I've found that a little light sanding and a can of black spray paint takes care of my mirrors to my satisfaction. Believe it or not, just normal black paint bonds well and doesn't look out of place at all.

 

Thanks. Sounds like a good tip. I might have a hard time starting a change like this but the designer who came up with 2 tone mirrors should have his skull cap examined.

 

Rob, why do you hate the two-tone mirrors so much again? I know you've mentioned before but I can't remember. I like the touch of class the chrome or body color caps add, and the smoother paint will be easier to remove bugs off at least that portion of the mirror.

 

Just a personal preference. They look too busy and detract from the lines of the vehicle. All chrome or stainless would be ok. Like you indicate the bug from Hades wouldn't be stuck there through several scrubbings. Plus putting a skull cap on the mirror gives one more seam to collect debris. Maybe if mine comes through with the colored caps I will get used to it. I will be sure to let you know. I sure hope they are not holding my order because of a shortage of skull caps. Now that would be a kick in the.....

 

I haven't gone through the whole thread, but here are my thoughts so far:

The GMC trucks have almost always if not always ridden "better" than their Ford counterparts. The ride is softer and often feels floaty in Chevrolet and GMC trucks. They rarely if ever handle as well as the Fords do. I haven't driven the 2017 Super Duty as of yet, so I can't say this with certainty, but I've had a lot of both going back to the late 1990's and this has been almost a universal truth.

As for the vinyl thing, almost all seats these days will have vynl surfaces on "leather". Lets also not kid ourselves, the leather in the Super Duty is terrible. (More on this in a minute.) As for the power comment, it depends on how the power is utilized. If you are talking about something faster, then a 1/2 ton with the 3.5L EB is where you want to be. If you want more torque because you are going to tow a lot or carry a lot of cargo, then the diesel option certainly has that. It has roughly double the torque of a half-ton truck.

Chevrolet's feel pretty much the same going back to the 1990's. They always felt too smooth and floaty to me. I've always felt the Ford suspension felt more "connected" to the road providing a better balance of feedback, handling and smoothness.

I'm not a fan of the Platinum's chrome accents, but I like the painted bumpers. The tailgate thing is definitely not a decal. It's a metal plate that's finished to give it a polished stainless steel look. I'm not a fan of it either. It bothers me less on silver trucks as it blends in better but that's about it. It just doesn't fit well with the rest of the truck. It's always looked out of place to me. Some people wrap that piece or paint it another color. That works if you don't like it. The other option is to load a Lariat with the features you get on the Platinum. We can do that for F-150's but I haven't looked at the 2017 SD to see if the same thing can be done. I'd assume so as we could in 2016. (Minus the appearance stuff.)

I agree with the bulk of your assessment. Although I disagree about the IFS on the HD trucks. I don't like it. I like the exterior styling of the GMC Sierra 2500HD well enough, but I don't care for the style of the interior. GM still hasn't done anything about their cracking dashes or some of their fit and finish issues. The 2017 SD and 2015+ F-150's have their own share of fit and finish issues with the interior, but the GM's are worse in my experience. The lack of the rear power outlet and rear AC vents is unforgivable. If rarely carry passengers so this isn't a deal breaker for me, but I think its idiotic. If you have kids or like to carry people I think this may be worth serious consideration. I don't like it on principal and GM knows better. My 2003 Silverado LS extended cab had this feature for ****s sake! Storage is also lacking in the GM trucks and rear seat legroom in the models I've seen wasn't as good as the Ford offerings. I don't find the seats very supportive either but that's subjective.

I agree with almost everything you said. What I quoted is what I take issue with. I've never seen any documentation, statements, or even reviews that said Platinum's had better leather than the Lariat's. I've sat in the Platinum F-150's which should have the same seats as the 2017 SD, and the leather was no better than what was in my Lariat. I found the Platinum seats less comfortable due to the massaging hardware in them. I'm not alone on this as there are plenty of F-150 threads / forums out there where people have had the same complaint. The King Ranch usually has nicer leather, but some years its hard to take care of. Or so some previous KR owners have told me. I don't like the style of the KR, so it's Lariat or Platinums for me. (Or an XLT in future trucks if the pricing doesn't get reigned in.)

I've never seen anything that suggested the Platinum has better quality leather. My experience suggests otherwise. As for the GM's having nicer materials than the Ford, that's simply not true. While the steering wheel leather is more supple, it wears out faster and the dash's have been cracking in two years or so on GM trucks for the better part of a decade now.

I agree with you about the rear A/C vents. Unfortunately, the Ford's have a different problem. Some tool decided that the TED in the 2015+ F-150 / 2017+ SD seats didn't need to exhaust anywhere. So heat builds up in the seat back. There have been reports on F-150's of people receiving burns from it. The 2015 F-150's didn't have an intake for the TED either. This was "fixed" via TSB or on the 2016's via a white sock looking thing that can collapse and starve your seat's "cooling" system. Its the same design in many other Ford's too. The 2015+ Mustang seats don't cool worth a **** either. I noticed this on the recent test drive of the Mustang GT Premium. (I actually bought a base GT in part, because of this experience.)

I don't know why the trucks can't have the same overhead vents that the SUVs have. It makes so much more sense. As for the seat issue, Ford's done a worse job than GM on that one. Well, arguably its worse for the driver and better for rear passengers in the Ford. GM has it nicer for the driver but passengers get to suffer so take your pick?

The King Ranch is a different beast than the Platinum or Lariat trucks. The King Ranch is really just a Lariat with some hideous logos, a two tone paint scheme, limited color selection and fancy leather. No offense to KR owners, but I think they'd agree that the leather is the biggest draw of those trucks. The rest of it is nothing more than cosmetic styling. The leather on the KR is indeed nicer, but the Platinum has the same **** as the Lariat. The Lariat just doesn't have the massaging seats. The seats look a little different between the Platinum and the Lariat, but ultimately the leather felt just as cheap on both to me. I've test driven both and owned a 2015 F-150 Lariat for a year or so and the leather was just cheap. It's sadly better in my 2016 F-250 than it was in my 2015 F-150.

Yeah you can. Lariats can get damn near as expensive as any Platinum or King Ranch. The main things that differentiate the three are appearance based and each has a base equipment package that differs, but optionally, fully decked out they are all pretty close. I think this is done because Ford knows that the KR and Platinum's aesthetic changes aren't for everyone and the Lariat looks better to some people. I generally think so, especially on the F-150's as that's the highest trim available with the Sport Appearance Package. If that had been available on the F-250, that's what I'd have. I'm not really a fan of chrome.

 

I'd actually prefer to have the entire mirror body color or chromed, except on lower trim models which are fine with the textured black plastic. I think the textured plastic looks too plain on higher trim models.

 

The issue for me was glare and reflection. Glare not too bad but seeing motion in my peripheral vision on the top inside corner of the mirror always distracted me. For whatever reason they just draw too much attention from me while driving so they got blacked out.

 

Holy crap, Spamfritter, that's quite the write-up. Good job.

I was able to perform a close examination of the KR leather compared to the Lariat leather. The perforated seat inserts on the base and backrest cushions are exactly the same as the Lariat. However, the surrounding leather appears to be a thicker or heavier grade of leather than the Lariat.

Now, the Platinum seats are different. They have the thin strip of leather running down the center of the seat. I honestly think it is a softer, more aniline leather than the Lariat. The stitching and seat seams are totally different. I could be wrong, and I have not been able to closely examine a Platinum leather seat.

As for the heater / cooler, my complaints are that the TEDs from the start never performed well. Heat was lukewarm and cooling was pitiful, non-existent to the seat backs. It's sad when the rear heated seats (standard electric grid heat) get much warmer than the primary front seats.

The current Super Duty TEDs have a little foam filter on the intake and exhaust under the front seats. Are you saying the new trucks do not?

 

You are not wrong on the Platinum seats. I should have been more clear. The seat foam and leather patterns are indeed different. My point is that the leather appears to be the same quality on the Platinum as it is on the Lariat. The seats are physically different as the massaging hardware requires the foam pattern to differ somewhat and thus the leather pattern will as well. It may be thicker in some places, or even thinner in others. The style is different to separate them a bit from the Lariat as well I'm sure. You also get brushed aluminum trim pieces in place of plastic chrome on the Lariats if I recall correctly. The Platinum is a nice truck, no doubt. Ultimately I've come to accept that there is no perfect truck offered by anyone. I like some things about the Lariat better than the Platinum and vice versa.

On the outgoing 2016 Super Duties, the TED design is different from that of the new trucks. They do have an exhaust system and the foam filter on the intake. The new ones do not have much of an intake at all. The ones with the TSB done, or newer trucks have a sock under the seat. Its white and really does look like a sock. If it collapses it will block airflow into the system. There is NO exhaust tube at all. The exhaust goes into the seat back, or rather collects there.

The TED design of the F-150/Super Duty seats in the new trucks is beyond stupid. Its primarily a cost cutting measure. Ford is aware of the problem and simply won't do anything about it. I suspect its because the seat supplies and design contracts are in place for a specific period of time and this isn't likely to change until either the 2018 F-150's refresh or in the next total redesign of the F-150. This terrible design is becoming prolific in the F-150 and others like GM and Dodge are following suit with similar cost cutting measures. In fact, the words "cooled seats" are starting to disappear and get changed to "vented seats" in various manufacturer's literature.

With the seat exhaust having no where to go, it will always build up in the seat back and overwhelm what little cooling the system can offer. Usually the seat bottom gets relatively cool but the back can't cool for more than a few minutes in reasonably cool temperatures. When its really hot or you have to sit in the cab for a long period of time the cooling system gets overwhelmed either quickly or instantly in some cases. Like the ******* who designed my 1992 Formula Firebird's exhaust system, the guy behind this idiotic TED design deserves a punch in the face for his design work.

(Note: On my 1992 Formula Firebird, you had to drop the entire exhaust system from the manifold back to swap out the starter.)

 

I like the painted bumpers and the grille of the Platinum. I hate the shiny tailgate applique. That alone would be enough to get a Lariat and add the Platty grille down the road if I really wanted it.

Cost cutting from the previously poorly working TED coolers? Wow, must be really bad. One thing I've noticed on the new F-150 / Super Duty is that the seats are much thinner than before. I liked the thick Super Duty seats. The thickness may have given Ford more room to work with the TED intakes / exhausts. I suspect the thinner seats were to save weight.

Our 2010 Lincoln cooled seats don't cool the backrest much either. They don't get hot, but they basically only cool the base. Same with my last 2015 F-350 Lariat, and I suspect same with this new truck. I will probably rarely use them since they suck.

Why not just run a flexible hose out of the side of the center console and pipe A/C through the seat perforations? It seems it would work much better.

 

Dropping the exhaust was a GM signature move throughout the years for various models. And then their were as many as three different starter bolt configurations which would fit the same vehicle/engine combination depending on whose engine they used that week. And of course the exhaust came out like a breeze on vehicles old enough to need a starter.

 

I know on my '11 Lariat the leather seemed more like Pleather, but my '15 Platinum was leaps and bounds better. You could actually feel and "smell" the difference. I test drove both a Lariat and Platinum that day and was sold buy the leather and a few other differences. The heated and cooled seats worked better than expected on both the '11 and '15. I hope the '17s have better leather.

 

There is a guy on the f150forum.com site that makes a parts kit that dramatically improves the performance of the TED. Apparently it works in other vehicles like Explorers and possibly the Mustang. If your vehicle is a 2016 or has the TSB done on it, he doesn't replace the sock, but he does give it some exhaust venting. I can dig that up for any 2017 SD guys who will inevitably get pissed off that their cooled seats don't cool worth a damn. Trust me, Ford won't do a damn thing about it when you complain. They've already said it's "working as designed."

 

If you could reference that info that would be great.
Thanks

 

The 17's do not have better leather and the seat "cooling" is considerably worse. They've got the same **** that was in my 2015 F-150 Lariat. Its worse than what's in my 2016 F-250 Lariat. I did a whole break down on the 2015 F-150 Lariat interior vs. my 2016 F-250 Lariat interior and some other things here.

The thread is lengthy to be sure. However, you will learn a lot about the TED. the seat design and Ford's unwillingness to do anything about the design. You will also learn what you can do to make the system work somewhat better.

You can find that information here.