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" Last week I stopped by the Ford truck plant in Dearborn to get the first look at the 2017 Ford Super Duty, the next frontier in utterly preposterous towing and hauling capabilities. It&amp;#039;s too early for Ford to play its card on hard numbers, but what we do know is that the current truck can tow 31,200 pounds, and the 2017, Ford says, will tow more than that. Time to start training for your commercial driver&amp;#039;s license! Like the 2015 F-150, the new Super Duty has an aluminum body and bed. In fact, it uses the same four-door cab as the F-150, which actually results in more rear legroom. As with the F-150, the aluminum body lets the Super Duty shed weight, though here we&amp;#039;re talking about a drop of only 350 lbs. compared to 700 for the F-150. That&amp;#039;s because Ford pushed a few chips back onto the table in the form of heavier axles and a beefed-up, fully boxed frame. Again, Ford was thin on specifics, but when I asked what they&amp;#039;re using for, say, the rear axle, the answer was, &amp;quot;It went from a Dana 80 to something stronger than a Dana 80.&amp;quot;  A Dana 80, if you&amp;#039;re not versed on your axles, is about the diameter of phone pole. And they needed something stronger than that. Which should tell you something. These trucks are built for a 250,000-mile duty cycle that assumes constant work and abuse. Plus, Ford is still compensating for the poor reputation of its previous two diesel V8s, the troublesome 6.0 and 6.4-liter engines. So perhaps some over-engineering is in order.  The Super Duty, make no mistake, is as close as the Ford lineup gets to a cost-is-no-object machine. A loaded Super Duty is the most expensive Ford you can buy (narrowly edging a fully dressed Expedition) and this next one gets clever options like variable-ratio steering and a camera system that allows for a remote camera on the back of your trailer. The latter is a million-dollar idea, since the area right behind the trailer is a mystery and a problem for anyone who tows. I have a broken spindle on the fence bordering my driveway because I misjudged the length of a trailer by about three inches. Camera on the trailer, networked to the truck&amp;#039;s dash screen? Problem solved. While the ongoing battle for domestic truck dominance is fine entertainment, Ford thinks the new Super Duty might be burly enough to take on even bigger boys. In addition to tempting customers to convert from GM and Ram, Ford thinks it can compete with the likes of International. Because if your F450 can tow and haul like a medium-duty commercial truck, why spend $125,000 on an International with a basic tradesman cab when you can roll in a decked-out King Ranch for something like $70,000?\u00A0   Yes, I realize I&amp;#039;m describing a $70,000 pickup as a good deal. In the strange world of heavy-duty pickups, it&amp;#039;s all relative. As the Ford engineers told me, every time they increase power or capability, owners find creative new things to do with all that muscle (&amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m gonna tow my herd of water buffalos to Topeka!&amp;quot;). The truck will be out next fall, so I have about a year to find a prefab house that needs to be delivered, or a 15-ton boat to tow. And I need to study for that CDL. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/trucks/a17468/2017-ford-f-series-super-duty-truck/>