2017 Ford F-250 Platinum Crew Cab Super Duty with the 6.7L Power Stroke Turbo Diesel Review

The hottest HD Pickup in the world is put through its paces. Light paces that is.

Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – June 26, 2017

2017 Ford F-250 Platinum Crew Super Duty with the 6.7L Power Stroke - $77,925 as driven incl. the $1,195 D&H Charge.

With the tall ships in San Diego Harbor​

We have been waiting to get our hands on this monster, the number one selling HD Pickup anywhere, since last fall!

To give you an idea as to how important this truck is to Ford's bottom line, Super Duty transaction pricing in April reached a record $58,200 per truck!

Although Ford could not provide the 2017 sales breakouts between the LD F-150 and HD Super Duty, they did send me production volume details. The Ford F-150 production from both the Dearborn and Kasnsas City plants accounted for 302,421 trucks produced through the end of May of 2017. The Super Duty produced exclusively at Ford Kentucky accounted for 149,909 trucks through the end of May. Meaning 33 repent of all F-Series sales consist of the highly profitable Super Duty. Talk about a clean split between the two truck lineups and three production facilities!

This week's ride is the 2017 Ford F-250 Platinum Crew Cab ($62,110) and arrived equipped with the all-new 2nd gen 440 hp and 925 lb.-ft. of torque CGI block based 6.7L V6 Turbo Diesel ($8,595) w/ an exhaust brake. It is mated to a HD 6-speed AT through to an optional locking 3.55 rear end ($390) to the Platinum's std. P275/65/R20" front and rear wheels and tires. All to move the 7,264 lbs. as driven pickup. I looked up the replacement cost on those tires from the rack and $1,077 + shipping, mounting, and balancing is not exactly chump change.

Other options on this Ford super truck include Ruby Red paint ($395), FX-4 Off-road pkg. with skid plates ($295), Rapid Heat heater ($250), Blockheater ($75), 5th wheel prep ($370), Roof Clearance Lights ($80), Trailer TPMS ($725), Upfitter switches ($165), Spray in Bedliner ($495), Platinum Ultimate Pkg. ($2,785) with power roof, adaptive CC, Lane Keep Alert, and Trailer tow camera.

All in including the $1,195 D&H Charge, the truck as driven comes to $77,925. True car is showing only minor discounts of just $2k while dealerships are showing this fully loaded monster at just $3k off from Ford dealerships around the country. Damn!

The fuel tank is 34-gallons on this short wheelbase (160") truck and with an estimated 20 mpg highway rating (see below), should allow 650+ miles between fill-ups on the super slab.

With that kind of power and even the more efficient 3.55 rear end, it is still rated to tow 15,000 lbs. and carry 3,350 lbs in the bed. These are huge numbers!!!

On a passenger and cargo volume basis, the Crew Cab has 131.8/65.4 cu.ft. of pass/cargo volume respectively. That is far larger than any full-sized car and the bed is only topped by the even longer 8' beds vs this 6'-10" one. And about that 4'-8" plywood fitting between the wells? It can as that spec is 50.5" inches.

The chassis consists of an all-new fully boxed frame constructed of 95 percent high-strength steel.

Th body is made of heat treated aluminum alloy and together the frame and body saved 350 lbs, which they invested in heavier steering and chassis components according to Ford's releases.

2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4X4 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke Calibration Drive

I picked the beast up at an LAX parking garage and immediately headed to a station to top it off.

The 2017 Ford F-250 HD 4X4 with the 6.7L Power Stroke


Ready for her first refueling at a Shell on Aviation and Century in Los Angeles.​

A perfect week to be in a large Turbo Diesel!


How about another $0.05/gal discount using my Shell Fuel Rewards card? ​

I want you to look at the next picture closely. AS I was flying on from Denver, I was thinking f the Super Duty is like the F-150, it probably has a capless refueling system and I will get started with the fill at around 07:30 pm and finish up with the initial top off around 12:30 am. See any capless refueling system on this truck? No. Yahoo!!! Thank god someone pitched that POS system out the window when it comes to the Super Duty. Next up, it appears to have about 7/8 of a tank and I am wondering if it is going to hold an additional 9+ gallons over spec like the F-150 does? The answer is no. Yeah!!! 45-minutes and just under 4-gallons of fuel later, she is topped off.

Topped off, displays reset, and ready to roll.​

2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4X4 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke First Drive Impressions

It is the most refined truck in the HD marketplace. While there is the launch roar, it is subdued and with the windows closed, anything above 15 mph and you cannot tell you are in a Super Duty with a monster powerful 6.7L Turbo Diesel. Quieter than the rest of the HD segment imho.

It is also good-looking truck but lacks the panache of its competitors. Equivalent to the Silverado HD with a better-looking grille and lamps but the Chevrolet’s Power dome hood looks better. Personal preference here but the RAM and its large chrome logo, grille, Power Dome hood, and more conventional profile looks better. Within the Ford Super Duty’s, the Platinum’s chrome grille is a better-looking design than the std. wide horizontal chrome grille on the lesser trims. That swoop down at the front windows – Nissan TITAN copied this too - still looks goofy to me but it does improve the view towards the lower front corners.

I only mentioned the Titan XD because of the profile similarity’s, attractive chrome grille and wide TITAN chrome band off the tailgate but it just does not have the ponies or efficiency to play with the big boys in this discussion.

Getting back to the Super Duty, the first thing I noticed and will sing praises for is the power steps and proximity key. You touch that handle and those steps drop out of the underbody of the truck to help you into and out of the truck. Some have seen me comment on the LD and HD trucks that have arrived without nerfs or steps and they are a SOB to get into and out of. Especially Marian.

The tailgate is damped when open (sprung) so it feels lighter than it is when closing. Plenty of bed lighting and tie downs also help. I have not used the pull out bumper step to get into the bed yet. Maybe tomorrow but I am kind of crippled up from a fall of an embankment at the Tiguan short lead last week. The LD and HD Silverado steps in the bumper would be a great addition here.

Driver Ergo? Power Pedals, 10-way heated and power ventilated adjustable seats fit well for a larger person. So much so that I have to reach forward to adjust the excellent power mirrors with both a lower blind spot mirror and upper mirror that are power controlled including telescoping for trailer towing.

Sunglass holder is large and damped. But … The 7-upfitter Aux switches are in the way and you may find yourself hitting the toggles when pulling out your glasses.

Steering is better than the previous gen but I have to say the Silverado HDs Electro-Mechanical is far better. One of the few areas that the Silverado is better. I thought the RAM 2500 and 3500 was a bit tighter as well? And Ford worked on removing the slop from their hydraulic steering too!

Infotainment? The Sony Audio system with HD Radio (incl. 10 speakers and subwoofer) is top notch. Wish it had the Clari-Fi from other OEMs high end car systems but it sounds darn good with local FM content under HD.

And SYNC3? The original SYNC was not bad as you could do some basic Voice stuff and it paired with numerous phones back in the day. That was a while ago. Sync2 with MyFord Touch was a F’ing disaster. No knobs to save $s and things would not work, work randomly or jut work in strange ways. That is gone. Although SYNC3 requires voice in put in steps, once you master the input method, it covered my POIs and addresses without a skip. And the screen touch to action is damn fast. Good stuff by Ford now.

The one misstep is text messages. The system would notify you had an incoming and read it properly but there was no way to send the canned reply like, 1. I am driving now, 2. Will be home soon, 3. Call me … like many other OEM systems offer nowadays.

Some features have been disabled … This needs a rework for basic canned reply’s.​

Ride? Best of the Big three. Considering it arrived with a 15,000 lb tow cap and 3,000+ lb cargo cap, you would think it would beat you to death. It doesn’t. In fact, I would rate it better than the RAM 3500 with the air suspension while unloaded. And better than the Silverado and RAM HDs. The non-air equipped system in the RAM places on the bottom in this category. Ford did a good job here.

Handling? It turns like all the HDs. They don’t. Try and park any of these monster MFers and you will find yourself doing 3, 4 and even 5-point turns.

Moving around parking lots with curbs and such, the birds eye all-around cameras really do help you from taking the corner off a building or another car/truck.

The Auto High beams work as expected but the lane keep assist is hit or miss. Radar CC works well on both the accel and decal but not quite as smooth as other car manufacturers systems.

Enough of the impressions already …

2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4X4 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke Calibration Drive Results

2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke


At a Shell in Carlsbad, CA. Notice the C-Clamp styled LED DRLs? Jury’s still out on this in my book.​

The C-Clamp edge is a design feature thought-out he interior of the 2017 F-250 as well. It adds a tough character to the truck.

Traffic was relatively free flowing given the late hour. Just the std. mess getting out of the LAX area to the 405, two slowdowns for an accident and construction and std. congestion down the length of the 405 through Irvine. Another plus for getting into LAX so late.

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The refuel… 91.6 miles at 28.8 mpg indicated. 93.2 miles on 3.381 gallons for a 27.566 mpg actual result. Just 35-minutes to top it off too!!! Thank god for no capless system and a std. near cap fuel tank. YaHoo!!!

The aFCD offset (28.8 ind/27.566 act) comes in at 0.958*aFCD = mpgUS actual.

2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4X4 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke Steady States

2017 Ford F-250 with the 6.7L Power Stroke

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The steady state(s) were undertaken between 11:30 AM and 02:30 AM early this morning. Temperatures ranged from 61 to 64 degrees F with calm winds for the northbound and southbound measured segments.

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The HD Pickup's trace is a bit odd in that it has such a steep fall off between 50 and 55 mph. and then an almost linear fall off from 60 to 70 mph. Just a bit odd looking is all.

The 67.5 mph highway crossover occurred at a calculated 20.4 mpg. If it were under the EPA highway criteria, the F-250 would be rated at a solid 20 mpg.

The indicated speeds of 50 through 70 mph almost matched the actual mph through the entire range per the Garmin. With a little parallax that is. At all speeds, the speedo was ~ 0.5 to 1 mph over actual while the CC indication matched. During minor ascents, speed would drop by 1 mph so I had to kick up the CC while ascending for a few seconds and drop it down by 1 mph during descents for a few seconds to maintaining the indicated steady state speed.

RPM at 60 mph indicated 1,480 RPM on the tach vs. the calculated 1,407 RPM.

I will post the 17 F-250 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke with the optional tallest 3.55 rear end, Silverado HD with the 6.6L DuraMax and mid-range 3.73 rear end, TITAN XD w/ the 5.0L Cummins and only option 3.92 rear end, and RAM 2500 with the 6.7L Cummins and only option 3.42 rear end Competitive Speed vs FE graph traces tomorrow.

Although I could not afford to waste the $200 to rent a dual axel trailer to tow it and a 3,000 to 3,500 lb car (5,600 lbs total) to cover the loaded and unloaded steady states like I did with the RAM 2500, I could do a bit of driving with a half cord of dry Eucalyptus in the bed. At 9 percent wet, that load was approximately 2,000 pounds.

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I did not nor could I feel any difference in efficiency or drivability with the load or without. The truck is just too powerful to be bothered with 2,000 pounds of wood in the bed.

How about some mattresses?

The 2L Pepsi bottle stands up nicely in the round indents formed into the tailgate. Good design here imho.​

Laughing about that big load.

While taking my Grandson to see Cars3 on Sunday allowed this profile shot.

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Note to Self. The Samsung S8+ is a great phone with a hot camera and took all of the above. It cannot however match up with the Sony a6300 and bevy of prime lenses. The trucks profile is growing on me but not having the Sony to capture its multiple angles was my mistake. Damn it anyway!!!

I will add more interior detail including pics and overall conclusions to the write-up tomorrow evening.

 

Hi Walter:

Definitely a Tonneu cover. The tailgate down depends. Some studies have shown it can actually be worse. In my Ranger it was better but others have shown less enthusiastic results.

Wayne

 

Hi All:

I added some sales details I requested and just received this morning. Every OEM would love to have the Super Duty in their own lineup. The sales volumes are astounding!!!

Wayne

 

HI Trollbait:

Yes they are. And 99 percent of all cars easily pass the vapor emissions regs w/ non-capless and a cap. Capless systems suck. I did not post the vid of a nozzle being stuck in a Civic sedan's capless refueling system for over 10-minutes here but I did on FB.

Wayne

 

Hi Bill:

Sometimes something pisses me off and I have to tell everyone about it.

I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I saw the std. refueling port on the Super Duty. And I was even more impressed when it did not hold another 10-gallons from full. Great for the consumer imho but sometimes I wonder why I spent $30 to fill a truck that was already full, drive 100 miles, and add another $12 to $13 to fill it again and then turn it in a few days after? The 15 F-150 and that 5-hour fill in below freezing temps comes to mind here.

Wayne

 

Hi Carcus:

Every single vehicle that undergoes my Speed vs FE testing goes through the exact same regimen on the same exact route. A few in IL have to be taken into account here with the wilder temperature swings and light winds of course. If there were a 15-mph headwind, it was 20 degrees F, and it was even more hilly terrain, you will not get EPA highway at 67.5 mph in your own vehicle. Not even close! After hundreds of these tests, the 67.5 mph crossover appears to provide solid footing for an EPA highway result. Some fall way short - F-150 w/ the 2.7L I4, Fusion w/ the 2.5L I4, and Mirai FCV - while a few exceed – RAM 1500 ED, Passat TDI, Elantra ECO, and Civic 1.5T, to name a few. To deduce an EPA highway figure for the HDs and compare all cars, trucks, and SUV/CUVs, to their own EPA results, I use the 67.5 mph crossover.

Within these tests, the results are repeatable. The 2017 Ford F-250 4X4 w/ the 6.7L Power Stroke under cruise control at 67.5 mph will provide within +/- 1 percent of the 20.4 mpgUS actual that trace shows under those conditions. If some are driving 80 mph one minute and 25 mph the next, driving at 75 mph up to the Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 and back down into Denver, or running stop light to stop light, of course they will not achieve EPA highway. That is the way the world works.

Considering the Press Vehicles I pick up from the LA Press fleet have 21 to 24 mph avg. speeds, and the Chicago ones with 23 to 29 mph avg. speeds, how do you really think the average consumer drives? And again, this has little to do with the EPA highway or my steady state test results.

As far as I am concerned, the steady states provide an even better indication of an EPA highway results given the gaming the EPA Dyno testing has shown us time and time again across the automotive universe of vehicles I have tested. The ability to compare between one vehicle and the next is not only noteworthy, there is a cost to fuel and you can make some portion of your next vehicles decision based upon these tests.

PS: After the calibration drive final refuel, I reset Trip A/B. With 180+ miles of San Diego to LA and back Interstate yesterday, 150 miles of local San Diego Interstate - neither are ever Interstate speeds given the traffic congestion, and another 200 miles of steep hill San Diego area city including moving a ton of wood over a 40 mile RT drive loop, the 2017 Ford F-250 is showing 21.2 mpg over 518.2 miles indicated or 20.4 mpg over 527.3 actual mpg and miles with a 35.5 mph avg speed.

Final display shot before I refuel her tonight and she is picked up in the morning.​

Wait until you see what I just completed regarding the HD segment.

Wayne

 

Hi Carcus:

No. The frontal area does not change from 50 to 70 mph on any of the vehicles, side winds effect a Prius far more than they harm any of the HD Pickups, and the hills are city tests for all intents and purposes for all vehicles. My testing route has a delta of 80' in between the aFCD reset points that are within 5' of one another in both directions. Two of the ascents/descents are 1 percenters in fact. If they had even steeper ascents and descents between the start and finish aFCD rest and record points, the EPA Highway crossover would probably be 66, or 63 mph or whatever. If there was even flatter terrain, the EPA crossover would come in at 69 or 71 mph or whatever. And in whichever case, they would allow vehicle to vehicle comparisons. The EPA results are completed on a dyno and there are no winds other than road load from tires to frontal area and Cd input into the dyno. I am sure you know this.

The reason I search out calm winds without traffic side in the middle of the night is to reduce the winds and drafting error. All to compare and contrast to what the vehicle should be EPA highway rated at.

If you want to believe the EPA for the Mirai is 76 MPGe or the Civic Sedan is just 42 mpg, go ahead and determine those vehicles highway efficiency refueling cost based on the EPA results. I can assure you they are way off as the steady state testing has proven time and time again.

As shown, the EPA for this Ford F-250 should be about 20 mpg.

Wayne

 

Hi Carcus:

EPA tests are run on a DYNO and there is no wind! Only a pre-calculated road load is input and the dyno compensates for the changing load due to the increased Aero and Tire drag as speeds go up and down.

If you have not seen the traces, you can tell when an OEM is fudging with my own self-induced 66 to 69 mph EPA highway crossover. I give them that much swing to match their EPA. If they are under or exceed the EPA result within that small band, I state the EPA highway results for that car or truck should actually be ~ XX mpg.

If you get into the F-250 4X4 with the Power Stroke and 3.55 rear end today, run it at 67.5 mph down a relatively flat Interstate with little wind in temps from 55 to 100 degrees F, you will achieve 20 mpg. As much as 22 to 23 mpg actually given the traffic side depending on traffic density. That is the way it is. The same for your Civic. Run it at 67.5 mph with good conditions and I know you will exceed its 42 mpg rating because it is rated low.

Wayne

 

Hi Carcus:

And I assume you are well aware there is no wind in the dyno calcs other than aero and tire drag compensation either? Jeesh. We are comparing EPA to steady states.

I also find the 67.5 mph crossover from the steady states to be a far more accurate indicator of a vehicles EPA highway than the EPA DYNO testing. Do you remember the 15 F-150 2.7L EB (18/23) and and the 13 RAM 1500 HFE 3.6L Pentastar (18/25) traces?

Wayne

 

Hi Carcus:

Not even close. Your Civic only gets 42 mpg on the highway per the EPA. Any more or less and you are way off the rails according to your own thought process.

Wayne