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When it comes to bigger trucks, you’ve only got a few options, but that doesn’t mean the competition is any less fierce than a busier part of the market. This is Out Motorsports, the channel for cars as you are. My name is Jake, and I am here with the latest version of Ford’s Superduty. I am here with a 2023 Ford F350 Limited, and a lot of what Ford has done carried right on through to the 2024 model year because these trucks were, as they say, all new for 2023.
Now, I’m going to be towing with it, and a lot of what they’ve done for the 2023 and 2024 updates focuses a lot on Trailer Tech and towing tech. So, we’ll talk all about what’s new there and what they’ve done otherwise, and then get this out on the road with my trailer and talk about how it pulls.
First things first, if you’re an avid Ford Superduty fan, you’ll notice that the styling of the Superduty here is new for 2023, and it’s kind of a love it or hate design, as are all these brand-new trucks. They’re all very tall, and that is a whole conversation for another day. I really don’t love it, but in any case, this is the styling on the 2023 and 2024’s. This one is a Limited, so this is your top trim level. Obviously, the lower trims are going to look a little different; they’ve got different grills, different noses for them, and then Ford’s done some styling updates otherwise with the rear, with the interior, and that sort of thing.
But what I’m here to talk about is what’s under the hood. In this case, for 2023, Ford added two different engine options on top of two others that are carryovers from a year or two prior. So, you’ve got two gasoline engine options: you’ve got a 6.8L V8 engine, and then that 7.3L Godzilla V8, which kind of took the place of the old V10. But as you can probably hear, this one is a diesel, and this is Ford’s high output Power Stroke, so it is still a 6.7L Power Stroke diesel V8 engine. But in this case, it gets a new turbo, new exhaust manifolds, and a different tune, and that gives it 500 horsepower and 1,200 lb-ft of torque. That is a ton of torque.
The standard diesel, if you don’t need 1,200 lb-ft, is still going to be 1,500 lb-ft of torque and 475 horsepower. So, it is nice to have a little bit more if you’re going for that top towing rating, if you’re trying to pull a ton of weight, and I mean many, many, many, many tons because if you spec these right, you have to get an F450, but either way, if you spec a Superduty properly, Ford has it rated to tow up to 40,000 lb. It’s a lot of pounds.
Now, in this case, this one’s not spec to pull that much because this is a 350, not a 450, and then of course, you’ve got the 250 below that, which is rated to pull a little bit less. But this particular truck that I’m driving is rated to pull 24,000 lb with a traditional tag bumper pull style hitch, which is what my trailer uses. If you use a gooseneck hitch, you can do up to 27,000 lb with that. So, there’s plenty of mechanical trailering capability going on here.
But one of Ford’s big things with the 2023 Superduty was adding a lot of Towing Tech that made towing easier, whether it’s something you do once every couple of months or something you do once every couple of hours. So, let’s talk about what they’ve done, and then we’ll put this all to use in the real world because I’m going to tow my race car down to the shop. My race car winters somewhere else versus where I live, and it’s time to head down there. So, we’re going to use this big guy to pull a trailer that’s ultimately going to feel like a couple of cotton balls behind it. But either way, good test of the tech.
A couple of things that Ford has done here with technology, and I think it’s all pretty cool, actually. I’m not just saying this because it’s in the press release for the truck, but starting with the tailgate here, you’ve got a regular tailgate that has a typical camera to help you back up, so you can see everything with the hitch. But what if the tailgate is lowered? Well, Ford has added some stuff to the tailgate that I think is kind of fascinating. They’ve got backup sensors here and they’ve added another camera, and the whole goal here is that you can have the tailgate down, let’s say if you’re hooking up a gooseneck trailer or you’ve got some big stuff in the bed, and now you’ve got backup sensors and a backup camera that work with the tailgate down. I think that’s pretty neat. I do question the durability because these all face upwards, so if things are falling onto the truck, but I mean, if things are falling onto the truck, you’ve probably got bigger problems. This still retains the slide-out step that Ford has kind of pioneered for a while now, and it’s useful because these things are very tall, and I’m a tall person, and I think it’s a tall truck, so if you need that step to get in and out, that is certainly in there for you to use.
Now, the other trick with this tailgate is it is power-operated, so that is something I didn’t think I needed or cared about, but it certainly is nice. You’ll notice I’ve already got my trailer hitch installed in the receiver, and we are going to use Ford’s Pro Trailer Hitch Assist to help us back up the truck to the coupler. They introduced this technology on the F-150 earlier this year, and I think it’s pretty neat in theory. The truck will back itself right up to the trailer hitch coupler, and all you have to do is get out and drop it right on there. You don’t need any special stickers on the trailer; you don’t need to do anything other than identify the hitch coupler on the touchscreen, and it will kind of do its own thing.
Now, of course, we saw all of that in a pretty controlled good scenario at the Javitz Center in New York City for the auto show, but I want to see how this works in the real world here, so we’ll give that a shot in just a second.
The other thing that Ford has added to the Superduty that I think is really, really brilliant is all about payload. Payload is a big deal. We’re not going to really do much with my trailer; it only weighs 7,000 lb, but payload between what’s in the truck bed, what’s on the hitch, is a big deal. You want to make sure you’re within specs for the sake of keeping the truck happy, liability if you have a crash, that sort of thing. And Ford has added smart scales, effectively. So, what the truck can do is it can sense how much weight is on each axle and it can show both on the touchscreen and in the tail lights. So, great if you’re loading the bed up with a lot of stuff, but they’ve got a similar feature that uses the same sensors to tell you if your weight is distributed between the front and rear axles if you’re towing a trailer. So, do you have too much tongue weight back here? Are you pulling too much weight off the front axle? Is that going to impact your steering? You got too much back here? That sort of thing. So, we’ll see how that works as well when we get this all hooked up.
Okay, so we are approaching my trailer, and all I’m going to do here is get sort of in position, but I’m not really that comfortable because this is a big truck, and you know, I’m very, very just unsure of what I’m doing here. So, I’m just going to get it, let’s try it like this first. So, what I’m going to do is push and hold the Pro Trailer button. Is the trailer connected? No, it is not. All right, initializing Pro Trailer Hitch Assist. This may take a minute. That is fine. Okay, so now it says move vehicle. So, trailer coupler is inside target. So, I’m just going to kind of wiggle myself around here, go a little further out because it doesn’t quite know, and oh, there’s the coupler right there. All right, I have stopped, so stopped. Indicate this is the correct trailer shift to reverse to proceed. Press and hold the Pro Trailer button to start, and all I’m doing, my feet are off the pedals. I’m simply holding the button, and this is the weirdest thing ever. It’s doing the steering; it’s doing the braking. All right, we have stopped. Make sure the trailer coupler height is appropriate. They don’t want you to bang into your trailer coupler. I know it’s appropriate, so I’m just going to hit it’s
