The verdict: Styling and interior changes are subtle, but the 2023 Ford Super Duty heavy-duty pickup truck continues to push the cutting edge of technology with some stunning new towing systems.
Versus the competition: “Max towing” or “most powerful” numbers don’t mean anything (they change almost monthly), but where the Ford stands out from its competitors is in the remarkable, genuinely useful technology it brings to help owners use their trucks more efficiently and safely.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Super Duty lineup of pickup trucks to Ford Motor Co.’s bottom line. They’re massively profitable and extremely popular vehicles, and you can bet it’s their continued influx of profit that’s funding a lot of the company’s shift toward electrified vehicles. But that electrification is skipping the big heavy-duty truck class for now largely because the technology just isn’t ready yet. Instead, gas and diesel engines still rule the land because those are what work for these trucks, and these trucks are what work for people who use their trucks for professional purposes. The Super Duty (available in F-250, F-350 and F-450 versions) is first and foremost a workhorse — 90% of Super Duty owners tow with their trucks, according to Ford, so that’s one area the company has focused on for this update for the 2023 model year. Some new styling, two new engines, and a host of revisions and refinements help keep the Super Duty competitive against a new set of GM pickups also arriving for 2023. So what has Ford done to keep the Super Duty on top?
Related: 2023 Ford Super Duty: Ford’s Workhorse Gets Some New Grunt and Updated Tech
Is It a Ranger XXL, Or Is the New Ranger a Baby Super Duty?
The most obvious and perhaps least important aspect of the new ‘23 Super Duty is its updated looks — the family resemblance to the rest of the Ford truck showroom might not be obvious at first, but then have a look at the new 2024 Ranger mid-size pickup that’s just been unveiled and you’ll get it. It looks like a Ranger XXL — or maybe the Ranger is a baby Super Duty now? Either way, it’s a big, boxy truck with a big, boxy look. The sides and rear are slightly cleaner, as well, but it still pretty much looks like the outgoing truck, with the big C-channel-style LED running lights up front and a multitude of trim levels to choose from, each with their own grille and wheel styles. The Super Duty styling wasn’t broken, so nobody tried to fix anything — unlike the revisions to the latest GM trucks, which saw some pretty significant changes from the last update to the current one, as the styling of the last ones was rather controversial.
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More Significant Changes Inside
The updates to the cabin are a bit more significant than the ones to the styling, but they are again evolutionary, as they should be. Cabin materials have taken another step up the niceness ladder but still fall short of the benchmark Ram HD cabins when you compare the top luxury trim levels. Ford needs to figure out how to make the cheap, smooth plastic on the dash, consoles and doors not feel like cheap, smooth plastic. The leather quality in trims like the Platinum and King Ranch (especially the latter) is excellent, the colors are on point and the new interior styling is top notch, too. Comfort is also excellent, with big, supportive seats and more cabin room for passengers than you could possibly ever need.
The controls adjustability is also superior to that of the GM trucks — the steering wheel and seats seem to have more adjustability, and visibility is notably better than the GM trucks. A lower hood, taller windshield and lower beltline make it feel like you have more glass than steel around you, making it easier to see out.
The big new displays inside are also excellent. Ford is sticking with its own proprietary Sync 4 multimedia system, not yet going to Google Built-In as some automakers have, and that’s a good thing. It simply works better than the Google-based systems I’ve tried in GM’s trucks; it also has better resolution and is easier to reconfigure. Most of the trucks I sampled during the introduction to the Super Duty at Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds north of Detroit were Lariat-trimmed and above, so they featured the big new 12-inch touchscreen paired with a 12-inch digital instrument cluster that’s standard on all trims. It’s augmented by the new optional full-color head-up display that adds yet another futuristic dimension to the new truck. And thankfully, there are still plenty of hard buttons and knobs for more frequently used controls, so you’re not constantly trying to use touchscreen controls.
A Bit More Grunt
There’s a choice of four engines in the Super Duty, including a new base engine: a standard 6.8-liter gasoline V-8 engine making 405 horsepower and 445 pounds-feet of torque. It’s mated to a standard 10-speed automatic transmission that’s used with all of the engines. You can upgrade to a carryover 7.3-liter gas V-8 engine making 430 hp and 485 pounds-feet of torque, but if you’re like the majority of Super Duty owners, you’re going to opt for the diesel powerplant. The entry diesel is a turbocharged 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 with 475 hp and a whopping 1,050 pounds-feet of torque, but you can also upgrade to the new high-output 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 that makes a lunatic 500 hp and 1,200 pounds-feet of torque. That’s just about enough torque to shift the orbit of the moon, but it’ll probably be upstaged next week when Ram or Chevy somehow find a bit more power out of their own diesel engines so that they’re the class leader for a while. Chasing the “most powerful” prize is a fool’s errand; at those high levels of torque, everything seems to operate the same anyway — incredibly capably.
That’s how the Super Duty works, at any rate. At Ford’s proving grounds, we were able to sample the new Super Duty performing all manner of workhorse tasks: I towed a 40,000-pound gooseneck trailer up and down a 7% grade with no problem whatsoever. I also towed a slightly lesser 30,000-pound trailer in a much more commonly available trim combination of the Super Duty, also with no problem or difficulty. Yeah, the big diesel is breathing hard, but that roar is actually the massive cooling system doing its job and keeping the big diesel mill nicely chilled. It will actually accelerate up that 7% grade with your foot to the floor while lugging the big trailer, that’s how much torque you have to play with. It’s practically overkill, but if it were me out in the real world lugging something that heavy, overkill with torque is exactly what I’d want. The thing is, who is actually towing a 40,000-pound trailer on a public road with a pickup? That, to me, seems like the kind of thing you do with a Class B truck, but you can certainly do it with a Super Duty, as well (provided you have a commercial driver’s license).
Refinement Is Clear
The excellent part of driving this new Super Duty is not how it behaves with a huge load behind it; I expect it to be able to achieve amazing feats of strength when pushed to its limits, and it does that without drama. What’s more amazing is that it’s quiet, refined, comfortable and pleasant to drive without a load behind it, which is far more difficult to achieve. In order to have a truck that can perform feats of strength, heavy-duty equipment has to be present, and it often leads to a bouncy ride, a loud engine and steering that’s numb and odd to use. Not so in the new Super Duty; Ford engineers have crafted a truck that’s all-day pleasant to use even when not towing or hauling anything. It drives like a smaller, lighter truck. Both the diesel and, especially, the gas engines are quiet and refined at speed or when accelerating. The transmission isn’t clunky or harsh. The steering feels natural and isn’t overboosted. This might be the closest the Super Duty has ever come to feeling like the light-duty F-150 in recent memory.
Where it’s not as pleasant is off-road, where its sheer size and weight means it feels like riding an elephant through the woods. The Tremor off-road package first appeared on the Super Duty before proliferating throughout the Ford truck lineup, and it does indeed boost the capability of the Super Duty with a more off-road-ready suspension, 18-inch wheels with 35-inch tires, underbody protection and off-road tuning (including the addition of Trail Turn Assist, which you frankly need off-road given the Super Duty’s massive length). But it’s too big to be an enjoyable experience in the dirt. As a work truck to get you to a logging camp or a remote construction site, it’ll do, but it wouldn’t be my first choice for wheeling through the rough.
Where the Magic Happens
The real story of the ‘23 Super Duty isn’t in the powertrain, the numbers or the new cabin, it’s the new technology debuting on the truck that’s going to make it the envy of the industry. We were impressed when Ford first showed us Pro Trailer Backup Assist, a system that, once you’ve set it up, allows you to reverse your pickup and trailer combination using just the backup cameras and a knob on the dash. No trying to figure out if you turn the steering wheel left or right when reversing, what direction that’ll send the trailer. You just use the guidelines to point the trailer in the direction you want it to go, operate the pedals, and everything becomes so much easier.
Well, now there’s something even more jaw-dropping: Using the backup camera and radar sensors in the Super Duty plus some extraordinary computing power, the truck will now automatically back itself up perfectly aligned to hook up a trailer. Line it up in front of the trailer in question, push a few buttons on the touchscreen to activate the newly available Pro Trailer Hitch Assist system, take your feet off the pedals and your hands off the steering wheel, and the truck will back itself up to align a conventional hitch ball with the trailer coupler. All you then need to do is lower the trailer onto the ball, and off you go. There are several step-by-step prompts from the onboard computer along the way, but it completely takes the guesswork and teamwork out of trying to hook up a trailer to your Super Duty. It is perhaps the ultimate marriage-saving device if YouTube videos of amateur boaters launching various crafts is anything to go by.
That’s not the only bit of brilliant tech to debut. You know how you lose the backup camera in a pickup truck when you have the tailgate down? Maybe you have the tailgate lowered to back up to a loading dock to have a bunch of stuff dropped into the bed? Well, Ford has solved that problem, too, with the new available Tailgate Down Camera and Tailgate Down Reverse Sensing System. They’ve put a second backup camera and radar sensors in the top of the tailgate, meant to activate when the tailgate’s been lowered, so you have full backup camera and sensor functionality. It’s one of those systems that leaves you wondering why nobody’s thought of this before.
There are a host of other new innovations for the Super Duty, as well, such as a navigation system that can incorporate the size and weight of the trailer you’re towing into directions, helping to avoid low bridges or super-tight corners that might be problematic. The blind spot warning system adds trailer coverage for fifth-wheel and gooseneck setups to detect vehicles alongside the trailer (additional equipment is required, however). There’s an electronic Onboard Scales with Smart Hitch system that automatically measures not only the weight of the payload in the bed, it also can detect if your trailer’s load is balanced properly based on the change in the tongue weight. It even lets you adjust the trailer load and get visual feedback in real-time using the LED taillights as guides. It’s a compilation of astonishingly useful, genuinely usable technology that will make owner-operator’s lives easier and safer.
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Come and Get It
The new Super Duty’s updates should make it even more desirable than the outgoing model, securing its position as the likely sales leader for the segment quite nicely. By offering more choices, more refinement and some game-changing technology, the new Super Duty becomes more useful than ever for a wide, wide range of customers.
Prices vary depending on options and requirements, but suffice it to say that you can spec a Super Duty from the base F-250 XL regular-cab 4×2 with the 6.8-liter gas V-8 from $45,865 (all prices include a whopping $1,895 destination charge) all the way up to the F-450 Limited crew-cab 4×4 dually with the high-output 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel for an eye-watering $110,000-plus with options — or anywhere in between, as your needs require and your wallet allows. The number of build combinations is astonishing, but so are the number of uses the Super Duty can fulfill. And with the new 2023 model’s advanced tech, more powerful engines and nicer cabin, it’ll continue to be a useful tool for the foreseeable future.
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