frdvschvy

Posted by Mike Levine on Twitter. Good comparison of the aluminum thickness vs steel on the F150. Also a good face palm moment at the 1:10 mark lol.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industrie...0-put-to-test/

Ron AKA

The dirty dark secrets that Ford is not talking about is that the Young's modulus (E value) for aluminum is about 1/3 that of steel. In other words for the same stress aluminum deflects three times as much. Aluminum can be made strong, so it can take the stress, but you have to live with the E value and extra flex. That is why they are making the aluminum thicker. They pretty much have to. And they still can't match steel for stiffness. Steel is about double the weight of aluminum, but has three times the E value. Bottom line is that if you want weight reduction you have to give up some flex, or you have to reduce spans of open material. Have not looked at the new F150 close enough, but I suspect they will have done that. Put reinforcing behind the large span panels, or reduced the panel span. To me the attraction of aluminum is more the corrosion resistance than the weight saving.


And on the high tensile strength steel frame for weight savings, you have a similar issue. Yes, you can increase the tensile strength of steel to make it stronger, run stresses higher, save weight, BUT, the high strength steel E value is the same as the lower strength. That means to utilize the higher strength you have to put up with more flex. Again there are some ways around it to change the design, but the thing to watch is how flexible the frame may be. As it is with a supercab long box when I park on uneven ground it is not hard to see frame flex, and the whole truck twists from front to back. Will be interesting to see how these new high strength frames react, especially the longer wheelbase models...

Johnnymossville

I used to race bicycles, so when Cannondale introduced it's Aluminum frames to the market it was a big buzz because of the weight savings. I was used to riding really light steel bikes that had tons of flex. Aluminum seems to actually be stiffer than aluminum, but it's breaking point comes much faster. Steel has give and in a bicycle it means comfort. Now, to be fair, what Cannondale also did was use larger diameter tubes and this increased stiffness as well. Until Carbon Fiber bikes came around This style of bike dominated high end bicycle design. When you wreck a steel bike it bends, when you wreck an Aluminum bike it bends less but is more prone to break, When you wreck a carbon Fiber bike, the frame shatters apart.

Those early Cannondale bikes were stiff as heck. bone jarring really. Steel bikes were super smooth riding in comparison.

I'm not sure how this compares to a Pickup truck, since the frame of the Ford is still Steel. I do notice they went to high strength steel. Anyway,... just my observation between steel and aluminum in bicycle design. Having ridden 10's of thousands of miles on Steel Bikes, Aluminum Bikes and now Carbon Fiber Bikes.

OldFlick

It all comes down to Ford engineers and computers. Trust them, buy a '15. Do not trust them, buy a '14 or other brands and trust their engineers/computers.

Johnnymossville

They should have made the new mustang aluminum as well. A mustang around 3000/3100lbs instead of 3500lbs would be a beautiful thing indeed.

Mike FX4

The new Mustang IS aluminum. It didn't shed any weight though.

Curmudgeon

Huh! What are you talking about?

Stu Cazzo

On a scale of 1 - 10 Fox Network news ranks a -8 for integrity...sorry folks. And, he says aluminum doesn't rust...thats right but it does corrode.

I'm going to be taking a look see approach. Lets see how the aluminum holds out, how it performs with small fender benders and its performance in the differing climates...specifically where lots of road salt is used.

sdmartin65

Seemed to me more like a factual presentation of some basic stats, not really sure how Fox News integrity or lack of factored in. The great news is that all manufacturers will be pushing the mpg envelope in full size pickups.

Misterwlm

Very well stated and good advice for all. I'll just ad that guy who was running Ford when the aluminum F150 project started had some very good resources to draw on about aluminum applications.


Mulally used to make 737's before he worked at Ford...pretty sure they can make a truck under Fields. It's not even new technology, but if you're still uncomfortable, stick with steel.