jasonboche

My aluminum body F-150 has been exposed to two hail storms. Neither was my preference and was really out of my control else I'd have had the truck in the garage or under a shelter.
-1st was 2 years ago and hail size as I remember was significantly larger than pea sized.
-2nd was this past weekend camping and hail size was a little larger than pea sized.
Neither time did my truck have any visible hail damage on the hood or roof.
How large does the hail have to be to damage the aircraft aluminum bodies on the 2018+ F-150s? Golf ball? Baseball? Softball? Basketball? The large globe from Close Encounters of the Third Kind mapping coordinates scene??

djfllmn

iTrader: (1)

usually it has to be closer to golf ball before it turns your vehicle into one

Ryan_2020

Pea sized hail.......if any vehicle model took significant damage from pea sized hail they would be out of business from the lawsuits from insurance corps.

jasonboche

Good to know. I just don't know how much better the improved strength in aircraft aluminum holds up.

RLXXI

Hood on my truck is aluminum and we had quarter sized hail hit 2 weeks after I drove it home from the dealer, still had the paper temp tag in the back glass kind of new. I was mortified watching it get pummeled thru the storm door. 1 day with the PDR tech and good as new again. It also dented the hell out of the roof and fenders which are steel.

FF 7 years still looks new.

Ryan_2020

Well aluminum hoods go back to I think '04 and there have been limited incidences of hail damage to them, and usually it is massive hail that caused damage to the rest of the bodies including those that are steel. So take that for what it is worth but generally when it comes to dent impact aluminum actually holds up better than steel.

52merc

We had golf ball sized hail here a couple of weeks ago. The truck body suffered no damage, but I can't say the same for the Ford tri-fold hard cover. It looks like Thor's baby was practicing on it with a ball-peen hammer.

aspade

We don't get hail here with any frequency but the twigs and acorns that all of my other cars shrugged off trashed the hood and roof of my '15 in short order. I can't imagine that panels this thin would hold up to hail either.

Johnny295

Glad to hear the aluminum is tougher than I thought. My last F150 was a 2014.... just prior to the aluminum. I have been a little worried when the forecast calls for hail. Feeling a little better ..... for now .

Ryan_2020

To me that is interesting, I did hear about your storm thinking I wonder how that went. I would be glad to replace my tonneau vs body panels so that is good to hear.