. The big boy was also superlative as a cruiser on our long loop. "This dually drives so well that you forget you're driving a dually," Cortina said.
Many of us felt the same way about the Ram 3500 last year. A future comparison test is going to have to settle this one. Until that time, know that Ford did a great job polishing its largest diamond.
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.Read More
