Stone Cold Awesome: Ford F-150 AT44 by Iceland’s Arctic Trucks
Burly snow rig is the first Ford F-150-based project built by renowned Icelandic company.
Iceland is basically known for three things: Bjork, fermented shark meat, and crazy modified trucks. But with all due respect to the award-winning vocalist and hákarl, it’s the trucks that have always interested us the most. Go figure. On that note, this baby recently caught our eye, because unlike a lot of hardware you’ll see in the country’s snowy landscapes, it sports a Blue Oval.
The F-150 Lariat, dubbed the AT44, is owned by Arctic Trucks CEO Emil Grimsson, and was designed in collaboration with Finland’s Nokian Tyres. Based in Iceland, Arctic Trucks has extensive experience modifying vehicles to handle the Nordic nation’s unforgiving terrain, and was even tasked with prepping the vehicles for the Top Gear: Polar Special. But until now, the shop has primarily focused on Japanese and European iron.
At this point, the sole Ford product mentioned on its website is the F-350 — though given these pics and video, we suspect that’s about to change.
As he explains in the clip, Grimsson has been pleased with the F-150’s performance during his initial testing. Unfortunately, while there’s at least one request for a parts list on the official Arctic Trucks Instagram, there’s not a lot of info on the build just yet, and most of the AT44’s glamor shots actually appear on Flickr.
The 3.5-liter EcoBoost and the 10-speed transmission are reportedly still stock, but the suspension has been upgraded, as has the undercarriage armor. Obviously, the biggest change we can see is the wicked set of snow shoes the F-150 is wearing, beefy 44-inch Nokians designed specifically for freezing temperatures.
Each one weighs a whopping 154 pounds, and in the video, there are some great shots of them running at just 3.0 PSI, to better float over the snow.
Eagle-eyed folks will also notice the giant fender flares installed to accommodate the robust rubber. We get that they’re all about function, but love the clean install, and really dig the aggressive look they give to this test subject. The LED lights are another great upgrade, as during the winter, the sun doesn’t rise in Iceland.
From Grimsson’s comments in the video, it’s clear one of the reasons he picked up the F-150 was the truck’s aluminum construction, as the light weight alleviated his fears about a heavy American truck sinking too deep into the snow pack. He also cited the Ford’s long wheelbase and relatively low center of gravity as positive attributes.
In the truck’s current form, he does mention that ground clearance is an issue, but that’s nothing that a suspension lift wouldn’t take care of.
Of course, we don’t think you have to be Nostradamus to see that there’s also going to be a power increase coming. Along with the F-150’s light weight, we’d bet that the robust turbo mill was a consideration in its selection as well. Because as we’ve seen plenty of times, the stock power output of 375 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque is just a starting point.
That said, reliability is crucial in the middle of such a frozen landscape. So we wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t shoot for sky-high numbers, as even in stock tune, the Blue Oval appears to be getting along just fine. Why Grimsson didn’t start this build with a Raptor — and its 450 horsepower engine — is unclear. But we’d guess that if there are loads of extensive modifications planned, starting with a more basic platform makes sense.
We’re super curious to see where Grimsson and Arctic Trucks take this F-150, and hope this build means we’ll see some more representation for Ford in the wilds of Iceland. Until we have more info, we’ll be keeping an eye on the company’s Flickr and Facebook pages for more developments. Stay tuned.
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