Should you buy a truck with an aluminum or steel roof?
Steel makes people feel safe. Daredevils who dive into shark-infested waters use steel cages to scare away the sharks. Prisons use steel bars to keep the bad guys out. And if you're a citizen of Metropolis, you're protected by a man of steel.
If you need to transport extra heavy material, you need a large, durable truck. And big, sturdy trucks are made of steel.
Aluminum, like steel, is a metal. You buy aluminum at the grocery store in the bakery section. It comes on a roll. Aluminum is used to cover plates of leftover food to distribute to guests as they leave the party. They also make soda cans, yogurt lids, and candy bar wrappers out of aluminum.
Both steel and aluminum are metals, but the similarities end there. Or so it may seem.
Lasting
For years, pickup trucks have been made of steel. It makes sense—pickup trucks do the hard work. They tow thousands of pounds of stuff, they tow thousands of pounds of stuff, and they're expected to last a couple of hundred thousand miles.
But Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, and his team of engineers said the truck industry was wrong and aluminum was the future. For more than a decade, Ford engineers have been studying how to make an aluminum truck strong, durable, safe and economical.
Before retiring, Mulally told Consumer Reports in February 2015 that "aluminum is stronger and tougher than steel." Pound for pound, aluminum also costs twice as much as steel (believe it or not), so Mulally had quite a few critics when he bet the farm that the market would someday favor an aluminum truck.
Ford F-150
Mulally bet not only on aluminum, but that Ford's most profitable car, the Ford F-150 (800,000 units sold annually), would be accepted by buyers.
He was right.
However, the F-150 is not 100% aluminum. The frame is still made of steel, but the body, side panels and hood are made from "high-strength military-grade aluminum alloys". Although the phrase sounds impressive, what exactly is "high-strength military-grade aluminum alloys"? Answer: According to MetalMiner, an online resource for metal buying organizations, this is a marketing phrase.
Thanks to the use of aluminum, the new F-150 is 700 pounds lighter than the steel version, meaning a 25 percent increase in mileage. Now the F-150s consume about 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway. In 2013, the all-steel version of the truck earned 13 mpg city and 17 mpg highway.
The F-150 has been widely adopted by the market, and as a result, Ford intends to integrate aluminum into its F-250 lineup in the next few years.
Aluminum trucks are also more expensive to manufacture than steel trucks, primarily due to higher material costs. As such, customers pay a small premium when purchasing an F-150.
How safe is it?
According to tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Ford F-150 was the only truck to receive a Top Safety Pick rating in the large truck category, with the long cab version of the truck receiving "Good". rating.
The test simulated a vehicle hitting a tree, hitting a pole, and cutting off the side of an oncoming vehicle.
All other trucks tested had problems crushing the driver's legroom during crash tests. This suggests that drivers will suffer serious leg injuries in collisions.
Rollover failures
A natural concern for those who might think of an aluminum truck is its safety in the event of a rollover. IIHS testing concluded that the aluminum Ford F-150 had better roof strength than the steel-cab 2011 F-150.
Roof strength is especially important for pickup trucks, as 44 percent of all pickup truck deaths are due to rollovers. Roofs that are not solidly built buckle on impact, and the resulting force often throws passengers out of the truck.
Is it worth buying a steel truck?
Steel trucks will last at least until the end of the decade. In 2015, GM announced that it would begin manufacturing Silverados and GMC Sierras using aluminum.
Industry reports show that Chrysler will transition its RAM 1500 to aluminum by 2019 or 2020.
The question of whether to buy a steel truck will soon become moot. The industry strives to meet federal fuel efficiency standards, and in order to meet these requirements, manufacturers must reduce overall vehicle weight. Due to the lighter weight of aluminum compared to steel, many manufacturers will eventually switch to it. But for at least the next few years, you can still find a truck made out of steel. Whether you feel comfortable buying one is up to you.
