Review and photos by
Chris Chase, CanadianDriver.com

The more extreme a vehicle is, the more likely there is to be a Battle of the Specs, in which each manufacturer does its best to outdo the others with vehicles that are larger, faster, and more loaded with options.

2011 Ford F-350 Super Duty

This applies to pickups too, especially in the heavy duty market, where buyers typically ask a truck to do more than carry loads of wood or power tools in the bed. Instead, they’re towing fifth-wheel trailers and loading the bed with a couple tons of gravel – things that many regular grade trucks aren’t cut out for.

Ford’s entry in this group of über-pickups is the Super Duty. The truck has been completely revamped for 2011, but the highlight of the redesign is a brand-new 6.7-litre Power Stroke V8 diesel engine, conceived and designed in-house to replace the old diesel, which was built by Navistar (International Harvester) for Ford.

Diesels are popular among heavy duty truck users because of the amount of torque they can be tuned to produce, and this one produces a lot of torque. (more…)