Ford’s cash cow workhorse has entered a new generation. The 2021 Ford F-150 has landed and we finally got a taste. This is the 2021 Ford F-150 packing 5.0-liter V8 heat, and it’s one damn fine truck. It’s also pricey and it’s far from the top rung of the trim ladder. Is it worth it? Is it still king of the pickups?
Spoiler: yes. But also click play and watch the video below anyway.
[Disclaimer: Ford tossed us the keys to the 2021 F-150 and included a tank of fuel.]
About
Howdy y’all
Howdy! I’m glad to see some of the over-the-top, toxic-masculine styling has been reigned in. A bit. Ironic that Dodge seems to have the most restrained styling (not counting the tailgate) right now after starting the stupid massive semi grill styling trend way back when. I’m not bitter though. Just get me an ’89 F150 with the 300.
I am still waiting for the self driving future where a man writes a country song where his pickup truck has left him, in the meantime… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSWjOoXS-Pk&ab_channel=townesfan10
Love it– especially the V8 (not a V6 fan)– but DAYAM! that pricetag. Too rich for my blood.
you can definitely weld off 240V – but it depends on the available amperage. My 240V welder wants at least 30A (should be 50A but . . . works unless I turn it way up, which I haven’t) – and typically 240V welders work better than 120V (better penetration, ability to weld thicker metal, etc.)
Yeah, I typically use a light-duty wire welder that requires only 120V, but my stick welder needs 240V.
That’s the first time I’ve noticed one of those tailgate pads. It appears to be an invention with all the drawbacks of a car bra (the kind people were ruining their paint with in the Radwood era), with the added downsides of scuffing your bike paint, and turning your tailgate into a fourth fixed bedside. There also doesn’t seem to be any convenient way to lock the bikes.
I think if I had a pickup, one or more passengers, and we all needed to take our bikes somewhere, I’d save the cost of the tailgate pad, and load the bikes into the bed of the truck, the way I’ve been doing it forever.
The F150’s stats are nice, but I would have hoped for something better looking.
It holds the bikes in place securely. The underside that touches the paint is soft. And the bikes don’t get scuffed. These pads are great. Plus I don’t need to lock the bike since I’m only popping the bike in there when I’m heading to and from the trail.
Though, my rack on my Montero is certainly more secure if I needed to stop and I do use a lock on that one, but that’s more to keep the bike from swaying.
The soft side traps dirt and then turns into sandpaper. It also blocks the sun, so the covered paint doesn’t fade at the same rate as the uncovered paint. Admittedly, neither one of those drawbacks is a big deal when it isn’t your truck and you only have it for a week.
But, the pad is apparently designed ONLY for a pickup tailgate, and then ONLY for use without a bed cover. In other words, it’s a way to use a cargo box less efficiently. If it was intended as a way to haul bikes on a grand tourer or a roadster, that would make sense, but instead it’s made for precisely the type of vehicle that doesn’t need it–a big ass truck.
The Hybrid with the 7.2kw option is the one I’d get. Out in the woods we do loose power from time to time and occasionally it has been a couple of days. This would be so much better than dealing with the generator and making sure it has fresh fuel not to mention the noise. It would mean I’d definitely want to make sure I fill it when we’ve got wind storms predicted.
Not buying one new though, as I’m still not ready to use a 1/2 ton sedan as a daily driver but in 3-5 years I might be willing to spend the money on a high mile example knowing I’d turn it into a low mile example in a few years.
I had a ’16 Lariat 4wd w/ the 5.0, great truck, but somewhere along the way it became the family vehicle, and the family added a dog which took up all of the interior space. Bed cover was only water deflecting, not water sealed, and every stinking time I had to take the whole gong show anywhere, it would rain pitchforks and Mrs. Neight’s hanging bag that couldn’t get wrinkled would be either wet or covered in yellow Labrador hair/snot. Suboptimal. Went with the 4R as a replacement, but miss the ability to pass at highway speeds with the many more road trips than I ever envisioned when I bought it. Looking at Big Mo Fo SUV’s currently. 6.2L versions of the Tahoe/Yukon are in the lead, Mrs. Neight hates the Expedition for aesthetic reasons (thinks it looks like a prior gen Explorer), but the refaced/rescreened Nissan Armada seems interesting.
Try out a GX460, if you want slightly smaller than full sized. Won’t move like a 6.2l V8 but does well enough. Only downside is full time 4WD, sucks fuel.
I pulled a trailer with the 4Runner on my last road trip in order to fit all of the junk my travelling circus apparently required, so (1) I am already committed to the fuel suck (managed in the 15’s on the highway) and (2) I could be talked in to a Suburban/Yukon XL, or slightly larger than full sized. I personally was momentarily attracted to the Durango SRT for the one step down in size, two steps up in HP, but I think I’m going with the bigness as priority over a silly amount of power and Chrysler/Fiat reputation/resale. The Tundra/Sequoia/Land Cruiser 5.7 V8 in the 4R would be nice, but it wouldn’t be very Toyota of them to do that.
Sounds good, I honestly would’ve rather had a Tahoe/Burb full sizer. I like them as rentals, but my wife didn’t want one and she is the primary user. I get overly sensitive about the import luxury badge.
We take it places in the mountains and desert that a Tahoe probably wouldn’t quite make. Also tow a camper and twice a year, a tandem uhaul between Boise and Houston.The GX 8 makes a difference over the 4Runner 6, in a case where numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Leave a Reply