Steel vs Aluminum Truck Beds

I don't know the exact properties of the Ford aluminum, but the shear strength of aluminum is typically MUCH less than steel, so there's probably a lot of truth to this. Sure its biased, and who dumps a load of blocks into a truck like that? (Nevermind, I've met people people who work in construction)
 
jeepinmatt said:
I don't know the exact properties of the Ford aluminum, but the shear strength of aluminum is typically MUCH less than steel, so there's probably a lot of truth to this. Sure its biased, and who dumps a load of blocks into a truck like that? (Nevermind, I've met people people who work in construction)
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That's a combination of shear and tensile failure, depending on how/where the aluminum is supported versus the point of load application, etc. I would think for most uses the aluminum bed would be completely interchangeable with steel, but they've pinpointed a particular weakness obviously.

I don't think I'd beat the shit out of either bed like that without lining the floor with something for load distribution and damage protection, so it's somewhat of a pointless argument.

I'm not a Ford guy, but I really like the aluminum bed from a weight standpoint. Weight is pretty important, no matter how much we like to ignore it.
 
I was the 2nd person at a wreck about a month ago. A new F150 nailed a tree head on (drunk). The rocker completely separated from the floor pan by about 8" in the driver side floorboard. I like the idea of aluminum bodies (no freakin rust), but its going to have to be thicker than what they are using. Would a 1/4" thick bed floor weigh that much more? Probably still less than a steel bed.
 
sgtbriangreen said:
I was the 2nd person at a wreck about a month ago. A new F150 nailed a tree head on (drunk). The rocker completely separated from the floor pan by about 8" in the driver side floorboard. I like the idea of aluminum bodies (no freakin rust), but its going to have to be thicker than what they are using. Would a 1/4" thick bed floor weigh that much more? Probably still less than a steel bed.
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How was the driver?
Just because it separated, doesnt mean it failed...
 
90% of the people that buy an F150 will never do anything like that to the truck. I think they will be okay.

I also agree, soon everybody will do the aluminum body. Safety stuff adds weight, you have to cut it back somehow.
 
Honestly, the poly bed on the Toyotas is pretty nice. I dunno if it weighs less at the end of the day, but it's pretty durable for a light duty truck.
 
jeepinmatt said:
I don't know the exact properties of the Ford aluminum, but the shear strength of aluminum is typically MUCH less than steel, so there's probably a lot of truth to this. Sure its biased, and who dumps a load of blocks into a truck like that? (Nevermind, I've met people people who work in construction)
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The block test isn't realistic, but the toolbox definitely is and that hole surprised me.
 
Anyone have any weight comparison? I think it's damn near pointless considering steel beds don't seem to weigh that much. I've never weighed one but I've moved FS 8' beds more times than I can recall. Always with one other person, sometimes that was the wife.
 
Ive got an aluminum F-150 for a company work truck , The only downside about the aluminum body I've seen in th 20K miles put on it , is that the rear doors or so light weight , sometimes they don't catch the latch all the way. But the truck averages 19-20.5mpg with a 5.0 V8 . My first work truck was a 2013 GMC 1500 with a 5.3 , it averaged around 17-19 . So i guess the weight savings is worth some real world fuel economy .
 
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Look at the point of release also.

But did they really do this to 12 trucks to show groups of 2 or 3????? I'll take one of the trucks they dented.
 
Ron said:
How was the driver?
Just because it separated, doesnt mean it failed...
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He walked away after it took 3 of us to get him out (ATF caught fire when the tcase shattered ad drained on the crossover pipe). The dash pushed all the way to the seat.
 
shawn said:
Honestly, the poly bed on the Toyotas is pretty nice. I dunno if it weighs less at the end of the day, but it's pretty durable for a light duty truck.
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This seems like a more logical direction for the future. Lighter weight, more variable material properties, much lower material cost, better dent resistance, etc.
 
I have a 6.6L V8 crew cab short bed that gets 19.5 mpg, lol. I like the 5.0 V8 and all and I'm not a Ford guy, but I could see myself busting that bed all to shit!
 
Sounds like the truck in the wreck did what it was designed to do. It crushes and take the energy of the crash so it is not passed on to the occupants.
 
The aluminum is all about govt regs for fuel economy. That's the only reason they did it, imo. Chevy and dodge will have to follow suit eventually. Think how bad it sucked for the dealers. They had to outfit any of their body shops with the equipment to fix it. I know the expedition had an aluminum lift hatch, at least starting in 2003, so they were messing with it already for weight savings.
 
k5-1402 said:
Sounds like the truck in the wreck did what it was designed to do. It crushes and take the energy of the crash so it is not passed on to the occupants.
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Yeah, but you would think they would want to maintain the integrity of the cab at least length wise. I bet if he had been going much faster, he would have been pinned in bad enough that it would have taken tools to cut him out. With the fire under the truck, he may have been SOL.
 
sgtbriangreen said:
Yeah, but you would think they would want to maintain the integrity of the cab at least length wise. I bet if he had been going much faster, he would have been pinned in bad enough that it would have taken tools to cut him out. With the fire under the truck, he may have been SOL.
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Being pinned and having to be cut out is better than the crumple zones not working and taking the more of the energy of the crash into your body.
 
It's Trump's fault! LOL. That looks like one of those off angle crashes that everything gets a 1star rating on in the crash tests.

Fords been messing with aluminum body panels for a while, not full bodies, but I worked on a 97 f150 yesterday that the paint was peeling off the hood of, and bright shiny aluminum was exposed.

Supposedly, Ford built a fleet of aluminum trucks a few years back and sent them to oilfields, and Kentucky and wv coal mines for endurance testing. If they were satisfied with the results of that I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, I'm reasonably sure those guys are way harder on equipment than a standard construction worker, LOL.

To me that commercial is just good advertising to sell a competitor's truck. Just like the frame twisting commercial a few years back on the superduty, they were always saying "but look you can't open the tailgate while one tires hanging in the air with the axles crossed up in a ditch, shitty Ford." I've never been in that situation in my life though. Sure I've been crossed up in a ditch but I had no need to open the tailgate until I was back on level ground.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
sgtbriangreen said:
Looking back at the pic, the truck did what it was supposed to do.
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And whether the truck was aluminum, steel, unobtanium, or whatever, it matters not, at this point, it's scrap and who gives a crap
 
DSM Turbos said:
Being pinned and having to be cut out is better than the crumple zones not working and taking the more of the energy of the crash into your body.
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sgtbriangreen said:
Looking back at the pic, the truck did what it was supposed to do.
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Yup. I read an article a while back about the offset frontal impact problem. Survivability basically came down to milliseconds of deceleration time. They said that anything over about 35mph was basically unsurvivable as a rule. If you made it out, it was simply luck. Fucking terrifying.
 
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