7 ways the 2018 Ford F-150 makes towing a breeze | McLarty Daniel Ford

When it comes to trucks, a big part of their job description is hooking on, hitching up and towing the loads, both for work and play. While towing with older trucks could be an exercise in anxiety and peril, especially for drivers not used to the tricky maneuvers one has to perform with a trailer hitched on, the new 2018 Ford F-150 has a full suite of standard and optional equipment to make towing even the heaviest loads safer and easier than ever before. That’s a good thing, because with the 2018 Ford F-150’s best-in-class towing capability of up to 13,200 pounds when properly equipped, it’s a half-ton pickup that can really move the freight. If you have loads you need to tow, come see us at McLarty Daniel Ford in Bentonville to check out our full lineup of 2018 Ford F-150s, with options that can make doing tugboat duty no problem. Meanwhile, read on for seven ways the 2018 Ford F-150 makes towing easier and safer

Can you say ‘EcoBoost’?

While there was a time when it took a lot of cubic inches to tow the big loads, modern technology and power-adders like superchargers and turbochargers have flipped the script on engine architecture considerably, allowing the big brains in the engine engineering department at Ford (say that three times fast) to squeeze more horsepower and torque out of ever-smaller packages. For a case in point, see the 2018 Ford F-150’s available 3.5-liter EcoBoost twin-turbo V6. Rated at 375 horsepower and a locomotivesque 470 lb.-ft. of torque, it’s the most towing muscle currently available in any half-ton pickup, gas or diesel.

Lighter is better

Every pound your truck weighs is a pound less it can tow when it comes time to hitch up that trailer. With that in mind, Ford put the F-150 on a serious diet through the use of cutting edge, high strength alloys, including using military-spec aluminum in some suspension components and all the body panels. The result is a 2018 F-150 that weighs 700 pounds lighter than the previous model. When you realize that’s about the equivalent of three full-size refrigerators you don’t have to haul around with you 24/7 anymore, the 2018 F-150’s world-class towing capacity becomes a little more understandable.

Ford’s Smart Trailer Tow Connector helps keep the lights on

One of the worst things about towing a trailer is chasing down the stubborn gremlins that always seem to wake up when you try to plug in trailer lights. Helping cut down wiring woes considerably, the 2018 Ford F-150 can be equipped with Ford’s innovative Smart Trailer Tow Connector, which uses in-line sensors to issue driver alerts whenever there’s a problem with trailer lights, wiring, connectors or the battery. They haven’t quite figured out how to have a little robot with a roll of black electrical tape pop out of the bumper to fix frayed trailer wiring, but it sounds like they’re getting close.

Pro-Trailer Backup Assist takes the anxiety out of the rear view mirror

For someone new to towing, it can seem like you dang near need a slide rule to back a trailer up, especially when you inevitably need to turn while reversing to go around obstacles or line up with the load to be hauled. We’ve slow-speed jackknifed a few in our day. To make it easy when towing a trailer turns to pushing a trailer, Ford came up with the certified genius idea of Pro-Trailer Backup Assist, which makes backing up a trailer as simple as turning a knob on the dash. Want the rear of the trailer to go left? Turn the knob to the left. Want it to go right? Turn it right. That’s literally all it takes, and if you keep it quiet, your friends will think you’re a trailer backing BOSS.

Blind-Spot Information System with Trailer Coverage wards off close encounters

When towing a trailer on the highway, you’ve got a lot to keep an eye on: the road ahead, the load, your mirrors and The Other Guy, who is always out there, trying to ruin your day. The 2018 Ford F-150 can take some of the worry about The Other Guy off your plate with their available Blind-Spot Information System, which uses radar to alert you when there’s another driver lurking beside you on multi-lane highways. The “trailer coverage” part of the system is that it can be configured to alert you not only drivers motoring along beside your truck, but your trailer as well, no matter the length. Take that, Other Guy.

High-tech hitchup help with Dynamic Hitch Assist

Though hitching a trailer by yourself used to mean eyeballing it as best you can, beating the heck out of your bumper and license plate, and hoping to get close enough to muscle the hitch over a few inches to the trailer ball, the 2018 Ford F-150 has you covered when you don’t have a friend back there by the hitch to deliver helpful “almost there” and “turn left a little bit” hand signals. Dynamic Hitch Assist works through the available 8-inch productivity screen in your F-150’s dash, providing live, full-color video of the hitch from your truck’s rear view camera, overlaid by a colorful grid that shows you which way you need to turn to line everything up the first time. It can’t go fishing with you like that helpful friend, but no computer’s perfect.

Turbo-diesel power and economy

Towing means torque, and when it comes to posting the big torque numbers that make for easy towing, diesel is king. Ford F-150’s new 3.0 liter Power Stroke Diesel V6, available this May, might be more petite than the 6.7-liter Power Stroke plant found in massive Ford Super Duty workhorses, but it’s got all the high-tech internals of its big brothers, including a forged crankshaft, variable-geometry turbocharger, and two-stage oil pump, while delivering world-beating torque and a crazy-high 30 mpg(!) on the highway. That’s the highest EPA-estimated mileage of any full-size pickup, gas or diesel, while posting best-in-class 250 hp and 440 lb-ft. of torque and up to 11,400 pounds of towing grunt.

We’ve only scratched the surface on what makes the 2018 Ford F-150 the best and safest Ford half-ton ever built when it comes to towing, but then again, there’s no need to take our word for it. Come down to McLarty Daniel Ford in Bentonville today, take a test drive, and see for yourself. You’ve got work to do and stuff to tow! Let us show you how the newly redesigned 2018 Ford F-150 can help take the hassle out of your hitch-and-giddy-up today!

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