Interesting Anacona, good links.

Commercial trucks have been using aluminum cabs for years, and they seem to be holding up well. Lots of these trucks rack up over a million miles before being scrapped, and it's rare to hear of a structural issue with the cab. You also never see them rust, but I suspect that may have as much to do with the coating as it does the metal.

 

What I don't understand, is truck bodies don't need to be super strong. They are simply to protect the passenger from the elements. The beds, if coated or lined correctly will hold up regardless of material.

You can kick a hole in a corvette. That doesn't make them less adequate to protect the passenger from the outside.

The windows, which comprises a whole lot of the cab are made of glass which you can break plenty easily.

You could also make a bear cage out of wood, nylon, rubber, plastic, ceramic, and it would protect perfectly fine.

The frames are steel because steel, just has better properties for a frame.

You honestly could make a truck body out of canvas and it would probably be fine.

 

Excellent points. In fact a lot of older airplanes have bodies made from cloth. Some place where weight is of paramount importance. Ask Burt Rutan whether some piece of equipment should be added to an airplane. He will answer never put in fru-fru. What's fru-fru you ask? He will respond, "Take the [whatever] in your hand and toss it in the air. If it comes down, it's fru-fru."

 

I'll take an aluminum F150, please. My '50s era aluminum boat has hit rocks, sand, salt water, creeks, rivers, logs, stumps, nary a leak...

 

The fact of the matter is that aluminum pound for pound is actually stronger than steel.

 

Only if the proper Alloy of Aluminum is chosen.

 

I just hope Ford got it right.

There are so many expeditions around here that look like this

http://www.carcomplaints.com/media/c...ebaa90d167.jpg

 

Want to post a link that works? Link I clicked on said "Pirates are awesome, stealing pictures is not".

 

I'm going to guess its going to be the infamous tailgate bubbling and peeling all its paint due to aluminum corrosion that Ford wouldn't own up to.

 

Would've been better to just paste in the picture. Links from this web site are prefixed with marketing/tracking, so probably trigger this kind of thing.

 

http://cdn.carcomplaints.com/img/no_hotlinking.png Hope this works. This is what popped up for me.

 

Well I'm looking and the aluminum thing isn't much of a concern to me. Look at the outside walls of this used delivery truck:

http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsde...x?OHID=6244621

You can find a million more searching "mt45" or "mt55" for sale.

Loaded daily with packages right up against the walls, with most cargo going right up against the panel, they don't seem to show the "out dents" that you see lots of with Econolines or other similar steel bodied trucks.

Having said that, I have several concerns before I plunk down another $15000+ and my '09 Tacoma.

--cost. I'm not rich, and $10000 off sounds real good.
--dealer. I have a solid GMC dealer within 3 miles. Toyota about the same but they are %^&*(). Ford? 5 miles to crooks, 10 miles to a question mark.
--OHC and turbo motors. Usually not too concerned, but I do read a lot of threads here about cam phasers, plugs popping, and gas mileage that isn't what's claimed.

So I'm tempted. I'm fighting it with the help of my loving wife who asks gently "WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT THAT SITE, YOU'RE NOT GETTING A NEW TRUCK".

 

Wish that truck had a 4BT in it otherwise I'd buy it right now. Power rating is 160 so my guess she's a 6BT. At any rate all USPS trucks are aluminum. I want to know what they use to prevent galvanic corrosion with aluminum on steel. Cause I'd like to build my own Aluminum truck bed in the future.

 

I carry mail for the USPS and I've had the benefit of driving the very same truck for the last 9.5 years. The entire box bumper to bumper is aluminum and it sits on a Chevy S-10 frame. The trucks were all built by Ingalls-XXX, I'll have to look at the plate again. The trucks are 20-30 years old, mine is a 1995 model and I'll assume one of the last to enter the fleet.

The hoods are all sunbaked and scratched up as the USPS doesn't wash, wax or repaint the LLV's unless they've been involved in an accident.

The right side of the trucks are all scratched where the letter carrier makes the approach to a mail box and the customer has his box surrounded by bushes, etc.

The step in seems to be in great condition and rear deck or parcel area is solid. The areas where the door slide hardware meets the aluminum body isn't showing any signs of rust, then again, I'm not in the rust belt. I'm on the Va coast where rust does still occur but at a slower pace.

The new bodies on the F-150 are the very least of my concerns.

 

Yeah. Looks like you can't link directly to their image.

It was just a picture of the expeditions that flake paint as the aluminum bubbles up underneath.