The all-new 2023 Ford Super Duty F-550 Black Series by Elevation Off Grid claims to be the best do-anything heavy-duty pickup truck. It has a height-adjustable LiquidSpring hydraulic suspension. It’s rolling on 41-inch all-terrain tires. It has a payload rating of over 9,000 lbs and a tow rating of 30,000 lbs!
Get ready for the biggest and baddest Ike GauntletTM, the world’s toughest towing test, of all time! This episode would not be possible without our friends at Elevation Off Grid. Check them out. They build some of the most capable Ford and Ram HD trucks. Also, big thanks to Mr. Truck for providing his decades of expertise and making this Ike as fun as ever.
Ike Gauntlet
It’s an 8-mile stretch of I-70 in the Colorado Rocky Mountains with up to 7% grade and a top elevation of 11,158 feet above sea level. This makes it the world’s toughest towing test!
2023 Ford Super Duty
This Black Series pickup truck started as a 2023 F-550 Lariat crew cab 4×4 chassis cab. It’s powered by a 6.7L Power Stroke turbo-diesel V8 that has a commercial-grade power rating of 330 hp @ 2,200 rpm and 950 lb-ft of torque @ 1,800 rpm. This engine is mated to a heavy-duty 10-speed automatic transmission.
The LiquidSprings Smart Suspension allows for height adjustment. It is also a fully-active type of suspension. It reacts to driving conditions in real-time. It can flatten out the truck when cornering, it can also retract or lower a wheel when the need arises. It offers five ride heights and three driving modes: Comfort, Normal, and Sport.
We have taken one of these trucks off-road before, but now it’s time to put it to the real heavy load test as the medium-duty HD pickup that it is. We are towing a 44-foot Diamond C gooseneck trailer that is also very fancy. It has a hydraulic dovetail, hydraulic jacks, a winch, many storage boxes, and more. It is also the longest trailer that we have ever used for an Ike GauntletTM. The total trailer weight is 27,000 lbs. It’s pushing on the truck with around 4,300 lbs of tongue weight. This is around 16% of tongue weight – which is a good weight distribution for a gooseneck trailer.
Downhill
On the way down, we are using the Tow-Haul mode and Automatic mode of the Exhaust Brake. Ford offers two exhaust brake modes: Full and Automatic. The Automatic setting is supposed to maintain the desired speed on the downhill. Our desired downhill speed is 35 MPH, as it is regulated for vehicles with over 26,000 lbs of combined weight.
In the end, the truck needed four brake applications to maintain the regulated speed.
Uphill
On the way up, we are still in Tow/Haul mode and it’s full throttle all the way up. The truck registered 13 min 01 seconds to complete the 8-mile climb. This truck is equipped with a 40-gallon tank. After the 120-mile round trip back to Denver, Colorado – the truck showed a combined 5.7 MPG. This means it can tow this trailer (that is near its maximum rating) over 220 miles between fueling stops.
In the end, this new Elevation Off Grid pickup truck drove with the same comfort and stability when fully loaded or unladen. This is very difficult to achieve in any truck. When I was cruising on flat stretches of the highway, I often “forgot” that I was pulling a heavy 44-foot trailer behind me. The truck was so stable.
Join Mr.Truck and me in the video below!
