They didn't state which Super Duty but I'd bet it's the 450 which is capable of 31,500 lbs of towing.

Follow this link for information. Best in class capabilities

 

Did you notice it said "more than 31,500 lbs?"

 

I see the numbers and hope the Ford rep is speaking truthfully but it is still a promotional press release. The true numbers will speak for themselves when officially released.

 

Side note for a dummy here, are we going to have to require special licenses to drive these things at their max?

 

In some states, yes.

 

Wheres that adaptive cruise thread where everyone says it's suicide and reckless to have it on while towing? Ford seems to think it's ok.

 

I know that 31,500# is huge and no one in their right mind would tow up to the limit with an F450... but all of this hype, bigger frame, bigger brakes, bigger suspension... and we get no GVWR increase and a whopping 0.96% increase in towing capacity? What is the benefit of all of these changes other than marketing hype?

 

Quit freaking out! The numbers haven't even be released yet. Geez!!

This one says OVER 31,500 lbs. That could be 38k or it could be 31,501.

 

Now you're starting to understand how sales and marketing work.

Also they can't increase GVWR because of class limits. A class 3 truck stops at 14,000#. 14,001# is a class 4 truck and is now a medium duty therefore ford can't market it as light duty truck to compete with the other brands. It doesn't matter if a F350 can tow 80,000lbs it will still have a GVWR of 14,000# to be considered a light duty.

 

Also don't expect any huge jumps. The new SD will handle probably around 35K easy but they will trump the Ram by 500# at a time. This is all about marketing, why beat someone by 5,000 and your truck never improves for 5 years? Or you can increase it by 500-1000# every year and every year you can sell a "bigger, better improved, more capable" and entice people to but a new truck every 2-3 years.

 

I don't think adaptive cruise is cool when you're towing that much. Because of the ease in which these modern, ultra-powerful HD pickups move a load, people forget just how much weight they have behind them and how much more responsibility that brings. Adaptive cruise lets you pay that much less attention. Look how well that worked out in the Tesla autopilot crashes recently...and they weren't towing anything. Let the truck have adaptive cruise control, but with anything plugged into the trailer socket, the feature is disabled.

How can the truck ensure it can slow down quickly enough with that much weight? What if the user set the trailer brake gain down at 2.5?

 

Depends on what you are doing and in what states. For commercial use you will need a CDL in most states. For AG or RV use you will not need one in most states.

 

These are among the battles the ATA (American Trucking Association) are battling against the NHTSA. There is a movement among the do-gooders to require automatic braking devices on commercial vehicles and governors limiting them to 67 mph. Try jamming on the brakes with a trailer on a slippery road, or in a curve or anytime some azz cuts in too closely after passing. The adaptive cruise control will be an interesting experiment to see the overall results regarding safety on the highway.

 

I've seen that number before

 

After using the adaptive cruise with the 450 and close to 29k behind it, I LOVED it!

The biggest factor in deciding how safe it will be in my opinion will be the condition of the trailer brakes.