Ford F-350 Tremor Hauls (A**)

Heavy Dutiful

What was supposed to be a weekend romping in the Northern Arizona forests and red rocks turned into a test of how comfortable this beast is for a quick round trip for four to San Francisco and Auburn California. We are going to review everything from mileage, interior comfortable, off-road prowess, ride quality, maneuverability and style points.

We know a Ford F-350 equipped with the stout 6.7L Turbo Diesel can pull your house. With 479hp and over 1000lbs/ft of torque, does that surprise you? The sheer “push you back in your seat” feel when you floor it created an ear-to-ear grin for both the driver and passengers. It’ll create the best smokey burnout, too. Not that we witnessed it. At 68 yards (and it would have gone forever, but space became an issue), the F-350 Tremor makes neighbors worry, and the driver and his teenage son smile and laugh. This ginormous, awe-inspiring truck will make you fall in love with it over and over again.

Let’s back up. When you open the doors to the cavernous, extremely luxurious interior (We had the King Ranch edition with the only option missing being the massaging seats) you are wowed by all of the leather and tech. We are talking luxury car quality in a heavy-duty truck that is built to haul hay. But is it? Or is the King Ranch Tremor really just a big toy? It sure seemed like it.

At oh dark early the family of four pile in and head up to SF for a quick overnight run. You might expect the ride of the off-road performance shocks would be obnoxious on pavement, but the ride was so smooth both teens slept five of the short six-and-a-half-hours drive to downtown San Francisco. Yes, all that power and torque made for a quick trip. Now, the real shocker was the fuel economy. Averaging 78 MPH including stops for food and two pit stops, the Ford managed to get 17.6 MPG. Wow!

Now was time to test its girth. From parking at the St. Francis (I felt it best to let the Valet worry about that) to tackling the famous twistiest road in the US (Lombard Street), to simply managing the narrow San Francisco streets that freak so many drivers of regular cars out, the mammoth F-350 took on every challenge with no fear and succeeded.

After that it was time to head east to Auburn for some White Water Rafting and a little rock crawling. This phase will let us test the Tremor’s suspension a bit. This is the dynamic suspension that is getting rave reviews. We went down to Mammoth Bar Off-Road Park and romped in some silt and then the rocks. The Tremor laughed at everything thrown in its path. And the tight, twisty, hills to get in and out of the valley were no match either. Don’t get me wrong, the big truck is no GT350, but it’s no slouch, either.

The drive back was straight; Auburn to Laguna Niguel. Two stops for pits stops, no fuel stops. That’s right. 591 miles door to door, with an average speed of 82 MPH. I never checked the average MPG because I was calculating the overall MPG on the trip. But when we landed back home, we still had 91 miles to empty.

I was simply amazed. And the overall mileage for the 1052 mile trip, including tackling the streets of San Francisco, bumper-to-bumper traffic to Auburn, the hills of Auburn, and the straights of I-5.: 17.9 MPG! On diesel fuel, which is currently less expensive than petrol.

So are there any flaws in the 2022 F-350 King Ranch Tremor? If you ask the two growing teens who fought for space when they were sleeping, they would tell you the back seat was cramped. And if you are not an experienced driver, parking the woolly mammoth can be challenging. And maybe the $88K price tag if you get the King Ranch version. I like loaded cars/trucks, but it’s pricey. However, it’s as comfy as an Escalade or MBZ, and seems to get good MPGs. Well, as long as you are not mashing the gas at every light, that is.