Reliability is toward the top of the shortlist of topics one considers when getting ready to sink their hard earned money into a brand new truck. Therefore, it’s important that long hours are allocated to making trucks bulletproof to handle the most aggressive of owners before they even roll off of the assembly line. Even though it’s a very time and energy consuming task, the process of durability testing is quite enjoyable for us as spectators. From the looks of it, this is probably quite enjoyable for those doing the testing as well. Think about it, somebody is getting paid to beat the living [insert word of choice] out of a brand spankin’ new truck. Heck we’d do that for free!

The list of activities is long, so we’ll do you a favor and outline the most entertaining of the group. First and foremost the Silver Creek test puts the F150 through your town, down a simulation back alley that hasn’t been paved in years, at a consistent 20mph. We’re not sure about you, but we don’t want a pothole to be the end of our investment and this test makes sure it won’t be. 

The drum drop comes next. It consists of slamming a 55 gallon drum into the bed at such an angle to cause the optimal amount of damage. It’s of utmost importance that the bed holds up to keep the cargo is safe. Last, a corrosion bath may be upon the most useful for our readers from the north east. Road salt is deadly for all surfaces of the truck and with a solution representative of ten years of corrosion, Ford is working toward saving structural life with this test.

After a collection of towing, twisting, flexing and temperature shock testing in addition to the aforementioned torturous tests, we’re hard pressed to think of a beating that they didn’t think of. If you were in the shoes of these engineers, what test would you implement in attempts to improve your product?