A Tribute to Diesel Farm Trucks and Their Kin

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

Here's an interesting article about Farm Trucks that was originally published in the Idaho edition of Ag Proud. The article by Allen Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum is packed with information about this very specific application of diesel technology. The DTF is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of diesel engines, fuel and technology. The article is titled simply "What is a farm truck?"

Now you'd think everyone would know this, but when you read a little further you'll see that nothing is really as simple as it seems, especially when you get into legal matters and governmental explanations. 

Wikipedia describes a farm truck as "a vehicle designated for agricultural use, and may include anything from small pickup truck or even vehicles fashioned out of old parts, to class 8 eighteen-wheeler trucks."

Mr. Schaeffer's definition is more detailed: "According to the U.S. DOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)a farm vehicle is one that is: registered in a state with a license plate that identifies it as a farm vehicle … transporting agricultural products, livestock, farm machinery or supplies to or from a farm, and is not used in for-hire motor carrier operations."

The next sentence amplifies the initial definition. "Some states in the United States have a special registration for farm trucks that includes restrictions such as distance the vehicle may travel from the farm." This is where it gets complicated because some states have restrictions that others do not. There are also licensing issues. That is, certain vehicles require a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) in some situations and in others you do not.

In 1900, when the nation was 60 per cent rural, trucks didn't exist yet. Horses did all the grunt work of bringing produce to market. Today, all the horsepower come from under the hood. 

"The most iconic farm truck of course is the pickup truck: half-ton, full-size, extended bed, crew cab, dually, fifth wheel – the list of options and configurations is near endless," he writes. And for the past few decades the Ford F-150 has been the leader of the pack.

Just how much of a leader Ford has been was revealed in a Great American Truck Survey involved 2000 truck owners. Here are some facts that you'll enjoy if you are a loyal Ford fan.

--More than 3,000 TV shows mention Ford trucks.
--Over 180 songs also mention Ford trucks.
--79% said they would give up alcohol for an entire year rather than give up their truck.
--15% have tattoos that reference a truck or their favorite brand.

Photo by LC Rebelo on Unsplash

Farm trucks usually arrive on the farm after undergoing wear and tear by a previous owner or two. Because these vehicles are used seasonally, they often don't accumulate as many miles as daily drivers. Schaeffer spends time explaining that despite limited season use farm trucks still require maintenance. Brakes, filters, fuel systems all need attention. The importance of fuel stabilizers and cold-weather additives can't be ignored either.

The article goes into detail regarding the tendency to overload trailers and truck beds when bringing in the sheaves, or whatever else you're harvesting. Be careful. Old equipment can suffer in those situations. A groaning engine is one thing, breaking a belt is much bigger issue. Having a tire go flat while carrying a heavy load across the middle of nowhere is something you just don't want to do. In fact, the author experienced that situation himself once. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that he's been warning farmers ever since, as he did here.

Diesel enthusiasts, he notes, received some uplifting news entering the 2021 season. It is the first year that all of the big three manufacturers offered a diesel engine option on all full-size pickup trucks. Pickups are today's workhorses for farmers, no question about it.

His closing statement shows how much the author is a real truck guy. "The FT/farm truck designation has real meaning – both to those behind the wheel and those in the motor vehicle enforcement world. But one thing is for sure, we all love (and need) our trucks, farm or otherwise." 

Read the full story here: 
https://www.dieselforum.org/files/dmfile/what-is-a-farm-truck-0721ap.pdf 

Ford Walks Back on Diesel F-150

This past week the news spread like a California wildfire. We read about it in several articles. This one by Joe Patel, from Cars Direct, has a pretty good summary of the report. 

Many observers noticed the absence of a diesel option in the 2021 F-150 last year, but then Ford seemed to have a change of plans and the Power Stroke V6 became available later. This year, Ford Authority announced that the diesel engine for F-150s is to be a thing of the past. This leaves five engine options for F-150 buyers: a 3.3-liter V6, turbocharged 2.7-liter V6, turbocharged 3.5-liter V6, hybrid turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 and a 5.0-liter V8. 

According to Car and Driver, it's the popularity of these other engines, such as the EcoBoost, that led to this decision. July 16 was the last day one could order a Power Stroke diesel option.

Cars Direct stated that this last Power Stroke V6 showed some real grit when one looks at the numbers it generated. 250 hp and 440 lbs-feet of torque is nothing to scoff at. But according to Patel, the availability of a hybrid overshadowed that power.

This is not the end of diesel engines at Ford. Diesel is still "available on the XL, XLT, Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum trims  with four-wheel drive." The extra cost varies from $3k to $5k. With a diesel engine the F-150 has a towing capacity up to 12,100 pounds or a payload capacity of 1,840, numbers that fall short of what Chevrolet and Ram offer. In fact, even the hybrid V6 has more oomph when it comes to torque (12,700) and the v8 as well (13,000), both of these being outdone by the turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 (14,000 pounds).  

The Cars Direct article concludes with a reiteration of Ford's commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050. The all-electric F-150 Lightning and their Mustang Mach-E are the first signals indicative of their seriousness in this effort. "Offering a diesel powertrain doesn’t exactly help the automaker with these goals. Ford didn’t help the diesel engine’s case, though. As Ford Authority points out, the diesel engine wasn’t available with the 36-gallon extended range fuel tank or the automaker’s Pro Power Onboard system."

The departure of the F-150 diesel is not the end of the world, but it is the end of an era.

Read the full story here: F-150 Diesel Engine Discontinued

The Next Ford F-150: Combining Old-Style Diesel Tech in a Futuristic New Design

As any student of automotive history knows, truly "new" breakthroughs don't just happen. Perhaps they are conceived in an "aha" type of moment but the engineering can take years to work out. All kinds of new engine designs have been conceived during the past century. Most of what we are familiar with are incremental improvements on basic designs. Even these take time to work out the kinks. For this reason many vehicle owners are reluctant to jump right in on the first year of a new engine design.

Needless to say, automakers and engine builders work very hard to minimize the speed bumps. Extensive testing is a given. And it all takes time.

Last month The Drive published a story about a new engine design for the next Ford F-150. The tech article by Caleb Jacobs takes a look at the direction Ford is taking with its most popular truck. The goal here is not just fuel economy but energy efficiency, and to achieve it they are drawing upon an older tech concept: pre-chamber ignition.

We've been reading a lot about pickups getting bigger, stronger and more muscular. What Ford is doing here is moving in the direction of diesel's other strength: efficiency. Jacobs opens by noting that with the dawn of a new EV age, most manufacturers are putting their creative energy in that direction, not in new technologies dependent on oil. What Ford realizes, however, is that the EV revolution is going to take decades till full adoption. The benefits outweigh the risks when you think it through.

At this point I will interject that there was a time when the earth was considered the center of the universe. Copernicus proved otherwise, that we were just a tiny speck in a massive decentralized space. This realization became known as "The Copernican Revolution." That is, the idea the earth was at the center and everything revolved around us was now proven wrong. Funny thing is, this "revolution" took 100 years before it became accepted as widespread knowledge. So it is that transitions take time, and though the EV revolution is more than two decades old, it has only just begun.

Ford has been investing heavily in this new engine design, $10 million over three years. Here's an attempt to describe what they are working on.

Last fall Road and Track did a story on Maserati's new MC20 Supercar that uses pre-chamber ignition. "Pre-chambers are exactly what they sound like: separate chambers inside the cylinder head connected to the main cylinder area. There are two types: active and passive. Active pre-chambers contain a spark plu and fuel injector, and ignite after a lean air-fuel mixture is brought into the cylinder. Normally, this mixture wouldn't have enough fuel to ignite on its own, but the fuel from the pre-chamber is enough to create an optimal air-fuel ratio, and speeding up the combustion process, improving efficiency."

The pre-chamber concept is an old diesel idea that has been used in the racing world as well. The Ford engineers are adding a little twist to the concept, some kind of compressed-air alongside the fuel injector. The objective is "to achieve faster, cooler combustion that burns fuel more completely while also producing fewer NOx emissions."

The real challenge is always in the translation from drawing board to reality. In theory, this will bring us one step closer to the ideal truck of the future, powered by fuel and not batteries, powerful and efficient simultaneously. 

Another surprising feature of the new engine design is that it will be 15% lighter than the current engine, with subsequent improvement in mpg as well. 

Go check out the story here at The Drive. They also have a video there on how the pre-chamber ignition setup works. 

This Road & Track story explains and clarifies Maserati's pre-chamber ignition design.