2009 fort f-150 Truck

Top-range engine (at least until the hush-hush 6.2-liter "Hurricane" V-8 makes its debut with the new-generation Harley-Davidson edition) is the familiar 5.4-liter Triton V-8. Power is up 10 horses to 310 at 5500 rpm, and torque has been boosted to 365 pound-feet at 3750. The revamped Triton also is E85 capable. Like the mechanicals, the new F-150's design is evolutionary as well, picking up cues from its bigger Super Duty brothers. "Americans want their pickup truck to look like a truck," says Schiavone, "so we made it a little tougher, a little more truck, touching on the Super Duty side." The dip in the side window-first seen on the HN80 Louisville heavy truck before migrating down through the Super Dutys-is the most obvious piece of Ford truck DNA on the new F-150.



While it might look familiar, parked next to the current model, the changes are obvious, most notably at the front, where the nose has been raised four inches and the grille reworked to echo the "girder" themes of the Super Dutys. Along the body side, big undercuts emphasize the wheel openings, and at the rear is a tailgate with stamped-in moldings that echo the classic stainless-steel cladding of old F-150s. The taillamps feature a lens within a lens. "We felt that's about as far a stretch as these cats would be willing to go," Schiavone says. "We'd never do a white or a clear lens on a taillamp. Truckers don't like them."The windshield is a carryover item from the current F-150, but the roofline has been raised 21 mm to meet tougher rollover standards and to package the optional side-curtain airbags without intruding on headroom. As before there are three basic cab configurations: regular, the pillarless SuperCab, and a four-door crew cab, now called SuperCrew. The reason for the name change is simple: a whopping six-inch stretch over the current model that gives it class-leading interior room. The most obvious thing you notice when you slide in behind the wheel of a P415 crew cab is that the B-pillar is no longer forward of your shoulder. The front-door aperture is much longer (instead of the door from the regular cab, the SuperCrew uses the front door from the SuperCab) yet there's an acre of room for back-seat passengers.


With crew cabs now composing 60 percent of the pickup-truck market, it's not surprising Ford has spent a lot of time and money on the SuperCrew. To improve load-carrying capacity, the floor behind the front seats is completely flat (which meant big engineering changes to sills and moving crossmembers on the frame, among other things). The rear-seat cushion cantilevers out from the rear of the cab and has gas struts that allow you to fold it up against the backrest with one hand (or with the nudge of your knee, if your hands are full). Unlike the current F-150, there is no jack or premium sound-system subwoofer in the way, either. Schiavone claims the SuperCrew has more useable space inside than its Dodge or Toyota rivals.