This isn't exactly a diesel question but I don't care for the "hot rod" attitude of the gas engine people so I'll ask it here.
What exactly does Ford mean by the term "Super Duty". I have used a '86 diesel F350 4x4 XLT for several years here on my farm & woodcutting business. The frame is plenty strong. I've moved more 2 ton loads of firewood out of various woodlots than I care to remember. I just drive reasonably and try not to deliberately destroy the truck. When I look at the Ford Motor site it appears that all current F350 are "Super Duty". Is my truck a "Super Duty"?
My other observation is that other F350 stake rack and light dump trucks in my neighborhood are labelled "super duty" but they are all two wheel drive trucks.

It doesn't actually matter to me because my truck is pretty much ideally suited to the work I do. A bigger truck won't be able to get around the woodlot anyhow and probably burn more fuel.
Just curious?
Rick G.

 

Super Duty is nothing but a marketing name.

 

The older F-Series trucks had a "Super Duty" or "Heavy Duty" logo on the fender. The older F-450s were branded Super Duty. I've seen F-250s or 350s with the Heavy Duty emblem. Starting somewhere around 2000, all of the F-series pickups except the F-150 started getting the Super Duty logo. I haven't seen any difference between them yet, although I haven't researched it either. It may be just a marketing buzzword as mistakenid said.

 

Marketing. Wouldn't you rather buy something that is "Super Duty" instead of just "Heavy Duty?"

 

This reminds me of when I used to buy alkaline batteries for my RC cars when I was younger. All the crappiest batteries had the most imaginative names like "super heavy duty", eventually I "invested" in a set of NiCads even though many of the devices claimed that you could only use alkaline cells (bullS***).

Definitely just marketing lingo.


The new line of superduties to at least have a solid axle in the front, although most are D50 I'm told and not D60s. The frame is supposedly a bit stronger, but if you look in the rear wheel arch of the truck and observe the stamping pattern on the frame, you can see that the frame rail has in fact changed VERY little.

 

All I know is that the sixties models hoods looked super cool with the cowl on top!!

 

About 35 years ago, I was really curious about the "extra special" Duracell "Copper Top" batteries, so I took apart a D-cell. Guess what? Nothin special but copper colored paint

Maybe they switched because most people (Americans anyway) today can't count to good...

 

The mid 80's 250 was available as a light duty gasoline powered truck.
You could also get the gasoline version as a heavy duty.

The 250 heavy duty frame is exacty the same frame you would find under an F350.
All diesel trucks in the 250 line were heavy duty trucks.

The light duty trucks did not thave floating axles as the first clue.
After that you can look at the frame thickness, the heavy duty is about twice as thick.

Back in the 90's the Super Duty was what is called F450 now, a 1.25 ton truck.

When Ford retooled the 250 and 350 line in 1998 to the new bodt style the name Super Duty replace the Heavy Duty designation.

 

Many times it refers to a higher GVWR, but that only means that you have an extra leaf in your leaf spring packs, nothing special if you ask me... And all of the 87-96 super duty, heavy duty, or whatever they are trucks have different looking wheels... I think they look nice...

 

arent the F-450 (Super Duty) 10 luggers and available as a stripped frame? with hydroboost and all kinda goodies...

 

the term originated when the f-450 was introduced , it is now called an f-450 but originally just called the super duty because the f-350 was the largest in the light duty truck line and the next vehicle was the f-650 of the medium duty line
super duty name was reassigned so to speak when the powerstroke came into being and the original superduty was renamed f-450