Ford broke the pickup mold when it introduced its aluminum-bodied 2015 F-150. The move to include that much aluminum on a mass-produced, high-volume vehicle such as the F-150 is unprecedented. Ford expects the new body to help trim up to 700 pounds versus that of the outgoing truck. But while everyone’s talking about the switch to aluminum being the F-150’s most important weight-saving measure, we poked our heads underneath the truck—and grilled some engineers—to see how else Ford was able to cut nearly 60 pounds from the F-150’s chassis:
Frame Horns With All of the Corners
Okay, so we’re not talking about bull horns some pickup dudes enjoy mounting to their trucks’ hoods—frame horns are the forward sections of a truck chassis that take crash impact loads. They’re engineered to crumple and distribute crash forces to the rest of the chassis, which means they’re usually quite heavy. To cut poundage, Ford designed the F-150’s frame horns to have 12 corners—when viewed in section—versus the old truck’s four-corner design. The added corners add stiffness, allowing Ford to utilize a thinner-gauge steel construction. Weight saved: 3–4 pounds.
Rails that Dip Down Real Low
Previously, Ford utilized bulky and heavy brackets fitted to the hind ends of each frame rail to lower the tow-hitch mounts to a more useful height. For the 2015 F-150, Ford designed the tail ends of the frame so that they dipped down, eliminating the need for extra brackets—and extra weight. Weight saved: About 5 pounds.
Tailor-Rolled Steel Frame Sections
Even though the 2015 F-150’s boxed steel frame rails appear to be more or less uniform in their construction, there are in fact several different sections welded together. One of those sections—located between the rear axle and about mid-way beneath the pickup’s cab—is a complex assembly of “tailor-rolled” steel panels, meaning a single sheet of steel was rolled to give it variable gauge. Thus, these two sections (one per side) are thick where they need to be and not where they don’t need to be. Weight saved: 6–7 pounds.
One Aluminum Crossmember, Please
Ford didn’t limit its use of aluminum to the F-150’s body alone—it also added a (tiny) bit of it to the truck’s frame, too, in the form of a single crossmember. The other seven members are still steel, although interestingly, the aluminum member supports a critical portion of the frame up front near the engine and transmission. Ford must really be trying to dispel the “aluminum’s for beer cans!” stigma. Weight saved: 4–5 pounds.
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High Strength Steel—Ford Has It
By far the biggest weight-reducing measure employed by the F-150’s frame is high-strength steel, and lots of it. The stiffer, lighter metal amounted to just 23 percent of the last-generation truck’s frame-materials mix; today, that figure stands at 77 percent. Weight saved: 20–30 pounds.
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