Everything that can go wrong for this F-350 does go wrong and the truck is destroyed as a result.
This week’s Freaky Friday video comes to us from the AUTOMOTIVE SOCIETY YouTube channel and it features a Ford F-350 participating in a pulling competition. We have featured a great many pulling trucks over the past few years, but we have never seen anything quite like this. What starts off as a smooth-looking run goes south in a hurry and when the dust cleared, the Super Duty was absolutely destroyed. However, quite a few people who have commented on the video are blaming the sled operator for the worst of the damage.
The Truck
Sadly, there are no details on the truck in this video, but based on the front end styling, we know that this is a Ford F-350 from the first generation of the Super Duty, which ran from 1999 through 2007. It clearly has a diesel engine, but we don’t know whether it is an early 7.3-liter PowerStroke or a later 6.0-liter mill, nor do we know about performance upgrades.
The ride height might be a bit higher than stock, so there could be some suspension upgrades and the wheel/tire package is obviously not stock, but as pulling trucks go, this F-350 isn’t as extreme as many that we have featured. Sadly, this run is one of the more extreme we have featured, but not for a good reason.
The Fateful Run
This F-350 starts the run nice and smooth, but that only last a few seconds. Within a short distance of the starting line, about six seconds into the run, the front end begins to hop and while hopping, something breaks. It is hard to tell if it broke a suspension component, part of the differential or the steering system, but we can see that the driver’s side front wheel folds in hard. That causes the truck to turn hard right, nosing into the wall, but it gets even worse.
Evidently, the sled operator didn’t see that the run was going so poorly, so he didn’t hit the brakes and as the weight of the sled came forward, it smashed the F-350 harder into the wall. As the sled jammed itself up under the rear end of the truck, it ripped up the body and at some point, the rear differential was ripped free of the chassis.
Many of the comments insist that if the sled operator had hit the brakes when the truck headed for the wall, the sled wouldn’t have shoved into the back of the F-350, but he didn’t and the Super Duty was more or less destroyed.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
