Tough Science Tackles the F-150’s Aluminum
As part of the marketing campaign for the 2015 Ford F-150, Ford partnered with John Brenkus of ESPN Sport Science to create a series of videos, called Tough Science, testing various aspects of the new F-150.
In this video, Brenkus gets some athletes together to test the aluminum bed of the F-150 by lodging different projectiles at it.
http://youtu.be/K8gbEfeVGhw
Brenkus hoists two F-150s into the air; one is last year’s steel model, and the other one is a new F-150 with the aluminum body (and a big glass sunroof).
They chose the bed because it’s the part of the truck that probably sees the most abuse, and according to Ford a bed liner is recommended, but not required, for the new truck.
In total, they use a baseball pitcher, a hockey player, a shot putter, and a golfer to test the bed strength side-by-side. In each of the tests, both beds are dented to some extent, but the aluminum bed is dented less each time.
The dents were, on average, more than 30% shallower against the aluminum bed than the steel. The bed also won’t rust, but I think I’d still get a spray-in bed liner to help protect it more.
As I was watching this video, I was kind of hoping that someone would shank their projectile into that big glass sunroof on the 2015 F-150.
I’m sure it would’ve been impossible to do, especially with the safety glass separating the golfer from the truck, but it still would’ve been funny.
What do you think? Does this make a convincing argument for aluminum?
