The new 2023 Ford F-Series Super Duty is packed with new technical and operational features. We were able to give you a broad overview in our main Super Duty reveal post, but some of these features are worth delving even further into. That’s why we give you: 6 fun features of the new Super Duty.
A beautiful new tailgate
It’s easy to turn your attention to the Super Duty’s new, bigger rosters and faces, but if you do, you’ll miss out on the fancy (and not-so-chic) new features hiding on the back. For starters, it shakes a new backup camera and sensor system that we’ve never seen on a truck before. Ford calls the new features “Tailgate Down Camera” and “Tailgate Down Reverse Sensing System”. No, they’re not catchy, but they explain exactly what’s going on.
For every new truck sold today, putting down the tailgate will make your rear view camera useless, as it faces the ground. This is not a problem in most cases, but we can think of plenty where it is an inconvenience. For example, you may be carrying a longer load that extends past the tailgate, requiring the tailgate to be open. Or maybe you’re backing up to hook up to a gooseneck trailer. Both situations would mean there would be no rear camera and no rear sensor system in the old Super Duty, but not anymore! Ford has installed a secondary rear view camera and secondary sensors on the top of the tailgate (seen in the photo at the top of this post) so that when you flip it down, the experience is identical to what you might get with the tailgate up. And sure, it involves an extra camera and detection hardware (which certainly comes at a cost), but it’s an innovative feature that solves a problem that many have just accepted.
More steps!
Good ideas for improving trucks are often seen and copied by competitors, and the new Super Duty rear bumper and side steps are a perfect example of this. GM has been offering rear bumper and side steps on its pickups for quite some time, and now Ford has them too. It makes perfect sense to do – trucks (especially heavy trucks) are huge these days, and you can’t just reach into the bed from the floor to grab things. To make it easier for you to access the bed quickly without having to drop the tailgate and crawl in, Ford has added steps on either side of the rear bumper and directly in front of the rear wheels to help you get up. This means you no longer have to clumsily climb on the rear tire to quickly grab what you need. There’s even a small grab handle on the tailgate to make sure you don’t fall backwards while climbing the back of the truck.
Ford Pro Upfit Integration System
This idea is yet another unique feature for the Super Duty, and it uses the car’s infotainment system technology in a new way. If you’re a Super Duty owner who uses upfits and body gear to work, this is a nice piece of technology. Aftermarket equipment manufacturers can integrate their systems with the truck’s infotainment system, allowing you to control the equipment from the screen. For example, one could theoretically control the functions of a crane using the infotainment system in a Super Duty.
The capabilities for this are essentially what people make of them. Cloud-based software of the upfit equipment should be designed to integrate with Ford systems, allowing you to map digital buttons to specific controls. Ford says the system even allows you to program safety interlocks, so you could theoretically program the truck not to drive with a raised aerial platform. We’re pretty excited to see what people are using this technology for.
Trailer Navigation
Ever driven down a street or highway where your huge trailer wouldn’t fit? If that sounds like you, Ford says it has a solution called “Trailer Navigation.” New Super Duty owners simply input their trailer’s dimensions into the infotainment system and Ford says the nav will handle it from there. It has bridge heights, tight curves, and other potential trailer hazards programmed into the navigation, so if your route crosses a problem area, you will be automatically routed around it. We’ll have to try the navigation system ourselves to see how accurate and smart it is when routing around problem areas, but it’s a promising native solution for those carrying large loads with frequency.
F-150-derived trickle-down technology – Pro Power Onboard
The F-150 was the first to get these innovations, but seeing them on Super Duty is still a big deal. The big one is Pro Power Onboard. Ford has added its Pro Power Onboard generator system to the Super Duty, and it will be available in 2.0 kW. That’s not quite as impressive as the F-150 PowerBoost hybrid’s 2.4 kW and 7.2 kW systems, but it’s still enough to get a lot of work or fun done. As with the F-150, your outlets are in the bed and in the truck. However, for chassis cabs, Ford says outlets can be mounted elsewhere with a special outlet installation kit. Pro Power Onboard will be available on every trim level, but will be standard equipment on Lariat and above.
Onboard Scales and Smart Hitch
There isn’t much new here when it comes to the Super Duty application of Onboard Scales and the Smart Hitch, but it’s great to see Ford adopting this technology on the Super Duty, where it will likely be used much more often than in the F-150. Ford says about 96% of Super Duty owners use their trucks for towing, so there’s no better way to make sure you’re doing this safely than with the Smart Hitch which provides guidelines for trailer tongue weight distribution. Ford also promises best-in-class payload, so you can visually see how much weight can be placed in the bed with the Onboard Scales feature.
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