Ford turns its popular F-150 into a super truck

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen in the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News magazine published monthly out of Folsom, California.

Sacramento, California -- What can you do to improve a full-size pickup truck that is part of  a model group that has been the nation's top seller for more than 40 years?

You turn it into a super truck.

That's pretty much what Ford has done with the extensively updated 2021 Ford F-150.  My ride was the 4X4 SuperCrew Platinum -- part truck, part rolling power plant, part auxiliary work office and part temporary residence.

Yes, this new F-150 can be all that.  Believe me.  I lived it.

Let's cover the basics for starters.

The tester packed a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine rated at 400 horsepower.  This power plant moved the big truck around with comparatively quiet ease.  On-ramp accelerations were brisk affairs, and nobody wants to cut off a full-size pickup that gets up to 70 miles per hour in a hurry.

The F-150 was responsive and easily steered in all conditions.  It climbed steep hills with gusto. Bravo, I say.

About an hour in, I started fiddling with all the comfort/convenience features and found that there were so many that I had to periodically pull over to make sure I knew how to work them all.  And then I started finding things I'd never seen before.

One of those items included a button that folds the center console-mounted gear shifter flat into the console ... the better to make space to use your laptop computer.  A push of a button lifts the shifter back to vertical.

Then you have the standard on-board 120-volt outlet and auxiliary ports to charge your phone and other devices -- pickup truck staples in this day and age.

Oh, there's also a flat phone-charging pad in the center console.  This came in handy for me when a monster-wind winter storm shut off the power to my home for 48 hours.

By candlelight, I learned about one of the newly reworked F-150's most touted features -- the Pro Power Onboard system.  It's a vehicle-mounted power generator ... great for the work site I'm sure, but also a handy thing to have when you're temporarily separated from the power grid.

I was grateful for the Ford F-150's power-producing options being available to me at a time when I needed them.  The adjustable pedals (with memory) are nice.  Ditto the twin panel moonroof.  But heat and power were a godsend in my powerless period.

Ford is running a TV ad showing an outdoorsman basically using the new F-150's features to build a cabin in the woods.  Based on my week in the tester, I completely believe that the truck could handle this, no sweat, and function as the cabin builder's off-site home for a brief time.

Criticisms of the pickup have included shots that the new F-150 looks a lot like the old F-150.  OK.  Frankly, I thought the old F-150 looked just fine, so this didn't even enter my mind as a concern.

I will note that all of these F-150 features come at a price, which was $62,230 on my tester.

That's a lot of bucks, but worth it for the truck devotee who wants plentiful extras and plans on enjoying those extras for a long time.