Ford opened the order books for the new 2023 F-Series Super Duty trucks last October, racking up 150,000 pre-orders in five weeks. After waiting for the trucks to get into customers’ hands earlier this year, the heavy-duty pickup versions of the heavyweight sales champion have just started shipping to customers in all trims. Delay is considered a necessary evil to create a lasting good; Ford is committed to getting this launch right so that it doesn’t take back Super Duty profits from warranty costs and recalls. Ford CEO Jim Farley has been vocal this year about the automaker’s focus on quality improvement, the Super Duty being the first demonstrator.
The company implemented Zero Defect processes at the Louisville assembly plant and the Ohio assembly plant that built the truck. In Kentucky, where more than 9,000 employees are involved in Super Duty production, the entire Zero Defect upgrade is said to take three hours per vehicle, a gauntlet that includes about 40 cameras so far and could eventually feature 100 cameras, plus a number. of bots, as well as training employees to examine video and analyze data from compilations. A contingent of 350 quality inspectors check every truck off the line, including driving each unit 25 miles to look for potential problems that escape scrutiny.
All of this comes after a revised prototype testing process. Ford tripled the number of trucks used for towing tests and nearly quadrupled the fleet used for endurance tests. Engineers focused on high-mileage runs, and instead of running certain challenges at a mileage number, the trucks were raced until parts broke so Ford could find the weak spots. Earlier this year, Ford said a line employee found a hood alignment problem that was within spec, but a customer might not have been satisfied. The engineers checked the alignment. The automaker would end up halting production for three weeks to address every detail. Farley said, “We’ve fixed dozens of quality issues. We haven’t always done that as a company.”
The new truck offers three engines. A new 6.8-liter naturally aspirated V8 gas engine is the standard mill, a downsized version of the 7.3-liter naturally aspirated Godzilla V8, making 405 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers add 20 hp and 15 lb-ft to the output of the retired 6.2-liter. The updated 7.3-liter now makes 430 hp and 485 lb-ft, which is the same number of ponies but ten more lb-ft. The Power Stroke option is a 6.7 liter V8 oil burner on two outputs. Base output is 475 hp and 1,050 lb-ft, the same as in 2022. The new High-Power trim makes 500 hp and 1,200 lb-ft. All engines are paired with a 10-speed automatic.
