Watch 2017 Super Duty Pull a Towing Dyno
These days, the heavy duty truck business is all about towing capacity. It’s truly a go big or go home exercise as manufacturers continue to top each other with each new iteration of truck. Much like the horsepower wars of the muscle car era, we are experiencing a true boom in towing numbers. But how, exactly, do manufacturers test their capacity? With a towing dyno, of course.
Much like the dyno used to measure horsepower figures at the rear wheels, a towing dyno can generate resistance to simulate pulling a heavy trailer. It’s a high tech and scientific way of determining towing capacity, which would otherwise be a time consuming and most likely inaccurate affair.
Ford’s new high tech towing dyno is a fairly small trailer, towed behind the truck, that can simulate a 30 percent grade climb as well as generate up to 5,620 pounds of pull. Engineers are even able to load the profiles of slopes that exist in the real world, like Townes Pass.
This allows Ford to test its trucks from the comfort of it’s very own Arizona Proving Grounds instead of having to travel around the country. Not only is that extremely convenience for the Blue Oval, but it also keeps their new trucks away from the prying eyes and lenses of spy photographers while they are being developed.
For the rest of us, it’s a pretty cool look at the technology that goes into the development of the trucks we rely on day in and day out. And as it turns out, the 2017 Super Duty proved to be such a horse at towing that Ford had to replace its 25 year old sled with a new, more powerful one.
That’s a true testament to just how powerful and capable the new Super Duty really is. And getting a sneak peek at it’s development is a real treat for us Ford truck fans.
