Ford F-450 Takes Part in World’s Most Unusual Towing Test
This towing test doesn’t involve a Ford truck pulling a car or boat. It gets towed by another truck…using suction cups.
If you own a modern Ford truck, getting the answers to certain questions you may have about it is pretty easy. Ford’s consumer and press sites are full of helpful facts and figures. Fellow owners can fill in many of the remaining gaps in knowledge. But there are some questions that are so random and specific that they can only be answered by conducting unusual experiments. This towing test carried out by YouTuber Taylor Smith clarifies whether or not you can tow a Ford F-450 with just suction cups.
Smith prepared for his highly unorthodox test by getting 10 $3.99 suction cups designed to pull dents out of body work. Each one is 4.5 inches in diameter and capable of pulling an 80-pound object. The problem is Smith’s truck is just a bit heavier than 800 pounds. It’s about 10,000.
Smith starts by clamping one of the cups down on his F-450’s front bumper. It’s connected by a strap to the back end of a GMC Sierra. Smith puts the Blue Oval beast in neutral, then has his pal in the Sierra pull forward. As you were probably expecting, with the first hint of forward motion, the cup instantly detaches from the F-450. The pair Smith uses next doesn’t last much longer.
Smith soon decides that he needs flatter testing ground and a better mounting surface. He doesn’t like the inevitable candidate, though. “I really didn’t want to do this, but we’re going to the tailgate.” He takes advantage of the real estate and mounts three cups on each side. He links a strap through each trio, then has his buddy roll ahead in his Sierra once again. The tension in the line builds and builds until the two outboard cups pop off. Smith says, “I think the problem that we’re having is it’s so cold outside that these things don’t want to stick too well so we’re going to preheat them a little bit with a torch.”
After Smith and his friend bring the F-450’s tailgate up to operating temperature, they up the number of cups on each side of it to five. Again, the outermost cups are the first ones to let go. That’s because the strap is looped through them and back onto itself in a triangle shape. To get even tension on the cups, Smith slides a broomstick through all of them, then hooks the two straps onto it. Smith crosses his fingers and says, “If this doesn’t work, I don’t know if anything will.”
Smith’s friend lets off of the brake in his GMC and just lets his truck roll forward. After the slack goes out of the straps, the cups stay put, but the F-450 finally starts moving. Smith is elated and lets out a well-deserved victory cry.
But he’s not done yet. Smith knows 10 cups can get the job done, but he hasn’t figured out the exact minimum amount he can use. He cuts the number down to six. Surprisingly, all of them hold. Smith scales back even more to a total of four only to see them get immediately yanked off of his dually’s tailgate.
Even though Smith used some inexpensive hardware, we’d say this towing test went off – wait for it – without a hitch.
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