Ford's overhauled 2017 Super Duty sheds pounds, adds innovations

If Apple or Samsung could trot out a flagship mobile phone that boasted even five truly significant new features that made the devices smarter, more powerful and were better looking, the buzz would blow up Twitter, crowd the prime-time network and cable news shows and be the talk of Facebook and Instagram.

In the work-and-serious-play truck world - and most certainly in Texas - Super Duty F-250s and F-350s are so common they're a cliché or status symbol - often both.

Since the Super Duty's introduction in 1998, Ford's hefty hauler has racked up heft sales while remaining relatively unchanged.

Abandoning conventional welded steel would have saved even more heft, but Ford chose to make the Super Duty's skeleton stronger and stiffer by "reinvesting" some of the weight-savings and lowering the center of gravity.

There are beefy isolators between steel and aluminum components to prevent galvanic corrosion.

The beds and tailgates are tougher, with their own computer design, bed stamping, thicker panels and a stronger structure in the tailgate opening area.

The driveline – including driveshaft, joints, transfer cases and, in some cases, rear axle housings and ring gears, are stronger and/or larger, freeing up engineers to raise the power of Ford's in-house Power Stroke turbodiesel to a peak of 925 ft.-lbs. and 440 horsepower with a new fuel pump, injectors and low-restriction downpipe.

Super Duty customers put long range high on their priority lists and Ford responded by making the fuel tanks bigger - up to 48 gallons on long bed (176.0-inch wheelbase) pickups.

Power stroke owners also get a larger tank for diesel exhaust fluid - 7.5 gallons.