Maury82

I wouldn't buy Nissan either, their rock solid reliability days died when they merge Renualt, and the Tundra is too outdated and under capacity, so the Ford HDPP was the only vehicle that fit the bill.

It seems that other Ford owners don't have much faith in the trucks holding up against frequent heavy towing, and they are constantly talking how the truck won't hold up well, and personality, I think a reliable truck should hold up very well towing and operating within its capacity. Evidently they must know something I don't know.

I'm meticulous in maintenance, especially gear and fluid change, but since I drive the truck less than 10,000 miles, with approximately 8,000 towing, I will find out more about how it is holding up before the warranty is out.

Ford is one of those companies that will allow a known problematic design issue to fester until a refresh or a redesign, leaving owners to repair known bad parts that wear out prematurely, but long after the warranty. I noticed that about Ford since college, and those transmission oil seals were just one of a few than never got addressed. Some companies will seek to fix a problem in mid-model year.

Hopefully it holds up, but if not, my heavy towing isn't to blame, but a reliability problem is the culprit.

NC F150

What happens when you slam on brakes really hard fully loaded? The laws of physics transfers some of that weight to the front axle. what do you do now?

blkZ28spt

Wellll I imagine that the manufacturer's axle weight ratings take that into account so if you aren't above your front axle's weight rating on the CAT scale, you're good.

If.

kbroderick

Like he said, I'd imagine that's why there's a GVWR limit as well. Assuming perfect traction, you should be able to model the forward weight transfer with the front at Max and the truck at GVWR, with the load as far forward as possible while being inside fGAWR on the scale; I'd expect that modeling to be part of the engineering process, but I'm a different kind of geek, not an auto engineer, so call it a SWAG.

And that goes back to the question of how the ratings are generated and whether or not it's reasonable to assume that a particular upgrade (eg air bags) provides the ability to safely haul above factory limits or not; we don't know where the failure points are, or what the failure modes going past the limits are, and Ford isn't going to tell us except to point at the stickers.

13XLTEco

Sister companies, Hyundai and Kia, should make a good 1/2 to 3/4 ton pickup. They are both well known for reliability and longevity, especially Hyundai. Hyundai makes excellent construction equipment and large trucks.

Maury82

I bet hey could be much more competitive than Nissan, and over a generation or two, could grab over 100k in sales in a compact or light duty truck.

Maury82

I look at it as a matter of the vehicles being unreliable. Frankly, I anticipate more issues with the electronic, relays, servos, etc, before mechanical issues.

I give my 2018 ten years max before becoming a money pit, and that sync 3 or transmission related failure being the first casualty.

To me that isn't a duty cycle problem, but a reliability problem, but it's the best truck that fit the job at the time.

Maury82

Yep, that's what I gathered.

The SD have heavier duty components so it can better handle its added weight and higher capacity, but I doubt those larger components are any more reliable at their ratings than a half ton operating at its rating.

Outside of extending the life of metal components with premature fluid change, there are tons of otther components, such as motors, servos, electronics, and relays that doesn't fall in a duty cycle based on capacity or ratings, but purely on designed reliability.