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The Ford F-150's New Design Tricks: Fold-Out Work Surface, Lie-Flat Seats, Tailgate Workbench
Ford has done something unusual with the just-announced 2021 F-150: They went with a new exterior design that looks much the same as the last design. In other words, they undertook the expense of re-tooling for all-new body panels, yet did not gain the benefit of a fresh look. That has me scratching my head, and I'm guessing the exterior designers were frustrated.
The interior designers, however, got a chance to shine. When research showed that many F-150 owners use their trucks as mobile offices, leading to these kinds of uncomfortable set-ups…
…the designers came up with this fold-out interior work surface:
And for drivers who spend long hours in the truck and want to take a nap, or overnight it, the designers cooked up some lie-flat seats:
The engineers got to do their part, too. Research showed that a number of customers haul portable generators around to power their tools on-site...
...so to lighten their load, the engineers turned the truck itself into a generator, offering up to four bed-mounted 120-volt 20-amp outlets. The highest-wattage option provides 7.2 kilowatts and adds a 240-volt 30-amp outlet.
Now that truck design tailgate wars are ongoing (check out a variety of manufacturer's designs here), I was curious to see what Ford would come up with. They haven't quite gone GMC-MultiPro-Tailgate-crazy, but added a tablet/phone stand, a flat surface to eat lunch or write off of, a ruler debossed into the surface, two clamp pockets in the tailgate top for holding workpieces and tailgate-mounted cleats for strapping down long loads:
The new F-150 will roll out this fall.
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Eric, Ford's F-150 trucks have had aluminum bodies for a number of years see https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/features/tough/
Why don't more SUV's come with a generator? Just back the car out and hook it up to the transfer switch or in the case of the new Hydrogen cell cars don't back it up. Eliminates you worrying about the generator being stolen in the middle of the night and you can just drive to the gas station and fill up the huge gas tank. No back issues from moving generator and no spilling of gas filling the generator tank on a hot engine in the middle of the night and in foul weather. This is my only reason for liking this behemoth.
Thanks Eric for your kind comments, as a cockpit design engineer, I'd love you to tell me what I'm doing wrong.
What I find interesting about the design of vehicles is that there usually is not a lot of design involved. Just styling. Seeing some though actually put forth about the design and use of the vehicle is refreshing, almost surprising. We see this effort put forth in our consumer products but not vehicles, this says a lot about the designers that are being hired to design the vehicles, but also management that hires the designers. The fact that is is 2020 and we are just now seeing some of these things pop up on a vehicle, says a lot about the mind set of transportation design. As you noted Rain, getting in an out of a truck is not a good experience, and can be challenging. Environmental issues are huge with trucks as they are extremely inefficient use of space and really are to big for many of the roads even in the US. Fundamentaly the fact that they are still made out of steel, just boggles my mind. The fact that they make a product that does not last, and is not durable is unconscionable to me (I am sure I will be getting a few replies about the durability of trucks, fact is, all of the "legacy" manufactured trucks rust, so I don't want to hear it). The fact that consumers buy a product like this, shows that education about products the environment still has a long long way to go. Tesla, valued way more than Ford, makes cars out of Aluminum, I can see Ford not existing in a few years, but these types of design features could extend their life line. I could go on here, but I will end on that.
Whats the cost? 80K+?