Before a car manufacturer puts out a vehicle for sale to the consumer, the vehicles have to go through various tests to make sure it can handle the elements for years to come. Now imagine vehicles that are intended to be tough and the type of testing they have to endure compared to your regular family sedan. I’m referring to trucks and the Ford F-150 in particular.
As North America’s best selling pickup truck, it’s pretty interesting to see what type of hell’ish testing the Ford F-150 has to go through before it gets the approval to be road worthy. The all-new 2015 Ford F-150 went through 10 million cumulative miles of durability testing, both in the real world, and in simulated environments. With Ford introducing the high-strength aluminum body panels, the vehicle had to go beyond the usual testing. The company wanted to create the toughest and most capable F-150 to date while making it 700 pound lighter. Ford challenged the team to torture the truck harder than any other F-150 before it.
Enjoy the video collection below as the 2015 Ford F-150 tows trailers over mountain passes in temperatures as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit, withstand frame-punishing off-road courses, and defeat a frozen lake at negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The vehicle also went through salt vats, riverbeds, high-humidity chambers, and towed maximum loads up extremely steep roads. Some tests are actually so extreme that a five-day test equals to 10 years or 150,000 miles of abuse by the roughest of customers.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Seven Channel Input
A special torture rack was built to twist and shake the truck in seven ways for five continuous days to simulate 225,000 miles of wear and tear.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Silver Creek
The Silver Creek durability course in Romeo, Michigan, mixes two tough roads. First section of the course has 15 different types of chuckholes while the second part of the course is made from broken pieces of concrete. 500 miles of this type of road surface equals to 20,000 miles of the roughest roads in the US.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Power Pop Hill
This steep road features a 11 percent grade and stresses the engine and transmission components when the wheels lose contact with the road and then return to the surface.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Drum Drop
Engineers at Ford dropped a 55-gallon drum onto the bed of the truck on an angle to ensure all of the force came down on the rim of the drum. The impact is measured and adjustments are made until the cargo box floor is considered suitably tough for the job.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Engine Thermal Shock
This test makes sure the engine can handle any temperature that comes its way. The engine is tested from the coldest polar vortex to extreme heat in a matter of seconds. While that’s happening, the engines are placed in a special cell and hooked up to a dynamometer which simulates towing a heavy trailer at full throttle up a steep grade. This test is run 350 times over the course of 400 hours to test the durability of the engine block, gaskets, seals, and cylinder heads.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Corrosion Bath
The new high-strength aluminum alloy body panels went through countless salt baths and high-humidity chambers. The vehicle also went through a corrosion test which uses acidified spray to be more aggressive on the aluminum. The test simulates 10 years of exposure with the aluminum material showing very little sign of degradation.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Davis Dam
The 13-miles Davis Dam was climbed by the F-150 at various speeds between 35mph to 65mph while towing trailer loads at maximum capacity and running the air conditioning unit at full blast in the Arizona summer heat.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Stone Peck Alley
For paint durability, the all-new Ford F-150 was driven over 150 miles of gravel roads, then an additional 150 miles over jagged iron pellets.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Rock & Stop
Engineers performed 500 aggressive starts on a special stand which is designed to torture the rear axle. The stand creates impacts at nearly 2,000 lb ft of torque which is more than the truck is capable of making. This is all to ensure the rear axle and all of its parts are able to withstand extreme abuse.
Ford F-150 Torture Test: Twist Ditch
