2020 Ford Super Duty F-350

January 1, 2020

Lindsay Brooke

A summer job during college gave me occasion to drive a Mack R-model dump truck. This Class-8 bruiser’s inline-six diesel delivered 280 hp and 1,000 lb-ft (1,356 Nm). I thought of that smoky old Mack while driving Ford’s latest SuperDuty pickups in real-world hauling demos in the Arizona mountains.

Ford’s upgraded 6.7-L turbodiesel V8 delivers amazing Mack-mauling grunt—1,050 lb-ft and 475 hp—for nearly any task. With a 37,000-lb max towing rating, the big pickup didn’t break a sweat hauling a 12,000-lb, 33-ft-long RV trailer over the mountains. Indeed, the Ford engineers on hand also could have loaded the F-350’s cargo bed to its 7,850-lb max payload and their baby would’ve obliged without fuss. And no need for old-school gear-jamming: Ford’s new in-house-engineered 10-speed HD automatic provided a ratio for every situation.

The company’s constant improvements make these big pickups ever easier to drive and maneuver, particularly when hitched to a trailer. New for 2020 is Pro Trailer Backup Assist and Trailer Reverse Guidance. To back up, the driver keeps hands off the wheel and instead turns a dash-mounted knob, to vector the truck and trailer right or left. After some practice, the system previously introduced for the light-duty F-Series is intuitive to use.

Just a few ticks on Ford’s extensive options list will push the price of an F-350 to nearly $100K, but those who buy HD pickups for work—and their untapped capability—just keep tickin’.